docs: add benchmark collaboration call, voxtral in powered-by section

docs: add speed vs accuracy scatter plot to benchmark and README
WER vs RTF scatter plot showing all backend/policy/model combos on the 30s English file. Sweet spot zone highlights the best tradeoffs. Added to both BENCHMARK.md and README.md.
2026-03-07 22:33:36 +00:00 · 2026-02-23 10:37:22 +01:00 · 2026-02-23 10:27:53 +01:00 · 2026-02-23 10:16:34 +01:00 · 2026-02-22 23:38:04 +01:00 · 2026-02-22 23:28:10 +01:00
52 changed files with 6664 additions and 1208 deletions
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -119,9 +119,11 @@ run_*.sh
 *.pt 

 # Debug & testing
-test_*.py
+/test_*.py
+!test_backend_offline.py
 launch.json
 .DS_Store
-test/*
+/test/
+!tests/
 nllb-200-distilled-600M-ctranslate2/*
 *.mp3
--- a/BENCHMARK.md
+++ b/BENCHMARK.md
@@ -0,0 +1,205 @@
+# WhisperLiveKit Benchmark Report
+
+Benchmark comparing all supported ASR backends, streaming policies, and model sizes on Apple Silicon.
+All tests run through the full AudioProcessor pipeline (same code path as production WebSocket).
+
+## Test Environment
+
+| Property | Value |
+|----------|-------|
+| Hardware | Apple M4, 32 GB RAM |
+| OS | macOS 25.3.0 (arm64) |
+| Python | 3.13 |
+| faster-whisper | 1.2.1 |
+| mlx-whisper | installed (via mlx) |
+| Voxtral MLX | native MLX backend |
+| Voxtral (HF) | transformers-based |
+| VAC (Silero VAD) | enabled unless noted |
+| Chunk size | 100 ms |
+| Pacing | no-realtime (as fast as possible) |
+
+## Audio Test Files
+
+| File | Duration | Language | Speakers | Description |
+|------|----------|----------|----------|-------------|
+| `00_00_07_english_1_speaker.wav` | 7.2 s | English | 1 | Short dictation with pauses |
+| `00_00_16_french_1_speaker.wav` | 16.3 s | French | 1 | French speech with intentional silence gaps |
+| `00_00_30_english_3_speakers.wav` | 30.0 s | English | 3 | Multi-speaker conversation |
+
+Ground truth transcripts (`.transcript.json`) with per-word timestamps are hand-verified.
+
+---
+
+## Results
+
+### English -- Short (7.2 s, 1 speaker)
+
+| Backend | Policy | Model | RTF | WER | Timestamp MAE |
+|---------|--------|-------|-----|-----|---------------|
+| faster-whisper | LocalAgreement | base | 0.20x | 21.1% | 0.080 s |
+| faster-whisper | SimulStreaming | base | 0.14x | 0.0% | 0.239 s |
+| faster-whisper | LocalAgreement | small | 0.59x | 21.1% | 0.089 s |
+| faster-whisper | SimulStreaming | small | 0.39x | 0.0% | 0.221 s |
+| mlx-whisper | LocalAgreement | base | 0.05x | 21.1% | 0.080 s |
+| mlx-whisper | SimulStreaming | base | 0.14x | 10.5% | 0.245 s |
+| mlx-whisper | LocalAgreement | small | 0.16x | 21.1% | 0.089 s |
+| mlx-whisper | SimulStreaming | small | 0.20x | 10.5% | 0.226 s |
+| voxtral-mlx | voxtral | 4B | 0.32x | 0.0% | 0.254 s |
+| voxtral (HF) | voxtral | 4B | 1.29x | 0.0% | 1.876 s |
+
+### English -- Multi-speaker (30.0 s, 3 speakers)
+
+| Backend | Policy | Model | RTF | WER | Timestamp MAE |
+|---------|--------|-------|-----|-----|---------------|
+| faster-whisper | LocalAgreement | base | 0.24x | 44.7% | 0.235 s |
+| faster-whisper | SimulStreaming | base | 0.10x | 5.3% | 0.398 s |
+| faster-whisper | LocalAgreement | small | 0.59x | 25.0% | 0.226 s |
+| faster-whisper | SimulStreaming | small | 0.26x | 5.3% | 0.387 s |
+| mlx-whisper | LocalAgreement | base | 0.06x | 23.7% | 0.237 s |
+| mlx-whisper | SimulStreaming | base | 0.11x | 5.3% | 0.395 s |
+| mlx-whisper | LocalAgreement | small | 0.13x | 25.0% | 0.226 s |
+| mlx-whisper | SimulStreaming | small | 0.20x | 5.3% | 0.394 s |
+| voxtral-mlx | voxtral | 4B | 0.31x | 9.2% | 0.176 s |
+| voxtral (HF) | voxtral | 4B | 1.00x | 32.9% | 1.034 s |
+
+<p align="center">
+<img src="benchmark_chart.png" alt="Benchmark comparison on 30s English" width="800">
+</p>
+
+<p align="center">
+<img src="benchmark_scatter.png" alt="Speed vs Accuracy tradeoff" width="700">
+</p>
+
+### French (16.3 s, 1 speaker, `--language fr`)
+
+| Backend | Policy | Model | RTF | WER | Timestamp MAE |
+|---------|--------|-------|-----|-----|---------------|
+| faster-whisper | LocalAgreement | base | 0.22x | 25.7% | 3.460 s |
+| faster-whisper | SimulStreaming | base | 0.10x | 31.4% | 3.660 s |
+| faster-whisper | LocalAgreement | small | 0.76x | 42.9% | 0.051 s |
+| faster-whisper | SimulStreaming | small | 0.29x | 25.7% | 0.219 s |
+| mlx-whisper | LocalAgreement | base | 0.09x | ~45%* | ~5.0 s* |
+| mlx-whisper | SimulStreaming | base | 0.09x | 40.0% | 3.540 s |
+| mlx-whisper | LocalAgreement | small | 0.14x | 25.7% | 0.083 s |
+| mlx-whisper | SimulStreaming | small | 0.17x | 31.4% | 0.203 s |
+| voxtral-mlx | voxtral | 4B | 0.18x | 37.1% | 3.422 s |
+| voxtral (HF) | voxtral | 4B | 0.63x | 28.6% | 4.040 s |
+
+\* mlx-whisper + LocalAgreement + base is unstable on this French file (WER fluctuates 34-1037% across runs due to hallucination loops). The `small` model does not have this problem.
+
+**Timestamp note:** The base model produces very high timestamp MAE (3.4-3.7s) on this French file because it misaligns words around the silence gaps. The small model handles this much better (0.05-0.22s MAE). Voxtral also drifts on the silence gaps.
+
+---
+
+## Model Size Comparison (base vs small)
+
+| | base | small | Observation |
+|--|------|-------|-------------|
+| **RTF** | 0.05-0.24x | 0.13-0.76x | small is 2-3x slower |
+| **English WER (SS)** | 0-5.3% | 0-5.3% | No improvement: SimulStreaming already saturates on base |
+| **English WER (LA)** | 21-44.7% | 21-25% | small reduces LA errors on longer audio |
+| **French WER** | 25-40% | 25-43% | Mixed: depends on backend/policy combo |
+| **French timestamps** | 3.4-5.0s MAE | 0.05-0.22s MAE | small is dramatically better for French timestamps |
+
+In short: **base + SimulStreaming** gives the best speed/accuracy tradeoff for English. The small model only helps if you need LocalAgreement (for subtitle-grade timestamps) or non-English languages.
+
+---
+
+## Key Findings
+
+### Speed (RTF = processing time / audio duration, lower is better)
+
+1. **mlx-whisper + LocalAgreement + base** is the fastest combo on Apple Silicon: 0.05-0.06x RTF on English. 30 seconds of audio in under 2 seconds.
+2. For **faster-whisper**, SimulStreaming is faster than LocalAgreement. For **mlx-whisper**, it is the opposite: LocalAgreement (0.05-0.06x) outperforms SimulStreaming (0.11-0.14x) on speed.
+3. **voxtral-mlx** runs at 0.18-0.32x RTF -- 3-5x slower than mlx-whisper base, but well within real-time.
+4. **voxtral (HF transformers)** hits 1.0-1.3x RTF. At the real-time boundary on Apple Silicon. Use the MLX variant instead.
+5. The **small** model is 2-3x slower than base across all backends.
+
+### Accuracy (WER = Word Error Rate, lower is better)
+
+1. **SimulStreaming** gives dramatically lower WER than LocalAgreement on the whisper backends. On the 30s English file: 5.3% vs 23-44%.
+2. **voxtral-mlx** hits 0% on short English and 9.2% on multi-speaker. It auto-detects language natively. Whisper also supports `--language auto`, but tends to bias towards English on short segments.
+3. **LocalAgreement** tends to repeat the last sentence at end-of-stream (a known LCP artifact), inflating WER. This is visible in the 21% WER on the 7s file -- the same 4 extra words appear in every LA run.
+4. On **French** with the correct `--language fr`, whisper base achieves 25-40% WER -- comparable to Voxtral's 28-37%. The small model does not consistently improve French WER.
+
+### Timestamps (MAE = Mean Absolute Error on word start times)
+
+1. **LocalAgreement** gives the best timestamps on English (0.08-0.09s MAE).
+2. **SimulStreaming** is less precise (0.22-0.40s MAE) but good enough for most applications.
+3. On French with silence gaps, **base model timestamps are unreliable** (3.4-5s MAE). The **small model fixes this** (0.05-0.22s MAE). This is the strongest argument for using `small` over `base`.
+4. **voxtral-mlx** has good timestamps on English (0.18-0.25s MAE) but drifts on audio with long silence gaps (3.4s MAE on the French file).
+
+### VAC (Voice Activity Classification) Impact
+
+| Backend | Policy | VAC | 7s English WER | 30s English WER |
+|---------|--------|-----|----------------|-----------------|
+| faster-whisper | LocalAgreement | on | 21.1% | 44.7% |
+| faster-whisper | LocalAgreement | off | 100.0% | 100.0% |
+| voxtral-mlx | voxtral | on | 0.0% | 9.2% |
+| voxtral-mlx | voxtral | off | 0.0% | 9.2% |
+
+- **Whisper backends need VAC** to work in streaming mode. Without it the buffer logic breaks down and you get empty or garbage output.
+- **Voxtral is unaffected by VAC** since it handles its own internal chunking. Identical results with or without. VAC still saves compute on silent segments.
+
+---
+
+## Recommendations
+
+| Use Case | Backend | Policy | Model | Notes |
+|----------|---------|--------|-------|-------|
+| Fastest English (Apple Silicon) | mlx-whisper | SimulStreaming | base | 0.11x RTF, 5.3% WER |
+| Fastest English (Linux/GPU) | faster-whisper | SimulStreaming | base | 0.10x RTF, 5.3% WER |
+| Best accuracy, English | faster-whisper | SimulStreaming | small | 0.26x RTF, 5.3% WER, still fast |
+| Multilingual / auto-detect | voxtral-mlx | voxtral | 4B | 100+ languages, 0.18-0.32x RTF |
+| Best timestamps | any | LocalAgreement | small | 0.05-0.09s MAE, good for subtitles |
+| Low memory / embedded | mlx-whisper | SimulStreaming | base | Smallest footprint, fastest response |
+
+---
+
+## Caveats
+
+- **3 test files, ~53 seconds total.** Results give relative rankings between backends but should not be taken as definitive WER numbers. Run on your own data for production decisions.
+- **RTF varies between runs** (up to +/-30%) depending on thermal state, background processes, and model caching. The numbers above are single sequential runs on a warm machine.
+- **Only base and small tested.** Medium and large-v3 would likely improve WER at the cost of higher RTF. We did not test them here because they are slow on Apple Silicon without GPU.
+
+---
+
+## Reproducing These Benchmarks
+
+```bash
+# Install test dependencies
+pip install -e ".[test]"
+
+# Single backend test
+python test_backend_offline.py --backend faster-whisper --policy simulstreaming --model base --no-realtime
+
+# With a specific language
+python test_backend_offline.py --backend mlx-whisper --policy simulstreaming --model small --lan fr --no-realtime
+
+# Multi-backend auto-detect benchmark
+python test_backend_offline.py --benchmark --no-realtime
+
+# Export to JSON
+python test_backend_offline.py --benchmark --no-realtime --json results.json
+
+# Test with your own audio
+python test_backend_offline.py --backend voxtral-mlx --audio your_file.wav --no-realtime
+```
+
+The benchmark harness computes WER and timestamp accuracy automatically when ground truth
+`.transcript.json` files exist alongside the audio files. See `audio_tests/` for the format.
+
+---
+
+## Help Us Benchmark on More Hardware
+
+These results are from a single Apple M4 machine. We'd love to see numbers from other setups: Linux with CUDA GPUs, older Macs, different CPU architectures, cloud instances, etc.
+
+If you run the benchmark on your hardware, please open an issue or PR with your results and we will add them here. The more data points we have, the better the recommendations get.
+
+What we are especially interested in:
+- **NVIDIA GPUs** (RTX 3090, 4090, A100, T4, etc.) with faster-whisper
+- **Older Apple Silicon** (M1, M2, M3) with mlx-whisper and voxtral-mlx
+- **Medium and large-v3 models** (we only tested base and small so far)
+- **Longer audio files** or domain-specific audio (medical, legal, call center)
+- **Other languages** beyond English and French
--- a/3
+++ b/3
@@ -79,6 +79,9 @@ RUN if [ -n "$HF_TKN_FILE" ]; then \

 EXPOSE 8000

+HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --start-period=120s --retries=3 \
+    CMD python3 -c "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/')" || exit 1
+
 ENTRYPOINT ["whisperlivekit-server", "--host", "0.0.0.0"]

 CMD ["--model", "medium"]
--- a/Dockerfile.cpu
+++ b/Dockerfile.cpu
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ RUN if [ -n "$HF_TKN_FILE" ]; then \
 # Expose port for the transcription server
 EXPOSE 8000

+HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --start-period=120s --retries=3 \
+    CMD python3 -c "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/')" || exit 1
+
 ENTRYPOINT ["whisperlivekit-server", "--host", "0.0.0.0"]

 # Default args - you might want to use a smaller model for CPU
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 - [WhisperStreaming](https://github.com/ufal/whisper_streaming) (SOTA 2023) - Low latency transcription using [LocalAgreement policy](https://www.isca-archive.org/interspeech_2020/liu20s_interspeech.pdf)
 - [Streaming Sortformer](https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18446) (SOTA 2025) - Advanced real-time speaker diarization
 - [Diart](https://github.com/juanmc2005/diart) (SOTA 2021) - Real-time speaker diarization
+- [Voxtral Mini](https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Voxtral-Mini-4B-Realtime-2602) (2025) - 4B-parameter multilingual speech model by Mistral AI
 - [Silero VAD](https://github.com/snakers4/silero-vad) (2024) - Enterprise-grade Voice Activity Detection


@@ -75,15 +76,42 @@ Go to `chrome-extension` for instructions.
 |-----------|-------------|
 | **Windows/Linux optimizations** | `faster-whisper` |
 | **Apple Silicon optimizations** | `mlx-whisper` |
+| **Voxtral (multilingual, auto-detect)** | `transformers torch` (or use built-in `voxtral-mlx` on Apple Silicon) |
 | **Translation** | `nllw` |
 | **Speaker diarization** | `git+https://github.com/NVIDIA/NeMo.git@main#egg=nemo_toolkit[asr]` |
 | OpenAI API | `openai` |
 | *[Not recommanded]*  Speaker diarization with Diart | `diart` |

-See  **Parameters & Configuration** below on how to use them.
+See **Parameters & Configuration** below on how to use them.
+
+<p align="center">
+<img src="benchmark_scatter.png" alt="Speed vs Accuracy tradeoff" width="700">
+</p>
+
+See **[BENCHMARK.md](BENCHMARK.md)** for the full benchmark with tables, model size comparison, and more.
+We are actively looking for benchmark results on other hardware (NVIDIA GPUs, different Apple Silicon chips, cloud instances). If you run the benchmarks on your machine, please share your results via an issue or PR!



+### Voxtral Backend
+
+WhisperLiveKit supports [Voxtral Mini](https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Voxtral-Mini-4B-Realtime-2602),
+a 4B-parameter speech model from Mistral AI that natively handles 100+ languages with automatic
+language detection. Whisper also supports auto-detection (`--language auto`), but Voxtral's per-chunk
+detection is more reliable and does not bias towards English.
+
+```bash
+# Apple Silicon (native MLX, recommended)
+wlk --backend voxtral-mlx
+
+# Linux/GPU (HuggingFace transformers)
+pip install transformers torch
+wlk --backend voxtral
+```
+
+Voxtral uses its own streaming policy and does not use LocalAgreement or SimulStreaming.
+See [BENCHMARK.md](BENCHMARK.md) for performance numbers.
+
 ### Usage Examples

 **Command-line Interface**: Start the transcription server with various options:
@@ -92,8 +120,11 @@ See  **Parameters & Configuration** below on how to use them.
 # Large model and translate from french to danish
 wlk --model large-v3 --language fr --target-language da

-# Diarization and server listening on */80 
+# Diarization and server listening on */80
 wlk --host 0.0.0.0 --port 80 --model medium --diarization --language fr
+
+# Voxtral multilingual (auto-detects language)
+wlk --backend voxtral-mlx
 ```


@@ -151,7 +182,7 @@ async def websocket_endpoint(websocket: WebSocket):
 | `--target-language` | If sets, translates using [NLLW](https://github.com/QuentinFuxa/NoLanguageLeftWaiting). [200 languages available](docs/supported_languages.md). If you want to translate to english, you can also use `--direct-english-translation`. The STT model will try to directly output the translation. | `None` |
 | `--diarization` | Enable speaker identification | `False` |
 | `--backend-policy` | Streaming strategy: `1`/`simulstreaming` uses AlignAtt SimulStreaming, `2`/`localagreement` uses the LocalAgreement policy | `simulstreaming` |
-| `--backend` | Whisper implementation selector. `auto` picks MLX on macOS (if installed), otherwise Faster-Whisper, otherwise vanilla Whisper. You can also force `mlx-whisper`, `faster-whisper`, `whisper`, or `openai-api` (LocalAgreement only) | `auto` |
+| `--backend` | ASR backend selector. `auto` picks MLX on macOS (if installed), otherwise Faster-Whisper, otherwise vanilla Whisper. Options: `mlx-whisper`, `faster-whisper`, `whisper`, `openai-api` (LocalAgreement only), `voxtral-mlx` (Apple Silicon), `voxtral` (HuggingFace) | `auto` |
 | `--no-vac` | Disable Voice Activity Controller. NOT ADVISED | `False` |
 | `--no-vad` | Disable Voice Activity Detection. NOT ADVISED | `False` |
 | `--warmup-file` | Audio file path for model warmup | `jfk.wav` |
@@ -271,5 +302,29 @@ docker run --gpus all -p 8000:8000 --name wlk wlk --model large-v3 --language fr
  - `HF_PRECACHE_DIR="./.cache/"` - Pre-load a model cache for faster first-time start
  - `HF_TKN_FILE="./token"` - Add your Hugging Face Hub access token to download gated models

-## 🔮 Use Cases
+## Testing & Benchmarks
+
+WhisperLiveKit includes a unit test suite and an offline benchmark harness.
+
+```bash
+# Install test dependencies
+pip install -e ".[test]"
+
+# Run unit tests (no model download required)
+pytest tests/ -v
+
+# Benchmark a single backend
+python test_backend_offline.py --backend faster-whisper --no-realtime
+
+# Benchmark all installed backends
+python test_backend_offline.py --benchmark --no-realtime
+
+# Export benchmark results as JSON
+python test_backend_offline.py --benchmark --no-realtime --json results.json
+```
+
+See [BENCHMARK.md](BENCHMARK.md) for a full comparison of backends, policies, WER, speed, and
+timestamp accuracy on Apple Silicon.
+
+## Use Cases
 Capture discussions in real-time for meeting transcription, help hearing-impaired users follow conversations through accessibility tools, transcribe podcasts or videos automatically for content creation, transcribe support calls with speaker identification for customer service...
--- a/audio_tests/00_00_07_english_1_speaker.transcript.json
+++ b/audio_tests/00_00_07_english_1_speaker.transcript.json
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+[
+  {
+    "word": "This",
+    "start": 0.0,
+    "end": 0.24
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "is",
+    "start": 0.24,
+    "end": 0.56
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "a",
+    "start": 0.56,
+    "end": 0.76
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "transcription",
+    "start": 0.76,
+    "end": 1.32
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "test.",
+    "start": 1.32,
+    "end": 2.0
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "We",
+    "start": 2.4,
+    "end": 2.5
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "want",
+    "start": 2.5,
+    "end": 2.66
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "to",
+    "start": 2.66,
+    "end": 2.84
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "see",
+    "start": 2.84,
+    "end": 3.1
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "if",
+    "start": 3.1,
+    "end": 3.34
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "we",
+    "start": 3.34,
+    "end": 3.5
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "can",
+    "start": 3.5,
+    "end": 3.68
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "use",
+    "start": 3.68,
+    "end": 4.04
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "smaller",
+    "start": 4.04,
+    "end": 4.76
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "chunks.",
+    "start": 4.76,
+    "end": 5.16
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "What",
+    "start": 6.06,
+    "end": 6.32
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "do",
+    "start": 6.32,
+    "end": 6.44
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "you",
+    "start": 6.44,
+    "end": 6.58
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "think?",
+    "start": 6.58,
+    "end": 6.84
+  }
+]
--- a/audio_tests/00_00_16_french_1_speaker.transcript.json
+++ b/audio_tests/00_00_16_french_1_speaker.transcript.json
@@ -0,0 +1,177 @@
+[
+  {
+    "word": "Ok,",
+    "start": 2.02,
+    "end": 2.38
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "là",
+    "start": 2.52,
+    "end": 2.58
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "c",
+    "start": 2.58,
+    "end": 2.74
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "'est",
+    "start": 2.74,
+    "end": 2.76
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "un",
+    "start": 2.76,
+    "end": 2.86
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "test,",
+    "start": 2.86,
+    "end": 3.2
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "on",
+    "start": 3.34,
+    "end": 3.34
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "veut",
+    "start": 3.34,
+    "end": 3.48
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "voir",
+    "start": 3.48,
+    "end": 3.86
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "si",
+    "start": 3.86,
+    "end": 4.14
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "ça",
+    "start": 4.14,
+    "end": 4.26
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "arrive",
+    "start": 4.26,
+    "end": 4.36
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "à",
+    "start": 4.36,
+    "end": 4.5
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "capté",
+    "start": 4.5,
+    "end": 4.78
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "le",
+    "start": 4.78,
+    "end": 4.9
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "silence.",
+    "start": 4.9,
+    "end": 5.44
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "Là",
+    "start": 9.24,
+    "end": 9.6
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "il",
+    "start": 9.6,
+    "end": 9.78
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "est",
+    "start": 9.78,
+    "end": 9.84
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "une",
+    "start": 9.84,
+    "end": 9.96
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "telle",
+    "start": 9.96,
+    "end": 10.12
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "seconde",
+    "start": 10.12,
+    "end": 10.38
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "de",
+    "start": 10.38,
+    "end": 10.48
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "silence",
+    "start": 10.48,
+    "end": 10.78
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "et",
+    "start": 10.78,
+    "end": 11.06
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "je",
+    "start": 11.06,
+    "end": 11.16
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "vous",
+    "start": 11.16,
+    "end": 11.32
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "parle.",
+    "start": 11.32,
+    "end": 11.68
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "Et",
+    "start": 13.28,
+    "end": 13.64
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "voilà,",
+    "start": 13.64,
+    "end": 13.96
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "allez",
+    "start": 14.36,
+    "end": 14.62
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "on",
+    "start": 14.62,
+    "end": 14.78
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "va",
+    "start": 14.78,
+    "end": 14.88
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "tester",
+    "start": 14.88,
+    "end": 15.06
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "ça.",
+    "start": 15.06,
+    "end": 15.36
+  }
+]
--- a/audio_tests/00_00_30_english_3_speakers.transcript.json
+++ b/audio_tests/00_00_30_english_3_speakers.transcript.json
@@ -0,0 +1,382 @@
+[
+  {
+    "word": "Transcription",
+    "start": 0.0,
+    "end": 0.6
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "technology",
+    "start": 0.6,
+    "end": 1.24
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "has",
+    "start": 1.24,
+    "end": 1.5
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "improved",
+    "start": 1.5,
+    "end": 1.96
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "so",
+    "start": 1.96,
+    "end": 2.32
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "much",
+    "start": 2.32,
+    "end": 2.68
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "in",
+    "start": 2.68,
+    "end": 2.94
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "the",
+    "start": 2.94,
+    "end": 3.02
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "past",
+    "start": 3.02,
+    "end": 3.24
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "few",
+    "start": 3.24,
+    "end": 3.5
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "years.",
+    "start": 3.5,
+    "end": 3.96
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "Have",
+    "start": 4.56,
+    "end": 4.74
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "you",
+    "start": 4.74,
+    "end": 4.9
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "noticed",
+    "start": 4.9,
+    "end": 5.26
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "how",
+    "start": 5.26,
+    "end": 5.52
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "accurate",
+    "start": 5.52,
+    "end": 6.08
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "real",
+    "start": 6.08,
+    "end": 6.42
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "-time",
+    "start": 6.42,
+    "end": 6.74
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "speech",
+    "start": 6.74,
+    "end": 7.24
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "to",
+    "start": 7.24,
+    "end": 7.46
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "text",
+    "start": 7.46,
+    "end": 7.78
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "is",
+    "start": 7.78,
+    "end": 8.0
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "now?",
+    "start": 8.0,
+    "end": 8.3
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "Absolutely.",
+    "start": 8.7,
+    "end": 9.16
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "I",
+    "start": 10.04,
+    "end": 10.38
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "use",
+    "start": 10.38,
+    "end": 10.56
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "it",
+    "start": 10.56,
+    "end": 10.76
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "all",
+    "start": 10.76,
+    "end": 10.9
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "the",
+    "start": 10.9,
+    "end": 11.04
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "time",
+    "start": 11.04,
+    "end": 11.32
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "for",
+    "start": 11.32,
+    "end": 11.54
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "taking",
+    "start": 11.54,
+    "end": 11.86
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "notes",
+    "start": 11.86,
+    "end": 12.16
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "during",
+    "start": 12.16,
+    "end": 12.54
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "meetings.",
+    "start": 12.54,
+    "end": 12.94
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "It's",
+    "start": 13.6,
+    "end": 13.8
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "amazing",
+    "start": 13.8,
+    "end": 14.1
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "how",
+    "start": 14.1,
+    "end": 14.48
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "it",
+    "start": 14.48,
+    "end": 14.62
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "can",
+    "start": 14.62,
+    "end": 14.74
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "recognise",
+    "start": 14.74,
+    "end": 15.24
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "different",
+    "start": 15.24,
+    "end": 15.68
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "speakers",
+    "start": 15.68,
+    "end": 16.16
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "and",
+    "start": 16.16,
+    "end": 16.8
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "even",
+    "start": 16.8,
+    "end": 17.1
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "add",
+    "start": 17.1,
+    "end": 17.44
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "punctuation.",
+    "start": 17.44,
+    "end": 18.36
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "Yeah,",
+    "start": 18.88,
+    "end": 19.16
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "but",
+    "start": 19.36,
+    "end": 19.52
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "sometimes",
+    "start": 19.52,
+    "end": 20.16
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "noise",
+    "start": 20.16,
+    "end": 20.54
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "can",
+    "start": 20.54,
+    "end": 20.8
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "still",
+    "start": 20.8,
+    "end": 21.1
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "cause",
+    "start": 21.1,
+    "end": 21.44
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "mistakes.",
+    "start": 21.44,
+    "end": 21.94
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "Does",
+    "start": 22.68,
+    "end": 22.9
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "this",
+    "start": 22.9,
+    "end": 23.12
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "system",
+    "start": 23.12,
+    "end": 23.46
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "handle",
+    "start": 23.46,
+    "end": 23.88
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "that",
+    "start": 23.88,
+    "end": 24.12
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "well?",
+    "start": 24.12,
+    "end": 24.42
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "It",
+    "start": 24.42,
+    "end": 25.32
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "does",
+    "start": 25.32,
+    "end": 25.48
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "a",
+    "start": 25.48,
+    "end": 25.62
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "pretty",
+    "start": 25.62,
+    "end": 25.88
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "good",
+    "start": 25.88,
+    "end": 26.08
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "job",
+    "start": 26.08,
+    "end": 26.32
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "filtering",
+    "start": 26.32,
+    "end": 26.8
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "noise,",
+    "start": 26.8,
+    "end": 27.18
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "especially",
+    "start": 27.36,
+    "end": 28.0
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "with",
+    "start": 28.0,
+    "end": 28.28
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "models",
+    "start": 28.28,
+    "end": 28.62
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "that",
+    "start": 28.62,
+    "end": 28.94
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "use",
+    "start": 28.94,
+    "end": 29.22
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "voice",
+    "start": 29.22,
+    "end": 29.54
+  },
+  {
+    "word": "active.",
+    "start": 29.54,
+    "end": 29.9
+  }
+]
--- a/audio_tests/generate_transcripts.py
+++ b/audio_tests/generate_transcripts.py
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Generate word-level timestamped transcripts using faster-whisper (offline).
+
+Produces one JSON file per audio with: [{word, start, end}, ...]
+"""
+
+import json
+import os
+from faster_whisper import WhisperModel
+
+AUDIO_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+
+FILES = [
+    ("00_00_07_english_1_speaker.wav", "en"),
+    ("00_00_16_french_1_speaker.wav", "fr"),
+    ("00_00_30_english_3_speakers.wav", "en"),
+]
+
+def main():
+    print("Loading faster-whisper model (base, cpu, float32)...")
+    model = WhisperModel("base", device="cpu", compute_type="float32")
+
+    for filename, lang in FILES:
+        audio_path = os.path.join(AUDIO_DIR, filename)
+        out_path = os.path.join(
+            AUDIO_DIR, filename.rsplit(".", 1)[0] + ".transcript.json"
+        )
+
+        print(f"\n{'='*60}")
+        print(f"Transcribing: {filename} (language={lang})")
+        print(f"{'='*60}")
+
+        segments, info = model.transcribe(
+            audio_path, word_timestamps=True, language=lang
+        )
+
+        words = []
+        for segment in segments:
+            if segment.words:
+                for w in segment.words:
+                    words.append({
+                        "word": w.word.strip(),
+                        "start": round(w.start, 3),
+                        "end": round(w.end, 3),
+                    })
+                    print(f"  {w.start:6.2f} - {w.end:6.2f}  {w.word.strip()}")
+
+        with open(out_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+            json.dump(words, f, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)
+
+        print(f"\n  -> {len(words)} words written to {os.path.basename(out_path)}")
+
+    print("\nDone.")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
--- a/benchmark_chart.png
+++ b/benchmark_chart.png
--- a/benchmark_scatter.png
+++ b/benchmark_scatter.png
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"

 [project]
 name = "whisperlivekit"
-version = "0.2.17.post1"
+version = "0.2.19"
 description = "Real-time speech-to-text with speaker diarization using Whisper"
 readme = "README.md"
 authors = [
@@ -42,8 +42,10 @@ dependencies = [
 ]

 [project.optional-dependencies]
+test = ["pytest>=7.0", "pytest-asyncio>=0.21"]
 translation = ["nllw"]
 sentence_tokenizer = ["mosestokenizer", "wtpsplit"]
+voxtral-hf = ["transformers>=5.2.0", "mistral-common[audio]"]

 [project.urls]
 Homepage = "https://github.com/QuentinFuxa/WhisperLiveKit"
@@ -63,10 +65,12 @@ packages = [
    "whisperlivekit.whisper.normalizers",
    "whisperlivekit.web",
    "whisperlivekit.local_agreement",
+    "whisperlivekit.voxtral_mlx",
    "whisperlivekit.silero_vad_models"
 ]

 [tool.setuptools.package-data]
 whisperlivekit = ["web/*.html", "web/*.css", "web/*.js", "web/src/*.svg"]
 "whisperlivekit.whisper.assets" = ["*.tiktoken", "*.npz"]
+"whisperlivekit.whisper.normalizers" = ["*.json"]
 "whisperlivekit.silero_vad_models" = ["*.jit", "*.onnx"]
--- a/run_benchmark.py
+++ b/run_benchmark.py
@@ -0,0 +1,291 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""
+Comprehensive benchmark runner for WhisperLiveKit.
+
+Tests all available backend+policy combinations across multiple audio files,
+model sizes, and VAC on/off configurations. Outputs structured JSON that
+is consumed by the report generator.
+
+Usage:
+    python run_benchmark.py                    # full benchmark
+    python run_benchmark.py --quick            # subset (tiny models, fewer combos)
+    python run_benchmark.py --json results.json # custom output path
+"""
+
+import argparse
+import asyncio
+import gc
+import json
+import logging
+import platform
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import time
+from dataclasses import asdict
+from pathlib import Path
+
+logging.basicConfig(level=logging.WARNING, format="%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(name)s: %(message)s")
+logger = logging.getLogger("benchmark")
+logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
+
+# Re-use harness functions
+sys.path.insert(0, str(Path(__file__).parent))
+from test_backend_offline import (
+    AUDIO_TESTS_DIR,
+    SAMPLE_RATE,
+    TestResult,
+    create_engine,
+    discover_audio_files,
+    download_sample_audio,
+    load_audio,
+    run_test,
+)
+
+CACHE_DIR = Path(__file__).parent / ".test_cache"
+
+
+def get_system_info() -> dict:
+    """Collect system metadata for the report."""
