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config commands

Configuration and system information commands.

voicepad config show {#show}

Show current configuration and where values are loaded from.

Synopsis

voicepad config show

Description

Displays all configuration fields with their current values and indicates where each value is loaded from (defaults, environment variables, or configuration files). This is useful for understanding your active configuration and troubleshooting configuration issues.

Output Example

                    Voicepad Configuration
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Field                     ┃ Value       ┃ Source                   ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ transcription_model       │ medium      │ file (voicepad.yaml)     │
│ transcription_device      │ cuda        │ file (voicepad.yaml)     │
│ transcription_compute_... │ float16     │ file (voicepad.yaml)     │
│ input_device_index        │ 2           │ file (voicepad.yaml)     │
│ sample_rate               │ 16000       │ default                  │
│ chunk_duration            │ 30          │ environment variable     │
│ output_directory          │ ./output    │ default                  │
└───────────────────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

Config file: /home/user/.config/voicepad/voicepad.yaml
Set input_device_index in that file to persist the default.

Configuration Sources

Values can come from multiple sources, shown in priority order (highest to lowest):

  1. Environment variables - Settings from VOICEPAD_* environment variables
  2. Configuration file - Settings from voicepad.yaml (project or user config)
  3. Default - Built-in default values

Use Cases

  • Configuration audit - See all active settings at a glance
  • Troubleshooting - Identify which config file or environment variable is being used
  • Debugging - Verify that configuration changes are being loaded correctly
  • Documentation - Understand which values have been customized vs defaults

Exit Codes

  • 0 - Always succeeds

voicepad config input {#input}

List available audio input devices and show the configured default.

Synopsis

voicepad config input

Description

Displays all audio input devices detected on your system along with the currently configured default device. Use this to find the correct device index for your microphone.

Output Example

Configured default input device:
  2: Microphone (High Definition Audio Device)

Available audio input devices:
------------------------------------------------------------
[0] Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) (2 in, 48000Hz)
[1] Line In (Realtek High Definition Audio) (2 in, 48000Hz)
[2] Microphone (High Definition Audio Device) (1 in, 16000Hz) (configured)
[3] USB Microphone (USB Audio Device) (1 in, 48000Hz)
------------------------------------------------------------
Config file: /home/user/.config/voicepad/voicepad.yaml
Set input_device_index in that file to persist the default.

How to Configure

Edit voicepad.yaml:

input_device_index: 3  # Use USB microphone

Or use null for system default:

input_device_index: null

Exit Codes

  • 0 - Always succeeds

voicepad config system {#system}

Display comprehensive system information including RAM, CPU, and GPU diagnostics.

Synopsis

voicepad config system

Description

Shows system capabilities for transcription, including:

  • RAM (total and available)
  • CPU (cores and model)
  • GPU (NVIDIA driver, CUDA, model compatibility)

Output Example

System Information
============================================================

RAM:
   Total: 16.0 GB
   Available: 12.5 GB
   [OK] Sufficient RAM for transcription

CPU:
   Cores: 8
   Model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700K CPU @ 3.60GHz

GPU:
   NVIDIA Driver: [OK] Detected
   CUDA Devices: 1 device(s) available
   faster-whisper GPU: [OK] Compatible
============================================================

GPU Status Indicators

  • [OK] - Component available and working
  • [MISSING] - Component not found
  • [ERROR] - Component found but not working

Exit Codes

  • 0 - Always succeeds

voicepad config transcription {#transcription}

View current transcription configuration and compare with recommendations.

Synopsis

voicepad config transcription

Description

Shows the active transcription settings and indicates if they match the recommended configuration for your system.

Output Example

Transcription Configuration
============================================================

Current Settings:
   Model: medium
   Device: auto
   Compute Type: auto

Recommended Settings:
   [OK] Your configuration matches the recommendation!
============================================================
Config file: /home/user/.config/voicepad/voicepad.yaml

Exit Codes

  • 0 - Always succeeds

voicepad config recommend {#recommend}

Get a model recommendation based on system capabilities.

Synopsis

voicepad config recommend

Description

Analyzes your system (RAM, CPU, GPU) and recommends the best transcription model and settings.

Output Example

Model Recommendation Based on System Capabilities
============================================================

Recommended Configuration:
   Model: medium
   Device: cuda
   Compute Type: float16

Reason:
   GPU available for 4-5x faster transcription. 16GB RAM supports
   medium model with good accuracy/speed balance.

Alternative Models:
   - small (faster, slightly less accurate)
   - large-v3 (slower, best accuracy)

To apply this configuration, add to voicepad.yaml:
   transcription_model: medium
   transcription_device: cuda
   transcription_compute_type: float16
============================================================

Recommendation Logic

With GPU (CUDA available):

  • 8+ GB RAM → medium model
  • 4-8 GB RAM → small model
  • < 4 GB RAM → tiny model

Without GPU (CPU only):

  • 8+ GB RAM → small model (medium too slow on CPU)
  • 4-8 GB RAM → tiny model
  • < 4 GB RAM → tiny model

Exit Codes

  • 0 - Always succeeds

voicepad config models {#models}

List all available Whisper models.

Synopsis

voicepad config models

Description

Displays all Whisper models organized by size and type.

Output Example

Available Whisper Models
============================================================

Tiny:
   - tiny
   - tiny.en

Base:
   - base
   - base.en

Small:
   - small
   - small.en
   - distil-small.en (English-only)

Medium:
   - medium
   - medium.en
   - distil-medium.en (English-only)

Large:
   - distil-large-v2 (English-only)
   - distil-large-v3 (English-only)
   - large-v1
   - large-v2
   - large-v3
   - large-v3-turbo

Turbo:
   - turbo

============================================================
Total: 17 models available

Tip: Use 'voicepad config recommend' to get a model recommendation
     based on your system capabilities.

Model Types

Multilingual models:

  • No suffix (e.g., tiny, medium) - Support 99 languages

English-only models:

  • .en suffix (e.g., tiny.en, medium.en) - English only, slightly faster

Distilled models:

  • distil- prefix (e.g., distil-medium.en) - Faster with minimal accuracy loss

Exit Codes

  • 0 - Always succeeds

Common Workflows

Initial Setup

# 1. Check system capabilities
voicepad config system

# 2. Get recommendation
voicepad config recommend

# 3. Find microphone
voicepad config input

# 4. Edit voicepad.yaml with recommended settings

# 5. Verify configuration
voicepad config show
voicepad config transcription
voicepad record info

Troubleshooting Slow Transcription

# 1. Check if GPU is available
voicepad config system

# 2. If no GPU, get CPU recommendation
voicepad config recommend

# 3. Check current settings
voicepad config show
voicepad config transcription

# 4. Try a smaller model
# Edit voicepad.yaml:
#   transcription_model: tiny

Model Comparison

# See all options
voicepad config models

# Get recommendation
voicepad config recommend

# Test different models by editing voicepad.yaml

See Also