+    info = {
+        "platform": platform.platform(),
+        "machine": platform.machine(),
+        "processor": platform.processor(),
+        "python_version": platform.python_version(),
+    }
+
+    # macOS: get chip info
+    try:
+        chip = subprocess.check_output(
+            ["sysctl", "-n", "machdep.cpu.brand_string"], text=True
+        ).strip()
+        info["cpu"] = chip
+    except Exception:
+        info["cpu"] = platform.processor()
+
+    # RAM
+    try:
+        mem_bytes = int(
+            subprocess.check_output(["sysctl", "-n", "hw.memsize"], text=True).strip()
+        )
+        info["ram_gb"] = round(mem_bytes / (1024**3))
+    except Exception:
+        info["ram_gb"] = None
+
+    # Backend versions
+    versions = {}
+    try:
+        import faster_whisper
+        versions["faster-whisper"] = faster_whisper.__version__
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        import mlx_whisper  # noqa: F401
+        versions["mlx-whisper"] = "installed"
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        import mlx.core as mx
+        versions["mlx"] = mx.__version__
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        import transformers
+        versions["transformers"] = transformers.__version__
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        import torch
+        versions["torch"] = torch.__version__
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    info["backend_versions"] = versions
+    return info
+
+
+def detect_combos(quick: bool = False) -> list:
+    """Build list of (backend, policy, model_size) combos to test."""
+    combos = []
+
+    # Model sizes to test
+    model_sizes = ["tiny", "base", "small"] if not quick else ["tiny", "base"]
+
+    # faster-whisper
+    try:
+        import faster_whisper  # noqa: F401
+        for model in model_sizes:
+            combos.append({"backend": "faster-whisper", "policy": "localagreement", "model": model})
+            combos.append({"backend": "faster-whisper", "policy": "simulstreaming", "model": model})
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    # mlx-whisper
+    try:
+        import mlx_whisper  # noqa: F401
+        for model in model_sizes:
+            combos.append({"backend": "mlx-whisper", "policy": "localagreement", "model": model})
+            combos.append({"backend": "mlx-whisper", "policy": "simulstreaming", "model": model})
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    # voxtral-mlx (single model, single policy)
+    try:
+        from whisperlivekit.voxtral_mlx import VoxtralMLXModel  # noqa: F401
+        combos.append({"backend": "voxtral-mlx", "policy": "voxtral", "model": ""})
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    # voxtral HF (single model, single policy)
+    try:
+        from transformers import AutoModelForSpeechSeq2Seq  # noqa: F401
+        combos.append({"backend": "voxtral", "policy": "voxtral", "model": ""})
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    return combos
+
+
+def collect_audio_files() -> list:
+    """Collect all benchmark audio files."""
+    files = []
+
+    # audio_tests/ directory
+    if AUDIO_TESTS_DIR.is_dir():
+        files.extend(discover_audio_files(str(AUDIO_TESTS_DIR)))
+
+    # JFK sample
+    jfk = CACHE_DIR / "jfk.wav"
+    if not jfk.exists():
+        jfk = download_sample_audio()
+    if jfk.exists():
+        files.append(jfk)
+
+    return files
+
+
+async def run_single_combo(
+    combo: dict, audio_files: list, vac: bool, lan: str, max_duration: float,
+) -> list:
+    """Run one backend+policy+model combo across all audio files."""
+    backend = combo["backend"]
+    policy = combo["policy"]
+    model = combo["model"]
+
+    results = []
+    try:
+        engine = create_engine(
+            backend=backend,
+            model_size=model,
+            lan=lan,
+            vac=vac,
+            policy=policy,
+        )
+
+        # Quiet noisy loggers
+        for mod in (
+            "whisperlivekit.audio_processor",
+            "whisperlivekit.simul_whisper",
+            "whisperlivekit.tokens_alignment",
+            "whisperlivekit.simul_whisper.align_att_base",
+            "whisperlivekit.simul_whisper.simul_whisper",
+        ):
+            logging.getLogger(mod).setLevel(logging.WARNING)
+
+        for audio_path in audio_files:
+            duration = len(load_audio(str(audio_path))) / SAMPLE_RATE
+            if duration > max_duration:
+                logger.info(f"  Skipping {audio_path.name} ({duration:.0f}s > {max_duration:.0f}s)")
+                continue
+
+            file_lan = lan
+            if "french" in audio_path.name.lower() and lan == "en":
+                file_lan = "fr"
+
+            audio = load_audio(str(audio_path))
+            result = await run_test(
+                engine, audio, chunk_ms=100, realtime=False,
+                audio_file=audio_path.name, backend=backend,
+                policy=policy, lan=file_lan,
+            )
+            # Tag with extra metadata
+            result_dict = asdict(result)
+            result_dict["model_size"] = model
+            result_dict["vac"] = vac
+            results.append(result_dict)
+
+    except Exception as e:
+        logger.error(f"  FAILED: {e}")
+        import traceback
+        traceback.print_exc()
+
+    return results
+
+
+async def run_full_benchmark(combos, audio_files, max_duration=60.0):
+    """Run all combos with VAC on and off."""
+    all_results = []
+    total = len(combos) * 2  # x2 for VAC on/off
+    idx = 0
+
+    for combo in combos:
+        for vac in [True, False]:
+            idx += 1
+            vac_str = "VAC=on" if vac else "VAC=off"
+            desc = f"{combo['backend']} / {combo['policy']}"
+            if combo["model"]:
+                desc += f" / {combo['model']}"
+            desc += f" / {vac_str}"
+
+            print(f"\n{'='*70}")
+            print(f"[{idx}/{total}] {desc}")
+            print(f"{'='*70}")
+
+            results = await run_single_combo(
+                combo, audio_files, vac=vac, lan="en", max_duration=max_duration,
+            )
+            all_results.extend(results)
+
+            # Free memory between combos
+            gc.collect()
+
+    return all_results
+
+
+def main():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Run comprehensive WhisperLiveKit benchmark")
+    parser.add_argument("--quick", action="store_true", help="Quick mode: fewer models and combos")
+    parser.add_argument("--json", default="benchmark_results.json", dest="json_output", help="Output JSON path")
+    parser.add_argument("--max-duration", type=float, default=60.0, help="Max audio duration in seconds")
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    system_info = get_system_info()
+    combos = detect_combos(quick=args.quick)
+    audio_files = collect_audio_files()
+
+    print(f"System: {system_info.get('cpu', 'unknown')}, {system_info.get('ram_gb', '?')}GB RAM")
+    print(f"Backends: {list(system_info['backend_versions'].keys())}")
+    print(f"Combos to test: {len(combos)} x 2 (VAC on/off) = {len(combos)*2}")
+    print(f"Audio files: {[f.name for f in audio_files]}")
+    print()
+
+    t0 = time.time()
+    all_results = asyncio.run(
+        run_full_benchmark(combos, audio_files, max_duration=args.max_duration)
+    )
+    total_time = time.time() - t0
+
+    output = {
+        "system_info": system_info,
+        "benchmark_date": time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"),
+        "total_benchmark_time_s": round(total_time, 1),
+        "n_combos": len(combos) * 2,
+        "n_audio_files": len(audio_files),
+        "results": all_results,
+    }
+
+    Path(args.json_output).write_text(json.dumps(output, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False))
+    print(f"\nBenchmark complete in {total_time:.0f}s. Results: {args.json_output}")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
--- a/test_backend_offline.py
+++ b/test_backend_offline.py
@@ -0,0 +1,783 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""
+Offline test harness and benchmark suite for WhisperLiveKit backends.
+
+Simulates a client-server session by feeding audio files as PCM bytes through
+the full AudioProcessor pipeline (the same path used by the WebSocket server),
+without needing a browser or microphone.
+
+Computes WER (Word Error Rate) and timestamp accuracy when ground truth
+transcript files (.transcript.json) are available alongside audio files.
+
+Usage:
+    # Test with a single audio file:
+    python test_backend_offline.py --backend faster-whisper --audio audio_tests/00_00_07_english_1_speaker.wav
+
+    # Test all files in audio_tests/:
+    python test_backend_offline.py --backend faster-whisper --no-realtime
+
+    # Override streaming policy:
+    python test_backend_offline.py --backend faster-whisper --policy simulstreaming --no-realtime
+
+    # Multi-backend benchmark (auto-detects all installed backends):
+    python test_backend_offline.py --benchmark --no-realtime
+
+    # Export results as JSON:
+    python test_backend_offline.py --benchmark --no-realtime --json results.json
+
+    # Insert silence for testing silence handling:
+    python test_backend_offline.py --backend faster-whisper --insert-silence 3.0 2.0
+"""
+
+import argparse
+import asyncio
+import json
+import logging
+import sys
+import time
+import urllib.request
+from pathlib import Path
+from dataclasses import dataclass, asdict, field
+from typing import List, Optional
+
+import numpy as np
+
+logging.basicConfig(
+    level=logging.WARNING,
+    format="%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(name)s: %(message)s",
+)
+logger = logging.getLogger("test_offline")
+logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
+
+SAMPLE_RATE = 16000
+JFK_WAV_URL = "https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp/raw/master/samples/jfk.wav"
+CACHE_DIR = Path(__file__).parent / ".test_cache"
+AUDIO_TESTS_DIR = Path(__file__).parent / "audio_tests"
+AUDIO_EXTENSIONS = {".wav", ".mp3", ".flac", ".ogg", ".m4a"}
+
+
+@dataclass
+class WordTimestamp:
+    """Word with its start/end time."""
+    word: str
+    start: float
+    end: float
+
+
+@dataclass
+class TestResult:
+    """Structured result from a single test run."""
+    audio_file: str
+    audio_duration_s: float
+    backend: str
+    policy: str
+    language: str
+    chunk_ms: int
+    realtime_pacing: bool
+    # Timing
+    processing_time_s: float
+    rtf: float  # real-time factor
+    # Transcription output
+    transcription: str
+    n_lines: int
+    n_responses: int
+    # WER metrics (None if no ground truth)
+    wer: Optional[float] = None
+    wer_details: Optional[dict] = None
+    # Timestamp accuracy (None if no ground truth)
+    timestamp_mae: Optional[float] = None
+    timestamp_max_delta: Optional[float] = None
+    timestamp_median_delta: Optional[float] = None
+    # Word-level timestamps
+    word_timestamps: List[WordTimestamp] = field(default_factory=list)
+    # Raw last response
+    last_response: Optional[dict] = None
+
+
+def download_sample_audio() -> Path:
+    """Download the jfk.wav sample if not cached."""
+    CACHE_DIR.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
+    path = CACHE_DIR / "jfk.wav"
+    if not path.exists():
+        logger.info(f"Downloading sample audio to {path} ...")
+        urllib.request.urlretrieve(JFK_WAV_URL, path)
+        logger.info("Done.")
+    return path
+
+
+def load_audio(path: str) -> np.ndarray:
+    """Load audio file as float32 mono 16kHz numpy array.
+
+    Supports WAV, FLAC (via soundfile) and MP3, OGG, M4A (via librosa).
+    """
+    ext = Path(path).suffix.lower()
+    if ext in (".mp3", ".ogg", ".m4a"):
+        import librosa
+        audio, _ = librosa.load(path, sr=SAMPLE_RATE, mono=True)
+        return audio.astype(np.float32)
+
+    import soundfile as sf
+    audio, sr = sf.read(path, dtype="float32")
+    if audio.ndim > 1:
+        audio = audio.mean(axis=1)
+    if sr != SAMPLE_RATE:
+        import librosa
+        audio = librosa.resample(audio, orig_sr=sr, target_sr=SAMPLE_RATE)
+    return audio
+
+
+def insert_silence(audio: np.ndarray, silence_sec: float, position_sec: float) -> np.ndarray:
+    """Insert silence into audio at a given position.
+
+    Args:
+        audio: Float32 mono audio array at SAMPLE_RATE.
+        silence_sec: Duration of silence to insert in seconds.
+        position_sec: Position in seconds where silence starts.
+    Returns:
+        New audio array with silence inserted.
+    """
+    pos_samples = int(position_sec * SAMPLE_RATE)
+    silence_samples = int(silence_sec * SAMPLE_RATE)
+    pos_samples = min(pos_samples, len(audio))
+    silence = np.zeros(silence_samples, dtype=np.float32)
+    return np.concatenate([audio[:pos_samples], silence, audio[pos_samples:]])
+
+
+def float32_to_s16le_bytes(audio: np.ndarray) -> bytes:
+    """Convert float32 audio to s16le PCM bytes (what the browser sends)."""
+    return (audio * 32768).clip(-32768, 32767).astype(np.int16).tobytes()
+
+
+def create_engine(
+    backend: str, model_size: str, lan: str,
+    diarization: bool = False, vac: bool = True, policy: str = "",
+):
+    """Create a TranscriptionEngine with the given backend config."""
+    import gc
+    from whisperlivekit.core import TranscriptionEngine
+
+    # Reset singleton so we get a fresh instance
+    TranscriptionEngine._instance = None
+    TranscriptionEngine._initialized = False
+    gc.collect()
+
+    kwargs = dict(
+        backend=backend,
+        lan=lan,
+        pcm_input=True,
+        vac=vac,
+        transcription=True,
+        diarization=diarization,
+    )
+    if model_size:
+        kwargs["model_size"] = model_size
+    if policy:
+        kwargs["backend_policy"] = policy
+
+    return TranscriptionEngine(**kwargs)
+
+
+def _extract_text_from_response(response_dict: dict) -> str:
+    """Extract full transcription text from a FrontData dict."""
+    segments = response_dict.get("lines", [])
+    full_text = " ".join(
+        seg.get("text", "").strip()
+        for seg in segments
+        if seg.get("text", "").strip()
+    )
+    buf = response_dict.get("buffer_transcription", "").strip()
+    if buf:
+        full_text = f"{full_text} {buf}".strip() if full_text else buf
+    return full_text
+
+
+async def run_test(
+    engine, audio: np.ndarray, chunk_ms: int, realtime: bool,
+    audio_file: str = "", backend: str = "", policy: str = "", lan: str = "",
+) -> TestResult:
+    """
+    Simulate a client session through the full AudioProcessor pipeline.
+
+    1. Create AudioProcessor (one per "client session")
+    2. Start async pipeline (transcription_processor, results_formatter, etc.)
+    3. Feed audio as PCM bytes in timed chunks
+    4. Collect and display FrontData responses
+    5. Signal EOF and cleanup
+    """
+    from whisperlivekit.audio_processor import AudioProcessor
+
+    chunk_samples = int(SAMPLE_RATE * chunk_ms / 1000)
+    total_samples = len(audio)
+    audio_duration = total_samples / SAMPLE_RATE
+
+    logger.info(
+        f"Audio: {audio_duration:.2f}s | "
+        f"Chunk: {chunk_ms}ms ({chunk_samples} samples) | "
+        f"Steps: {total_samples // chunk_samples + 1} | "
+        f"Realtime: {realtime}"
+    )
+
+    # --- Server side: create processor and start pipeline ---
+    processor = AudioProcessor(transcription_engine=engine)
+    results_generator = await processor.create_tasks()
+
+    # Collect results in background (like handle_websocket_results)
+    all_responses = []
+    response_count = 0
+    last_printed_text = ""
+
+    async def collect_results():
+        nonlocal response_count, last_printed_text
+        async for response in results_generator:
+            all_responses.append(response)
+            response_count += 1
+            d = response.to_dict()
+
+            # Only print when transcription text actually changes
+            current_text = _extract_text_from_response(d)
+            if current_text and current_text != last_printed_text:
+                buf = d.get("buffer_transcription", "").strip()
+                committed = current_text
+                if buf and committed.endswith(buf):
+                    committed = committed[:-len(buf)].strip()
+
+                # Show committed text + buffer separately
+                display = committed
+                if buf:
+                    display = f"{committed} \033[90m{buf}\033[0m" if committed else f"\033[90m{buf}\033[0m"
+                print(f"  > {display}", flush=True)
+                last_printed_text = current_text
+
+    result_task = asyncio.create_task(collect_results())
+
+    # --- Client side: feed audio as PCM bytes ---
+    t_start = time.time()
+
+    for offset in range(0, total_samples, chunk_samples):
+        chunk = audio[offset : offset + chunk_samples]
+        pcm_bytes = float32_to_s16le_bytes(chunk)
+        await processor.process_audio(pcm_bytes)
+        if realtime:
+            await asyncio.sleep(chunk_ms / 1000)
+
+    feed_elapsed = time.time() - t_start
+
+    logger.info(f"Audio fed in {feed_elapsed:.2f}s. Signaling EOF...")
+
+    # Signal end of audio (like client disconnect / empty message)
+    await processor.process_audio(None)
+
+    # Wait for pipeline to drain completely
+    try:
+        await asyncio.wait_for(result_task, timeout=120.0)
+    except asyncio.TimeoutError:
+        logger.warning("Timed out waiting for results. Proceeding with cleanup.")
+        result_task.cancel()
+        try:
+            await result_task
+        except asyncio.CancelledError:
+            pass
+
+    # --- Capture word-level timestamps before cleanup ---
+    word_timestamps = []
+    try:
+        state = await processor.get_current_state()
+        for token in state.tokens:
+            if hasattr(token, 'start') and hasattr(token, 'text') and token.text:
+                word_timestamps.append(WordTimestamp(
+                    word=token.text.strip(),
+                    start=round(token.start, 3),
+                    end=round(token.end, 3),
+                ))
+    except Exception as e:
+        logger.warning(f"Could not capture word timestamps: {e}")
+
+    # Cleanup
+    await processor.cleanup()
+
+    total_elapsed = time.time() - t_start
+
+    # --- Build result ---
+    transcription = ""
+    n_lines = 0
+    last_response_dict = None
+
+    if all_responses:
+        last = all_responses[-1].to_dict()
+        last_response_dict = last
+        n_lines = len(last.get("lines", []))
+        transcription = _extract_text_from_response(last)
+
+    # --- Compute WER and timestamp accuracy against ground truth ---
+    from whisperlivekit.metrics import compute_wer, compute_timestamp_accuracy
+
+    wer_val = None
+    wer_details = None
+    ts_mae = None
+    ts_max_delta = None
+    ts_median_delta = None
+
+    gt_path = Path(audio_file).with_suffix(".transcript.json")
+    if not gt_path.exists():
+        gt_path = AUDIO_TESTS_DIR / gt_path
+    gt = None
+    if gt_path.exists():
+        with open(gt_path) as f:
+            gt = json.load(f)
+
+        # WER
+        gt_text = " ".join(w["word"] for w in gt)
+        wer_result = compute_wer(gt_text, transcription)
+        wer_val = round(wer_result["wer"], 4)
+        wer_details = wer_result
+
+        # Timestamp accuracy
+        if word_timestamps:
+            pred_dicts = [{"word": wt.word, "start": wt.start, "end": wt.end} for wt in word_timestamps]
+            ts_result = compute_timestamp_accuracy(pred_dicts, gt)
+            ts_mae = ts_result["mae_start"]
+            ts_max_delta = ts_result["max_delta_start"]
+            ts_median_delta = ts_result["median_delta_start"]
+
+    result = TestResult(
+        audio_file=audio_file,
+        audio_duration_s=round(audio_duration, 2),
+        backend=backend,
+        policy=policy,
+        language=lan,
+        chunk_ms=chunk_ms,
+        realtime_pacing=realtime,
+        processing_time_s=round(total_elapsed, 2),
+        rtf=round(total_elapsed / audio_duration, 2),
+        transcription=transcription,
+        n_lines=n_lines,
+        n_responses=response_count,
+        wer=wer_val,
+        wer_details=wer_details,
+        timestamp_mae=round(ts_mae, 3) if ts_mae is not None else None,
+        timestamp_max_delta=round(ts_max_delta, 3) if ts_max_delta is not None else None,
+        timestamp_median_delta=round(ts_median_delta, 3) if ts_median_delta is not None else None,
+        word_timestamps=word_timestamps,
+        last_response=last_response_dict,
+    )
+
+    # --- Print summary ---
+    print(f"\n{'=' * 60}")
+    print(f"RESULT: {audio_file}")
+    print(f"{'=' * 60}")
+    print(f"Transcription: {transcription}")
+    print(f"Lines: {n_lines} | Responses: {response_count}")
+    print(f"Audio: {audio_duration:.2f}s | Time: {total_elapsed:.2f}s | RTF: {result.rtf:.2f}x")
+
+    if wer_val is not None:
+        print(f"WER: {wer_val:.2%} (S={wer_details['substitutions']} I={wer_details['insertions']} D={wer_details['deletions']})")
+
+    # Print word timestamps if available
+    if word_timestamps:
+        print(f"\nWord timestamps ({len(word_timestamps)} words):")
+        for wt in word_timestamps:
+            print(f"  [{wt.start:6.2f} - {wt.end:6.2f}] {wt.word}")
+
+        # Detailed comparison with ground truth
+        if gt:
+            print(f"\n  vs Ground truth ({len(gt)} words):")
+            max_words = max(len(word_timestamps), len(gt))
+            for i in range(max_words):
+                pred = word_timestamps[i] if i < len(word_timestamps) else None
+                ref = gt[i] if i < len(gt) else None
+                p_str = f"[{pred.start:5.2f}-{pred.end:5.2f}] {pred.word:<15}" if pred else " " * 30
+                r_str = f"[{ref['start']:5.2f}-{ref['end']:5.2f}] {ref['word']:<15}" if ref else ""
+                delta = ""
+                if pred and ref:
+                    d = pred.start - ref['start']
+                    delta = f"  Δstart={d:+.2f}"
+                print(f"  {p_str}  |  {r_str}{delta}")
+
+        if ts_mae is not None:
+            print(f"\n  Timestamp stats: MAE={ts_mae:.3f}s  max|Δ|={ts_max_delta:.3f}s  median|Δ|={ts_median_delta:.3f}s")
+
+    print(f"{'=' * 60}")
+
+    return result
+
+
+def discover_audio_files(directory: str) -> List[Path]:
+    """Find all supported audio files in directory."""
+    d = Path(directory)
+    files = sorted(
+        p for p in d.iterdir()
+        if p.is_file() and p.suffix.lower() in AUDIO_EXTENSIONS
+    )
+    return files
+
+
+async def run_all_tests(
+    engine, audio_files: List[Path], chunk_ms: int, realtime: bool,
+    backend: str, policy: str, lan: str, max_duration: float = 60.0,
+    silence_insertions: Optional[List[List[float]]] = None,
+) -> List[TestResult]:
+    """Run tests on multiple audio files sequentially."""
+    results = []
+    for audio_path in audio_files:
+        # Detect language from filename if "french" in name
+        file_lan = lan
+        if "french" in audio_path.name.lower() and lan == "en":
+            file_lan = "fr"
+            logger.info(f"Auto-detected language 'fr' from filename")
+
+        audio = load_audio(str(audio_path))
+
+        # Insert silence segments (applied in reverse position order to keep offsets valid)
+        if silence_insertions:
+            for secs, at_sec in sorted(silence_insertions, key=lambda x: x[1], reverse=True):
+                logger.info(f"Inserting {secs:.1f}s silence at {at_sec:.1f}s")
+                audio = insert_silence(audio, secs, at_sec)
+
+        duration = len(audio) / SAMPLE_RATE
+
+        if duration > max_duration:
+            logger.info(f"Skipping {audio_path.name} ({duration:.0f}s > {max_duration:.0f}s max)")
+            continue
+
+        print(f"\n{'#' * 60}")
+        print(f"# Testing: {audio_path.name} ({duration:.1f}s)")
+        print(f"{'#' * 60}")
+
+        result = await run_test(
+            engine, audio, chunk_ms, realtime,
+            audio_file=audio_path.name, backend=backend, policy=policy, lan=file_lan,
+        )
+        results.append(result)
+
+    return results
+
+
+def print_benchmark_summary(results: List[TestResult]):
+    """Print a tabular summary of all test results."""
+    print(f"\n{'=' * 110}")
+    print("BENCHMARK SUMMARY")
+    print(f"{'=' * 110}")
+    print(
+        f"{'File':<40} {'Duration':>8} {'Time':>8} {'RTF':>6} "
+        f"{'WER':>7} {'MAE(s)':>7} {'Lines':>5}"
+    )
+    print(f"{'-' * 110}")
+    for r in results:
+        wer_str = f"{r.wer:.2%}" if r.wer is not None else "  -"
+        mae_str = f"{r.timestamp_mae:.3f}" if r.timestamp_mae is not None else "  -"
+        print(
+            f"{r.audio_file:<40} {r.audio_duration_s:>7.1f}s {r.processing_time_s:>7.1f}s "
+            f"{r.rtf:>5.2f}x {wer_str:>7} {mae_str:>7} {r.n_lines:>5}"
+        )
+    print(f"{'-' * 110}")
+    total_audio = sum(r.audio_duration_s for r in results)
+    total_time = sum(r.processing_time_s for r in results)
+    avg_rtf = total_time / total_audio if total_audio > 0 else 0
+    wer_vals = [r.wer for r in results if r.wer is not None]
+    avg_wer_str = f"{sum(wer_vals)/len(wer_vals):.2%}" if wer_vals else "  -"
+    mae_vals = [r.timestamp_mae for r in results if r.timestamp_mae is not None]
+    avg_mae_str = f"{sum(mae_vals)/len(mae_vals):.3f}" if mae_vals else "  -"
+    print(
+        f"{'TOTAL/AVG':<40} {total_audio:>7.1f}s {total_time:>7.1f}s "
+        f"{avg_rtf:>5.2f}x {avg_wer_str:>7} {avg_mae_str:>7}"
+    )
+    print(f"{'=' * 110}")
+
+    # Print transcription excerpts
+    print(f"\nTRANSCRIPTIONS:")
+    print(f"{'-' * 110}")
+    for r in results:
+        excerpt = r.transcription[:120] + "..." if len(r.transcription) > 120 else r.transcription
+        print(f"  {r.audio_file}:")
+        print(f"    {excerpt}")
+    print(f"{'=' * 110}")
+
+
+def detect_available_backends() -> List[dict]:
+    """Probe which backends can be imported and return (backend, policy) combos.
+
+    Returns list of dicts with keys: backend, policy, description.
+    """
+    combos = []
+
+    # faster-whisper
+    try:
+        import faster_whisper  # noqa: F401
+        combos.append({"backend": "faster-whisper", "policy": "localagreement", "description": "faster-whisper + LocalAgreement"})
+        combos.append({"backend": "faster-whisper", "policy": "simulstreaming", "description": "faster-whisper + SimulStreaming"})
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    # mlx-whisper (macOS only)
+    try:
+        import mlx_whisper  # noqa: F401
+        combos.append({"backend": "mlx-whisper", "policy": "localagreement", "description": "mlx-whisper + LocalAgreement"})
+        combos.append({"backend": "mlx-whisper", "policy": "simulstreaming", "description": "mlx-whisper + SimulStreaming"})
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    # openai-whisper
+    try:
+        import whisper  # noqa: F401
+        combos.append({"backend": "whisper", "policy": "localagreement", "description": "openai-whisper + LocalAgreement"})
+        combos.append({"backend": "whisper", "policy": "simulstreaming", "description": "openai-whisper + SimulStreaming"})
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    # voxtral-mlx
+    try:
+        from whisperlivekit.voxtral_mlx import VoxtralMLXModel  # noqa: F401
+        combos.append({"backend": "voxtral-mlx", "policy": "voxtral", "description": "voxtral-mlx (MLX)"})
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    # voxtral (HuggingFace)
+    try:
+        from transformers import AutoModelForSpeechSeq2Seq  # noqa: F401
+        combos.append({"backend": "voxtral", "policy": "voxtral", "description": "voxtral (HuggingFace)"})
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+
+    return combos
+
+
+def print_cross_backend_comparison(all_results: List[TestResult]):
+    """Print a comparison table across backends and policies."""
+    print(f"\n{'=' * 110}")
+    print("CROSS-BACKEND BENCHMARK COMPARISON")
+    print(f"{'=' * 110}")
+    print(
+        f"{'Backend':<18} {'Policy':<16} {'File':<30} "
+        f"{'WER':>7} {'RTF':>6} {'MAE(s)':>7} {'MaxΔ(s)':>8}"
+    )
+    print(f"{'-' * 110}")
+
+    for r in all_results:
+        wer_str = f"{r.wer:.2%}" if r.wer is not None else "  -"
+        rtf_str = f"{r.rtf:.2f}x"
+        mae_str = f"{r.timestamp_mae:.3f}" if r.timestamp_mae is not None else "  -"
+        max_str = f"{r.timestamp_max_delta:.3f}" if r.timestamp_max_delta is not None else "  -"
+        # Truncate filename for readability
+        fname = r.audio_file[:28] + ".." if len(r.audio_file) > 30 else r.audio_file
+        print(
+            f"{r.backend:<18} {r.policy:<16} {fname:<30} "
+            f"{wer_str:>7} {rtf_str:>6} {mae_str:>7} {max_str:>8}"
+        )
+
+    print(f"{'-' * 110}")
+
+    # Per-backend averages
+    from collections import defaultdict
+    by_combo = defaultdict(list)
+    for r in all_results:
+        by_combo[(r.backend, r.policy)].append(r)
+
+    print(f"\n{'Backend':<18} {'Policy':<16} {'Avg WER':>8} {'Avg RTF':>8} {'Avg MAE':>8} {'Files':>6}")
+    print(f"{'-' * 80}")
+    for (backend, policy), group in sorted(by_combo.items()):
+        wer_vals = [r.wer for r in group if r.wer is not None]
+        rtf_vals = [r.rtf for r in group]
+        mae_vals = [r.timestamp_mae for r in group if r.timestamp_mae is not None]
+        avg_wer = f"{sum(wer_vals)/len(wer_vals):.2%}" if wer_vals else "  -"
+        avg_rtf = f"{sum(rtf_vals)/len(rtf_vals):.2f}x"
+        avg_mae = f"{sum(mae_vals)/len(mae_vals):.3f}" if mae_vals else "  -"
+        print(
+            f"{backend:<18} {policy:<16} {avg_wer:>8} {avg_rtf:>8} {avg_mae:>8} {len(group):>6}"
+        )
+    print(f"{'=' * 110}")
+
+
+def _quiet_loggers(verbose: bool):
+    """Set internal module log levels to reduce noise."""
+    if verbose:
+        logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
+    else:
+        for mod in (
+            "whisperlivekit.audio_processor", "whisperlivekit.simul_whisper",
+            "whisperlivekit.tokens_alignment", "whisperlivekit.simul_whisper.align_att_base",
+            "whisperlivekit.simul_whisper.simul_whisper",
+        ):
+            logging.getLogger(mod).setLevel(logging.WARNING)
+
+
+async def run_benchmark(
+    audio_files: List[Path], chunk_ms: int, realtime: bool,
+    model_size: str, lan: str, max_duration: float, vac: bool,
+    verbose: bool,
+) -> List[TestResult]:
+    """Run benchmark across all available backend+policy combinations."""
+    combos = detect_available_backends()
+    if not combos:
+        logger.error("No backends available. Install at least one ASR backend.")
+        return []
+
+    logger.info(f"Detected {len(combos)} backend+policy combinations:")
+    for c in combos:
+        logger.info(f"  - {c['description']}")
+
+    all_results = []
+    for i, combo in enumerate(combos, 1):
+        backend = combo["backend"]
+        policy = combo["policy"]
+        desc = combo["description"]
+
+        print(f"\n{'*' * 70}")
+        print(f"* BENCHMARK {i}/{len(combos)}: {desc}")
+        print(f"{'*' * 70}")
+
+        try:
+            engine = create_engine(
+                backend, model_size, lan, vac=vac, policy=policy,
+            )
+            _quiet_loggers(verbose)
+
+            results = await run_all_tests(
+                engine, audio_files, chunk_ms, realtime,
+                backend=backend, policy=policy, lan=lan,
+                max_duration=max_duration,
+            )
+            all_results.extend(results)
+        except Exception as e:
+            logger.error(f"Failed to run {desc}: {e}")
+            import traceback
+            traceback.print_exc()
+
+    return all_results
+
+
+def main():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        description="Offline backend test harness (AudioProcessor-level)"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--backend", default="faster-whisper",
+        help="Backend: voxtral, voxtral-mlx, auto, faster-whisper, mlx-whisper, whisper.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--policy", default="",
+        help="Override backend policy: localagreement, simulstreaming, voxtral.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--audio", default=None,
+        help="Path to a single audio file (WAV, MP3, FLAC, etc.).",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--audio-dir", default=None,
+        help="Directory of audio files to test. Defaults to audio_tests/ if neither --audio nor --audio-dir given.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--chunk-ms", type=int, default=100,
+        help="Chunk size in milliseconds (simulates real-time interval).",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--model", default="", dest="model_size",
+        help="Model size or HF repo ID.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument("--lan", default="en", help="Language code.")
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--no-realtime", action="store_true",
+        help="Skip real-time pacing between chunks (faster but less realistic).",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--no-vac", action="store_true",
+        help="Disable Voice Activity Classification (send all audio without silence filtering).",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--diarization", action="store_true",
+        help="Enable speaker diarization.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--benchmark", action="store_true",
+        help="Run benchmark across all detected backend+policy combinations.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--json", default=None, dest="json_output",
+        help="Write structured JSON results to this file.",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--max-duration", type=float, default=60.0,
+        help="Skip audio files longer than this many seconds (default: 60).",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--insert-silence", nargs=2, type=float, metavar=("SECS", "AT_SEC"),
+        action="append", default=[],
+        help="Insert SECS of silence at AT_SEC position. Can be repeated. "
+             "E.g.: --insert-silence 3.0 2.0 --insert-silence 5.0 7.0",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "-v", "--verbose", action="store_true",
+        help="Show debug-level logs from all components.",
+    )
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    realtime = not args.no_realtime
+    vac = not args.no_vac
+
+    # Resolve audio file(s)
+    if args.audio:
+        audio_files = [Path(args.audio)]
+    elif args.audio_dir:
+        audio_files = discover_audio_files(args.audio_dir)
+    elif AUDIO_TESTS_DIR.is_dir():
+        audio_files = discover_audio_files(str(AUDIO_TESTS_DIR))
+    else:
+        # Fall back to jfk.wav download
+        audio_files = [download_sample_audio()]
+
+    if not audio_files:
+        logger.error("No audio files found.")
+        sys.exit(1)
+
+    logger.info(f"Audio files: {[f.name for f in audio_files]}")
+
+    if args.benchmark:
+        # --- Multi-backend benchmark mode ---
+        all_results = asyncio.run(
+            run_benchmark(
+                audio_files, args.chunk_ms, realtime,
+                args.model_size, args.lan, args.max_duration, vac,
+                args.verbose,
+            )
+        )
+        if all_results:
+            print_cross_backend_comparison(all_results)
+        results = all_results
+    else:
+        # --- Single-backend mode ---
+        policy = args.policy
+        logger.info(f"Creating {args.backend} engine...")
+        engine = create_engine(
+            args.backend, args.model_size, args.lan,
+            diarization=args.diarization, vac=vac, policy=policy,
+        )
+        logger.info("Engine ready.")
+
+        _quiet_loggers(args.verbose)
+
+        results = asyncio.run(
+            run_all_tests(
+                engine, audio_files, args.chunk_ms, realtime,
+                args.backend, policy, args.lan,
+                max_duration=args.max_duration,
+                silence_insertions=args.insert_silence or None,
+            )
+        )
+
+        if len(results) > 1:
+            print_benchmark_summary(results)
+
+    # JSON output
+    if args.json_output and results:
+        json_results = []
+        for r in results:
+            d = asdict(r)
+            d.pop("last_response", None)  # too verbose for summary
+            json_results.append(d)
+        Path(args.json_output).write_text(
+            json.dumps(json_results, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)
+        )
+        logger.info(f"Results written to {args.json_output}")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
--- a/tests/init.py
+++ b/tests/init.py
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+"""Shared pytest fixtures for WhisperLiveKit tests."""
+
+import json
+from pathlib import Path
+from types import SimpleNamespace
+
+import pytest
+
+from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import ASRToken, Silence, Transcript
+
+
+AUDIO_TESTS_DIR = Path(__file__).parent.parent / "audio_tests"
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def sample_tokens():
+    """A short sequence of ASRToken objects."""
+    return [
+        ASRToken(start=0.0, end=0.5, text="Hello"),
+        ASRToken(start=0.5, end=1.0, text=" world"),
+        ASRToken(start=1.0, end=1.5, text=" test."),
+    ]
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def sample_silence():
+    """A completed silence event."""
+    s = Silence(start=1.5, end=3.0, is_starting=False, has_ended=True)
+    s.compute_duration()
+    return s
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def mock_args():
+    """Minimal args namespace for AudioProcessor tests."""
+    return SimpleNamespace(
+        diarization=False,
+        transcription=True,
+        target_language="",
+        vac=False,
+        vac_chunk_size=0.04,
+        min_chunk_size=0.1,
+        pcm_input=True,
+        punctuation_split=False,
+        backend="faster-whisper",
+        backend_policy="localagreement",
+        vad=True,
+    )
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def ground_truth_en():
+    """Ground truth transcript for the 7s English audio (if available)."""
+    path = AUDIO_TESTS_DIR / "00_00_07_english_1_speaker.transcript.json"
+    if path.exists():
+        with open(path) as f:
+            return json.load(f)
+    return None
--- a/tests/test_audio_processor.py
+++ b/tests/test_audio_processor.py
@@ -0,0 +1,209 @@
+"""Tests for AudioProcessor pipeline with mocked ASR backends.
+
+These tests verify the async audio processing pipeline works correctly
+without requiring any real ASR models to be loaded.
+"""
+
+import asyncio
+from types import SimpleNamespace
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+import numpy as np
+import pytest
+
+from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import ASRToken, Transcript
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Mock ASR components
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+class MockASR:
+    """Mock ASR model holder."""
+    sep = " "
+    SAMPLING_RATE = 16000
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.transcribe_kargs = {}
+        self.original_language = "en"
+        self.backend_choice = "mock"
+
+    def transcribe(self, audio):
+        return None
+
+
+class MockOnlineProcessor:
+    """Mock online processor that returns canned tokens."""
+    SAMPLING_RATE = 16000
+
+    def __init__(self, asr=None):
+        self.asr = asr or MockASR()
+        self.audio_buffer = np.array([], dtype=np.float32)
+        self.end = 0.0
+        self._call_count = 0
+        self._finished = False
+
+    def insert_audio_chunk(self, audio, audio_stream_end_time):
+        self.audio_buffer = np.append(self.audio_buffer, audio)
+        self.end = audio_stream_end_time
+
+    def process_iter(self, is_last=False):
+        self._call_count += 1
+        # Emit a token on every call when we have audio
+        if len(self.audio_buffer) > 0:
+            t = self._call_count * 0.5
+            return [ASRToken(start=t, end=t + 0.5, text=f"word{self._call_count}")], self.end
+        return [], self.end
+
+    def get_buffer(self):
+        return Transcript(start=None, end=None, text="")
+
+    def start_silence(self):
+        return [], self.end
+
+    def end_silence(self, silence_duration, offset):
+        pass
+
+    def new_speaker(self, change_speaker):
+        pass
+
+    def finish(self):
+        self._finished = True
+        return [], self.end
+
+    def warmup(self, audio, init_prompt=""):
+        pass
+
+
+def _make_pcm_bytes(duration_s=0.1, sample_rate=16000):
+    """Generate silent PCM s16le bytes."""
+    n_samples = int(duration_s * sample_rate)
+    audio = np.zeros(n_samples, dtype=np.float32)
+    return (audio * 32768).clip(-32768, 32767).astype(np.int16).tobytes()
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Fixtures
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def mock_engine():
+    """Create a mock TranscriptionEngine-like object."""
+    engine = SimpleNamespace(
+        asr=MockASR(),
+        diarization_model=None,
+        translation_model=None,
+        args=SimpleNamespace(
+            diarization=False,
+            transcription=True,
+            target_language="",
+            vac=False,
+            vac_chunk_size=0.04,
+            min_chunk_size=0.1,
+            pcm_input=True,
+            punctuation_split=False,
+            backend="mock",
+            backend_policy="localagreement",
+            vad=True,
+            model_size="base",
+            lan="en",
+        ),
+    )
+    return engine
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Tests
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+class TestPCMConversion:
+    """Test PCM byte conversion without needing the full pipeline."""
+
+    def test_s16le_roundtrip(self):
+        """Convert float32 → s16le → float32 and verify approximate roundtrip."""
+        original = np.array([0.0, 0.5, -0.5, 1.0, -1.0], dtype=np.float32)
+        s16 = (original * 32768).clip(-32768, 32767).astype(np.int16)
+        pcm_bytes = s16.tobytes()
+        # Direct numpy conversion (same logic as AudioProcessor.convert_pcm_to_float)
+        recovered = np.frombuffer(pcm_bytes, dtype=np.int16).astype(np.float32) / 32768.0
+
+        np.testing.assert_allclose(recovered, original, atol=1 / 32768)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+class TestPipelineBasics:
+    async def test_feed_audio_and_get_responses(self, mock_engine):
+        """Feed audio through the pipeline and verify we get responses."""
+        from whisperlivekit.audio_processor import AudioProcessor
+
+        with patch("whisperlivekit.audio_processor.online_factory", return_value=MockOnlineProcessor()):
+            processor = AudioProcessor(transcription_engine=mock_engine)
+            results_gen = await processor.create_tasks()
+
+            responses = []
+
+            async def collect():
+                async for resp in results_gen:
+                    responses.append(resp)
+
+            task = asyncio.create_task(collect())
+
+            # Feed 2 seconds of audio in 100ms chunks
+            for _ in range(20):
+                await processor.process_audio(_make_pcm_bytes(0.1))
+
+            # Signal EOF
+            await processor.process_audio(None)
+
+            await asyncio.wait_for(task, timeout=10.0)
+            await processor.cleanup()
+
+            # We should have gotten at least one response
+            assert len(responses) > 0
+
+    async def test_eof_terminates_pipeline(self, mock_engine):
+        """Sending None (EOF) should cleanly terminate the pipeline."""
+        from whisperlivekit.audio_processor import AudioProcessor
+
+        with patch("whisperlivekit.audio_processor.online_factory", return_value=MockOnlineProcessor()):
+            processor = AudioProcessor(transcription_engine=mock_engine)
+            results_gen = await processor.create_tasks()
+
+            responses = []
+
+            async def collect():
+                async for resp in results_gen:
+                    responses.append(resp)
+
+            task = asyncio.create_task(collect())
+
+            # Send a small amount of audio then EOF
+            await processor.process_audio(_make_pcm_bytes(0.5))
+            await processor.process_audio(None)
+
+            await asyncio.wait_for(task, timeout=10.0)
+            await processor.cleanup()
+
+            # Pipeline should have terminated without error
+            assert task.done()
+
+    async def test_empty_audio_no_crash(self, mock_engine):
+        """Sending EOF immediately (no audio) should not crash."""
+        from whisperlivekit.audio_processor import AudioProcessor
+
+        with patch("whisperlivekit.audio_processor.online_factory", return_value=MockOnlineProcessor()):
+            processor = AudioProcessor(transcription_engine=mock_engine)
+            results_gen = await processor.create_tasks()
+
+            responses = []
+
+            async def collect():
+                async for resp in results_gen:
+                    responses.append(resp)
+
+            task = asyncio.create_task(collect())
+            await processor.process_audio(None)
+
+            await asyncio.wait_for(task, timeout=10.0)
+            await processor.cleanup()
+            assert task.done()
--- a/tests/test_config.py
+++ b/tests/test_config.py
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+"""Tests for WhisperLiveKitConfig."""
+
+import logging
+from types import SimpleNamespace
+
+import pytest
+
+from whisperlivekit.config import WhisperLiveKitConfig
+
+
+class TestDefaults:
+    def test_default_backend(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig()
+        assert c.backend == "auto"
+
+    def test_default_policy(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig()
+        assert c.backend_policy == "simulstreaming"
+
+    def test_default_language(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig()
+        assert c.lan == "auto"
+
+    def test_default_vac(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig()
+        assert c.vac is True
+
+    def test_default_model_size(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig()
+        assert c.model_size == "base"
+
+    def test_default_transcription(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig()
+        assert c.transcription is True
+        assert c.diarization is False
+
+
+class TestPostInit:
+    def test_en_model_forces_english(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig(model_size="tiny.en")
+        assert c.lan == "en"
+
+    def test_en_suffix_with_auto_language(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig(model_size="base.en", lan="auto")
+        assert c.lan == "en"
+
+    def test_non_en_model_keeps_language(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig(model_size="base", lan="fr")
+        assert c.lan == "fr"
+
+    def test_policy_alias_1(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig(backend_policy="1")
+        assert c.backend_policy == "simulstreaming"
+
+    def test_policy_alias_2(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig(backend_policy="2")
+        assert c.backend_policy == "localagreement"
+
+    def test_policy_no_alias(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig(backend_policy="localagreement")
+        assert c.backend_policy == "localagreement"
+
+
+class TestFromNamespace:
+    def test_known_keys(self):
+        ns = SimpleNamespace(backend="faster-whisper", lan="en", model_size="large-v3")
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig.from_namespace(ns)
+        assert c.backend == "faster-whisper"
+        assert c.lan == "en"
+        assert c.model_size == "large-v3"
+
+    def test_ignores_unknown_keys(self):
+        ns = SimpleNamespace(backend="auto", unknown_key="value", another="x")
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig.from_namespace(ns)
+        assert c.backend == "auto"
+        assert not hasattr(c, "unknown_key")
+
+    def test_preserves_defaults_for_missing(self):
+        ns = SimpleNamespace(backend="voxtral-mlx")
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig.from_namespace(ns)
+        assert c.lan == "auto"
+        assert c.vac is True
+
+
+class TestFromKwargs:
+    def test_known_keys(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig.from_kwargs(backend="mlx-whisper", lan="fr")
+        assert c.backend == "mlx-whisper"
+        assert c.lan == "fr"
+
+    def test_warns_on_unknown_keys(self, caplog):
+        with caplog.at_level(logging.WARNING, logger="whisperlivekit.config"):
+            c = WhisperLiveKitConfig.from_kwargs(backend="auto", bogus="value")
+        assert c.backend == "auto"
+        assert "bogus" in caplog.text
+
+    def test_post_init_runs(self):
+        c = WhisperLiveKitConfig.from_kwargs(model_size="small.en")
+        assert c.lan == "en"
--- a/tests/test_hypothesis_buffer.py
+++ b/tests/test_hypothesis_buffer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,172 @@
+"""Tests for HypothesisBuffer — the core of LocalAgreement policy."""
+
+import pytest
+
+from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import ASRToken
+from whisperlivekit.local_agreement.online_asr import HypothesisBuffer
+
+
+def make_tokens(words, start=0.0, step=0.5):
+    """Helper: create ASRToken list from word strings."""
+    tokens = []
+    t = start
+    for w in words:
+        tokens.append(ASRToken(start=t, end=t + step, text=w, probability=0.9))
+        t += step
+    return tokens
+
+
+class TestInsert:
+    def test_basic_insert(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        tokens = make_tokens(["hello", "world"])
+        buf.insert(tokens, offset=0.0)
+        assert len(buf.new) == 2
+        assert buf.new[0].text == "hello"
+
+    def test_insert_with_offset(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        tokens = make_tokens(["hello"], start=0.0)
+        buf.insert(tokens, offset=5.0)
+        assert buf.new[0].start == pytest.approx(5.0)
+
+    def test_insert_filters_old_tokens(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        buf.last_committed_time = 10.0
+        tokens = make_tokens(["old", "new"], start=5.0, step=3.0)
+        buf.insert(tokens, offset=0.0)
+        # "old" at 5.0 is before last_committed_time - 0.1 = 9.9 → filtered
+        # "new" at 8.0 is also before 9.9 → filtered
+        assert len(buf.new) == 0
+
+    def test_insert_deduplicates_committed(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        # Commit "hello"
+        tokens1 = make_tokens(["hello", "world"])
+        buf.insert(tokens1, offset=0.0)
+        buf.flush()  # commits "hello" (buffer was empty, so nothing matches)
+        # Actually with empty buffer, flush won't commit anything
+        # Let's do it properly: two rounds
+        buf2 = HypothesisBuffer()
+        first = make_tokens(["hello", "world"])
+        buf2.insert(first, offset=0.0)
+        buf2.flush()  # buffer was empty → no commits, buffer = ["hello", "world"]
+
+        second = make_tokens(["hello", "world", "test"])
+        buf2.insert(second, offset=0.0)
+        committed = buf2.flush()
+        # LCP of ["hello", "world"] and ["hello", "world", "test"] = ["hello", "world"]
+        assert len(committed) == 2
+        assert committed[0].text == "hello"
+        assert committed[1].text == "world"
+
+
+class TestFlush:
+    def test_flush_empty(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        committed = buf.flush()
+        assert committed == []
+
+    def test_flush_lcp_matching(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        # Round 1: establish buffer
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["hello", "world"]), offset=0.0)
+        buf.flush()  # buffer = ["hello", "world"], committed = []
+
+        # Round 2: same prefix, new suffix
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["hello", "world", "test"]), offset=0.0)
+        committed = buf.flush()
+        assert [t.text for t in committed] == ["hello", "world"]
+
+    def test_flush_no_match(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        # Round 1
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["hello", "world"]), offset=0.0)
+        buf.flush()
+
+        # Round 2: completely different
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["foo", "bar"]), offset=0.0)
+        committed = buf.flush()
+        assert committed == []
+
+    def test_flush_partial_match(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["hello", "world", "test"]), offset=0.0)
+        buf.flush()
+
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["hello", "earth", "again"]), offset=0.0)
+        committed = buf.flush()
+        assert len(committed) == 1
+        assert committed[0].text == "hello"
+
+    def test_flush_updates_last_committed(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["hello", "world"]), offset=0.0)
+        buf.flush()
+
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["hello", "world", "test"]), offset=0.0)
+        buf.flush()
+        assert buf.last_committed_word == "world"
+        assert buf.last_committed_time > 0
+
+    def test_flush_with_confidence_validation(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer(confidence_validation=True)
+        high_conf = [
+            ASRToken(start=0.0, end=0.5, text="sure", probability=0.99),
+            ASRToken(start=0.5, end=1.0, text="maybe", probability=0.5),
+        ]
+        buf.insert(high_conf, offset=0.0)
+        committed = buf.flush()
+        # "sure" has p>0.95 → committed immediately
+        assert len(committed) == 1
+        assert committed[0].text == "sure"
+
+
+class TestPopCommitted:
+    def test_pop_removes_old(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        buf.committed_in_buffer = make_tokens(["a", "b", "c"], start=0.0, step=1.0)
+        # "a": end=1.0, "b": end=2.0, "c": end=3.0
+        # pop_committed removes tokens with end <= time
+        buf.pop_committed(2.0)
+        # "a" (end=1.0) and "b" (end=2.0) removed, "c" (end=3.0) remains
+        assert len(buf.committed_in_buffer) == 1
+        assert buf.committed_in_buffer[0].text == "c"
+
+    def test_pop_nothing(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        buf.committed_in_buffer = make_tokens(["a", "b"], start=5.0)
+        buf.pop_committed(0.0)
+        assert len(buf.committed_in_buffer) == 2
+
+    def test_pop_all(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        buf.committed_in_buffer = make_tokens(["a", "b"], start=0.0, step=0.5)
+        buf.pop_committed(100.0)
+        assert len(buf.committed_in_buffer) == 0
+
+
+class TestStreamingSimulation:
+    """Multi-round insert/flush simulating real streaming behavior."""
+
+    def test_three_rounds(self):
+        buf = HypothesisBuffer()
+        all_committed = []
+
+        # Round 1: "this is"
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["this", "is"]), offset=0.0)
+        all_committed.extend(buf.flush())
+
+        # Round 2: "this is a test"
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["this", "is", "a", "test"]), offset=0.0)
+        all_committed.extend(buf.flush())
+
+        # Round 3: "this is a test today"
+        buf.insert(make_tokens(["this", "is", "a", "test", "today"]), offset=0.0)
+        all_committed.extend(buf.flush())
+
+        words = [t.text for t in all_committed]
+        assert "this" in words
+        assert "is" in words
+        assert "a" in words
+        assert "test" in words
--- a/tests/test_metrics.py
+++ b/tests/test_metrics.py
@@ -0,0 +1,183 @@
+"""Tests for whisperlivekit.metrics — WER, timestamp accuracy, normalization."""
+
+import pytest
+
+from whisperlivekit.metrics import compute_wer, compute_timestamp_accuracy, normalize_text
+
+
+class TestNormalizeText:
+    def test_lowercase(self):
+        assert normalize_text("Hello World") == "hello world"
+
+    def test_strip_punctuation(self):
+        assert normalize_text("Hello, world!") == "hello world"
+
+    def test_collapse_whitespace(self):
+        assert normalize_text("  hello   world  ") == "hello world"
+
+    def test_keep_hyphens(self):
+        assert normalize_text("real-time") == "real-time"
+
+    def test_keep_apostrophes(self):
+        assert normalize_text("don't") == "don't"
+
+    def test_unicode_normalized(self):
+        # e + combining accent should be same as precomposed
+        assert normalize_text("caf\u0065\u0301") == normalize_text("caf\u00e9")
+
+    def test_empty(self):
+        assert normalize_text("") == ""
+
+    def test_only_punctuation(self):
+        assert normalize_text("...!?") == ""
+
+
+class TestComputeWER:
+    def test_perfect_match(self):
+        result = compute_wer("hello world", "hello world")
+        assert result["wer"] == 0.0
+        assert result["substitutions"] == 0
+        assert result["insertions"] == 0
+        assert result["deletions"] == 0
+
+    def test_case_insensitive(self):
+        result = compute_wer("Hello World", "hello world")
+        assert result["wer"] == 0.0
+
+    def test_punctuation_ignored(self):
+        result = compute_wer("Hello, world!", "hello world")
+        assert result["wer"] == 0.0
+
+    def test_one_substitution(self):
+        result = compute_wer("hello world", "hello earth")
+        assert result["wer"] == pytest.approx(0.5)
+        assert result["substitutions"] == 1
+
+    def test_one_insertion(self):
+        result = compute_wer("hello world", "hello big world")
+        assert result["wer"] == pytest.approx(0.5)
+        assert result["insertions"] == 1
+
+    def test_one_deletion(self):
+        result = compute_wer("hello big world", "hello world")
+        assert result["wer"] == pytest.approx(1 / 3)
+        assert result["deletions"] == 1
+
+    def test_completely_different(self):
+        result = compute_wer("the cat sat", "a dog ran")
+        assert result["wer"] == pytest.approx(1.0)
+
+    def test_empty_reference(self):
+        result = compute_wer("", "hello")
+        assert result["wer"] == 1.0  # 1 insertion / 0 ref → treated as float(m)
+        assert result["ref_words"] == 0
+
+    def test_empty_hypothesis(self):
+        result = compute_wer("hello world", "")
+        assert result["wer"] == pytest.approx(1.0)
+        assert result["deletions"] == 2
+
+    def test_both_empty(self):
+        result = compute_wer("", "")
+        assert result["wer"] == 0.0
+
+    def test_ref_and_hyp_word_counts(self):
+        result = compute_wer("one two three", "one two three four")
+        assert result["ref_words"] == 3
+        assert result["hyp_words"] == 4
+
+
+class TestComputeTimestampAccuracy:
+    def test_perfect_match(self):
+        words = [
+            {"word": "hello", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5},
+            {"word": "world", "start": 0.5, "end": 1.0},
+        ]
+        result = compute_timestamp_accuracy(words, words)
+        assert result["mae_start"] == 0.0
+        assert result["max_delta_start"] == 0.0
+        assert result["n_matched"] == 2
+
+    def test_constant_offset(self):
+        ref = [
+            {"word": "hello", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5},
+            {"word": "world", "start": 0.5, "end": 1.0},
+        ]
+        pred = [
+            {"word": "hello", "start": 0.1, "end": 0.6},
+            {"word": "world", "start": 0.6, "end": 1.1},
+        ]
+        result = compute_timestamp_accuracy(pred, ref)
+        assert result["mae_start"] == pytest.approx(0.1)
+        assert result["max_delta_start"] == pytest.approx(0.1)
+        assert result["n_matched"] == 2
+
+    def test_mismatched_word_counts(self):
+        ref = [
+            {"word": "hello", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5},
+            {"word": "beautiful", "start": 0.5, "end": 1.0},
+            {"word": "world", "start": 1.0, "end": 1.5},
+        ]
+        pred = [
+            {"word": "hello", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5},
+            {"word": "world", "start": 1.1, "end": 1.6},
+        ]
+        result = compute_timestamp_accuracy(pred, ref)
+        assert result["n_matched"] == 2
+        assert result["n_ref"] == 3
+        assert result["n_pred"] == 2
+
+    def test_empty_predicted(self):
+        ref = [{"word": "hello", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5}]
+        result = compute_timestamp_accuracy([], ref)
+        assert result["mae_start"] is None
+        assert result["n_matched"] == 0
+
+    def test_empty_reference(self):
+        pred = [{"word": "hello", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5}]
+        result = compute_timestamp_accuracy(pred, [])
+        assert result["mae_start"] is None
+        assert result["n_matched"] == 0
+
+    def test_case_insensitive_matching(self):
+        ref = [{"word": "Hello", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5}]
+        pred = [{"word": "hello", "start": 0.1, "end": 0.6}]
+        result = compute_timestamp_accuracy(pred, ref)
+        assert result["n_matched"] == 1
+        assert result["mae_start"] == pytest.approx(0.1)
+
+    def test_median_even_count(self):
+        """Median with even number of matched words should average the two middle values."""
+        ref = [
+            {"word": "a", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.2},
+            {"word": "b", "start": 0.5, "end": 0.7},
+            {"word": "c", "start": 1.0, "end": 1.2},
+            {"word": "d", "start": 1.5, "end": 1.7},
+        ]
+        pred = [
+            {"word": "a", "start": 0.1, "end": 0.3},   # delta 0.1
+            {"word": "b", "start": 0.7, "end": 0.9},   # delta 0.2
+            {"word": "c", "start": 1.3, "end": 1.5},   # delta 0.3
+            {"word": "d", "start": 1.9, "end": 2.1},   # delta 0.4
+        ]
+        result = compute_timestamp_accuracy(pred, ref)
+        assert result["n_matched"] == 4
+        # sorted abs deltas: [0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4] -> median = (0.2 + 0.3) / 2 = 0.25
+        assert result["median_delta_start"] == pytest.approx(0.25)
+
+    def test_median_odd_count(self):
+        """Median with odd number of matched words takes the middle value."""
+        ref = [
+            {"word": "a", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.2},
+            {"word": "b", "start": 0.5, "end": 0.7},
+            {"word": "c", "start": 1.0, "end": 1.2},
+        ]
+        pred = [
+            {"word": "a", "start": 0.1, "end": 0.3},   # delta 0.1
+            {"word": "b", "start": 0.8, "end": 1.0},   # delta 0.3
+            {"word": "c", "start": 1.2, "end": 1.4},   # delta 0.2
+        ]
+        result = compute_timestamp_accuracy(pred, ref)
+        assert result["n_matched"] == 3
+        # sorted abs deltas: [0.1, 0.2, 0.3] -> median = 0.2
+        assert result["median_delta_start"] == pytest.approx(0.2)
--- a/tests/test_silence_handling.py
+++ b/tests/test_silence_handling.py
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+"""Tests for silence handling — state machine and double-counting regression."""
+
+import pytest
+
+from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import Silence
+
+
+class TestSilenceStateMachine:
+    """Test Silence object state transitions."""
+
+    def test_initial_state(self):
+        s = Silence(start=1.0, is_starting=True)
+        assert s.is_starting is True
+        assert s.has_ended is False
+        assert s.duration is None
+        assert s.end is None
+
+    def test_end_silence(self):
+        s = Silence(start=1.0, is_starting=True)
+        s.end = 3.0
+        s.is_starting = False
+        s.has_ended = True
+        s.compute_duration()
+        assert s.duration == pytest.approx(2.0)
+
+    def test_very_short_silence(self):
+        s = Silence(start=1.0, end=1.01, is_starting=False, has_ended=True)
+        s.compute_duration()
+        assert s.duration == pytest.approx(0.01)
+
+    def test_zero_duration_silence(self):
+        s = Silence(start=5.0, end=5.0)
+        s.compute_duration()
+        assert s.duration == pytest.approx(0.0)
+
+
+class TestSilenceDoubleCounting:
+    """Regression tests for the silence double-counting bug.
+
+    The bug: _begin_silence and _end_silence both pushed self.current_silence
+    to the queue. Since they were the same Python object, _end_silence's mutation
+    affected the already-queued start event. The consumer processed both as
+    ended silences, doubling the duration.
+
+    Fix: _begin_silence now pushes a separate Silence object for the start event.
+    """
+
+    def test_start_and_end_are_separate_objects(self):
+        """Simulate the fix: start event and end event must be different objects."""
+        # Simulate _begin_silence: creates start event as separate object
+        current_silence = Silence(start=1.0, is_starting=True)
+        start_event = Silence(start=1.0, is_starting=True)  # separate copy
+
+        # Simulate _end_silence: mutates current_silence
+        current_silence.end = 3.0
+        current_silence.is_starting = False
+        current_silence.has_ended = True
+        current_silence.compute_duration()
+
+        # start_event should NOT be affected by mutations to current_silence
+        assert start_event.is_starting is True
+        assert start_event.has_ended is False
+        assert start_event.end is None
+
+        # current_silence (end event) has the final state
+        assert current_silence.has_ended is True
+        assert current_silence.duration == pytest.approx(2.0)
+
+    def test_single_object_would_cause_double_counting(self):
+        """Demonstrate the bug: if same object is used for both events."""
+        shared = Silence(start=1.0, is_starting=True)
+        queue = [shared]  # start event queued
+
+        # Mutate (simulates _end_silence)
+        shared.end = 3.0
+        shared.is_starting = False
+        shared.has_ended = True
+        shared.compute_duration()
+        queue.append(shared)  # end event queued
+
+        # Both queue items point to the SAME mutated object
+        assert queue[0] is queue[1]  # same reference
+        assert queue[0].has_ended is True  # start event also shows ended!
+
+        # This would cause double-counting: both items have has_ended=True
+        # and duration=2.0, so the consumer adds 2.0 twice = 4.0
+
+
+class TestConsecutiveSilences:
+    def test_multiple_silences(self):
+        """Multiple silence periods should have independent durations."""
+        s1 = Silence(start=1.0, end=2.0)
+        s1.compute_duration()
+        s2 = Silence(start=5.0, end=8.0)
+        s2.compute_duration()
+        assert s1.duration == pytest.approx(1.0)
+        assert s2.duration == pytest.approx(3.0)
+        # Total silence should be sum, not accumulated on single object
+        assert s1.duration + s2.duration == pytest.approx(4.0)
--- a/tests/test_timed_objects.py
+++ b/tests/test_timed_objects.py
@@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
+"""Tests for whisperlivekit.timed_objects data classes."""
+
+import pytest
+
+from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import (
+    ASRToken,
+    FrontData,
+    Segment,
+    Silence,
+    TimedText,
+    Transcript,
+    format_time,
+)
+
+
+class TestFormatTime:
+    def test_zero(self):
+        assert format_time(0) == "0:00:00"
+
+    def test_one_minute(self):
+        assert format_time(60) == "0:01:00"
+
+    def test_one_hour(self):
+        assert format_time(3600) == "1:00:00"
+
+    def test_fractional_truncated(self):
+        assert format_time(61.9) == "0:01:01"
+
+
+class TestASRToken:
+    def test_with_offset(self):
+        t = ASRToken(start=1.0, end=2.0, text="hello")
+        shifted = t.with_offset(0.5)
+        assert shifted.start == pytest.approx(1.5)
+        assert shifted.end == pytest.approx(2.5)
+        assert shifted.text == "hello"
+
+    def test_with_offset_preserves_fields(self):
+        t = ASRToken(start=0.0, end=1.0, text="hi", speaker=2, probability=0.95)
+        shifted = t.with_offset(1.0)
+        assert shifted.speaker == 2
+        assert shifted.probability == 0.95
+
+    def test_is_silence_false(self):
+        t = ASRToken(start=0.0, end=1.0, text="hello")
+        assert t.is_silence() is False
+
+    def test_bool_truthy(self):
+        t = ASRToken(start=0.0, end=1.0, text="hello")
+        assert bool(t) is True
+
+    def test_bool_falsy(self):
+        t = ASRToken(start=0.0, end=1.0, text="")
+        assert bool(t) is False
+
+
+class TestTimedText:
+    def test_has_punctuation_period(self):
+        t = TimedText(text="hello.")
+        assert t.has_punctuation() is True
+
+    def test_has_punctuation_exclamation(self):
+        t = TimedText(text="wow!")
+        assert t.has_punctuation() is True
+
+    def test_has_punctuation_question(self):
+        t = TimedText(text="really?")
+        assert t.has_punctuation() is True
+
+    def test_has_punctuation_cjk(self):
+        t = TimedText(text="hello。")
+        assert t.has_punctuation() is True
+
+    def test_no_punctuation(self):
+        t = TimedText(text="hello world")
+        assert t.has_punctuation() is False
+
+    def test_duration(self):
+        t = TimedText(start=1.0, end=3.5)
+        assert t.duration() == pytest.approx(2.5)
+
+    def test_contains_timespan(self):
+        outer = TimedText(start=0.0, end=5.0)
+        inner = TimedText(start=1.0, end=3.0)
+        assert outer.contains_timespan(inner) is True
+        assert inner.contains_timespan(outer) is False
+
+
+class TestSilence:
+    def test_compute_duration(self):
+        s = Silence(start=1.0, end=3.5)
+        d = s.compute_duration()
+        assert d == pytest.approx(2.5)
+        assert s.duration == pytest.approx(2.5)
+
+    def test_compute_duration_none_start(self):
+        s = Silence(start=None, end=3.5)
+        d = s.compute_duration()
+        assert d is None
+
+    def test_compute_duration_none_end(self):
+        s = Silence(start=1.0, end=None)
+        d = s.compute_duration()
+        assert d is None
+
+    def test_is_silence_true(self):
+        s = Silence()
+        assert s.is_silence() is True
+
+
+class TestTranscript:
+    def test_from_tokens(self, sample_tokens):
+        t = Transcript.from_tokens(sample_tokens, sep="")
+        assert t.text == "Hello world test."
+        assert t.start == pytest.approx(0.0)
+        assert t.end == pytest.approx(1.5)
+
+    def test_from_tokens_with_sep(self, sample_tokens):
+        t = Transcript.from_tokens(sample_tokens, sep="|")
+        assert t.text == "Hello| world| test."
+
+    def test_from_empty_tokens(self):
+        t = Transcript.from_tokens([])
+        assert t.text == ""
+        assert t.start is None
+        assert t.end is None
+
+    def test_from_tokens_with_offset(self, sample_tokens):
+        t = Transcript.from_tokens(sample_tokens, offset=10.0)
+        assert t.start == pytest.approx(10.0)
+        assert t.end == pytest.approx(11.5)
+
+
+class TestSegment:
+    def test_from_tokens(self, sample_tokens):
+        seg = Segment.from_tokens(sample_tokens)
+        assert seg is not None
+        assert seg.text == "Hello world test."
+        assert seg.start == pytest.approx(0.0)
+        assert seg.end == pytest.approx(1.5)
+        assert seg.speaker == -1
+
+    def test_from_silence_tokens(self):
+        silences = [
+            Silence(start=1.0, end=2.0),
+            Silence(start=2.0, end=3.0),
+        ]
+        seg = Segment.from_tokens(silences, is_silence=True)
+        assert seg is not None
+        assert seg.speaker == -2
+        assert seg.is_silence() is True
+        assert seg.text is None
+
+    def test_from_empty_tokens(self):
+        seg = Segment.from_tokens([])
+        assert seg is None
+
+    def test_to_dict(self, sample_tokens):
+        seg = Segment.from_tokens(sample_tokens)
+        d = seg.to_dict()
+        assert "text" in d
+        assert "speaker" in d
+        assert "start" in d
+        assert "end" in d
+
+
+class TestFrontData:
+    def test_to_dict_empty(self):
+        fd = FrontData()
+        d = fd.to_dict()
+        assert d["lines"] == []
+        assert d["buffer_transcription"] == ""
+        assert "error" not in d
+
+    def test_to_dict_with_error(self):
+        fd = FrontData(error="something broke")
+        d = fd.to_dict()
+        assert d["error"] == "something broke"
+
+    def test_to_dict_with_lines(self, sample_tokens):
+        seg = Segment.from_tokens(sample_tokens)
+        fd = FrontData(lines=[seg])
+        d = fd.to_dict()
+        assert len(d["lines"]) == 1
+        assert d["lines"][0]["text"] == "Hello world test."
--- a/whisperlivekit/audio_processor.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/audio_processor.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import numpy as np
 from whisperlivekit.core import (TranscriptionEngine,
                                 online_diarization_factory, online_factory,
                                 online_translation_factory)
+from whisperlivekit.metrics_collector import SessionMetrics
 from whisperlivekit.ffmpeg_manager import FFmpegManager, FFmpegState
 from whisperlivekit.silero_vad_iterator import FixedVADIterator, OnnxWrapper, load_jit_vad
 from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import (ASRToken, ChangeSpeaker, FrontData,
@@ -66,7 +67,8 @@ class AudioProcessor:
        self.args = models.args
        self.sample_rate = 16000
        self.channels = 1
-        self.samples_per_sec = int(self.sample_rate * self.args.min_chunk_size)
+        chunk_seconds = self.args.vac_chunk_size if self.args.vac else self.args.min_chunk_size
+        self.samples_per_sec = int(self.sample_rate * chunk_seconds)
        self.bytes_per_sample = 2
        self.bytes_per_sec = self.samples_per_sec * self.bytes_per_sample
        self.max_bytes_per_sec = 32000 * 5  # 5 seconds of audio at 32 kHz
@@ -117,6 +119,7 @@ class AudioProcessor:
        self.translation_task: Optional[asyncio.Task] = None
        self.watchdog_task: Optional[asyncio.Task] = None
        self.all_tasks_for_cleanup: List[asyncio.Task] = []
+        self.metrics: SessionMetrics = SessionMetrics()

        self.transcription: Optional[Any] = None
        self.translation: Optional[Any] = None
@@ -138,25 +141,43 @@ class AudioProcessor:
        if self.translation_queue:
            await self.translation_queue.put(self.current_silence)

-    async def _begin_silence(self) -> None:
+    async def _begin_silence(self, at_sample: Optional[int] = None) -> None:
        if self.current_silence:
            return
-        now = time() - self.beg_loop
+        # Use audio stream time (sample-precise) for accurate silence duration
+        if at_sample is not None:
+            audio_t = at_sample / self.sample_rate
+        else:
+            audio_t = self.total_pcm_samples / self.sample_rate if self.sample_rate else 0.0
        self.current_silence = Silence(
-            is_starting=True, start=now
+            is_starting=True, start=audio_t
        )
-        await self._push_silence_event()
+        # Push a separate start-only event so _end_silence won't mutate it
+        start_event = Silence(is_starting=True, start=audio_t)
+        if self.transcription_queue:
+            await self.transcription_queue.put(start_event)
+        if self.args.diarization and self.diarization_queue:
+            await self.diarization_queue.put(start_event)
+        if self.translation_queue:
+            await self.translation_queue.put(start_event)

-    async def _end_silence(self) -> None:
+    async def _end_silence(self, at_sample: Optional[int] = None) -> None:
        if not self.current_silence:
            return
-        now = time() - self.beg_loop
-        self.current_silence.end = now
-        self.current_silence.is_starting=False
-        self.current_silence.has_ended=True
+        if at_sample is not None:
+            audio_t = at_sample / self.sample_rate
+        else:
+            audio_t = self.total_pcm_samples / self.sample_rate if self.sample_rate else 0.0
+        self.current_silence.end = audio_t
+        self.current_silence.is_starting = False
+        self.current_silence.has_ended = True
        self.current_silence.compute_duration()
+        self.metrics.n_silence_events += 1
+        if self.current_silence.duration is not None:
+            self.metrics.total_silence_duration_s += self.current_silence.duration
        if self.current_silence.duration > MIN_DURATION_REAL_SILENCE:
            self.state.new_tokens.append(self.current_silence)
+        # Push the completed silence as the end event (separate from the start event)
        await self._push_silence_event()
        self.current_silence = None

@@ -252,6 +273,34 @@ class AudioProcessor:
        if self.translation:
            await self.translation_queue.put(SENTINEL)

+    async def _finish_transcription(self) -> None:
+        """Call finish() on the online processor to flush remaining tokens."""
+        if not self.transcription:
+            return
+        try:
+            if hasattr(self.transcription, 'finish'):
+                final_tokens, end_time = await asyncio.to_thread(self.transcription.finish)
+            else:
+                # SimulStreamingOnlineProcessor uses start_silence() → process_iter(is_last=True)
+                final_tokens, end_time = await asyncio.to_thread(self.transcription.start_silence)
+
+            final_tokens = final_tokens or []
+            if final_tokens:
+                logger.info(f"Finish flushed {len(final_tokens)} tokens")
+                _buffer_transcript = self.transcription.get_buffer()
+                async with self.lock:
+                    self.state.tokens.extend(final_tokens)
+                    self.state.buffer_transcription = _buffer_transcript
+                    self.state.end_buffer = max(self.state.end_buffer, end_time)
+                    self.state.new_tokens.extend(final_tokens)
+                    self.state.new_tokens_buffer = _buffer_transcript
+                if self.translation_queue:
+                    for token in final_tokens:
+                        await self.translation_queue.put(token)
+        except Exception as e:
+            logger.warning(f"Error finishing transcription: {e}")
+            logger.debug(f"Traceback: {traceback.format_exc()}")
+
    async def transcription_processor(self) -> None:
        """Process audio chunks for transcription."""
        cumulative_pcm_duration_stream_time = 0.0
@@ -262,6 +311,7 @@ class AudioProcessor:
                item = await get_all_from_queue(self.transcription_queue)
                if item is SENTINEL:
                    logger.debug("Transcription processor received sentinel. Finishing.")
+                    await self._finish_transcription()
                    break

                asr_internal_buffer_duration_s = len(getattr(self.transcription, 'audio_buffer', [])) / self.transcription.SAMPLING_RATE
@@ -296,8 +346,13 @@ class AudioProcessor:
                    cumulative_pcm_duration_stream_time += len(pcm_array) / self.sample_rate
                    stream_time_end_of_current_pcm = cumulative_pcm_duration_stream_time
                    self.transcription.insert_audio_chunk(pcm_array, stream_time_end_of_current_pcm)
+                    _t0 = time()
                    new_tokens, current_audio_processed_upto = await asyncio.to_thread(self.transcription.process_iter)
+                    _dur = time() - _t0
+                    self.metrics.transcription_durations.append(_dur)
+                    self.metrics.n_transcription_calls += 1
                    new_tokens = new_tokens or []
+                    self.metrics.n_tokens_produced += len(new_tokens)

                _buffer_transcript = self.transcription.get_buffer()
                buffer_text = _buffer_transcript.text
@@ -432,6 +487,7 @@ class AudioProcessor:

                should_push = (response != self.last_response_content)
                if should_push:
+                    self.metrics.n_responses_sent += 1
                    yield response
                    self.last_response_content = response

@@ -534,6 +590,10 @@ class AudioProcessor:
                logger.warning(f"Error stopping FFmpeg manager: {e}")
        if self.diarization:
            self.diarization.close()
+
+        # Finalize session metrics
+        self.metrics.total_audio_duration_s = self.total_pcm_samples / self.sample_rate
+        self.metrics.log_summary()
        logger.info("AudioProcessor cleanup complete.")

    def _processing_tasks_done(self) -> bool:
@@ -552,6 +612,7 @@ class AudioProcessor:

        if not self.beg_loop:
            self.beg_loop = time()
+            self.metrics.session_start = self.beg_loop
            self.current_silence = Silence(start=0.0, is_starting=True)
            self.tokens_alignment.beg_loop = self.beg_loop

@@ -559,6 +620,10 @@ class AudioProcessor:
            logger.info("Empty audio message received, initiating stop sequence.")
            self.is_stopping = True

+            # Flush any remaining PCM data before signaling end-of-stream
+            if self.is_pcm_input and self.pcm_buffer:
+                await self._flush_remaining_pcm()
+
            if self.transcription_queue:
                await self.transcription_queue.put(SENTINEL)

@@ -571,6 +636,8 @@ class AudioProcessor:
            logger.warning("AudioProcessor is stopping. Ignoring incoming audio.")
            return

+        self.metrics.n_chunks_received += 1
+
        if self.is_pcm_input:
            self.pcm_buffer.extend(message)
            await self.handle_pcm_data()
@@ -587,6 +654,11 @@ class AudioProcessor:
                    logger.warning("Failed to write audio data to FFmpeg")

    async def handle_pcm_data(self) -> None:
+        # Without VAC, there's no speech detector to end the initial silence.
+        # Clear it on the first audio chunk so audio actually gets enqueued.
+        if not self.args.vac and self.current_silence:
+            await self._end_silence()
+
        # Process when enough data
        if len(self.pcm_buffer) < self.bytes_per_sec:
            return
@@ -615,7 +687,7 @@ class AudioProcessor:

        if res is not None:
            if "start" in res and self.current_silence:
-                await self._end_silence()
+                await self._end_silence(at_sample=res.get("start"))

            if "end" in res and not self.current_silence:
                pre_silence_chunk = self._slice_before_silence(
@@ -623,7 +695,7 @@ class AudioProcessor:
                )
                if pre_silence_chunk is not None and pre_silence_chunk.size > 0:
                    await self._enqueue_active_audio(pre_silence_chunk)
-                await self._begin_silence()
+                await self._begin_silence(at_sample=res.get("end"))

        if not self.current_silence:
            await self._enqueue_active_audio(pcm_array)
@@ -632,3 +704,21 @@ class AudioProcessor:

        if not self.args.transcription and not self.args.diarization:
            await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
+
+    async def _flush_remaining_pcm(self) -> None:
+        """Flush whatever PCM data remains in the buffer, regardless of size threshold."""
+        if not self.pcm_buffer:
+            return
+        aligned_size = (len(self.pcm_buffer) // self.bytes_per_sample) * self.bytes_per_sample
+        if aligned_size == 0:
+            return
+        pcm_array = self.convert_pcm_to_float(self.pcm_buffer[:aligned_size])
+        self.pcm_buffer = self.pcm_buffer[aligned_size:]
+
+        # End any active silence so the audio gets enqueued
+        if self.current_silence:
+            await self._end_silence(at_sample=self.total_pcm_samples)
+
+        await self._enqueue_active_audio(pcm_array)
+        self.total_pcm_samples += len(pcm_array)
+        logger.info(f"Flushed remaining PCM buffer: {len(pcm_array)} samples ({len(pcm_array)/self.sample_rate:.2f}s)")
--- a/whisperlivekit/backend_support.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/backend_support.py
@@ -29,6 +29,12 @@ def mlx_backend_available(warn_on_missing = False):
    return available


+def voxtral_hf_backend_available():
+    """Return True if HF Transformers Voxtral backend is available."""
+    return module_available("transformers")
+
+
+
 def faster_backend_available(warn_on_missing = False):
    available = module_available("faster_whisper")
    if not available and warn_on_missing and platform.system() != "Darwin":
--- a/whisperlivekit/basic_server.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/basic_server.py
@@ -14,15 +14,13 @@ logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.WARNING)
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)

-args = parse_args()
+config = parse_args()
 transcription_engine = None

@asynccontextmanager
-async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):    
+async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):
    global transcription_engine
-    transcription_engine = TranscriptionEngine(
-        **vars(args),
-    )
+    transcription_engine = TranscriptionEngine(config=config)
    yield

 app = FastAPI(lifespan=lifespan)
@@ -63,7 +61,7 @@ async def websocket_endpoint(websocket: WebSocket):
    logger.info("WebSocket connection opened.")

    try:
-        await websocket.send_json({"type": "config", "useAudioWorklet": bool(args.pcm_input)})
+        await websocket.send_json({"type": "config", "useAudioWorklet": bool(config.pcm_input)})
    except Exception as e:
        logger.warning(f"Failed to send config to client: {e}")
            
@@ -103,26 +101,26 @@ def main():
    
    uvicorn_kwargs = {
        "app": "whisperlivekit.basic_server:app",
-        "host":args.host, 
-        "port":args.port, 
+        "host": config.host,
+        "port": config.port,
        "reload": False,
        "log_level": "info",
        "lifespan": "on",
    }
-    
+
    ssl_kwargs = {}
-    if args.ssl_certfile or args.ssl_keyfile:
-        if not (args.ssl_certfile and args.ssl_keyfile):
+    if config.ssl_certfile or config.ssl_keyfile:
+        if not (config.ssl_certfile and config.ssl_keyfile):
            raise ValueError("Both --ssl-certfile and --ssl-keyfile must be specified together.")
        ssl_kwargs = {
-            "ssl_certfile": args.ssl_certfile,
-            "ssl_keyfile": args.ssl_keyfile
+            "ssl_certfile": config.ssl_certfile,
+            "ssl_keyfile": config.ssl_keyfile,
        }

    if ssl_kwargs:
        uvicorn_kwargs = {**uvicorn_kwargs, **ssl_kwargs}
-    if args.forwarded_allow_ips:
-        uvicorn_kwargs = { **uvicorn_kwargs, "forwarded_allow_ips" : args.forwarded_allow_ips }
+    if config.forwarded_allow_ips:
+        uvicorn_kwargs = {**uvicorn_kwargs, "forwarded_allow_ips": config.forwarded_allow_ips}

    uvicorn.run(**uvicorn_kwargs)

--- a/whisperlivekit/config.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/config.py
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+"""Typed configuration for the WhisperLiveKit pipeline."""
+import logging
+from dataclasses import dataclass, field, fields
+from typing import Optional
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+@dataclass
+class WhisperLiveKitConfig:
+    """Single source of truth for all WhisperLiveKit configuration.
+
+    Replaces the previous dict-based parameter system in TranscriptionEngine.
+    All fields have defaults matching the prior behaviour.
+    """
+
+    # Server / global
+    host: str = "localhost"
+    port: int = 8000
+    diarization: bool = False
+    punctuation_split: bool = False
+    target_language: str = ""
+    vac: bool = True
+    vac_chunk_size: float = 0.04
+    log_level: str = "DEBUG"
+    ssl_certfile: Optional[str] = None
+    ssl_keyfile: Optional[str] = None
+    forwarded_allow_ips: Optional[str] = None
+    transcription: bool = True
+    vad: bool = True
+    pcm_input: bool = False
+    disable_punctuation_split: bool = False
+    diarization_backend: str = "sortformer"
+    backend_policy: str = "simulstreaming"
+    backend: str = "auto"
+
+    # Transcription common
+    warmup_file: Optional[str] = None
+    min_chunk_size: float = 0.1
+    model_size: str = "base"
+    model_cache_dir: Optional[str] = None
+    model_dir: Optional[str] = None
+    model_path: Optional[str] = None
+    lora_path: Optional[str] = None
+    lan: str = "auto"
+    direct_english_translation: bool = False
+
+    # LocalAgreement-specific
+    buffer_trimming: str = "segment"
+    confidence_validation: bool = False
+    buffer_trimming_sec: float = 15.0
+
+    # SimulStreaming-specific
+    disable_fast_encoder: bool = False
+    custom_alignment_heads: Optional[str] = None
+    frame_threshold: int = 25
+    beams: int = 1
+    decoder_type: Optional[str] = None
+    audio_max_len: float = 20.0
+    audio_min_len: float = 0.0
+    cif_ckpt_path: Optional[str] = None
+    never_fire: bool = False
+    init_prompt: Optional[str] = None
+    static_init_prompt: Optional[str] = None
+    max_context_tokens: Optional[int] = None
+
+    # Diarization (diart)
+    segmentation_model: str = "pyannote/segmentation-3.0"
+    embedding_model: str = "pyannote/embedding"
+
+    # Translation
+    nllb_backend: str = "transformers"
+    nllb_size: str = "600M"
+
+    def __post_init__(self):
+        # .en model suffix forces English
+        if self.model_size and self.model_size.endswith(".en"):
+            self.lan = "en"
+        # Normalize backend_policy aliases
+        if self.backend_policy == "1":
+            self.backend_policy = "simulstreaming"
+        elif self.backend_policy == "2":
+            self.backend_policy = "localagreement"
+
+    # ------------------------------------------------------------------
+    # Factory helpers
+    # ------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_namespace(cls, ns) -> "WhisperLiveKitConfig":
+        """Create config from an argparse Namespace, ignoring unknown keys."""
+        known = {f.name for f in fields(cls)}
+        return cls(**{k: v for k, v in vars(ns).items() if k in known})
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_kwargs(cls, **kwargs) -> "WhisperLiveKitConfig":
+        """Create config from keyword arguments; warns on unknown keys."""
+        known = {f.name for f in fields(cls)}
+        unknown = set(kwargs.keys()) - known
+        if unknown:
+            logger.warning("Unknown config keys ignored: %s", unknown)
+        return cls(**{k: v for k, v in kwargs.items() if k in known})
--- a/whisperlivekit/core.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/core.py
@@ -2,19 +2,13 @@ import logging
 import sys
 import threading
 from argparse import Namespace
+from dataclasses import asdict

+from whisperlivekit.config import WhisperLiveKitConfig
 from whisperlivekit.local_agreement.online_asr import OnlineASRProcessor
 from whisperlivekit.local_agreement.whisper_online import backend_factory
 from whisperlivekit.simul_whisper import SimulStreamingASR

-
-def update_with_kwargs(_dict, kwargs):
-    _dict.update({
-        k: v for k, v in kwargs.items() if k in _dict
-    })
-    return _dict
-
-
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

 class TranscriptionEngine:
@@ -31,69 +25,51 @@ class TranscriptionEngine:
                    cls._instance = super().__new__(cls)
        return cls._instance
    
-    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
+    def __init__(self, config=None, **kwargs):
        # Thread-safe initialization check
        with TranscriptionEngine._lock:
            if TranscriptionEngine._initialized:
                return
-            # Set flag immediately to prevent re-initialization
+
+        try:
+            self._do_init(config, **kwargs)
+        except Exception:
+            # Reset singleton so a retry is possible
+            with TranscriptionEngine._lock:
+                TranscriptionEngine._instance = None
+                TranscriptionEngine._initialized = False
+            raise
+
+        with TranscriptionEngine._lock:
            TranscriptionEngine._initialized = True

-        # Perform initialization outside lock to avoid holding lock during slow operations
-        global_params = {
-            "host": "localhost",
-            "port": 8000,
-            "diarization": False,
-            "punctuation_split": False,
-            "target_language": "",
-            "vac": True,
-            "vac_chunk_size": 0.04,
-            "log_level": "DEBUG",
-            "ssl_certfile": None,
-            "ssl_keyfile": None,
-            "forwarded_allow_ips": None,
-            "transcription": True,
-            "vad": True,
-            "pcm_input": False,
-            "disable_punctuation_split" : False,
-            "diarization_backend": "sortformer",
-            "backend_policy": "simulstreaming",
-            "backend": "auto",
-        }
-        global_params = update_with_kwargs(global_params, kwargs)
-
-        transcription_common_params = {
-            "warmup_file": None,
-            "min_chunk_size": 0.1,
-            "model_size": "base",
-            "model_cache_dir": None,
-            "model_dir": None,
-            "model_path": None,
-            "lora_path": None,
-            "lan": "auto",
-            "direct_english_translation": False,
-        }
-        transcription_common_params = update_with_kwargs(transcription_common_params, kwargs)                                            
-
-        if transcription_common_params['model_size'].endswith(".en"):
-            transcription_common_params["lan"] = "en"
+    def _do_init(self, config=None, **kwargs):
+        # Handle negated kwargs from programmatic API
        if 'no_transcription' in kwargs:
-            global_params['transcription'] = not global_params['no_transcription']
+            kwargs['transcription'] = not kwargs.pop('no_transcription')
        if 'no_vad' in kwargs:
-            global_params['vad'] = not kwargs['no_vad']
+            kwargs['vad'] = not kwargs.pop('no_vad')
        if 'no_vac' in kwargs:
-            global_params['vac'] = not kwargs['no_vac']
+            kwargs['vac'] = not kwargs.pop('no_vac')
+
+        if config is None:
+            if isinstance(kwargs.get('config'), WhisperLiveKitConfig):
+                config = kwargs.pop('config')
+            else:
+                config = WhisperLiveKitConfig.from_kwargs(**kwargs)
+        self.config = config
+
+        # Backward compat: expose as self.args (Namespace-like) for AudioProcessor etc.
+        self.args = Namespace(**asdict(config))

-        self.args = Namespace(**{**global_params, **transcription_common_params})
-        
        self.asr = None
        self.tokenizer = None
        self.diarization = None
        self.vac_session = None
-        
-        if self.args.vac:
+
+        if config.vac:
            from whisperlivekit.silero_vad_iterator import is_onnx_available
-            
+
            if is_onnx_available():
                from whisperlivekit.silero_vad_iterator import load_onnx_session
                self.vac_session = load_onnx_session()
@@ -102,46 +78,65 @@ class TranscriptionEngine:
                    "onnxruntime not installed. VAC will use JIT model which is loaded per-session. "
                    "For multi-user scenarios, install onnxruntime: pip install onnxruntime"
                )
-        backend_policy = self.args.backend_policy
-        if self.args.transcription:
-            if backend_policy == "simulstreaming":                 
+
+        transcription_common_params = {
+            "warmup_file": config.warmup_file,
+            "min_chunk_size": config.min_chunk_size,
+            "model_size": config.model_size,
+            "model_cache_dir": config.model_cache_dir,
+            "model_dir": config.model_dir,
+            "model_path": config.model_path,
+            "lora_path": config.lora_path,
+            "lan": config.lan,
+            "direct_english_translation": config.direct_english_translation,
+        }
+
+        if config.transcription:
+            if config.backend == "voxtral-mlx":
+                from whisperlivekit.voxtral_mlx_asr import VoxtralMLXASR
+                self.tokenizer = None
+                self.asr = VoxtralMLXASR(**transcription_common_params)
+                logger.info("Using Voxtral MLX native backend")
+            elif config.backend == "voxtral":
+                from whisperlivekit.voxtral_hf_streaming import VoxtralHFStreamingASR
+                self.tokenizer = None
+                self.asr = VoxtralHFStreamingASR(**transcription_common_params)
+                logger.info("Using Voxtral HF Transformers streaming backend")
+            elif config.backend_policy == "simulstreaming":
                simulstreaming_params = {
-                    "disable_fast_encoder": False,
-                    "custom_alignment_heads": None,
-                    "frame_threshold": 25,
-                    "beams": 1,
-                    "decoder_type": None,
-                    "audio_max_len": 20.0,
-                    "audio_min_len": 0.0,
-                    "cif_ckpt_path": None,
-                    "never_fire": False,
-                    "init_prompt": None,
-                    "static_init_prompt": None,
-                    "max_context_tokens": None,
+                    "disable_fast_encoder": config.disable_fast_encoder,
+                    "custom_alignment_heads": config.custom_alignment_heads,
+                    "frame_threshold": config.frame_threshold,
+                    "beams": config.beams,
+                    "decoder_type": config.decoder_type,
+                    "audio_max_len": config.audio_max_len,
+                    "audio_min_len": config.audio_min_len,
+                    "cif_ckpt_path": config.cif_ckpt_path,
+                    "never_fire": config.never_fire,
+                    "init_prompt": config.init_prompt,
+                    "static_init_prompt": config.static_init_prompt,
+                    "max_context_tokens": config.max_context_tokens,
                }
-                simulstreaming_params = update_with_kwargs(simulstreaming_params, kwargs)
-                
-                self.tokenizer = None        
+
+                self.tokenizer = None
                self.asr = SimulStreamingASR(
                    **transcription_common_params,
                    **simulstreaming_params,
-                    backend=self.args.backend,
+                    backend=config.backend,
                )
                logger.info(
                    "Using SimulStreaming policy with %s backend",
                    getattr(self.asr, "encoder_backend", "whisper"),
                )
            else:
-                
                whisperstreaming_params = {
-                    "buffer_trimming": "segment",
-                    "confidence_validation": False,
-                    "buffer_trimming_sec": 15,
+                    "buffer_trimming": config.buffer_trimming,
+                    "confidence_validation": config.confidence_validation,
+                    "buffer_trimming_sec": config.buffer_trimming_sec,
                }
-                whisperstreaming_params = update_with_kwargs(whisperstreaming_params, kwargs)
-                
+
                self.asr = backend_factory(
-                    backend=self.args.backend,
+                    backend=config.backend,
                    **transcription_common_params,
                    **whisperstreaming_params,
                )
@@ -150,42 +145,41 @@ class TranscriptionEngine:
                    getattr(self.asr, "backend_choice", self.asr.__class__.__name__),
                )

-        if self.args.diarization:
-            if self.args.diarization_backend == "diart":
-                from whisperlivekit.diarization.diart_backend import \
-                    DiartDiarization
-                diart_params = {
-                    "segmentation_model": "pyannote/segmentation-3.0",
-                    "embedding_model": "pyannote/embedding",
-                }
-                diart_params = update_with_kwargs(diart_params, kwargs)
+        if config.diarization:
+            if config.diarization_backend == "diart":
+                from whisperlivekit.diarization.diart_backend import DiartDiarization
                self.diarization_model = DiartDiarization(
-                    block_duration=self.args.min_chunk_size,
-                    **diart_params
+                    block_duration=config.min_chunk_size,
+                    segmentation_model=config.segmentation_model,
+                    embedding_model=config.embedding_model,
                )
-            elif self.args.diarization_backend == "sortformer":
-                from whisperlivekit.diarization.sortformer_backend import \
-                    SortformerDiarization
+            elif config.diarization_backend == "sortformer":
+                from whisperlivekit.diarization.sortformer_backend import SortformerDiarization
                self.diarization_model = SortformerDiarization()
-        
+
        self.translation_model = None
-        if self.args.target_language:
-            if self.args.lan == 'auto' and backend_policy != "simulstreaming":
-                raise Exception('Translation cannot be set with language auto when transcription backend is not simulstreaming')
+        if config.target_language:
+            if config.lan == 'auto' and config.backend_policy != "simulstreaming":
+                raise ValueError('Translation cannot be set with language auto when transcription backend is not simulstreaming')
            else:
                try:
                    from nllw import load_model
-                except:
-                    raise Exception('To use translation, you must install nllw: `pip install nllw`')
-                translation_params = { 
-                    "nllb_backend": "transformers",
-                    "nllb_size": "600M"
-                }
-                translation_params = update_with_kwargs(translation_params, kwargs)
-                self.translation_model = load_model([self.args.lan], **translation_params) #in the future we want to handle different languages for different speakers
+                except ImportError:
+                    raise ImportError('To use translation, you must install nllw: `pip install nllw`')
+                self.translation_model = load_model(
+                    [config.lan],
+                    nllb_backend=config.nllb_backend,
+                    nllb_size=config.nllb_size,
+                )


 def online_factory(args, asr):
+    if getattr(args, 'backend', None) == "voxtral-mlx":
+        from whisperlivekit.voxtral_mlx_asr import VoxtralMLXOnlineProcessor
+        return VoxtralMLXOnlineProcessor(asr)
+    if getattr(args, 'backend', None) == "voxtral":
+        from whisperlivekit.voxtral_hf_streaming import VoxtralHFStreamingOnlineProcessor
+        return VoxtralHFStreamingOnlineProcessor(asr)
    if args.backend_policy == "simulstreaming":
        from whisperlivekit.simul_whisper import SimulStreamingOnlineProcessor
        return SimulStreamingOnlineProcessor(asr)
@@ -196,11 +190,12 @@ def online_diarization_factory(args, diarization_backend):
    if args.diarization_backend == "diart":
        online = diarization_backend
        # Not the best here, since several user/instances will share the same backend, but diart is not SOTA anymore and sortformer is recommended
-    
-    if args.diarization_backend == "sortformer":
+    elif args.diarization_backend == "sortformer":
        from whisperlivekit.diarization.sortformer_backend import \
            SortformerDiarizationOnline
        online = SortformerDiarizationOnline(shared_model=diarization_backend)
+    else:
+        raise ValueError(f"Unknown diarization backend: {args.diarization_backend}")
    return online


--- a/whisperlivekit/diarization/diart_backend.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/diarization/diart_backend.py
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 import asyncio
 import logging
-import re
 import threading
 import time
 from queue import Empty, SimpleQueue
@@ -14,14 +13,11 @@ from diart.sources import AudioSource, MicrophoneAudioSource
 from pyannote.core import Annotation
 from rx.core import Observer

+from whisperlivekit.diarization.utils import extract_number
 from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import SpeakerSegment

 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

-def extract_number(s: str) -> int:
-    m = re.search(r'\d+', s)
-    return int(m.group()) if m else None
-
 class DiarizationObserver(Observer):
    """Observer that logs all data emitted by the diarization pipeline and stores speaker segments."""
    
@@ -202,14 +198,14 @@ class DiartDiarization:
    def insert_silence(self, silence_duration):
        self.observer.global_time_offset += silence_duration

-    async def diarize(self, pcm_array: np.ndarray):
-        """
-        Process audio data for diarization.
-        Only used when working with WebSocketAudioSource.
-        """
+    def insert_audio_chunk(self, pcm_array: np.ndarray):
+        """Buffer audio for the next diarization step."""
        if self.custom_source:
-            self.custom_source.push_audio(pcm_array)            
-        # self.observer.clear_old_segments()        
+            self.custom_source.push_audio(pcm_array)
+
+    async def diarize(self):
+        """Return the current speaker segments from the diarization pipeline."""
+        return self.observer.get_segments()        

    def close(self):
        """Close the audio source."""
--- a/whisperlivekit/diarization/sortformer_backend.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/diarization/sortformer_backend.py
@@ -287,11 +287,7 @@ class SortformerDiarizationOnline:
            logger.info(f"Saved {len(concatenated_audio)} samples to diarization_audio.wav")


-def extract_number(s: str) -> int:
-    """Extract number from speaker string (compatibility function)."""
-    import re
-    m = re.search(r'\d+', s)
-    return int(m.group()) if m else 0
+from whisperlivekit.diarization.utils import extract_number


 if __name__ == '__main__':
--- a/whisperlivekit/diarization/utils.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/diarization/utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+import re
+
+
+def extract_number(s: str) -> int:
+    """Extract the first integer from a string, e.g. 'speaker_2' -> 2."""
+    m = re.search(r'\d+', s)
+    return int(m.group()) if m else 0
--- a/whisperlivekit/local_agreement/backends.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/local_agreement/backends.py
@@ -26,13 +26,6 @@ class ASRBase:
            self.original_language = lan
        self.model = self.load_model(model_size, cache_dir, model_dir)

-    def with_offset(self, offset: float) -> ASRToken:
-        # This method is kept for compatibility (typically you will use ASRToken.with_offset)
-        return ASRToken(self.start + offset, self.end + offset, self.text)
-
-    def __repr__(self):
-        return f"ASRToken(start={self.start:.2f}, end={self.end:.2f}, text={self.text!r})"
-
    def load_model(self, model_size, cache_dir, model_dir):
        raise NotImplementedError("must be implemented in the child class")

@@ -151,7 +144,7 @@ class FasterWhisperASR(ASRBase):
            if segment.no_speech_prob > 0.9:
                continue
            for word in segment.words:
-                token = ASRToken(word.start, word.end, word.word)
+                token = ASRToken(word.start, word.end, word.word, probability=word.probability)
                tokens.append(token)
        return tokens

@@ -187,22 +180,8 @@ class MLXWhisper(ASRBase):
        return transcribe

    def translate_model_name(self, model_name):
-        model_mapping = {
-            "tiny.en": "mlx-community/whisper-tiny.en-mlx",
-            "tiny": "mlx-community/whisper-tiny-mlx",
-            "base.en": "mlx-community/whisper-base.en-mlx",
-            "base": "mlx-community/whisper-base-mlx",
-            "small.en": "mlx-community/whisper-small.en-mlx",
-            "small": "mlx-community/whisper-small-mlx",
-            "medium.en": "mlx-community/whisper-medium.en-mlx",
-            "medium": "mlx-community/whisper-medium-mlx",
-            "large-v1": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v1-mlx",
-            "large-v2": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v2-mlx",
-            "large-v3": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-mlx",
-            "large-v3-turbo": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-turbo",
-            "large": "mlx-community/whisper-large-mlx",
-        }
-        mlx_model_path = model_mapping.get(model_name)
+        from whisperlivekit.model_mapping import MLX_MODEL_MAPPING
+        mlx_model_path = MLX_MODEL_MAPPING.get(model_name)
        if mlx_model_path:
            return mlx_model_path
        else:
@@ -227,7 +206,6 @@ class MLXWhisper(ASRBase):
            if segment.get("no_speech_prob", 0) > 0.9:
                continue
            for word in segment.get("words", []):
-                probability=word["probability"]
                token = ASRToken(word["start"], word["end"], word["word"])
                tokens.append(token)
        return tokens
@@ -238,6 +216,7 @@ class MLXWhisper(ASRBase):
    def use_vad(self):
        self.transcribe_kargs["vad_filter"] = True

+
 class OpenaiApiASR(ASRBase):
    """Uses OpenAI's Whisper API for transcription."""
    def __init__(self, lan=None, temperature=0, logfile=sys.stderr):
@@ -249,6 +228,7 @@ class OpenaiApiASR(ASRBase):
        self.load_model()
        self.use_vad_opt = False
        self.direct_english_translation = False
+        self.task = "transcribe"

    def load_model(self, *args, **kwargs):
        from openai import OpenAI
@@ -294,7 +274,8 @@ class OpenaiApiASR(ASRBase):
            params["language"] = self.original_language
        if prompt:
            params["prompt"] = prompt
-        proc = self.client.audio.translations if self.task == "translate" else self.client.audio.transcriptions
+        task = self.transcribe_kargs.get("task", self.task)
+        proc = self.client.audio.translations if task == "translate" else self.client.audio.transcriptions
        transcript = proc.create(**params)
        logger.debug(f"OpenAI API processed accumulated {self.transcribed_seconds} seconds")
        return transcript
--- a/whisperlivekit/local_agreement/online_asr.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/local_agreement/online_asr.py
@@ -136,6 +136,11 @@ class OnlineASRProcessor:
                f"buffer_trimming_sec is set to {self.buffer_trimming_sec}, which is very long. It may cause OOM."
            )

+    def new_speaker(self, change_speaker):
+        """Handle speaker change event."""
+        self.process_iter()
+        self.init(offset=change_speaker.start)
+
    def init(self, offset: Optional[float] = None):
        """Initialize or reset the processing buffers."""
        self.audio_buffer = np.array([], dtype=np.float32)
--- a/whisperlivekit/local_agreement/whisper_online.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/local_agreement/whisper_online.py
@@ -1,12 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 import logging
 import platform
-import sys
 import time
-from functools import lru_cache
-
-import librosa
-import numpy as np

 from whisperlivekit.backend_support import (faster_backend_available,
                                            mlx_backend_available)
@@ -146,6 +141,7 @@ def backend_factory(

    if direct_english_translation:
        tgt_language = "en"  # Whisper translates into English
+        asr.transcribe_kargs["task"] = "translate"
    else:
        tgt_language = lan  # Whisper transcribes in this language

@@ -154,9 +150,9 @@ def backend_factory(
        tokenizer = create_tokenizer(tgt_language)
    else:
        tokenizer = None
-    
+
    warmup_asr(asr, warmup_file)
-    
+
    asr.confidence_validation = confidence_validation
    asr.tokenizer = tokenizer
    asr.buffer_trimming = buffer_trimming
--- a/whisperlivekit/metrics.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/metrics.py
@@ -0,0 +1,156 @@
+"""Lightweight ASR evaluation metrics — no external dependencies.
+
+Provides WER (Word Error Rate) computation via word-level Levenshtein distance,
+text normalization, and word-level timestamp accuracy metrics with greedy alignment.
+"""
+
+import re
+import unicodedata
+from typing import Dict, List, Optional
+
+
+def normalize_text(text: str) -> str:
+    """Normalize text for WER comparison: lowercase, strip punctuation, collapse whitespace."""
+    text = text.lower()
+    # Normalize unicode (e.g., accented chars to composed form)
+    text = unicodedata.normalize("NFC", text)
+    # Remove punctuation (keep letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens within words)
+    text = re.sub(r"[^\w\s\-']", " ", text)
+    # Collapse whitespace
+    text = re.sub(r"\s+", " ", text).strip()
+    return text
+
+
+def compute_wer(reference: str, hypothesis: str) -> Dict:
+    """Compute Word Error Rate using word-level Levenshtein edit distance.
+
+    Args:
+        reference: Ground truth transcription.
+        hypothesis: Predicted transcription.
+
+    Returns:
+        Dict with keys: wer, substitutions, insertions, deletions, ref_words, hyp_words.
+        WER can exceed 1.0 if there are more errors than reference words.
+    """
+    ref_words = normalize_text(reference).split()
+    hyp_words = normalize_text(hypothesis).split()
+
+    n = len(ref_words)
+    m = len(hyp_words)
+
+    if n == 0:
+        return {
+            "wer": 0.0 if m == 0 else float(m),
+            "substitutions": 0,
+            "insertions": m,
+            "deletions": 0,
+            "ref_words": 0,
+            "hyp_words": m,
+        }
+
+    # DP table: dp[i][j] = (edit_distance, substitutions, insertions, deletions)
+    dp = [[(0, 0, 0, 0) for _ in range(m + 1)] for _ in range(n + 1)]
+
+    for i in range(1, n + 1):
+        dp[i][0] = (i, 0, 0, i)
+    for j in range(1, m + 1):
+        dp[0][j] = (j, 0, j, 0)
+
+    for i in range(1, n + 1):
+        for j in range(1, m + 1):
+            if ref_words[i - 1] == hyp_words[j - 1]:
+                dp[i][j] = dp[i - 1][j - 1]
+            else:
+                sub = dp[i - 1][j - 1]
+                ins = dp[i][j - 1]
+                dele = dp[i - 1][j]
+
+                sub_cost = (sub[0] + 1, sub[1] + 1, sub[2], sub[3])
+                ins_cost = (ins[0] + 1, ins[1], ins[2] + 1, ins[3])
+                del_cost = (dele[0] + 1, dele[1], dele[2], dele[3] + 1)
+
+                dp[i][j] = min(sub_cost, del_cost, ins_cost, key=lambda x: x[0])
+
+    dist, subs, ins, dels = dp[n][m]
+    return {
+        "wer": dist / n,
+        "substitutions": subs,
+        "insertions": ins,
+        "deletions": dels,
+        "ref_words": n,
+        "hyp_words": m,
+    }
+
+
+def compute_timestamp_accuracy(
+    predicted: List[Dict],
+    reference: List[Dict],
+) -> Dict:
+    """Compute timestamp accuracy by aligning predicted words to reference words.
+
+    Uses greedy left-to-right alignment on normalized text. For each matched pair,
+    computes the start-time delta (predicted - reference).
+
+    Args:
+        predicted: List of dicts with keys: word, start, end.
+        reference: List of dicts with keys: word, start, end.
+
+    Returns:
+        Dict with keys: mae_start, max_delta_start, median_delta_start,
+        n_matched, n_ref, n_pred. Returns None values if no matches found.
+    """
+    if not predicted or not reference:
+        return {
+            "mae_start": None,
+            "max_delta_start": None,
+            "median_delta_start": None,
+            "n_matched": 0,
+            "n_ref": len(reference),
+            "n_pred": len(predicted),
+        }
+
+    # Normalize words for matching
+    pred_norm = [normalize_text(p["word"]) for p in predicted]
+    ref_norm = [normalize_text(r["word"]) for r in reference]
+
+    # Greedy left-to-right alignment
+    deltas_start = []
+    ref_idx = 0
+    for p_idx, p_word in enumerate(pred_norm):
+        if not p_word:
+            continue
+        # Scan forward in reference to find a match (allow small skips)
+        search_limit = min(ref_idx + 3, len(ref_norm))
+        for r_idx in range(ref_idx, search_limit):
+            if ref_norm[r_idx] == p_word:
+                delta = predicted[p_idx]["start"] - reference[r_idx]["start"]
+                deltas_start.append(delta)
+                ref_idx = r_idx + 1
+                break
+
+    if not deltas_start:
+        return {
+            "mae_start": None,
+            "max_delta_start": None,
+            "median_delta_start": None,
+            "n_matched": 0,
+            "n_ref": len(reference),
+            "n_pred": len(predicted),
+        }
+
+    abs_deltas = [abs(d) for d in deltas_start]
+    sorted_abs = sorted(abs_deltas)
+    n = len(sorted_abs)
+    if n % 2 == 1:
+        median = sorted_abs[n // 2]
+    else:
+        median = (sorted_abs[n // 2 - 1] + sorted_abs[n // 2]) / 2
+
+    return {
+        "mae_start": sum(abs_deltas) / len(abs_deltas),
+        "max_delta_start": max(abs_deltas),
+        "median_delta_start": median,
+        "n_matched": len(deltas_start),
+        "n_ref": len(reference),
+        "n_pred": len(predicted),
+    }
--- a/whisperlivekit/metrics_collector.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/metrics_collector.py
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+"""Lightweight runtime metrics for AudioProcessor sessions.
+
+Zero external dependencies. Negligible overhead when not queried —
+just integer increments and list appends during normal operation.
+"""
+
+import logging
+import time
+from dataclasses import dataclass, field
+from typing import Dict, List
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+@dataclass
+class SessionMetrics:
+    """Per-session metrics collected by AudioProcessor."""
+
+    session_start: float = 0.0
+    total_audio_duration_s: float = 0.0
+    total_processing_time_s: float = 0.0
+
+    # Chunk / call counters
+    n_chunks_received: int = 0
+    n_transcription_calls: int = 0
+    n_tokens_produced: int = 0
+    n_responses_sent: int = 0
+
+    # Per-call ASR latency (seconds)
+    transcription_durations: List[float] = field(default_factory=list)
+
+    # Silence
+    n_silence_events: int = 0
+    total_silence_duration_s: float = 0.0
+
+    # --- Computed properties ---
+
+    @property
+    def rtf(self) -> float:
+        """Real-time factor: processing_time / audio_duration."""
+        if self.total_audio_duration_s <= 0:
+            return 0.0
+        return self.total_processing_time_s / self.total_audio_duration_s
+
+    @property
+    def avg_latency_ms(self) -> float:
+        """Average per-call ASR latency in milliseconds."""
+        if not self.transcription_durations:
+            return 0.0
+        return (sum(self.transcription_durations) / len(self.transcription_durations)) * 1000
+
+    @property
+    def p95_latency_ms(self) -> float:
+        """95th percentile per-call ASR latency in milliseconds."""
+        if not self.transcription_durations:
+            return 0.0
+        sorted_d = sorted(self.transcription_durations)
+        idx = int(len(sorted_d) * 0.95)
+        idx = min(idx, len(sorted_d) - 1)
+        return sorted_d[idx] * 1000
+
+    def to_dict(self) -> Dict:
+        """Serialize to a plain dict (JSON-safe)."""
+        return {
+            "session_start": self.session_start,
+            "total_audio_duration_s": round(self.total_audio_duration_s, 3),
+            "total_processing_time_s": round(self.total_processing_time_s, 3),
+            "rtf": round(self.rtf, 3),
+            "n_chunks_received": self.n_chunks_received,
+            "n_transcription_calls": self.n_transcription_calls,
+            "n_tokens_produced": self.n_tokens_produced,
+            "n_responses_sent": self.n_responses_sent,
+            "avg_latency_ms": round(self.avg_latency_ms, 2),
+            "p95_latency_ms": round(self.p95_latency_ms, 2),
+            "n_silence_events": self.n_silence_events,
+            "total_silence_duration_s": round(self.total_silence_duration_s, 3),
+        }
+
+    def log_summary(self) -> None:
+        """Emit a structured log line summarising the session."""
+        self.total_processing_time_s = sum(self.transcription_durations)
+        d = self.to_dict()
+        d["session_elapsed_s"] = round(time.time() - self.session_start, 3) if self.session_start else 0
+        logger.info(f"SESSION_METRICS {d}")
--- a/whisperlivekit/model_mapping.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/model_mapping.py
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+"""Shared MLX model name mapping used by both SimulStreaming and LocalAgreement backends."""
+
+MLX_MODEL_MAPPING = {
+    "tiny.en": "mlx-community/whisper-tiny.en-mlx",
+    "tiny": "mlx-community/whisper-tiny-mlx",
+    "base.en": "mlx-community/whisper-base.en-mlx",
+    "base": "mlx-community/whisper-base-mlx",
+    "small.en": "mlx-community/whisper-small.en-mlx",
+    "small": "mlx-community/whisper-small-mlx",
+    "medium.en": "mlx-community/whisper-medium.en-mlx",
+    "medium": "mlx-community/whisper-medium-mlx",
+    "large-v1": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v1-mlx",
+    "large-v2": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v2-mlx",
+    "large-v3": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-mlx",
+    "large-v3-turbo": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-turbo",
+    "large": "mlx-community/whisper-large-mlx",
+}
--- a/whisperlivekit/parse_args.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/parse_args.py
@@ -147,8 +147,8 @@ def parse_args():
        "--backend",
        type=str,
        default="auto",
-        choices=["auto", "mlx-whisper", "faster-whisper", "whisper", "openai-api"],
-        help="Select the Whisper backend implementation (auto: prefer MLX on macOS, otherwise Faster-Whisper, else Whisper). Use 'openai-api' with --backend-policy localagreement to call OpenAI's API.",
+        choices=["auto", "mlx-whisper", "faster-whisper", "whisper", "openai-api", "voxtral", "voxtral-mlx"],
+        help="Select the ASR backend implementation (auto: prefer MLX on macOS, otherwise Faster-Whisper, else Whisper). Use 'voxtral' for HF Transformers Voxtral (CUDA/CPU/MPS). Use 'voxtral-mlx' for native MLX Voxtral on Apple Silicon.",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "--no-vac",
@@ -318,15 +318,12 @@ def parse_args():
    )

    args = parser.parse_args()
-    
    args.transcription = not args.no_transcription
-    args.vad = not args.no_vad    
+    args.vad = not args.no_vad
+    args.vac = not args.no_vac
    delattr(args, 'no_transcription')
    delattr(args, 'no_vad')
+    delattr(args, 'no_vac')

-    if args.backend_policy == "1":
-        args.backend_policy = "simulstreaming"
-    elif args.backend_policy == "2":
-        args.backend_policy = "localagreement"
-    
-    return args
+    from whisperlivekit.config import WhisperLiveKitConfig
+    return WhisperLiveKitConfig.from_namespace(args)
--- a/whisperlivekit/silero_vad_iterator.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/silero_vad_iterator.py
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ class OnnxWrapper():
            out, state = ort_outs
            self._state = torch.from_numpy(state)
        else:
-            raise ValueError()
+            raise ValueError(f"Unsupported sampling rate {sr}. Supported: {self.sample_rates} (with sample sizes 256 for 8000, 512 for 16000)")

        self._context = x[..., -context_size:]
        self._last_sr = sr
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ def _get_onnx_model_path(model_path: str = None, opset_version: int = 16) -> Pat
    """Get the path to the ONNX model file."""
    available_ops = [15, 16]
    if opset_version not in available_ops:
-        raise Exception(f'Available ONNX opset_version: {available_ops}')
+        raise ValueError(f'Unsupported ONNX opset_version: {opset_version}. Available: {available_ops}')
    
    if model_path is None:
        current_dir = Path(__file__).parent
@@ -255,8 +255,8 @@ class VADIterator:
        if not torch.is_tensor(x):
            try:
                x = torch.Tensor(x)
-            except:
-                raise TypeError("Audio cannot be casted to tensor. Cast it manually")
+            except (ValueError, TypeError, RuntimeError) as exc:
+                raise TypeError("Audio cannot be cast to tensor. Cast it manually") from exc

        window_size_samples = len(x[0]) if x.dim() == 2 else len(x)
        self.current_sample += window_size_samples
--- a/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/align_att_base.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/align_att_base.py
@@ -0,0 +1,483 @@
+"""Abstract base class for AlignAtt streaming decoders (PyTorch & MLX)."""
+import logging
+from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
+from typing import Any, List, Optional, Tuple
+
+from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import ASRToken
+from whisperlivekit.whisper import DecodingOptions, tokenizer
+
+from .config import AlignAttConfig
+
+DEC_PAD = 50257
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+class AlignAttBase(ABC):
+    """
+    Abstract base class for AlignAtt streaming decoders.
+
+    Provides shared logic for both PyTorch and MLX implementations:
+    - Properties (speaker, global_time_offset)
+    - Pure-Python methods (warmup, trim_context, refresh_segment, etc.)
+    - Template infer() with abstract hooks for tensor-specific operations
+    - Post-decode logic (token splitting, timestamped word building)
+
+    Subclasses must implement ~20 abstract methods for tensor-specific ops.
+    """
+
+    # === Properties ===
+
+    @property
+    def speaker(self):
+        return self.state.speaker
+
+    @speaker.setter
+    def speaker(self, value):
+        self.state.speaker = value
+
+    @property
+    def global_time_offset(self):
+        return self.state.global_time_offset
+
+    @global_time_offset.setter
+    def global_time_offset(self, value):
+        self.state.global_time_offset = value
+
+    # === Constructor helpers ===
+
+    def _base_init(self, cfg: AlignAttConfig, model):
+        """Common initialization — call from subclass __init__."""
+        self.model = model
+        self.cfg = cfg
+        self.decode_options = DecodingOptions(
+            language=cfg.language,
+            without_timestamps=True,
+            task=cfg.task,
+        )
+        self.tokenizer_is_multilingual = cfg.tokenizer_is_multilingual
+        self.max_text_len = model.dims.n_text_ctx
+        self.num_decoder_layers = len(model.decoder.blocks)
+        if cfg.max_context_tokens is None:
+            self.max_context_tokens = self.max_text_len
+        else:
+            self.max_context_tokens = cfg.max_context_tokens
+
+    def _init_state_common(self, cfg: AlignAttConfig):
+        """Common state initialization — call from subclass _init_state."""
+        self.create_tokenizer(cfg.language if cfg.language != "auto" else None)
+        self.state.tokenizer = self.tokenizer
+        self.state.detected_language = cfg.language if cfg.language != "auto" else None
+        self.state.global_time_offset = 0.0
+        self.state.last_attend_frame = -cfg.rewind_threshold
+        self.state.speaker = -1
+
+    # === Shared concrete methods ===
+
+    def warmup(self, audio):
+        try:
+            self.insert_audio(audio)
+            self.infer(is_last=True)
+            self.refresh_segment(complete=True)
+            logger.info("Model warmed up successfully")
+        except Exception as e:
+            logger.exception(f"Model warmup failed: {e}")
+
+    def create_tokenizer(self, language=None):
+        self.tokenizer = tokenizer.get_tokenizer(
+            multilingual=self.tokenizer_is_multilingual,
+            language=language,
+            num_languages=self.model.num_languages,
+            task=self.decode_options.task,
+        )
+        self.state.tokenizer = self.tokenizer
+
+    def trim_context(self):
+        logger.info("Trimming context")
+        c = len(self.state.context.as_token_ids()) - len(self.state.context.prefix_token_ids)
+        logger.info(f"Context text: {self.state.context.as_text()}")
+        l = sum(t.shape[1] for t in self.state.tokens) + c
+        after = 0 if self.cfg.static_init_prompt is None else len(self.cfg.static_init_prompt)
+        while c > self.max_context_tokens or l > self.max_text_len - 20:
+            t = self.state.context.trim_words(after=after)
+            l -= t
+            c -= t
+            logger.debug(f"len {l}, c {c}, max_context_tokens {self.max_context_tokens}")
+            if t == 0:
+                break
+        logger.info(f"Context after trim: {self.state.context.text} (len: {l})")
+
+    def refresh_segment(self, complete=False):
+        logger.debug("Refreshing segment:")
+        self.init_tokens()
+        self.state.last_attend_frame = -self.cfg.rewind_threshold
+        self.state.cumulative_time_offset = 0.0
+        self.init_context()
+        logger.debug(f"Context: {self.state.context}")
+        if not complete and len(self.state.segments) > 2:
+            self.state.segments = self.state.segments[-2:]
+        else:
+            logger.debug("removing all segments.")
+            self.state.segments = []
+        self.state.log_segments += 1
+        self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens = []
+
+    def segments_len(self):
+        return sum(s.shape[0] for s in self.state.segments) / 16000
+
+    def _apply_minseglen(self):
+        segments_len = self.segments_len()
+        if segments_len < self.cfg.audio_min_len:
+            logger.debug("waiting for next segment")
+            return False
+        return True
+
+    def _clean_cache(self):
+        self.state.clean_cache()
+
+    def debug_print_tokens(self, tokens):
+        for i in range(min(self.cfg.beam_size, tokens.shape[0])):
+            logger.debug(self.tokenizer.decode_with_timestamps(tokens[i].tolist()))
+
+    # === Language detection ===
+
+    def _detect_language_if_needed(self, encoder_feature):
+        if (
+            self.cfg.language == "auto"
+            and self.state.detected_language is None
+            and self.state.first_timestamp
+        ):
+            seconds_since_start = self.segments_len() - self.state.first_timestamp
+            if seconds_since_start >= 2.0:
+                language_tokens, language_probs = self.lang_id(encoder_feature)
+                top_lan, p = max(language_probs[0].items(), key=lambda x: x[1])
+                print(f"Detected language: {top_lan} with p={p:.4f}")
+                self.create_tokenizer(top_lan)
+                self.state.last_attend_frame = -self.cfg.rewind_threshold
+                self.state.cumulative_time_offset = 0.0
+                self.init_tokens()
+                self.init_context()
+                self.state.detected_language = top_lan
+                logger.info(f"Tokenizer language: {self.tokenizer.language}")
+
+    # === Template infer() ===
+
+    def infer(self, is_last=False):
+        """Main inference — template method calling abstract hooks for tensor ops."""
+        new_segment = True
+
+        if len(self.state.segments) == 0:
+            logger.debug("No segments, nothing to do")
+            return []
+        if not self._apply_minseglen():
+            logger.debug(f"applied minseglen {self.cfg.audio_min_len} > {self.segments_len()}.")
+            return []
+
+        input_segments = self._concat_segments()
+        encoder_feature, content_mel_len = self._encode(input_segments)
+        self._evaluate(encoder_feature)
+
+        self._detect_language_if_needed(encoder_feature)
+        self.trim_context()
+        current_tokens = self._current_tokens()
+
+        fire_detected = self.fire_at_boundary(encoder_feature[:, :content_mel_len, :])
+
+        sum_logprobs = self._init_sum_logprobs()
+        completed = False
+        token_len_before = current_tokens.shape[1]
+        l_absolute_timestamps = []
+        accumulated_cross_attns = []
+
+        audio_duration_s = self.segments_len()
+        max_tokens = max(50, int(audio_duration_s * 15 * 1.5))
+        tokens_produced = 0
+        most_attended_frame = None
+
+        while not completed and current_tokens.shape[1] < self.max_text_len:
+            tokens_produced += 1
+            if tokens_produced > max_tokens:
+                logger.warning(
+                    f"[Loop Detection] Too many tokens ({tokens_produced}) "
+                    f"for {audio_duration_s:.2f}s audio. Breaking."
+                )
+                current_tokens = current_tokens[:, :token_len_before]
+                break
+
+            tokens_for_logits = current_tokens if new_segment else current_tokens[:, -1:]
+            logits, cross_attns = self._get_logits_and_cross_attn(
+                tokens_for_logits, encoder_feature
+            )
+            self._evaluate(logits)
+
+            accumulated_cross_attns.append(cross_attns)
+            if len(accumulated_cross_attns) > 16:
+                accumulated_cross_attns = accumulated_cross_attns[-16:]
+
+            if new_segment and self._check_no_speech(logits):
+                break
+
+            logits = logits[:, -1, :]
+
+            if new_segment:
+                logits = self._suppress_blank_tokens(logits)
+            new_segment = False
+
+            logits = self._apply_token_suppression(logits)
+            current_tokens, completed = self._update_tokens(
+                current_tokens, logits, sum_logprobs
+            )
+            self._evaluate(current_tokens)
+
+            logger.debug(f"Decoding completed: {completed}")
+            self.debug_print_tokens(current_tokens)
+
+            attn = self._process_cross_attention(accumulated_cross_attns, content_mel_len)
+            frames_list, most_attended_frame = self._get_attended_frames(attn)
+
+            absolute_timestamps = [
+                (frame * 0.02 + self.state.cumulative_time_offset)
+                for frame in frames_list
+            ]
+            l_absolute_timestamps.append(absolute_timestamps[0])
+            logger.debug(f"Absolute timestamps: {absolute_timestamps}")
+
+            if completed:
+                current_tokens = current_tokens[:, :-1]
+                break
+
+            # Rewind check
+            if (
+                not is_last
+                and self.state.last_attend_frame - most_attended_frame
+                > self.cfg.rewind_threshold
+            ):
+                if current_tokens.shape[1] > 1 and self._is_special_token(current_tokens):
+                    logger.debug("omit rewinding from special tokens")
+                    self.state.last_attend_frame = most_attended_frame
+                else:
+                    logger.debug(
+                        f"[rewind detected] current: {most_attended_frame}, "
+                        f"last: {self.state.last_attend_frame}"
+                    )
+                    self.state.last_attend_frame = -self.cfg.rewind_threshold
+                    current_tokens = self._rewind_tokens()
+                    break
+            else:
+                self.state.last_attend_frame = most_attended_frame
+
+            if content_mel_len - most_attended_frame <= (
+                4 if is_last else self.cfg.frame_threshold
+            ):
+                logger.debug(
+                    f"attention reaches the end: {most_attended_frame}/{content_mel_len}"
+                )
+                current_tokens = current_tokens[:, :-1]
+                break
+
+        # Post-decode: split tokens and build timestamped words
+        tokens_to_split = self._tokens_to_list(current_tokens, token_len_before)
+        if self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens:
+            logger.debug(
+                f"[UTF-8 Fix] Prepending {len(self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens)} "
+                f"pending tokens: {self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens}"
+            )
+            tokens_to_split = self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens + tokens_to_split
+
+        new_hypothesis, split_words, split_tokens = self._split_tokens(
+            tokens_to_split, fire_detected, is_last
+        )
+
+        new_tokens_tensor = self._make_new_tokens_tensor(new_hypothesis)
+        self.state.tokens.append(new_tokens_tensor)
+        logger.info(f"Output: {self.tokenizer.decode(new_hypothesis)}")
+
+        self._clean_cache()
+
+        if len(l_absolute_timestamps) >= 2 and self.state.first_timestamp is None:
+            self.state.first_timestamp = l_absolute_timestamps[0]
+
+        timestamped_words = self._build_timestamped_words(
+            split_words, split_tokens, l_absolute_timestamps
+        )
+        self._handle_pending_tokens(split_words, split_tokens)
+
+        return timestamped_words
+
+    # === Post-decode shared helpers ===
+
+    def _split_tokens(self, tokens_list, fire_detected, is_last):
+        """Split token list into words. Returns (hypothesis, split_words, split_tokens)."""
+        if fire_detected or is_last:
+            new_hypothesis = tokens_list
+            split_words, split_tokens = self.tokenizer.split_to_word_tokens(new_hypothesis)
+        else:
+            split_words, split_tokens = self.tokenizer.split_to_word_tokens(tokens_list)
+            if len(split_words) > 1:
+                new_hypothesis = [i for sublist in split_tokens[:-1] for i in sublist]
+            else:
+                new_hypothesis = []
+        return new_hypothesis, split_words, split_tokens
+
+    def _build_timestamped_words(self, split_words, split_tokens, l_absolute_timestamps):
+        """Build list of timestamped ASRToken from split words."""
+        timestamped_words = []
+        timestamp_idx = 0
+        replacement_char = "\ufffd"
+
+        for word, word_tokens in zip(split_words, split_tokens):
+            if replacement_char in word:
+                logger.warning(f"[UTF-8 Filter] Skipping: {repr(word)}")
+                timestamp_idx += len(word_tokens)
+                continue
+
+            try:
+                current_timestamp = l_absolute_timestamps[timestamp_idx]
+            except IndexError:
+                logger.warning(
+                    f"Timestamp index {timestamp_idx} out of range, using last timestamp"
+                )
+                current_timestamp = (
+                    l_absolute_timestamps[-1] if l_absolute_timestamps else 0.0
+                )
+            timestamp_idx += len(word_tokens)
+
+            timestamp_entry = ASRToken(
+                start=round(current_timestamp, 2),
+                end=round(current_timestamp + 0.1, 2),
+                text=word,
+                speaker=self.state.speaker,
+                detected_language=self.state.detected_language,
+            ).with_offset(self.state.global_time_offset)
+            timestamped_words.append(timestamp_entry)
+
+        return timestamped_words
+
+    def _handle_pending_tokens(self, split_words, split_tokens):
+        """Handle incomplete UTF-8 tokens for next chunk."""
+        self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens = []
+        MAX_PENDING_TOKENS = 10
+        replacement_char = "\ufffd"
+        if split_words and replacement_char in split_words[-1]:
+            if len(split_tokens[-1]) <= MAX_PENDING_TOKENS:
+                self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens = split_tokens[-1]
+                logger.debug(
+                    f"[UTF-8 Fix] Holding {len(self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens)} "
+                    f"incomplete tokens for next chunk"
+                )
+            else:
+                logger.warning(
+                    f"[UTF-8 Fix] Skipping {len(split_tokens[-1])} tokens "
+                    f"(exceeds limit of {MAX_PENDING_TOKENS}, likely hallucination)"
+                )
+
+    # === Abstract methods — subclass must implement ===
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _init_state(self, cfg: AlignAttConfig):
+        """Initialize per-session decoder state."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def init_tokens(self):
+        """Initialize token sequence with framework-specific tensors."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def init_context(self):
+        """Initialize context buffer with framework-specific TokenBuffer."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def insert_audio(self, segment=None):
+        """Insert audio segment into buffer."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _current_tokens(self):
+        """Build current token tensor for decoding."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def fire_at_boundary(self, feature):
+        """Check if we should fire at word boundary."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def lang_id(self, encoder_features):
+        """Language detection from encoder features. Returns (tokens, probs)."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _concat_segments(self):
+        """Concatenate audio segments into single array/tensor."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _encode(self, input_segments):
+        """Encode audio. Returns (encoder_feature, content_mel_len)."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _init_sum_logprobs(self):
+        """Create zero sum_logprobs tensor for beam search."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _get_logits_and_cross_attn(self, tokens, encoder_feature):
+        """Get logits and cross-attention from decoder. Returns (logits, cross_attns)."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _check_no_speech(self, logits):
+        """Check no_speech probability at start of segment. Returns True to break."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _suppress_blank_tokens(self, logits):
+        """Suppress blank/EOT tokens at segment start. Returns modified logits."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _apply_token_suppression(self, logits):
+        """Apply general token suppression. Returns modified logits."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _update_tokens(self, current_tokens, logits, sum_logprobs):
+        """Update tokens via decoder. Returns (current_tokens, completed)."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _process_cross_attention(self, accumulated_cross_attns, content_mel_len):
+        """Process cross-attention for alignment. Returns attention tensor."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _get_attended_frames(self, attn):
+        """Get most attended frames. Returns (frames_as_python_list, first_frame_int)."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _is_special_token(self, current_tokens):
+        """Check if second-to-last token is a special token (>= DEC_PAD)."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _rewind_tokens(self):
+        """Concatenate state tokens for rewind. Returns token tensor."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _tokens_to_list(self, current_tokens, start_col):
+        """Extract tokens as Python list from start_col onwards."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _make_new_tokens_tensor(self, hypothesis):
+        """Create tensor from hypothesis token list, repeated for beam search."""
+        ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _evaluate(self, tensor):
+        """Evaluate lazy tensor (mx.eval for MLX, no-op for PyTorch)."""
+        ...
--- a/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/backend.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/backend.py
@@ -46,8 +46,6 @@ class SimulStreamingOnlineProcessor:
        self.logfile = logfile
        self.end = 0.0
        self.buffer = []
-        self.committed: List[ASRToken] = []
-        self.last_result_tokens: List[ASRToken] = []        
        self.model = self._create_alignatt()
        
        if asr.tokenizer:
@@ -122,7 +120,6 @@ class SimulStreamingOnlineProcessor:
                self.buffer.extend(timestamped_words)
                return [], self.end
            
-            self.committed.extend(timestamped_words)
            self.buffer = []
            return timestamped_words, self.end
        except Exception as e:
@@ -217,7 +214,7 @@ class SimulStreamingASR:
                cif_ckpt_path=self.cif_ckpt_path,
                decoder_type="beam",
                beam_size=self.beams,
-                task=self.direct_english_translation,
+                task="translate" if self.direct_english_translation else "transcribe",
                never_fire=self.never_fire,
                init_prompt=self.init_prompt,
                max_context_tokens=self.max_context_tokens,
@@ -330,7 +327,7 @@ class SimulStreamingASR:
        lora_path = getattr(self, 'lora_path', None)
        whisper_model = load_model(
            name=model_ref,
-            download_root=None,
+            download_root=getattr(self, 'model_cache_dir', None),
            decoder_only=self.fast_encoder,
            custom_alignment_heads=self.custom_alignment_heads,
            lora_path=lora_path,
@@ -353,7 +350,7 @@ class SimulStreamingASR:
    def set_translate_task(self):
        """Set up translation task."""
        if self.cfg.language == 'auto':
-            raise Exception('Translation cannot be done with language = auto')
+            raise ValueError('Translation cannot be done with language = auto')
        return tokenizer.get_tokenizer(
            multilingual=True,
            language=self.cfg.language,
--- a/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/mlx/simul_whisper.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/mlx/simul_whisper.py
@@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
-"""
-MLX whisper AlignAtt streaming decoder
-"""
+"""MLX whisper AlignAtt streaming decoder."""
 import logging
-from time import time
-from typing import Any, List, Optional, Tuple
+from typing import Any, List, Tuple

 import mlx.core as mx
 import numpy as np
@@ -11,19 +8,18 @@ import numpy as np
 from mlx_whisper.audio import log_mel_spectrogram as mlx_log_mel_spectrogram
 from mlx_whisper.transcribe import pad_or_trim as mlx_pad_or_trim

-from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import ASRToken
-from whisperlivekit.whisper import DecodingOptions, tokenizer
 from whisperlivekit.whisper.audio import N_FRAMES, N_SAMPLES, TOKENS_PER_SECOND

+from ..align_att_base import DEC_PAD, AlignAttBase
 from ..config import AlignAttConfig
 from .decoder_state import MLXDecoderState
 from .decoders import MLXBeamSearchDecoder, MLXGreedyDecoder, MLXInference

-DEC_PAD = 50257
+
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)


-class MLXTokenBuffer: #should try to make it heritate from classic simul whisper class
+class MLXTokenBuffer:
    """Token buffer for MLX-based decoding."""

    def __init__(self, text="", tokenizer=None, prefix_token_ids=None):
@@ -40,12 +36,10 @@ class MLXTokenBuffer: #should try to make it heritate from classic simul whisper
        return self.prefix_token_ids + tokenizer.encode(self.text)

    def as_mlx_array(self) -> mx.array:
-        """Return tokens as MLX array."""
        tok_ids = self.as_token_ids()
        return mx.array([tok_ids], dtype=mx.int32)

    def as_mlx_array_beam(self, beam: int) -> mx.array:
-        """Return tokens as MLX array repeated for beam search."""
        t = self.as_mlx_array()
        return mx.repeat(t, beam, axis=0)

@@ -64,10 +58,8 @@ class MLXTokenBuffer: #should try to make it heritate from classic simul whisper
        return self.text is None or self.text == ""

    def trim_words(self, num=1, after=0):
-        """Trim words from the beginning of the context."""
        tokenizer = self.tokenizer
        assert tokenizer is not None, "Tokenizer is not set."
-
        ids = tokenizer.encode(self.text[after:])
        words, wids = self.tokenizer.split_to_word_tokens(ids)
        if not words:
@@ -76,14 +68,11 @@ class MLXTokenBuffer: #should try to make it heritate from classic simul whisper
        return sum(len(wi) for wi in wids[:num])

    def append_token_ids(self, token_ids):
-        """Append token IDs to the buffer, handling incomplete UTF-8."""
        tokenizer = self.tokenizer
        assert tokenizer is not None, "Tokenizer is not set."
-
        all_tokens = self.pending_token_ids + token_ids
        decoded = tokenizer.decode(all_tokens)
        replacement_char = "\ufffd"
-
        if replacement_char in decoded:
            if len(all_tokens) > 1:
                decoded_partial = tokenizer.decode(all_tokens[:-1])
@@ -100,106 +89,47 @@ class MLXTokenBuffer: #should try to make it heritate from classic simul whisper


 def mlx_median_filter(x: mx.array, filter_width: int) -> mx.array:
-    """
-    Apply median filter along the last axis.
-    
-    Args:
-        x: Input array of shape (..., T)
-        filter_width: Width of the median filter (should be odd)
-        
-    Returns:
-        Filtered array of same shape
-    """
+    """Apply median filter along the last axis."""
    if filter_width <= 1:
        return x
-    
    pad_width = filter_width // 2
    shape = x.shape
-    
    left_pad = mx.repeat(x[..., :1], pad_width, axis=-1)
    right_pad = mx.repeat(x[..., -1:], pad_width, axis=-1)
    x_padded = mx.concatenate([left_pad, x, right_pad], axis=-1)
-    
-    result_shape = list(shape)
    result = []
-    
    for i in range(shape[-1]):
        window = x_padded[..., i:i + filter_width]
        sorted_window = mx.sort(window, axis=-1)
        median_val = sorted_window[..., filter_width // 2:filter_width // 2 + 1]
        result.append(median_val)
-    
    return mx.concatenate(result, axis=-1)


-class MLXAlignAtt:
+class MLXAlignAtt(AlignAttBase):
    """
    MLX-native Alignment-based Attention decoder for SimulStreaming.
-    
-    This class runs entirely on MLX, with no PyTorch dependencies for inference.
+
+    Runs entirely on MLX, with no PyTorch dependencies for inference.
    """

-    @property
-    def speaker(self):
-        return self.state.speaker
-
-    @speaker.setter
-    def speaker(self, value):
-        self.state.speaker = value
-
-    @property
-    def global_time_offset(self):
-        return self.state.global_time_offset
-
-    @global_time_offset.setter
-    def global_time_offset(self, value):
-        self.state.global_time_offset = value
-
    def __init__(
        self,
        cfg: AlignAttConfig,
        mlx_model: Any,
    ) -> None:
-        """
-        Initialize MLX AlignAtt decoder.
-        
-        Args:
-            cfg: AlignAtt configuration
-            mlx_model: MLX Whisper model (full model, not just encoder)
-        """
-        self.model = mlx_model
-        self.cfg = cfg
-        
+        # Common init (sets self.model, self.cfg, decode_options, etc.)
+        self._base_init(cfg, mlx_model)
        logger.info(f"MLX Model dimensions: {self.model.dims}")
-        
-        self.decode_options = DecodingOptions(
-            language=cfg.language,
-            without_timestamps=True,
-            task=cfg.task
-        )
-        self.tokenizer_is_multilingual = cfg.tokenizer_is_multilingual
-        
-        self.max_text_len = self.model.dims.n_text_ctx
-        self.num_decoder_layers = len(self.model.decoder.blocks)

-        if self.cfg.max_context_tokens is None:
-            self.max_context_tokens = self.max_text_len
-        else:
-            self.max_context_tokens = self.cfg.max_context_tokens
-
-        # Initialize per-session state
+        # Per-session state
        self.state = MLXDecoderState()
        self._init_state(cfg)

    def _init_state(self, cfg: AlignAttConfig):
-        """Initialize the per-session decoder state."""
-        self.create_tokenizer(cfg.language if cfg.language != "auto" else None)
-        self.state.tokenizer = self.tokenizer
-        self.state.detected_language = cfg.language if cfg.language != "auto" else None
-        self.state.global_time_offset = 0.0
-        self.state.last_attend_frame = -cfg.rewind_threshold
-        self.state.speaker = -1
+        self._init_state_common(cfg)

+        # CIF: MLX doesn't support CIF checkpoint loading
        if cfg.cif_ckpt_path is None or not cfg.cif_ckpt_path:
            if cfg.never_fire:
                self.state.never_fire = True
@@ -208,19 +138,20 @@ class MLXAlignAtt:
                self.state.always_fire = True
                self.state.never_fire = False
        else:
-            logger.warning("CIF checkpoint provided but MLX CIF not implemented. Using always_fire=True")
+            logger.warning(
+                "CIF checkpoint provided but MLX CIF not implemented. "
+                "Using always_fire=True"
+            )
            self.state.always_fire = True
            self.state.never_fire = cfg.never_fire

        self._build_alignment_source()

+        # Suppress tokens
        suppress_tokens = [
-            self.tokenizer.transcribe,
-            self.tokenizer.translate,
-            self.tokenizer.sot,
-            self.tokenizer.sot_prev,
-            self.tokenizer.sot_lm,
-            self.tokenizer.no_timestamps,
+            self.tokenizer.transcribe, self.tokenizer.translate,
+            self.tokenizer.sot, self.tokenizer.sot_prev,
+            self.tokenizer.sot_lm, self.tokenizer.no_timestamps,
        ] + list(self.tokenizer.all_language_tokens)
        if self.tokenizer.no_speech is not None:
            suppress_tokens.append(self.tokenizer.no_speech)
@@ -230,35 +161,34 @@ class MLXAlignAtt:
        self.init_tokens()
        self.init_context()

+        # Decoder type
        self.state.decoder_type = cfg.decoder_type
        if cfg.decoder_type == "greedy":
            logger.info("Using MLX greedy decoder")
            self.state.token_decoder = MLXGreedyDecoder(0.0, self.tokenizer.eot)
        elif cfg.decoder_type == "beam":
            logger.info("Using MLX beam decoder")
-            self.state.inference = MLXInference(self.model, self.state.initial_token_length)
+            self.state.inference = MLXInference(
+                self.model, self.state.initial_token_length,
+            )
            self.state.token_decoder = MLXBeamSearchDecoder(
                inference=self.state.inference,
                eot=self.tokenizer.eot,
-                beam_size=cfg.beam_size
+                beam_size=cfg.beam_size,
            )

    def _build_alignment_source(self):
        """Build alignment source mapping from model's alignment_heads."""
        self.state.align_source = {}
        self.state.num_align_heads = 0
-        
        alignment_heads = self.model.alignment_heads
-        
        if alignment_heads is None:
            logger.warning("No alignment heads found in model")
            return
-            
        if hasattr(alignment_heads, 'tolist'):
            heads_list = alignment_heads.tolist()
        else:
            heads_list = np.array(alignment_heads).tolist()
-            
        for layer_rank, head_id in heads_list:
            layer_rank = int(layer_rank)
            head_id = int(head_id)
@@ -267,31 +197,23 @@ class MLXAlignAtt:
            self.state.align_source[layer_rank] = heads
            self.state.num_align_heads += 1

-    def warmup(self, audio: np.ndarray):
-        """Warmup the model with sample audio."""
-        try:
-            self.insert_audio(audio)
-            self.infer(is_last=True)
-            self.refresh_segment(complete=True)
-            logger.info("MLX model warmed up successfully")
-        except Exception as e:
-            logger.exception(f"MLX model warmup failed: {e}")
+    # === Abstract method implementations ===

-    def create_tokenizer(self, language=None):
-        """Create tokenizer for the given language."""
-        self.tokenizer = tokenizer.get_tokenizer(
-            multilingual=self.tokenizer_is_multilingual,
-            language=language,
-            num_languages=self.model.num_languages,
-            task=self.decode_options.task
+    def init_tokens(self):
+        logger.debug(f"init tokens, {len(self.state.segments)}")
+        self.state.initial_tokens = mx.array(
+            [self.tokenizer.sot_sequence_including_notimestamps],
+            dtype=mx.int32,
        )
-        self.state.tokenizer = self.tokenizer
+        self.state.initial_token_length = self.state.initial_tokens.shape[1]
+        self.state.sot_index = self.tokenizer.sot_sequence.index(self.tokenizer.sot)
+        logger.debug(f"init tokens after, {len(self.state.segments)}")
+        self.state.tokens = [self.state.initial_tokens]

    def init_context(self):
-        """Initialize context buffer."""
        kw = {
            'tokenizer': self.tokenizer,
-            'prefix_token_ids': [self.tokenizer.sot_prev]
+            'prefix_token_ids': [self.tokenizer.sot_prev],
        }
        self.state.context = MLXTokenBuffer.empty(**kw)
        if self.cfg.static_init_prompt is not None:
@@ -299,405 +221,138 @@ class MLXAlignAtt:
        if self.cfg.init_prompt is not None:
            self.state.context.text += self.cfg.init_prompt

-    def init_tokens(self):
-        """Initialize token sequence."""
-        logger.debug(f"init tokens, {len(self.state.segments)}")
-        self.state.initial_tokens = mx.array(
-            [self.tokenizer.sot_sequence_including_notimestamps],
-            dtype=mx.int32
-        )
-        self.state.initial_token_length = self.state.initial_tokens.shape[1]
-        self.state.sot_index = self.tokenizer.sot_sequence.index(self.tokenizer.sot)
-        logger.debug(f"init tokens after, {len(self.state.segments)}")
-        self.state.tokens = [self.state.initial_tokens]
-
-    def trim_context(self):
-        """Trim context if too long."""
-        logger.info("Trimming context")
-        c = len(self.state.context.as_token_ids()) - len(self.state.context.prefix_token_ids)
-        logger.info(f"Context text: {self.state.context.as_text()}")
-        l = sum(t.shape[1] for t in self.state.tokens) + c
-        if self.cfg.static_init_prompt is None:
-            after = 0
-        else:
-            after = len(self.cfg.static_init_prompt)
-        while c > self.max_context_tokens or l > self.max_text_len - 20:
-            t = self.state.context.trim_words(after=after)
-            l -= t
-            c -= t
-            logger.debug(f"len {l}, c {c}, max_context_tokens {self.max_context_tokens}")
-            if t == 0:
-                break
-        logger.info(f"Context after trim: {self.state.context.text} (len: {l})")
-
-    def refresh_segment(self, complete=False):
-        """Refresh segment state."""
-        logger.debug("Refreshing segment:")
-        self.init_tokens()
-        self.state.last_attend_frame = -self.cfg.rewind_threshold
-        self.state.cumulative_time_offset = 0.0
-        self.init_context()
-        logger.debug(f"Context: {self.state.context}")
-        if not complete and len(self.state.segments) > 2:
-            self.state.segments = self.state.segments[-2:]
-        else:
-            logger.debug("removing all segments.")
-            self.state.segments = []
-        self.state.log_segments += 1
-        self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens = []
-
-    def fire_at_boundary(self, chunked_encoder_feature: mx.array) -> bool:
-        """Check if we should fire at word boundary (CIF-based)."""
-        if self.state.always_fire:
-            return True
-        if self.state.never_fire:
-            return False
-        return True
-
-    def _current_tokens(self) -> mx.array:
-        """Get current token sequence for decoding."""
-        toks = self.state.tokens
-        
-        if toks[0].shape[0] == 1:
-            toks[0] = mx.repeat(toks[0], self.cfg.beam_size, axis=0)
-
-        if not self.state.context.is_empty():
-            context_toks = self.state.context.as_mlx_array_beam(self.cfg.beam_size)
-            toks = [context_toks] + toks
-
-        # Concatenate all tokens
-        if len(toks) > 1:
-            current_tokens = mx.concatenate(toks, axis=1)
-        else:
-            current_tokens = toks[0]
-            
-        logger.debug("debug print current_tokens:")
-        self.debug_print_tokens(current_tokens)
-        return current_tokens
-
-    def debug_print_tokens(self, tokens: mx.array):
-        """Debug print token sequences."""
-        tokens_np = np.array(tokens)
-        for i in range(min(self.cfg.beam_size, tokens_np.shape[0])):
-            logger.debug(self.tokenizer.decode_with_timestamps(tokens_np[i].tolist()))
-
-    def segments_len(self) -> float:
-        """Get total length of audio segments in seconds."""
-        return sum(s.shape[0] for s in self.state.segments) / 16000
-
-    def _apply_minseglen(self) -> bool:
-        """Check if we have enough audio to process."""
-        segments_len = self.segments_len()
-        if segments_len < self.cfg.audio_min_len:
-            logger.debug("waiting for next segment")
-            return False
-        return True
-
-    def insert_audio(self, segment: np.ndarray = None):
-        """Insert audio segment into buffer."""
+    def insert_audio(self, segment=None):
        if segment is not None:
            if hasattr(segment, 'numpy'):
                segment = segment.numpy()
            self.state.segments.append(segment)
-
        removed_len = 0
        segments_len = self.segments_len()
-        
        while len(self.state.segments) > 1 and segments_len > self.cfg.audio_max_len:
            removed_len = self.state.segments[0].shape[0] / 16000
            segments_len -= removed_len
            self.state.last_attend_frame -= int(TOKENS_PER_SECOND * removed_len)
            self.state.cumulative_time_offset += removed_len
            self.state.segments = self.state.segments[1:]
-            logger.debug(f"remove segments: {len(self.state.segments)} {len(self.state.tokens)}, cumulative offset: {self.state.cumulative_time_offset:.2f}s")
-            
+            logger.debug(
+                f"remove segments: {len(self.state.segments)} {len(self.state.tokens)}, "
+                f"cumulative offset: {self.state.cumulative_time_offset:.2f}s"
+            )
            if len(self.state.tokens) > 1:
-                # Convert MLX array to list for context
                token_list = np.array(self.state.tokens[1][0, :]).tolist()
                self.state.context.append_token_ids(token_list)
                self.state.tokens = [self.state.initial_tokens] + self.state.tokens[2:]
-                
        return removed_len

-    def _clean_cache(self):
-        """Clean the kv_cache after each inference step."""
-        self.state.clean_cache()
+    def _current_tokens(self) -> mx.array:
+        toks = self.state.tokens
+        if toks[0].shape[0] == 1:
+            toks[0] = mx.repeat(toks[0], self.cfg.beam_size, axis=0)
+        if not self.state.context.is_empty():
+            context_toks = self.state.context.as_mlx_array_beam(self.cfg.beam_size)
+            toks = [context_toks] + toks
+        if len(toks) > 1:
+            current_tokens = mx.concatenate(toks, axis=1)
+        else:
+            current_tokens = toks[0]
+        logger.debug("debug print current_tokens:")
+        self.debug_print_tokens(current_tokens)
+        return current_tokens

-    def _suppress_tokens(self, logits: mx.array) -> mx.array:
-        """Apply token suppression to logits."""
-        if self.state.suppress_tokens:
-            suppress_indices = mx.array(list(self.state.suppress_tokens), dtype=mx.int32)
-            logits = logits.at[:, suppress_indices].add(-float('inf'))
-        return logits
+    def fire_at_boundary(self, chunked_encoder_feature: mx.array) -> bool:
+        if self.state.always_fire:
+            return True
+        if self.state.never_fire:
+            return False
+        return True  # MLX CIF not implemented

    def lang_id(self, encoder_features: mx.array) -> Tuple[mx.array, List[dict]]:
-        """Language detection from encoder features."""
        n_audio = encoder_features.shape[0]
        x = mx.array([[self.tokenizer.sot]] * n_audio, dtype=mx.int32)
-        
        logits, _, _ = self.model.decoder(x, encoder_features, kv_cache=None)
        logits = logits[:, 0]
-        
+
        mask = mx.ones(logits.shape[-1], dtype=mx.bool_)
-        language_token_indices = mx.array(list(self.tokenizer.all_language_tokens), dtype=mx.int32)
+        language_token_indices = mx.array(
+            list(self.tokenizer.all_language_tokens), dtype=mx.int32,
+        )
        mask = mask.at[language_token_indices].add(False)
-        
        logits = mx.where(mask, mx.array(-float('inf')), logits)
-        
+
        language_tokens = mx.argmax(logits, axis=-1)
        language_token_probs = mx.softmax(logits, axis=-1)
-        
        probs_np = np.array(language_token_probs)
-        
        language_probs = [
            {
                c: float(probs_np[i, j])
-                for j, c in zip(self.tokenizer.all_language_tokens, self.tokenizer.all_language_codes)
+                for j, c in zip(
+                    self.tokenizer.all_language_tokens,
+                    self.tokenizer.all_language_codes,
+                )
            }
            for i in range(n_audio)
        ]
-
        self._clean_cache()
        return language_tokens, language_probs

-    def infer(self, is_last: bool = False) -> List[ASRToken]:
-        """
-        Main inference method.
-        
-        Args:
-            is_last: Whether this is the final chunk
-            
-        Returns:
-            List of timestamped ASR tokens
-        """
-        new_segment = True
-        
-        if len(self.state.segments) == 0:
-            logger.debug("No segments, nothing to do")
-            return []
-            
-        if not self._apply_minseglen():
-            logger.debug(f"applied minseglen {self.cfg.audio_min_len} > {self.segments_len()}.")
-            return []
-
+    def _concat_segments(self):
        if len(self.state.segments) > 1:
-            input_segments = np.concatenate(self.state.segments, axis=0)
-        else:
-            input_segments = self.state.segments[0]
+            return np.concatenate(self.state.segments, axis=0)
+        return self.state.segments[0]

-        beg_encode = time()
-        
+    def _encode(self, input_segments):
        mlx_mel_padded = mlx_log_mel_spectrogram(
            audio=input_segments,
            n_mels=self.model.dims.n_mels,
-            padding=N_SAMPLES
+            padding=N_SAMPLES,
        )
        mlx_mel = mlx_pad_or_trim(mlx_mel_padded, N_FRAMES, axis=-2)
        encoder_feature = self.model.encoder(mlx_mel[None])
        content_mel_len = int((mlx_mel_padded.shape[0] - mlx_mel.shape[0]) / 2)
-        
-        mx.eval(encoder_feature)
-        
-        end_encode = time()
-        logger.debug(f'MLX Encoder duration: {end_encode - beg_encode:.3f}s')
+        return encoder_feature, content_mel_len

-        if self.cfg.language == "auto" and self.state.detected_language is None and self.state.first_timestamp:
-            seconds_since_start = self.segments_len() - self.state.first_timestamp
-            if seconds_since_start >= 2.0:
-                language_tokens, language_probs = self.lang_id(encoder_feature)
-                top_lan, p = max(language_probs[0].items(), key=lambda x: x[1])
-                print(f"Detected language: {top_lan} with p={p:.4f}")
-                self.create_tokenizer(top_lan)
-                self.state.last_attend_frame = -self.cfg.rewind_threshold
-                self.state.cumulative_time_offset = 0.0
-                self.init_tokens()
-                self.init_context()
-                self.state.detected_language = top_lan
-                logger.info(f"Tokenizer language: {self.tokenizer.language}")
+    def _init_sum_logprobs(self):
+        return mx.zeros((self.cfg.beam_size,), dtype=mx.float32)

-        self.trim_context()
-        current_tokens = self._current_tokens()
-
-        fire_detected = self.fire_at_boundary(encoder_feature[:, :content_mel_len, :])
-
-        sum_logprobs = mx.zeros((self.cfg.beam_size,), dtype=mx.float32)
-        completed = False
-
-        attn_of_alignment_heads = None
-        most_attended_frame = None
-
-        token_len_before_decoding = current_tokens.shape[1]
-
-        l_absolute_timestamps = []
-        accumulated_cross_attns = []
-
-        audio_duration_s = self.segments_len()
-        max_tokens_per_chunk = max(50, int(audio_duration_s * TOKENS_PER_SECOND * 2.0))
-        tokens_produced_this_chunk = 0
-
-        while not completed and current_tokens.shape[1] < self.max_text_len:
-            tokens_produced_this_chunk += 1
-
-            if tokens_produced_this_chunk > max_tokens_per_chunk:
-                logger.warning(f"[Loop Detection] Too many tokens ({tokens_produced_this_chunk}) for {audio_duration_s:.2f}s audio. Breaking.")
-                current_tokens = current_tokens[:, :token_len_before_decoding]
-                break
-
-            if new_segment:
-                tokens_for_logits = current_tokens
-            else:
-                tokens_for_logits = current_tokens[:, -1:]
-
-            if self.state.decoder_type == "greedy":
-                logits, self.state.kv_cache, cross_qk = self.model.decoder(
-                    tokens_for_logits, encoder_feature, kv_cache=self.state.kv_cache
-                )
-            else:
-                logits, cross_qk = self.state.inference.logits(tokens_for_logits, encoder_feature)
-
-            mx.eval(logits)
-            
-            accumulated_cross_attns.append(cross_qk)
-
-            if new_segment and self.tokenizer.no_speech is not None:
-                probs_at_sot = mx.softmax(logits[:, self.state.sot_index, :], axis=-1)
-                no_speech_probs = np.array(probs_at_sot[:, self.tokenizer.no_speech]).tolist()
-                if no_speech_probs[0] > self.cfg.nonspeech_prob:
-                    logger.info("no speech, stop")
-                    break
-
-            logits = logits[:, -1, :]  # Last token logits
-
-            # Suppress tokens at segment start
-            if new_segment:
-                blank_tokens = self.tokenizer.encode(" ") + [self.tokenizer.eot]
-                logits = logits.at[:, blank_tokens].add(-float('inf'))
-            new_segment = False
-            
-            logits = self._suppress_tokens(logits)
-            
-            current_tokens, completed = self.state.token_decoder.update(
-                current_tokens, logits, sum_logprobs
+    def _get_logits_and_cross_attn(self, tokens, encoder_feature):
+        if self.state.decoder_type == "greedy":
+            logits, self.state.kv_cache, cross_qk = self.model.decoder(
+                tokens, encoder_feature, kv_cache=self.state.kv_cache,
            )
-            mx.eval(current_tokens)
-
-            logger.debug(f"Decoding completed: {completed}")
-            self.debug_print_tokens(current_tokens)
-
-            attn_of_alignment_heads = self._process_cross_attention(
-                accumulated_cross_attns, content_mel_len
-            )
-
-            most_attended_frames = mx.argmax(attn_of_alignment_heads[:, -1, :], axis=-1)
-            most_attended_frames_np = np.array(most_attended_frames)
-
-            absolute_timestamps = [
-                (frame * 0.02 + self.state.cumulative_time_offset)
-                for frame in most_attended_frames_np.tolist()
-            ]
-
-            logger.debug(str(most_attended_frames_np.tolist()) + " most att frames")
-            logger.debug(f"Absolute timestamps: {absolute_timestamps}")
-
-            most_attended_frame = int(most_attended_frames_np[0])
-            l_absolute_timestamps.append(absolute_timestamps[0])
-
-            if completed:
-                current_tokens = current_tokens[:, :-1]
-                break
-            if not is_last and self.state.last_attend_frame - most_attended_frame > self.cfg.rewind_threshold:
-                current_tokens_np = np.array(current_tokens)
-                if current_tokens.shape[1] > 1 and current_tokens_np[0, -2] >= DEC_PAD:
-                    logger.debug("omit rewinding from special tokens")
-                    self.state.last_attend_frame = most_attended_frame
-                else:
-                    logger.debug(f"[rewind detected] current: {most_attended_frame}, last: {self.state.last_attend_frame}")
-                    self.state.last_attend_frame = -self.cfg.rewind_threshold
-                    current_tokens = mx.concatenate(self.state.tokens, axis=1) if len(self.state.tokens) > 0 else self.state.tokens[0]
-                    break
-            else:
-                self.state.last_attend_frame = most_attended_frame
-            if content_mel_len - most_attended_frame <= (4 if is_last else self.cfg.frame_threshold):
-                logger.debug(f"attention reaches the end: {most_attended_frame}/{content_mel_len}")
-                current_tokens = current_tokens[:, :-1]
-                break
-        tokens_to_split = np.array(current_tokens[0, token_len_before_decoding:]).tolist()
-        if self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens:
-            logger.debug(f"[UTF-8 Fix] Prepending pending tokens: {self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens}")
-            tokens_to_split = self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens + tokens_to_split
-
-        if fire_detected or is_last:
-            new_hypothesis = tokens_to_split
-            split_words, split_tokens = self.tokenizer.split_to_word_tokens(new_hypothesis)
+            return logits, cross_qk
        else:
-            split_words, split_tokens = self.tokenizer.split_to_word_tokens(tokens_to_split)
-            if len(split_words) > 1:
-                new_hypothesis = [i for sublist in split_tokens[:-1] for i in sublist]
-            else:
-                new_hypothesis = []
+            return self.state.inference.logits(tokens, encoder_feature)

-        logger.debug(f"new_hypothesis: {new_hypothesis}")
-        new_tokens = mx.array([new_hypothesis], dtype=mx.int32)
-        new_tokens = mx.repeat(new_tokens, self.cfg.beam_size, axis=0)
-        self.state.tokens.append(new_tokens)
+    def _check_no_speech(self, logits):
+        if self.tokenizer.no_speech is not None:
+            probs_at_sot = mx.softmax(logits[:, self.state.sot_index, :], axis=-1)
+            no_speech_probs = np.array(
+                probs_at_sot[:, self.tokenizer.no_speech],
+            ).tolist()
+            if no_speech_probs[0] > self.cfg.nonspeech_prob:
+                logger.info("no speech, stop")
+                return True
+        return False

-        logger.info(f"Output: {self.tokenizer.decode(new_hypothesis)}")
+    def _suppress_blank_tokens(self, logits):
+        blank_tokens = self.tokenizer.encode(" ") + [self.tokenizer.eot]
+        logits = logits.at[:, blank_tokens].add(-float('inf'))
+        return logits

-        self._clean_cache()
+    def _apply_token_suppression(self, logits):
+        if self.state.suppress_tokens:
+            suppress_indices = mx.array(
+                list(self.state.suppress_tokens), dtype=mx.int32,
+            )
+            logits = logits.at[:, suppress_indices].add(-float('inf'))
+        return logits

-        if len(l_absolute_timestamps) >= 2 and self.state.first_timestamp is None:
-            self.state.first_timestamp = l_absolute_timestamps[0]
-        timestamped_words = []
-        timestamp_idx = 0
-        replacement_char = "\ufffd"
-        
-        for word, word_tokens in zip(split_words, split_tokens):
-            if replacement_char in word:
-                logger.warning(f"[UTF-8 Filter] Skipping: {repr(word)}")
-                timestamp_idx += len(word_tokens)
-                continue
-
-            try:
-                current_timestamp = l_absolute_timestamps[timestamp_idx]
-            except IndexError:
-                pass
-            timestamp_idx += len(word_tokens)
-
-            timestamp_entry = ASRToken(
-                start=round(current_timestamp, 2),
-                end=round(current_timestamp + 0.1, 2),
-                text=word,
-                speaker=self.state.speaker,
-                detected_language=self.state.detected_language
-            ).with_offset(self.state.global_time_offset)
-            timestamped_words.append(timestamp_entry)
-        self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens = []
-        MAX_PENDING_TOKENS = 10
-        if split_words and replacement_char in split_words[-1]:
-            if len(split_tokens[-1]) <= MAX_PENDING_TOKENS:
-                self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens = split_tokens[-1]
-                logger.debug(f"[UTF-8 Fix] Holding incomplete tokens")
-            else:
-                logger.warning(f"[UTF-8 Fix] Skipping too many tokens")
-
-        return timestamped_words
+    def _update_tokens(self, current_tokens, logits, sum_logprobs):
+        return self.state.token_decoder.update(current_tokens, logits, sum_logprobs)

    def _process_cross_attention(
-        self,
-        cross_attns: List[List[mx.array]],
-        content_mel_len: int
+        self, cross_attns: List, content_mel_len: int,
    ) -> mx.array:
-        """
-        Process cross-attention weights for alignment.
-        
-        Args:
-            cross_attns: List of cross-attention from each forward pass
-                        Each element is a list of mx.arrays per layer
-            content_mel_len: Length of actual audio content
-            
-        Returns:
-            Processed attention tensor, shape (batch, seq_len, content_mel_len)
-        """
        attn_of_alignment_heads = [[] for _ in range(self.state.num_align_heads)]
        num_decoder_layers = self.num_decoder_layers

@@ -709,14 +364,11 @@ class MLXAlignAtt:
        for idx, attn_mat in enumerate(flattened_attns):
            if attn_mat is None:
                continue
-                
            layer_rank = idx % num_decoder_layers
            align_heads_in_layer = self.state.align_source.get(layer_rank, [])
-            
-            if len(align_heads_in_layer) == 0:
+            if not align_heads_in_layer:
                continue
            attn_mat = mx.softmax(attn_mat, axis=-1)
-
            for align_head_rank, head_id in align_heads_in_layer:
                if self.cfg.beam_size == 1:
                    if attn_mat.ndim == 4:
@@ -727,26 +379,43 @@ class MLXAlignAtt:
                else:
                    a = attn_mat[:, head_id, :, :]
                attn_of_alignment_heads[align_head_rank].append(a)
+
        tmp = []
        for mat in attn_of_alignment_heads:
            if mat:
-                t = mx.concatenate(mat, axis=1)
-                tmp.append(t)
-
+                tmp.append(mx.concatenate(mat, axis=1))
        if not tmp:
            return mx.zeros((self.cfg.beam_size, 1, content_mel_len))
-        attn_of_alignment_heads = mx.stack(tmp, axis=1)

+        attn_of_alignment_heads = mx.stack(tmp, axis=1)
        std = mx.std(attn_of_alignment_heads, axis=-2, keepdims=True)
        mean = mx.mean(attn_of_alignment_heads, axis=-2, keepdims=True)
        attn_of_alignment_heads = (attn_of_alignment_heads - mean) / (std + 1e-8)
-
        attn_of_alignment_heads = mlx_median_filter(attn_of_alignment_heads, 7)
-
        attn_of_alignment_heads = mx.mean(attn_of_alignment_heads, axis=1)
-
        attn_of_alignment_heads = attn_of_alignment_heads[:, :, :content_mel_len]
-
        mx.eval(attn_of_alignment_heads)
        return attn_of_alignment_heads

+    def _get_attended_frames(self, attn):
+        most_attended_frames = mx.argmax(attn[:, -1, :], axis=-1)
+        frames_np = np.array(most_attended_frames)
+        return frames_np.tolist(), int(frames_np[0])
+
+    def _is_special_token(self, current_tokens):
+        return int(np.array(current_tokens[0, -2])) >= DEC_PAD
+
+    def _rewind_tokens(self):
+        if len(self.state.tokens) > 0:
+            return mx.concatenate(self.state.tokens, axis=1)
+        return self.state.tokens[0]
+
+    def _tokens_to_list(self, current_tokens, start_col):
+        return np.array(current_tokens[0, start_col:]).tolist()
+
+    def _make_new_tokens_tensor(self, hypothesis):
+        new_tokens = mx.array([hypothesis], dtype=mx.int32)
+        return mx.repeat(new_tokens, self.cfg.beam_size, axis=0)
+
+    def _evaluate(self, tensor):
+        mx.eval(tensor)
--- a/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/mlx_encoder.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/mlx_encoder.py
@@ -7,21 +7,9 @@ from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
 from mlx.utils import tree_unflatten
 from mlx_whisper import whisper

-mlx_model_mapping = {
-    "tiny.en": "mlx-community/whisper-tiny.en-mlx",
-    "tiny": "mlx-community/whisper-tiny-mlx",
-    "base.en": "mlx-community/whisper-base.en-mlx",
-    "base": "mlx-community/whisper-base-mlx",
-    "small.en": "mlx-community/whisper-small.en-mlx",
-    "small": "mlx-community/whisper-small-mlx",
-    "medium.en": "mlx-community/whisper-medium.en-mlx",
-    "medium": "mlx-community/whisper-medium-mlx",
-    "large-v1": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v1-mlx",
-    "large-v2": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v2-mlx",
-    "large-v3": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-mlx",
-    "large-v3-turbo": "mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-turbo",
-    "large": "mlx-community/whisper-large-mlx",
-}
+from whisperlivekit.model_mapping import MLX_MODEL_MAPPING
+
+mlx_model_mapping = MLX_MODEL_MAPPING

 def load_mlx_encoder(
    path_or_hf_repo: str,
--- a/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/simul_whisper.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/simul_whisper/simul_whisper.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import logging
 import os
-from time import time
-from typing import List, Optional, Tuple
+from typing import List

 import numpy as np
 import torch
@@ -9,8 +8,6 @@ import torch.nn.functional as F

 from whisperlivekit.backend_support import (faster_backend_available,
                                            mlx_backend_available)
-from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import ASRToken
-from whisperlivekit.whisper import DecodingOptions, tokenizer
 from whisperlivekit.whisper.audio import (N_FRAMES, N_SAMPLES,
                                          TOKENS_PER_SECOND,
                                          log_mel_spectrogram, pad_or_trim)
@@ -18,14 +15,13 @@ from whisperlivekit.whisper.decoding import (BeamSearchDecoder, GreedyDecoder,
                                             SuppressTokens)
 from whisperlivekit.whisper.timing import median_filter

-from ..timed_objects import PUNCTUATION_MARKS
+from .align_att_base import DEC_PAD, AlignAttBase
 from .beam import BeamPyTorchInference
 from .config import AlignAttConfig
 from .decoder_state import DecoderState
 from .eow_detection import fire_at_boundary, load_cif
 from .token_buffer import TokenBuffer

-DEC_PAD = 50257
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

 if mlx_backend_available():
@@ -46,7 +42,10 @@ def load_coreml_encoder():
    except ImportError:
        logger.warning("coremltools is not installed")
        return None
-    COREML_ENCODER_PATH = os.environ.get("MLCORE_ENCODER_PATH", "whisperlivekit/whisper/whisper_encoder.mlpackage")
+    COREML_ENCODER_PATH = os.environ.get(
+        "MLCORE_ENCODER_PATH",
+        "whisperlivekit/whisper/whisper_encoder.mlpackage",
+    )
    _coreml_encoder = MLModel(COREML_ENCODER_PATH)
    spec = _coreml_encoder.get_spec()
    _coreml_input_name = spec.description.input[0].name if spec.description.input else "mel"
@@ -54,92 +53,50 @@ def load_coreml_encoder():
    return _coreml_encoder, _coreml_input_name, _coreml_output_name


-class AlignAtt:
+class AlignAtt(AlignAttBase):
    """
-    Alignment-based Attention decoder for SimulStreaming.
-    
-    This class is now hookless - the model can be shared across multiple
-    sessions, with each session maintaining its own DecoderState.
+    PyTorch Alignment-based Attention decoder for SimulStreaming.
+
+    Hookless — the model can be shared across multiple sessions,
+    with each session maintaining its own DecoderState.
    """
-    
-    # Property accessors for backward compatibility
-    @property
-    def speaker(self):
-        return self.state.speaker
-    
-    @speaker.setter
-    def speaker(self, value):
-        self.state.speaker = value
-    
-    @property
-    def global_time_offset(self):
-        return self.state.global_time_offset
-    
-    @global_time_offset.setter
-    def global_time_offset(self, value):
-        self.state.global_time_offset = value
-    
+
    def __init__(
-            self, 
-            cfg: AlignAttConfig,
-            loaded_model=None,
-            mlx_encoder=None,
-            fw_encoder=None,
-        ) -> None:
-        # Shared model reference (can be shared across sessions)
-        self.model = loaded_model
+        self,
+        cfg: AlignAttConfig,
+        loaded_model=None,
+        mlx_encoder=None,
+        fw_encoder=None,
+    ) -> None:
        self.mlx_encoder = mlx_encoder
-        self.fw_encoder = fw_encoder            
+        self.fw_encoder = fw_encoder
        if fw_encoder:
-            self.fw_feature_extractor = FeatureExtractor(feature_size=self.model.dims.n_mels)
+            self.fw_feature_extractor = FeatureExtractor(
+                feature_size=loaded_model.dims.n_mels,
+            )
        self.coreml_encoder_tuple = None
        if USE_MLCORE:
            self.coreml_encoder_tuple = load_coreml_encoder()
        self.use_mlcore = self.coreml_encoder_tuple is not None
-        
        self.device = 'cuda' if torch.cuda.is_available() else 'cpu'
-        
+
+        # Common init (sets self.model, self.cfg, decode_options, etc.)
+        self._base_init(cfg, loaded_model)
        logger.info(f"Model dimensions: {self.model.dims}")
-        self.decode_options = DecodingOptions(
-            language=cfg.language, 
-            without_timestamps=True,
-            task=cfg.task
-        )
-        self.tokenizer_is_multilingual = cfg.tokenizer_is_multilingual
-        
-        self.max_text_len = self.model.dims.n_text_ctx
-        self.num_decoder_layers = len(self.model.decoder.blocks)
-        self.cfg = cfg

-        if self.cfg.max_context_tokens is None:
-            self.max_context_tokens = self.max_text_len
-        else:
-            self.max_context_tokens = self.cfg.max_context_tokens
-
-        # Initialize per-session state
+        # Per-session state
        self.state = DecoderState()
        self._init_state(cfg)
-        
+
    def _init_state(self, cfg: AlignAttConfig):
-        """Initialize the per-session decoder state."""
-        # Create tokenizer
-        self.create_tokenizer(cfg.language if cfg.language != "auto" else None)
-        self.state.tokenizer = self.tokenizer
-        self.state.detected_language = cfg.language if cfg.language != "auto" else None
-        
-        # Timing state
-        self.state.global_time_offset = 0.0
-        self.state.last_attend_frame = -cfg.rewind_threshold
-        self.state.speaker = -1
-        
+        self._init_state_common(cfg)
+
        # CIF helpers for end-of-word boundary detection
        self.state.CIFLinear, self.state.always_fire, self.state.never_fire = load_cif(
-            cfg,
-            n_audio_state=self.model.dims.n_audio_state,
-            device=self.model.device
+            cfg, n_audio_state=self.model.dims.n_audio_state, device=self.model.device,
        )

-        # Build alignment source mapping from model's alignment_heads
+        # Build alignment source mapping
        self.state.align_source = {}
        self.state.num_align_heads = 0
        for layer_rank, head_id in self.model.alignment_heads.indices().T:
@@ -151,12 +108,9 @@ class AlignAtt:

        # Build suppress tokens function
        suppress_tokens = [
-            self.tokenizer.transcribe,
-            self.tokenizer.translate,
-            self.tokenizer.sot,
-            self.tokenizer.sot_prev,
-            self.tokenizer.sot_lm,
-            self.tokenizer.no_timestamps,
+            self.tokenizer.transcribe, self.tokenizer.translate,
+            self.tokenizer.sot, self.tokenizer.sot_prev,
+            self.tokenizer.sot_lm, self.tokenizer.no_timestamps,
        ] + list(self.tokenizer.all_language_tokens)
        if self.tokenizer.no_speech is not None:
            suppress_tokens.append(self.tokenizer.no_speech)
@@ -165,138 +119,80 @@ class AlignAtt:
        sup_tokens = SuppressTokens(suppress_tokens)
        self.state.suppress_tokens_fn = lambda logits: sup_tokens.apply(logits, None)

-        # Initialize tokens
        self.init_tokens()
        self.init_context()

-        # Set up decoder type
+        # Decoder type
        self.state.decoder_type = cfg.decoder_type
        if cfg.decoder_type == "greedy":
            logger.info("Using greedy decoder")
            self.state.token_decoder = GreedyDecoder(0.0, self.tokenizer.eot)
        elif cfg.decoder_type == "beam":
            logger.info("Using beam decoder")
-            self.state.inference = BeamPyTorchInference(self.model, self.state.initial_token_length)
+            self.state.inference = BeamPyTorchInference(
+                self.model, self.state.initial_token_length,
+            )
            self.state.inference.kv_cache = self.state.kv_cache
            self.state.token_decoder = BeamSearchDecoder(
-                inference=self.state.inference, 
-                eot=self.tokenizer.eot, 
-                beam_size=cfg.beam_size
+                inference=self.state.inference,
+                eot=self.tokenizer.eot,
+                beam_size=cfg.beam_size,
            )

-    def warmup(self, audio):
-        try:
-            self.insert_audio(audio)
-            self.infer(is_last=True)
-            self.refresh_segment(complete=True)
-            logger.info("Model warmed up successfully")
-        except Exception as e:
-            logger.exception(f"Model warmup failed: {e}")
+    # === Abstract method implementations ===

-    def create_tokenizer(self, language=None):
-        self.tokenizer = tokenizer.get_tokenizer(
-            multilingual=self.tokenizer_is_multilingual,  
-            language=language,
-            num_languages=self.model.num_languages,
-            task=self.decode_options.task
-        )
-        self.state.tokenizer = self.tokenizer
+    def init_tokens(self):
+        logger.debug(f"init tokens, {len(self.state.segments)}")
+        self.state.initial_tokens = torch.tensor(
+            self.tokenizer.sot_sequence_including_notimestamps,
+            dtype=torch.long, device=self.model.device,
+        ).unsqueeze(0)
+        self.state.initial_token_length = self.state.initial_tokens.shape[1]
+        self.state.sot_index = self.tokenizer.sot_sequence.index(self.tokenizer.sot)
+        logger.debug(f"init tokens after, {len(self.state.segments)}")
+        self.state.tokens = [self.state.initial_tokens]

    def init_context(self):
-        kw = {'tokenizer': self.tokenizer, 
-              'device': self.model.device, 
-              'prefix_token_ids': [self.tokenizer.sot_prev]}
+        kw = {
+            'tokenizer': self.tokenizer,
+            'device': self.model.device,
+            'prefix_token_ids': [self.tokenizer.sot_prev],
+        }
        self.state.context = TokenBuffer.empty(**kw)
        if self.cfg.static_init_prompt is not None:
            self.state.context = TokenBuffer.from_text(self.cfg.static_init_prompt, **kw)
        if self.cfg.init_prompt is not None:
            self.state.context.text += self.cfg.init_prompt

-    def init_tokens(self):
-        logger.debug(f"init tokens, {len(self.state.segments)}")
-        # init tokens (mandatory prompt)
-        self.state.initial_tokens = torch.tensor(
-            self.tokenizer.sot_sequence_including_notimestamps, 
-            dtype=torch.long, 
-            device=self.model.device).unsqueeze(0)
-        self.state.initial_token_length = self.state.initial_tokens.shape[1]
-        self.state.sot_index = self.tokenizer.sot_sequence.index(self.tokenizer.sot)
-        logger.debug(f"init tokens after, {len(self.state.segments)}")
-        self.state.tokens = [self.state.initial_tokens]
-
-    def trim_context(self):
-        logger.info("Trimming context")
-        c = len(self.state.context.as_token_ids()) - len(self.state.context.prefix_token_ids)
-        logger.info(f"Context text: {self.state.context.as_text()}")
-        l = sum(t.shape[1] for t in self.state.tokens) + c
-        if self.cfg.static_init_prompt is None:
-            after = 0
-        else:
-            after = len(self.cfg.static_init_prompt)
-        while c > self.max_context_tokens or l > self.max_text_len - 20:
-            t = self.state.context.trim_words(after=after)
-            l -= t
-            c -= t
-            logger.debug(f"len {l}, c {c}, max_context_tokens {self.max_context_tokens}")
-            if t == 0:
-                break
-        logger.info(f"Context after trim: {self.state.context.text} (len: {l})")
-
-
-    def logits(
-        self, 
-        tokens: torch.Tensor, 
-        audio_features: torch.Tensor,
-        return_cross_attn: bool = False
-    ):
-        """Get logits from decoder, optionally returning cross-attention weights."""
-        if self.state.decoder_type == "greedy":
-            return self.model.decoder(
-                tokens, audio_features, 
-                kv_cache=self.state.kv_cache,
-                return_cross_attn=return_cross_attn
+    def insert_audio(self, segment=None):
+        if segment is not None:
+            self.state.segments.append(segment)
+        removed_len = 0
+        segments_len = self.segments_len()
+        while len(self.state.segments) > 1 and segments_len > self.cfg.audio_max_len:
+            removed_len = self.state.segments[0].shape[0] / 16000
+            segments_len -= removed_len
+            self.state.last_attend_frame -= int(TOKENS_PER_SECOND * removed_len)
+            self.state.cumulative_time_offset += removed_len
+            self.state.segments = self.state.segments[1:]
+            logger.debug(
+                f"remove segments: {len(self.state.segments)} {len(self.state.tokens)}, "
+                f"cumulative offset: {self.state.cumulative_time_offset:.2f}s"
            )
-        else:
-            logger.debug(f"Logits shape: {tokens.shape}")
-            return self.state.inference.logits(
-                tokens, audio_features,
-                return_cross_attn=return_cross_attn
-            )
-    
-
-    def refresh_segment(self, complete=False):
-        logger.debug("Refreshing segment:")
-        self.init_tokens()
-        self.state.last_attend_frame = -self.cfg.rewind_threshold       
-        self.state.cumulative_time_offset = 0.0
-        self.init_context()
-        logger.debug(f"Context: {self.state.context}")
-        if not complete and len(self.state.segments) > 2:
-            self.state.segments = self.state.segments[-2:]
-        else:
-            logger.debug("removing all segments.")
-            self.state.segments = []
-        self.state.log_segments += 1
-        self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens = []
-
-    def fire_at_boundary(self, chunked_encoder_feature: torch.Tensor):
-        if self.state.always_fire: 
-            return True
-        if self.state.never_fire: 
-            return False
-        return fire_at_boundary(chunked_encoder_feature, self.state.CIFLinear)
+            if len(self.state.tokens) > 1:
+                self.state.context.append_token_ids(self.state.tokens[1][0, :].tolist())
+                self.state.tokens = [self.state.initial_tokens] + self.state.tokens[2:]
+        return removed_len

    def _current_tokens(self):
        toks = self.state.tokens
-        # very first infer: duplicate start of seq to beam_size
        if toks[0].shape[0] == 1:
            toks[0] = toks[0].repeat_interleave(self.cfg.beam_size, dim=0)
-
        if not self.state.context.is_empty():
-            context_toks = self.state.context.as_tensor_beam(self.cfg.beam_size, device=self.model.device)
+            context_toks = self.state.context.as_tensor_beam(
+                self.cfg.beam_size, device=self.model.device,
+            )
            toks = [context_toks] + toks
-
-        # make it one tensor
        if len(toks) > 1:
            current_tokens = torch.cat(toks, dim=1)
        else:
@@ -305,60 +201,19 @@ class AlignAtt:
        self.debug_print_tokens(current_tokens)
        return current_tokens

-
-    def debug_print_tokens(self, tokens):
-        for i in range(self.cfg.beam_size):
-            logger.debug(self.tokenizer.decode_with_timestamps(tokens[i].tolist()))
-
-    ### audio buffer 
-
-    def segments_len(self):
-        segments_len = sum(s.shape[0] for s in self.state.segments) / 16000
-        return segments_len
-
-    def _apply_minseglen(self):
-        segments_len = self.segments_len()
-        # wait for long enough audio to start
-        if segments_len < self.cfg.audio_min_len: 
-            logger.debug("waiting for next segment")
+    def fire_at_boundary(self, chunked_encoder_feature: torch.Tensor):
+        if self.state.always_fire:
+            return True
+        if self.state.never_fire:
            return False
-        return True
-
-    def insert_audio(self, segment=None):
-        if segment is not None:
-            self.state.segments.append(segment)
-
-        removed_len = 0
-        # len of audio is bigger than buffer_len. Going to remove the first segment
-        segments_len = self.segments_len()
-        while len(self.state.segments) > 1 and segments_len > self.cfg.audio_max_len:
-            removed_len = self.state.segments[0].shape[0] / 16000
-            segments_len -= removed_len
-            self.state.last_attend_frame -= int(TOKENS_PER_SECOND * removed_len)
-            self.state.cumulative_time_offset += removed_len  # Track cumulative time removed
-            self.state.segments = self.state.segments[1:]
-            logger.debug(f"remove segments: {len(self.state.segments)} {len(self.state.tokens)}, cumulative offset: {self.state.cumulative_time_offset:.2f}s")
-            if len(self.state.tokens) > 1:
-                self.state.context.append_token_ids(self.state.tokens[1][0, :].tolist())
-                self.state.tokens = [self.state.initial_tokens] + self.state.tokens[2:]
-        return removed_len
-
-    def _clean_cache(self):
-        """Clean the kv_cache after each inference step."""
-        self.state.clean_cache()
+        return fire_at_boundary(chunked_encoder_feature, self.state.CIFLinear)

    @torch.no_grad()
    def lang_id(self, encoder_features):
-        """Language detection from encoder features.
-        This code is trimmed and copy-pasted from whisper.decoding.detect_language.
-        """
-        # forward pass using a single token, startoftranscript
        n_audio = encoder_features.shape[0]
-        x = torch.tensor([[self.tokenizer.sot]] * n_audio).to(self.model.device)  # [n_audio, 1]
-        # Note: don't use kv_cache for language detection
+        x = torch.tensor([[self.tokenizer.sot]] * n_audio).to(self.model.device)
        logits = self.model.logits(x, encoder_features)[:, 0]

-        # collect detected languages; suppress all non-language tokens
        mask = torch.ones(logits.shape[-1], dtype=torch.bool)
        mask[list(self.tokenizer.all_language_tokens)] = False
        logits[:, mask] = -np.inf
@@ -367,46 +222,31 @@ class AlignAtt:
        language_probs = [
            {
                c: language_token_probs[i, j].item()
-                for j, c in zip(self.tokenizer.all_language_tokens, self.tokenizer.all_language_codes)
+                for j, c in zip(
+                    self.tokenizer.all_language_tokens,
+                    self.tokenizer.all_language_codes,
+                )
            }
            for i in range(n_audio)
        ]
-
        single = encoder_features.ndim == 2
        if single:
            language_tokens = language_tokens[0]
            language_probs = language_probs[0]
-
        self._clean_cache()
        return language_tokens, language_probs

-    ### transcription / translation
-
-    @torch.no_grad()
-    def infer(self, is_last=False):
-        new_segment = True
-        if len(self.state.segments) == 0:
-            logger.debug("No segments, nothing to do")
-            return []
-        if not self._apply_minseglen():
-            logger.debug(f"applied minseglen {self.cfg.audio_min_len} > {self.segments_len()}.")
-            input_segments = torch.cat(self.state.segments, dim=0)
-            return []
-
-        # input_segments is concatenation of audio, it's one array
+    def _concat_segments(self):
        if len(self.state.segments) > 1:
-            input_segments = torch.cat(self.state.segments, dim=0)
-        else:
-            input_segments = self.state.segments[0]
+            return torch.cat(self.state.segments, dim=0)
+        return self.state.segments[0]

-        beg_encode = time()
+    def _encode(self, input_segments):
        if self.use_mlcore:
            coreml_encoder, coreml_input_name, coreml_output_name = self.coreml_encoder_tuple
            mel_padded = log_mel_spectrogram(
-                input_segments,
-                n_mels=self.model.dims.n_mels,
-                padding=N_SAMPLES,
-                device="cpu",
+                input_segments, n_mels=self.model.dims.n_mels,
+                padding=N_SAMPLES, device="cpu",
            ).unsqueeze(0)
            mel = pad_or_trim(mel_padded, N_FRAMES)
            content_mel_len = int((mel_padded.shape[2] - mel.shape[2]) / 2)
@@ -418,304 +258,151 @@ class AlignAtt:
            else:
                encoder_feature_np = next(iter(coreml_outputs.values()))
            encoder_feature = torch.as_tensor(
-                np.array(encoder_feature_np),
-                device=self.device,
+                np.array(encoder_feature_np), device=self.device,
            )
        if self.mlx_encoder:
-            mlx_mel_padded = mlx_log_mel_spectrogram(audio=input_segments.detach(), n_mels=self.model.dims.n_mels, padding=N_SAMPLES)
+            mlx_mel_padded = mlx_log_mel_spectrogram(
+                audio=input_segments.detach(),
+                n_mels=self.model.dims.n_mels, padding=N_SAMPLES,
+            )
            mlx_mel = mlx_pad_or_trim(mlx_mel_padded, N_FRAMES, axis=-2)
            mlx_encoder_feature = self.mlx_encoder.encoder(mlx_mel[None])
            encoder_feature = torch.as_tensor(mlx_encoder_feature)
-            content_mel_len = int((mlx_mel_padded.shape[0] - mlx_mel.shape[0])/2)
+            content_mel_len = int((mlx_mel_padded.shape[0] - mlx_mel.shape[0]) / 2)
        elif self.fw_encoder:
-            audio_length_seconds = len(input_segments) / 16000   
-            content_mel_len = int(audio_length_seconds * 100)//2      
-            mel_padded_2 = self.fw_feature_extractor(waveform=input_segments.numpy(), padding=N_SAMPLES)[None, :]
+            audio_length_seconds = len(input_segments) / 16000
+            content_mel_len = int(audio_length_seconds * 100) // 2
+            mel_padded_2 = self.fw_feature_extractor(
+                waveform=input_segments.numpy(), padding=N_SAMPLES,
+            )[None, :]
            mel = fw_pad_or_trim(mel_padded_2, N_FRAMES, axis=-1)
            encoder_feature_ctranslate = self.fw_encoder.encode(mel)
-            if self.device == 'cpu': #it seems that on gpu, passing StorageView to torch.as_tensor fails and wrapping in the array works
+            if self.device == 'cpu':
                encoder_feature_ctranslate = np.array(encoder_feature_ctranslate)
            try:
                encoder_feature = torch.as_tensor(encoder_feature_ctranslate, device=self.device)
-            except TypeError: # Normally the cpu condition should prevent having exceptions, but just in case:
-                encoder_feature = torch.as_tensor(np.array(encoder_feature_ctranslate), device=self.device)
+            except TypeError:
+                # Some numpy/ctranslate2 versions produce object_ dtype arrays; force float32
+                arr = np.array(encoder_feature_ctranslate)
+                if arr.dtype == np.object_:
+                    arr = np.array(arr.tolist(), dtype=np.float32)
+                encoder_feature = torch.as_tensor(arr, device=self.device)
        else:
-            # mel + padding to 30s
-            mel_padded = log_mel_spectrogram(input_segments, n_mels=self.model.dims.n_mels, padding=N_SAMPLES, 
-                                                device=self.device).unsqueeze(0)
-            # trim to 3000
+            mel_padded = log_mel_spectrogram(
+                input_segments, n_mels=self.model.dims.n_mels,
+                padding=N_SAMPLES, device=self.device,
+            ).unsqueeze(0)
            mel = pad_or_trim(mel_padded, N_FRAMES)
-            # the len of actual audio
-            content_mel_len = int((mel_padded.shape[2] - mel.shape[2])/2)
+            content_mel_len = int((mel_padded.shape[2] - mel.shape[2]) / 2)
            encoder_feature = self.model.encoder(mel)
-        end_encode = time()
-        # print('Encoder duration:', end_encode-beg_encode)
-                
-        if self.cfg.language == "auto" and self.state.detected_language is None and self.state.first_timestamp:
-            seconds_since_start = self.segments_len() - self.state.first_timestamp
-            if seconds_since_start >= 2.0:
-                language_tokens, language_probs = self.lang_id(encoder_feature) 
-                top_lan, p = max(language_probs[0].items(), key=lambda x: x[1])
-                print(f"Detected language: {top_lan} with p={p:.4f}")
-                self.create_tokenizer(top_lan)
-                self.state.last_attend_frame = -self.cfg.rewind_threshold
-                self.state.cumulative_time_offset = 0.0
-                self.init_tokens()
-                self.init_context()
-                self.state.detected_language = top_lan
-                logger.info(f"Tokenizer language: {self.tokenizer.language}, {self.tokenizer.sot_sequence_including_notimestamps}")
+        return encoder_feature, content_mel_len

-        self.trim_context()
-        current_tokens = self._current_tokens()
-   
-        fire_detected = self.fire_at_boundary(encoder_feature[:, :content_mel_len, :])
+    def _init_sum_logprobs(self):
+        return torch.zeros(self.cfg.beam_size, device=self.device)

-
-        sum_logprobs = torch.zeros(self.cfg.beam_size, device=self.device)
-        completed = False
-        # punctuation_stop = False
-
-        attn_of_alignment_heads = None
-        most_attended_frame = None
-
-        token_len_before_decoding = current_tokens.shape[1]
-        
-        l_absolute_timestamps = []
-        
-        accumulated_cross_attns = []
-        
-        audio_duration_s = self.segments_len()
-        max_tokens_per_chunk = max(50, int(audio_duration_s * TOKENS_PER_SECOND * 2.0))  # 2x margin, min 50
-        tokens_produced_this_chunk = 0
-        
-        while not completed and current_tokens.shape[1] < self.max_text_len:  # bos is 3 tokens
-            tokens_produced_this_chunk += 1
-            
-            if tokens_produced_this_chunk > max_tokens_per_chunk:
-                logger.warning(f"[Loop Detection] Too many tokens ({tokens_produced_this_chunk}) for {audio_duration_s:.2f}s audio. Breaking.")
-                current_tokens = current_tokens[:, :token_len_before_decoding]  # Discard all new tokens
-                break
-
-            if new_segment:
-                tokens_for_logits = current_tokens
-            else:
-                # only need to use the last token except in the first forward pass
-                tokens_for_logits = current_tokens[:, -1:]
-
-            # Get logits and cross-attention weights from decoder
-            result = self.logits(tokens_for_logits, encoder_feature, return_cross_attn=True)
-            logits, cross_attns = result
-            
-            # Accumulate cross-attention from this forward pass
-            accumulated_cross_attns.append(cross_attns)
-
-            if new_segment and self.tokenizer.no_speech is not None:
-                probs_at_sot = logits[:, self.state.sot_index, :].float().softmax(dim=-1)
-                no_speech_probs = probs_at_sot[:, self.tokenizer.no_speech].tolist()
-                if no_speech_probs[0] > self.cfg.nonspeech_prob:
-                    logger.info("no speech, stop")
-                    break
-
-            logits = logits[:, -1, :]  # logits for the last token
-
-            # suppress blank tokens only at the beginning of the segment
-            if new_segment:
-                logits[:, self.tokenizer.encode(" ") + [self.tokenizer.eot]] = -np.inf
-            new_segment = False
-            self.state.suppress_tokens_fn(logits)
-            current_tokens, completed = self.state.token_decoder.update(current_tokens, logits, sum_logprobs)
-
-            logger.debug(f"Decoding completed: {completed}, sum_logprobs: {sum_logprobs.tolist()}, tokens: ")
-            self.debug_print_tokens(current_tokens)
-
-            # Process accumulated cross-attention weights for alignment
-            attn_of_alignment_heads = self._process_cross_attention(accumulated_cross_attns, content_mel_len)
-
-            # for each beam, the most attended frame is:
-            most_attended_frames = torch.argmax(attn_of_alignment_heads[:, -1, :], dim=-1)
-            
-            # Calculate absolute timestamps accounting for cumulative offset
-            absolute_timestamps = [
-                (frame * 0.02 + self.state.cumulative_time_offset) 
-                for frame in most_attended_frames.tolist()
-            ]
-            
-            logger.debug(str(most_attended_frames.tolist()) + " most att frames")
-            logger.debug(f"Absolute timestamps: {absolute_timestamps} (offset: {self.state.cumulative_time_offset:.2f}s)")
-
-            most_attended_frame = most_attended_frames[0].item()
-            l_absolute_timestamps.append(absolute_timestamps[0])
-
-            logger.debug("current tokens" + str(current_tokens.shape))
-            if completed:
-                # stripping the last token, the eot
-                current_tokens = current_tokens[:, :-1]
-                break
-            
-            # for some rare cases where the attention fails
-            if not is_last and self.state.last_attend_frame - most_attended_frame > self.cfg.rewind_threshold:
-                if current_tokens.shape[1] > 1 and current_tokens[0, -2] >= DEC_PAD:
-                    logger.debug("omit rewinding from special tokens")
-                    self.state.last_attend_frame = most_attended_frame
-                else:
-                    logger.debug(
-                        f"[rewind detected] current attention pos: {most_attended_frame}, "
-                        f"last attention pos: {self.state.last_attend_frame}; omit this segment")
-                    self.state.last_attend_frame = -self.cfg.rewind_threshold
-                    current_tokens = torch.cat(self.state.tokens, dim=1) if len(self.state.tokens) > 0 else self.state.tokens[0]
-                    break
-            else:
-                self.state.last_attend_frame = most_attended_frame
-
-            if content_mel_len - most_attended_frame <= (4 if is_last else self.cfg.frame_threshold):
-                logger.debug(f"attention reaches the end: {most_attended_frame}/{content_mel_len}")
-                # stripping the last token, the one that is attended too close to the end
-                current_tokens = current_tokens[:, :-1]
-                break
-        
-            # debug print
-            for i in range(self.cfg.beam_size):
-                logger.debug("attn: {}, current pos: {}, current token: {}({})".format(
-                    attn_of_alignment_heads.shape if attn_of_alignment_heads is not None else None,
-                    most_attended_frames[i], 
-                    current_tokens[i, -1].item(),
-                    self.tokenizer.decode([current_tokens[i, -1].item()])
-                ))
-
-        tokens_to_split = current_tokens[0, token_len_before_decoding:]
-
-        # Prepend pending tokens from previous chunk if any
-        if self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens:
-            logger.debug(f"[UTF-8 Fix] Prepending {len(self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens)} pending tokens: {self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens}")
-            pending_tensor = torch.tensor(self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens, dtype=torch.long, device=self.device)
-            tokens_to_split = torch.cat([pending_tensor, tokens_to_split])
-
-        if fire_detected or is_last:
-            new_hypothesis = tokens_to_split.flatten().tolist()
-            split_words, split_tokens = self.tokenizer.split_to_word_tokens(new_hypothesis)
-        else:
-            # going to truncate the tokens after the last space
-            split_words, split_tokens = self.tokenizer.split_to_word_tokens(tokens_to_split.tolist())
-            if len(split_words) > 1:
-                new_hypothesis = [i for sublist in split_tokens[:-1] for i in sublist]  
-            else:
-                new_hypothesis = []
-
-        logger.debug(f"new_hypothesis: {new_hypothesis}")
-        new_tokens = torch.tensor([new_hypothesis], dtype=torch.long).repeat_interleave(self.cfg.beam_size, dim=0).to(
-            device=self.device,
-        )
-        self.state.tokens.append(new_tokens)
-
-        logger.info(f"Output: {self.tokenizer.decode(new_hypothesis)}")
-        
-        self._clean_cache()
-
-        if len(l_absolute_timestamps) >= 2 and self.state.first_timestamp is None:
-            self.state.first_timestamp = l_absolute_timestamps[0]
-
-        timestamped_words = []
-        timestamp_idx = 0
-        replacement_char = "\ufffd"
-        for word, word_tokens in zip(split_words, split_tokens):
-            # Skip words containing incomplete UTF-8 from client output
-            if replacement_char in word:
-                logger.warning(f"[UTF-8 Filter] Skipping incomplete word from client output: {repr(word)}")
-                timestamp_idx += len(word_tokens)
-                continue
-
-            try:
-                current_timestamp = l_absolute_timestamps[timestamp_idx]
-            except IndexError:
-                # Use last timestamp if index out of range
-                logger.warning(f"Timestamp index {timestamp_idx} out of range, using last timestamp")
-                current_timestamp = l_absolute_timestamps[-1] if l_absolute_timestamps else 0.0
-            timestamp_idx += len(word_tokens)
-
-            timestamp_entry = ASRToken(
-                start=round(current_timestamp, 2),
-                end=round(current_timestamp + 0.1, 2),
-                text=word,
-                speaker=self.state.speaker,
-                detected_language=self.state.detected_language
-            ).with_offset(
-                self.state.global_time_offset
+    def _get_logits_and_cross_attn(self, tokens, encoder_feature):
+        if self.state.decoder_type == "greedy":
+            return self.model.decoder(
+                tokens, encoder_feature,
+                kv_cache=self.state.kv_cache,
+                return_cross_attn=True,
+            )
+        else:
+            logger.debug(f"Logits shape: {tokens.shape}")
+            return self.state.inference.logits(
+                tokens, encoder_feature, return_cross_attn=True,
            )
-            timestamped_words.append(timestamp_entry)

-        # Hold incomplete tokens for next chunk (with limit to prevent hallucination accumulation)
-        self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens = []
-        MAX_PENDING_TOKENS = 10  # Real incomplete UTF-8 chars are at most a few tokens
-        if split_words and replacement_char in split_words[-1]:
-            if len(split_tokens[-1]) <= MAX_PENDING_TOKENS:
-                self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens = split_tokens[-1]
-                logger.debug(f"[UTF-8 Fix] Holding {len(self.state.pending_incomplete_tokens)} incomplete tokens for next chunk")
-            else:
-                logger.warning(f"[UTF-8 Fix] Skipping {len(split_tokens[-1])} tokens (exceeds limit of {MAX_PENDING_TOKENS}, likely hallucination)")
+    def _check_no_speech(self, logits):
+        if self.tokenizer.no_speech is not None:
+            probs_at_sot = logits[:, self.state.sot_index, :].float().softmax(dim=-1)
+            no_speech_probs = probs_at_sot[:, self.tokenizer.no_speech].tolist()
+            if no_speech_probs[0] > self.cfg.nonspeech_prob:
+                logger.info("no speech, stop")
+                return True
+        return False

-        return timestamped_words
+    def _suppress_blank_tokens(self, logits):
+        logits[:, self.tokenizer.encode(" ") + [self.tokenizer.eot]] = -np.inf
+        return logits
+
+    def _apply_token_suppression(self, logits):
+        self.state.suppress_tokens_fn(logits)
+        return logits
+
+    def _update_tokens(self, current_tokens, logits, sum_logprobs):
+        return self.state.token_decoder.update(current_tokens, logits, sum_logprobs)

    def _process_cross_attention(
-        self, 
-        cross_attns: List[torch.Tensor], 
-        content_mel_len: int
+        self, cross_attns: List, content_mel_len: int,
    ) -> torch.Tensor:
-        """
-        Process cross-attention weights from decoder layers for alignment.
-        
-        Args:
-            cross_attns: List of cross-attention tensors from each decoder layer.
-                         Each tensor has shape (batch, n_head, seq_len, audio_len)
-            content_mel_len: Length of actual audio content in mel frames
-            
-        Returns processed attention tensor for alignment, shape (batch, seq_len, content_mel_len)
-        """
        attn_of_alignment_heads = [[] for _ in range(self.state.num_align_heads)]
        num_decoder_layers = len(self.model.decoder.blocks)

        if cross_attns and isinstance(cross_attns[0], list):
-            flattened_attns: List[torch.Tensor] = [attn for layer_list in cross_attns for attn in layer_list]
+            flattened_attns = [attn for layer_list in cross_attns for attn in layer_list]
        else:
            flattened_attns = cross_attns
-        
+
        for idx, attn_mat in enumerate(flattened_attns):
            layer_rank = idx % num_decoder_layers
-            # attn_mat shape: (batch, n_head, seq_len, audio_len) or (n_head, seq_len, audio_len) for batch=1
            align_heads_in_layer = self.state.align_source.get(layer_rank, [])
-            if len(align_heads_in_layer) == 0:
+            if not align_heads_in_layer:
                continue
-            
            attn_mat = F.softmax(attn_mat, dim=-1)
-            
            for align_head_rank, head_id in align_heads_in_layer:
                if self.cfg.beam_size == 1:
-                    # (n_head, seq_len, audio_len) when squeezed
                    if attn_mat.dim() == 4:
-                        a = attn_mat[0, head_id, :, :]  # (seq_len, audio_len)
+                        a = attn_mat[0, head_id, :, :]
                    else:
                        a = attn_mat[head_id, :, :]
-                    a = a.unsqueeze(0)  # (1, seq_len, audio_len)
+                    a = a.unsqueeze(0)
                else:
-                    # attn_mat: (batch, n_head, seq_len, audio_len)
-                    a = attn_mat[:, head_id, :, :]  # (batch, seq_len, audio_len)
+                    a = attn_mat[:, head_id, :, :]
                attn_of_alignment_heads[align_head_rank].append(a)
-        
+
        tmp = []
        for mat in attn_of_alignment_heads:
            if mat:
-                t = torch.cat(mat, dim=1)  # (batch, total_seq_len, audio_len)
-                tmp.append(t)
-        
+                tmp.append(torch.cat(mat, dim=1))
        if not tmp:
            return torch.zeros(self.cfg.beam_size, 1, content_mel_len, device=self.device)
-        
-        # stck al heads: (batch, num_align_heads, seq_len, audio_len)
+
        attn_of_alignment_heads = torch.stack(tmp, dim=1)
-        
-        std, mean = torch.std_mean(attn_of_alignment_heads, dim=-2, keepdim=True, unbiased=False)
+        std, mean = torch.std_mean(
+            attn_of_alignment_heads, dim=-2, keepdim=True, unbiased=False,
+        )
        attn_of_alignment_heads = (attn_of_alignment_heads - mean) / (std + 1e-8)
-        
        attn_of_alignment_heads = median_filter(attn_of_alignment_heads, 7)
        attn_of_alignment_heads = attn_of_alignment_heads.mean(dim=1)
        attn_of_alignment_heads = attn_of_alignment_heads[:, :, :content_mel_len]
-        return attn_of_alignment_heads
+        return attn_of_alignment_heads
+
+    def _get_attended_frames(self, attn):
+        most_attended_frames = torch.argmax(attn[:, -1, :], dim=-1)
+        return most_attended_frames.tolist(), most_attended_frames[0].item()
+
+    def _is_special_token(self, current_tokens):
+        return current_tokens[0, -2].item() >= DEC_PAD
+
+    def _rewind_tokens(self):
+        if len(self.state.tokens) > 0:
+            return torch.cat(self.state.tokens, dim=1)
+        return self.state.tokens[0]
+
+    def _tokens_to_list(self, current_tokens, start_col):
+        return current_tokens[0, start_col:].flatten().tolist()
+
+    def _make_new_tokens_tensor(self, hypothesis):
+        return (
+            torch.tensor([hypothesis], dtype=torch.long)
+            .repeat_interleave(self.cfg.beam_size, dim=0)
+            .to(device=self.device)
+        )
+
+    def _evaluate(self, tensor):
+        pass  # No-op for PyTorch
+
+    @torch.no_grad()
+    def infer(self, is_last=False):
+        return super().infer(is_last)
--- a/whisperlivekit/timed_objects.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/timed_objects.py
@@ -39,10 +39,11 @@ class TimedText(Timed):

@dataclass()
 class ASRToken(TimedText):
-    
+    probability: Optional[float] = None
+
    def with_offset(self, offset: float) -> "ASRToken":
        """Return a new token with the time offset added."""
-        return ASRToken(self.start + offset, self.end + offset, self.text, self.speaker, detected_language=self.detected_language)
+        return ASRToken(self.start + offset, self.end + offset, self.text, self.speaker, detected_language=self.detected_language, probability=self.probability)

    def is_silence(self) -> bool:
        return False
--- a/whisperlivekit/tokens_alignment.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/tokens_alignment.py
@@ -53,7 +53,8 @@ class TokensAlignment:
            segment.translation = ''
        for ts in self.all_translation_segments:
            if ts.is_within(segment):
-                segment.translation += ts.text + (self.sep if ts.text else '')
+                if ts.text:
+                    segment.translation += ts.text + self.sep
            elif segment.translation:
                break

@@ -185,11 +186,11 @@ class TokensAlignment:
        else:
            diarization_buffer = ''
            for token in self.new_tokens:
-                if token.is_silence():
+                if isinstance(token, Silence):
                    if self.current_line_tokens:
-                        self.validated_segments.append(Segment().from_tokens(self.current_line_tokens))
+                        self.validated_segments.append(Segment.from_tokens(self.current_line_tokens))
                        self.current_line_tokens = []
-                    
+
                    end_silence = token.end if token.has_ended else time() - self.beg_loop
                    if self.validated_segments and self.validated_segments[-1].is_silence():
                        self.validated_segments[-1].end = end_silence
@@ -203,7 +204,7 @@ class TokensAlignment:
            
            segments = list(self.validated_segments)
            if self.current_line_tokens:
-                segments.append(Segment().from_tokens(self.current_line_tokens))
+                segments.append(Segment.from_tokens(self.current_line_tokens))

        if current_silence:
            end_silence = current_silence.end if current_silence.has_ended else time() - self.beg_loop
--- a/whisperlivekit/voxtral_hf_streaming.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/voxtral_hf_streaming.py
@@ -0,0 +1,395 @@
+"""
+Voxtral Mini Realtime streaming backend using HuggingFace Transformers.
+
+Uses VoxtralRealtimeForConditionalGeneration with a background generate thread
+and queue-based audio feeding for real-time streaming transcription.
+Supports CUDA, CPU, and MPS devices.
+"""
+
+import logging
+import queue
+import sys
+import threading
+import time
+from typing import List, Optional, Tuple
+
+import numpy as np
+
+from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import ASRToken, Transcript
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+class VoxtralHFStreamingASR:
+    """Voxtral model holder using HuggingFace Transformers."""
+
+    sep = " "
+
+    def __init__(self, logfile=sys.stderr, **kwargs):
+        import torch
+        from transformers import (
+            AutoProcessor,
+            VoxtralRealtimeForConditionalGeneration,
+        )
+
+        self.logfile = logfile
+        self.transcribe_kargs = {}
+
+        lan = kwargs.get("lan", "auto")
+        self.original_language = None if lan == "auto" else lan
+
+        DEFAULT_MODEL = "mistralai/Voxtral-Mini-4B-Realtime-2602"
+        model_path = kwargs.get("model_dir") or kwargs.get("model_path")
+        if not model_path:
+            model_size = kwargs.get("model_size", "")
+            if model_size and ("/" in model_size or model_size.startswith(".")):
+                model_path = model_size
+            else:
+                model_path = DEFAULT_MODEL
+
+        t = time.time()
+        logger.info(f"Loading Voxtral model '{model_path}' via HF Transformers...")
+        self.processor = AutoProcessor.from_pretrained(model_path)
+        self.model = VoxtralRealtimeForConditionalGeneration.from_pretrained(
+            model_path,
+            torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16,
+            device_map="auto",
+        )
+        logger.info(f"Voxtral HF model loaded in {time.time() - t:.2f}s on {self.model.device}")
+
+        self.backend_choice = "voxtral"
+        self.tokenizer = None  # sentence tokenizer — not needed for streaming
+
+    def transcribe(self, audio):
+        pass
+
+
+class VoxtralHFStreamingOnlineProcessor:
+    """
+    Online processor for Voxtral streaming ASR via HuggingFace Transformers.
+
+    Uses a background thread running model.generate() with a queue-based
+    input_features_generator and TextIteratorStreamer for real-time output.
+    Each decoded token corresponds to ~80ms of audio.
+    """
+
+    SAMPLING_RATE = 16000
+
+    def __init__(self, asr: VoxtralHFStreamingASR, logfile=sys.stderr):
+        self.asr = asr
+        self.logfile = logfile
+        self.end = 0.0
+        self.buffer = []
+        self.audio_buffer = np.array([], dtype=np.float32)
+
+        processor = asr.processor
+        self._first_chunk_samples = processor.num_samples_first_audio_chunk
+        self._chunk_samples = processor.num_samples_per_audio_chunk
+        self._chunk_step = processor.raw_audio_length_per_tok
+        n_right_pad = processor.num_right_pad_tokens
+        if callable(n_right_pad):
+            n_right_pad = n_right_pad()
+        self._right_pad_samples = int(n_right_pad * processor.raw_audio_length_per_tok)
+        self._seconds_per_token = processor.raw_audio_length_per_tok / self.SAMPLING_RATE
+
+        self._reset_state()
+
+        logger.info(
+            f"[voxtral-hf] Initialized. first_chunk={self._first_chunk_samples} samples, "
+            f"chunk={self._chunk_samples}, step={self._chunk_step}, "
+            f"right_pad={self._right_pad_samples}"
+        )
+
+    def _reset_state(self):
+        self._pending_audio = np.zeros(0, dtype=np.float32)
+        self._audio_queue: queue.Queue = queue.Queue()
+        self._streamer_texts: List[str] = []
+        self._generate_thread: Optional[threading.Thread] = None
+        self._generate_started = False
+        self._generate_finished = False
+        self._generate_error: Optional[Exception] = None
+
+        # Text accumulation and word extraction
+        self._accumulated_text = ""
+        self._n_text_tokens_received = 0
+        self._n_committed_words = 0
+        self._global_time_offset = 0.0
+
+        # Lock for text state accessed from both generate thread and main thread
+        self._text_lock = threading.Lock()
+
+    # ── Interface methods ──
+
+    def insert_audio_chunk(self, audio: np.ndarray, audio_stream_end_time: float):
+        self.end = audio_stream_end_time
+        self._pending_audio = np.append(self._pending_audio, audio)
+        self.audio_buffer = self._pending_audio
+
+    def process_iter(self, is_last=False) -> Tuple[List[ASRToken], float]:
+        try:
+            return self._process_iter_inner(is_last)
+        except Exception as e:
+            logger.warning(f"[voxtral-hf] process_iter exception: {e}", exc_info=True)
+            return [], self.end
+
+    def get_buffer(self) -> Transcript:
+        """Return all uncommitted text as buffer."""
+        with self._text_lock:
+            text = self._accumulated_text
+        if not text:
+            return Transcript(start=None, end=None, text="")
+
+        words = text.split()
+        uncommitted = words[self._n_committed_words:]
+        if uncommitted:
+            return Transcript(start=self.end, end=self.end, text=" ".join(uncommitted))
+        return Transcript(start=None, end=None, text="")
+
+    def start_silence(self) -> Tuple[List[ASRToken], float]:
+        """Flush all uncommitted words when silence starts."""
+        self._drain_streamer()
+        words = self._flush_all_pending_words()
+        logger.info(f"[voxtral-hf] start_silence: flushed {len(words)} words")
+        return words, self.end
+
+    def end_silence(self, silence_duration: float, offset: float):
+        self._global_time_offset += silence_duration
+        self.end += silence_duration
+
+    def new_speaker(self, change_speaker):
+        self.start_silence()
+
+    def warmup(self, audio, init_prompt=""):
+        pass
+
+    def finish(self) -> Tuple[List[ASRToken], float]:
+        """Flush remaining audio with right-padding and stop the generate thread."""
+        # Add right-padding so the model can finish decoding
+        if self._right_pad_samples > 0:
+            right_pad = np.zeros(self._right_pad_samples, dtype=np.float32)
+            self._pending_audio = np.append(self._pending_audio, right_pad)
+
+        # Feed remaining audio
+        if self._generate_started and not self._generate_finished:
+            self._feed_pending_audio()
+            # Signal end of audio
+            self._audio_queue.put(None)
+            # Wait for generate to finish
+            if self._generate_thread is not None:
+                self._generate_thread.join(timeout=30.0)
+        elif not self._generate_started and len(self._pending_audio) >= self._first_chunk_samples:
+            # Never started but have enough audio — start and immediately finish
+            self._start_generate_thread()
+            self._feed_pending_audio()
+            self._audio_queue.put(None)
+            if self._generate_thread is not None:
+                self._generate_thread.join(timeout=30.0)
+
+        self._drain_streamer()
+        words = self._flush_all_pending_words()
+        logger.info(f"[voxtral-hf] finish: flushed {len(words)} words")
+        return words, self.end
+
+    # ── Generate thread management ──
+
+    def _start_generate_thread(self):
+        """Start model.generate() in a background thread with streaming."""
+        import torch
+        from transformers import TextIteratorStreamer
+
+        processor = self.asr.processor
+        model = self.asr.model
+
+        # Extract first chunk
+        first_chunk_audio = self._pending_audio[:self._first_chunk_samples]
+        self._pending_audio = self._pending_audio[self._first_chunk_samples:]
+
+        first_inputs = processor(
+            first_chunk_audio,
+            is_streaming=True,
+            is_first_audio_chunk=True,
+            return_tensors="pt",
+        )
+        first_inputs = first_inputs.to(model.device, dtype=model.dtype)
+
+        streamer = TextIteratorStreamer(
+            processor.tokenizer,
+            skip_prompt=True,
+            skip_special_tokens=True,
+        )
+        self._streamer = streamer
+
+        audio_queue = self._audio_queue
+
+        def input_features_gen():
+            yield first_inputs.input_features
+            while True:
+                chunk_audio = audio_queue.get()
+                if chunk_audio is None:
+                    break
+                inputs = processor(
+                    chunk_audio,
+                    is_streaming=True,
+                    is_first_audio_chunk=False,
+                    return_tensors="pt",
+                )
+                inputs = inputs.to(model.device, dtype=model.dtype)
+                yield inputs.input_features
+
+        def run_generate():
+            try:
+                with torch.no_grad():
+                    # Pass generator as input_features — the model detects GeneratorType
+                    # and internally converts it to input_features_generator
+                    generate_kwargs = {
+                        k: v for k, v in first_inputs.items()
+                        if k != "input_features"
+                    }
+                    model.generate(
+                        input_features=input_features_gen(),
+                        streamer=streamer,
+                        **generate_kwargs,
+                    )
+            except Exception as e:
+                logger.error(f"[voxtral-hf] generate error: {e}", exc_info=True)
+                self._generate_error = e
+            finally:
+                self._generate_finished = True
+
+        self._generate_thread = threading.Thread(target=run_generate, daemon=True)
+        self._generate_thread.start()
+        self._generate_started = True
+        logger.info("[voxtral-hf] generate thread started")
+
+    def _feed_pending_audio(self):
+        """Convert pending audio into properly-sized chunks for the generator."""
+        chunk_size = self._chunk_samples
+        step_size = self._chunk_step
+
+        while len(self._pending_audio) >= chunk_size:
+            chunk = self._pending_audio[:chunk_size]
+            self._audio_queue.put(chunk)
+            self._pending_audio = self._pending_audio[step_size:]
+
+        self.audio_buffer = self._pending_audio
+
+    def _drain_streamer(self):
+        """Non-blocking drain of all available text from the streamer."""
+        if not self._generate_started:
+            return
+
+        text_queue = self._streamer.text_queue
+        while True:
+            try:
+                text_fragment = text_queue.get_nowait()
+            except queue.Empty:
+                break
+            # TextIteratorStreamer uses None as end-of-stream sentinel
+            if text_fragment is None:
+                self._generate_finished = True
+                break
+            if text_fragment:
+                with self._text_lock:
+                    self._accumulated_text += text_fragment
+                self._n_text_tokens_received += 1
+
+    # ── Word extraction ──
+
+    def _pos_to_time(self, token_position: int) -> float:
+        """Convert token position to seconds."""
+        return token_position * self._seconds_per_token + self._global_time_offset
+
+    def _extract_new_words(self) -> List[ASRToken]:
+        """Extract complete words (all but the last, which may still be growing)."""
+        with self._text_lock:
+            text = self._accumulated_text
+        if not text:
+            return []
+
+        words = text.split()
+        new_words: List[ASRToken] = []
+        n_tokens = self._n_text_tokens_received
+        n_words_total = len(words)
+
+        while len(words) > self._n_committed_words + 1:
+            word = words[self._n_committed_words]
+            word_idx = self._n_committed_words
+
+            tok_start = int(word_idx / n_words_total * n_tokens) if n_words_total > 0 else 0
+            tok_end = int((word_idx + 1) / n_words_total * n_tokens) if n_words_total > 0 else 0
+
+            start_time = self._pos_to_time(tok_start)
+            end_time = self._pos_to_time(tok_end)
+
+            text_out = word if self._n_committed_words == 0 else " " + word
+            new_words.append(ASRToken(start=start_time, end=end_time, text=text_out))
+            self._n_committed_words += 1
+
+        return new_words
+
+    def _flush_all_pending_words(self) -> List[ASRToken]:
+        """Flush ALL words including the last partial one."""
+        with self._text_lock:
+            text = self._accumulated_text
+        if not text:
+            return []
+
+        words = text.split()
+        new_words: List[ASRToken] = []
+        n_tokens = max(self._n_text_tokens_received, 1)
+        n_words_total = max(len(words), 1)
+
+        while self._n_committed_words < len(words):
+            word = words[self._n_committed_words]
+            word_idx = self._n_committed_words
+
+            tok_start = int(word_idx / n_words_total * n_tokens)
+            tok_end = int((word_idx + 1) / n_words_total * n_tokens)
+
+            start_time = self._pos_to_time(tok_start)
+            end_time = self._pos_to_time(tok_end)
+
+            text_out = word if self._n_committed_words == 0 else " " + word
+            new_words.append(ASRToken(start=start_time, end=end_time, text=text_out))
+            self._n_committed_words += 1
+
+        return new_words
+
+    # ── Core processing ──
+
+    def _process_iter_inner(self, is_last: bool) -> Tuple[List[ASRToken], float]:
+        # Start generate thread when enough audio is buffered
+        if not self._generate_started:
+            if len(self._pending_audio) >= self._first_chunk_samples:
+                self._start_generate_thread()
+                self._feed_pending_audio()
+            else:
+                return [], self.end
+
+        # Feed any new pending audio
+        if self._generate_started and not self._generate_finished:
+            self._feed_pending_audio()
+
+        # If generate finished unexpectedly (EOS) but new audio arrived, restart
+        if self._generate_finished and len(self._pending_audio) >= self._first_chunk_samples:
+            self._drain_streamer()
+            flush_words = self._flush_all_pending_words()
+            # Reset for new utterance
+            old_offset = self._global_time_offset
+            self._reset_state()
+            self._global_time_offset = old_offset
+            self._start_generate_thread()
+            self._feed_pending_audio()
+            return flush_words, self.end
+
+        # Drain available text from streamer
+        self._drain_streamer()
+
+        # Extract complete words
+        new_words = self._extract_new_words()
+
+        if new_words:
+            logger.info(f"[voxtral-hf] returning {len(new_words)} words: {[w.text for w in new_words]}")
+
+        self.buffer = []
+        return new_words, self.end
--- a/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx/init.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx/init.py
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+"""Pure-MLX Voxtral Realtime backend for WhisperLiveKit."""
+
+from .loader import load_voxtral_model
+from .model import VoxtralMLXModel
+
+__all__ = ["load_voxtral_model", "VoxtralMLXModel"]
--- a/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx/loader.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx/loader.py
@@ -0,0 +1,282 @@
+"""
+Model weight loading for the MLX Voxtral Realtime backend.
+
+Supports two on-disk formats:
+  1. **Converted** (``config.json`` + ``model.safetensors``): ready-to-load,
+     with optional quantisation metadata.
+  2. **Original Mistral** (``params.json`` + ``consolidated.safetensors``):
+     requires weight renaming and conv-weight transposition.
+
+The public entry point is :func:`load_voxtral_model` which returns the
+model, tokenizer, and raw config dict.
+"""
+
+import json
+import logging
+import re
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import mlx.core as mx
+import mlx.nn as nn
+from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
+
+from .model import VoxtralMLXModel
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+DEFAULT_MODEL_ID = "mlx-community/Voxtral-Mini-4B-Realtime-6bit"
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Downloading
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+_ALLOWED_PATTERNS = [
+    "consolidated.safetensors",
+    "model*.safetensors",
+    "model.safetensors.index.json",
+    "params.json",
+    "config.json",
+    "tekken.json",
+]
+
+
+def download_weights(model_id: str = DEFAULT_MODEL_ID) -> Path:
+    """Download model files from HuggingFace Hub and return the local path."""
+    return Path(snapshot_download(model_id, allow_patterns=_ALLOWED_PATTERNS))
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Weight name remapping (Mistral → our naming)
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+_NAME_RULES: list[tuple[str, str]] = [
+    # Encoder convolutions
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.conv_layers\.0\.conv\.(.*)", r"encoder.conv1.\1"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.conv_layers\.1\.conv\.(.*)", r"encoder.conv2.\1"),
+    # Encoder transformer blocks
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.wq\.(.*)",
+     r"encoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.q_proj.\2"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.wk\.(.*)",
+     r"encoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.k_proj.\2"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.wv\.(.*)",
+     r"encoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.v_proj.\2"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.wo\.(.*)",
+     r"encoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.out_proj.\2"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.layers\.(\d+)\.attention_norm\.(.*)",
+     r"encoder.blocks.\1.pre_attn_norm.\2"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.layers\.(\d+)\.feed_forward\.w1\.(.*)",
+     r"encoder.blocks.\1.ffn.gate.\2"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.layers\.(\d+)\.feed_forward\.w2\.(.*)",
+     r"encoder.blocks.\1.ffn.down.\2"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.layers\.(\d+)\.feed_forward\.w3\.(.*)",
+     r"encoder.blocks.\1.ffn.up.\2"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.layers\.(\d+)\.ffn_norm\.(.*)",
+     r"encoder.blocks.\1.pre_ffn_norm.\2"),
+    (r"whisper_encoder\.transformer\.norm\.(.*)", r"encoder.final_norm.\1"),
+    # Adapter
+    (r"audio_language_projection\.0\.weight", r"adapter.linear1.weight"),
+    (r"audio_language_projection\.2\.weight", r"adapter.linear2.weight"),
+    # Decoder embedding
+    (r"tok_embeddings\.weight", r"decoder.token_embedding.weight"),
+    # Decoder blocks
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.wq\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.q_proj.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.wk\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.k_proj.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.wv\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.v_proj.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.wo\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.out_proj.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.attention_norm\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.pre_attn_norm.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.feed_forward\.w1\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.ffn.gate.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.feed_forward\.w2\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.ffn.down.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.feed_forward\.w3\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.ffn.up.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.ffn_norm\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.pre_ffn_norm.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.ada_rms_norm_t_cond\.0\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.adaptive_scale.proj_in.weight"),
+    (r"layers\.(\d+)\.ada_rms_norm_t_cond\.2\.weight",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.adaptive_scale.proj_out.weight"),
+    # Decoder final norm
+    (r"norm\.weight", r"decoder.final_norm.weight"),
+]
+
+_PREFIX_STRIP = re.compile(
+    r"^(mm_streams_embeddings\.embedding_module|mm_whisper_embeddings)\."
+)
+
+
+def _translate_weight_name(name: str) -> str | None:
+    name = _PREFIX_STRIP.sub("", name)
+    for pattern, replacement in _NAME_RULES:
+        result, n = re.subn(f"^{pattern}$", replacement, name)
+        if n:
+            return result
+    return None
+
+
+def _is_conv_weight(name: str) -> bool:
+    return ("conv1.weight" in name or "conv2.weight" in name) and "bias" not in name
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Converted-format weight remapping (voxmlx names → our names)
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+_CONVERTED_RULES: list[tuple[str, str]] = [
+    # Adapter
+    (r"adapter\.w_in\.(.*)", r"adapter.linear1.\1"),
+    (r"adapter\.w_out\.(.*)", r"adapter.linear2.\1"),
+    # Encoder transformer blocks
+    (r"encoder\.layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.(.*)", r"encoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.\2"),
+    (r"encoder\.layers\.(\d+)\.attn_norm\.(.*)", r"encoder.blocks.\1.pre_attn_norm.\2"),
+    (r"encoder\.layers\.(\d+)\.mlp\.gate_proj\.(.*)", r"encoder.blocks.\1.ffn.gate.\2"),
+    (r"encoder\.layers\.(\d+)\.mlp\.down_proj\.(.*)", r"encoder.blocks.\1.ffn.down.\2"),
+    (r"encoder\.layers\.(\d+)\.mlp\.up_proj\.(.*)", r"encoder.blocks.\1.ffn.up.\2"),
+    (r"encoder\.layers\.(\d+)\.ffn_norm\.(.*)", r"encoder.blocks.\1.pre_ffn_norm.\2"),
+    (r"encoder\.norm\.(.*)", r"encoder.final_norm.\1"),
+    # Decoder embedding
+    (r"language_model\.embed_tokens\.(.*)", r"decoder.token_embedding.\1"),
+    # Decoder blocks
+    (r"language_model\.layers\.(\d+)\.attention\.(.*)", r"decoder.blocks.\1.self_attn.\2"),
+    (r"language_model\.layers\.(\d+)\.attn_norm\.(.*)", r"decoder.blocks.\1.pre_attn_norm.\2"),
+    (r"language_model\.layers\.(\d+)\.mlp\.gate_proj\.(.*)", r"decoder.blocks.\1.ffn.gate.\2"),
+    (r"language_model\.layers\.(\d+)\.mlp\.down_proj\.(.*)", r"decoder.blocks.\1.ffn.down.\2"),
+    (r"language_model\.layers\.(\d+)\.mlp\.up_proj\.(.*)", r"decoder.blocks.\1.ffn.up.\2"),
+    (r"language_model\.layers\.(\d+)\.ffn_norm\.(.*)", r"decoder.blocks.\1.pre_ffn_norm.\2"),
+    (r"language_model\.layers\.(\d+)\.ada_norm\.linear_in\.(.*)",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.adaptive_scale.proj_in.\2"),
+    (r"language_model\.layers\.(\d+)\.ada_norm\.linear_out\.(.*)",
+     r"decoder.blocks.\1.adaptive_scale.proj_out.\2"),
+    (r"language_model\.norm\.(.*)", r"decoder.final_norm.\1"),
+]
+
+# Also remap o_proj → out_proj in both encoder and decoder
+_POST_RENAME = [
+    (r"\.o_proj\.", r".out_proj."),
+]
+
+
+def _remap_converted_name(name: str) -> str:
+    """Translate a converted-format weight name to our naming convention."""
+    for pattern, replacement in _CONVERTED_RULES:
+        result, n = re.subn(f"^{pattern}$", replacement, name)
+        if n:
+            name = result
+            break
+    for pattern, replacement in _POST_RENAME:
+        name = re.sub(pattern, replacement, name)
+    return name
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Loading strategies
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def _has_converted_layout(path: Path) -> bool:
+    return (path / "config.json").exists() and not (path / "consolidated.safetensors").exists()
+
+
+def _load_converted_weights(path: Path):
+    with open(path / "config.json") as f:
+        config = json.load(f)
+
+    model = VoxtralMLXModel(config)
+
+    quant = config.get("quantization")
+    if quant is not None:
+        gs = quant["group_size"]
+        nn.quantize(
+            model,
+            group_size=gs,
+            bits=quant["bits"],
+            class_predicate=lambda _p, m: (
+                hasattr(m, "to_quantized") and m.weight.shape[-1] % gs == 0
+            ),
+        )
+
+    index_file = path / "model.safetensors.index.json"
+    if index_file.exists():
+        with open(index_file) as f:
+            shard_map = json.load(f)
+        shard_files = sorted(set(shard_map["weight_map"].values()))
+        weights = {}
+        for sf in shard_files:
+            weights.update(mx.load(str(path / sf)))
+    else:
+        weights = mx.load(str(path / "model.safetensors"))
+
+    remapped = {_remap_converted_name(k): v for k, v in weights.items()}
+    model.load_weights(list(remapped.items()))
+    mx.eval(model.parameters())
+    return model, config
+
+
+def _load_original_weights(path: Path):
+    with open(path / "params.json") as f:
+        config = json.load(f)
+
+    model = VoxtralMLXModel(config)
+
+    raw = mx.load(str(path / "consolidated.safetensors"))
+    mapped: dict[str, mx.array] = {}
+    skipped: list[str] = []
+
+    for name, tensor in raw.items():
+        if name == "output.weight":
+            continue
+        new_name = _translate_weight_name(name)
+        if new_name is None:
+            skipped.append(name)
+            continue
+        # Conv weights: PyTorch [C_out, C_in, K] → MLX [C_out, K, C_in]
+        if _is_conv_weight(new_name):
+            tensor = mx.swapaxes(tensor, 1, 2)
+        mapped[new_name] = tensor
+
+    if skipped:
+        logger.warning("Skipped %d unrecognised weight keys (first 5: %s)", len(skipped), skipped[:5])
+
+    model.load_weights(list(mapped.items()))
+    mx.eval(model.parameters())
+    return model, config
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Tokenizer
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def _load_tokenizer(model_dir: Path):
+    from mistral_common.tokens.tokenizers.tekken import Tekkenizer
+    return Tekkenizer.from_file(str(model_dir / "tekken.json"))
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Public API
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def load_voxtral_model(path_or_id: str = DEFAULT_MODEL_ID):
+    """Load a Voxtral Realtime model and its tokenizer.
+
+    Args:
+        path_or_id: Local directory path **or** a HuggingFace model ID.
+
+    Returns:
+        ``(model, tokenizer, config)``
+    """
+    p = Path(path_or_id)
+    if not p.exists():
+        p = download_weights(path_or_id)
+
+    if _has_converted_layout(p):
+        model, config = _load_converted_weights(p)
+    else:
+        model, config = _load_original_weights(p)
+
+    tokenizer = _load_tokenizer(p)
+    logger.info("Voxtral MLX model loaded from %s", p)
+    return model, tokenizer, config
--- a/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx/model.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx/model.py
@@ -0,0 +1,534 @@
+"""
+Voxtral Realtime MLX model — encoder, decoder, adapter, and top-level model.
+
+Architecture:
+    audio → StreamingEncoder → EncoderToDecoderAdapter → TextDecoder → logits
+    with DelayEmbedding providing time-conditioning to the decoder.
+
+The model supports both batch inference (full audio) and incremental streaming
+(one chunk at a time with cached encoder/decoder state).
+"""
+
+import math
+
+import mlx.core as mx
+import mlx.nn as nn
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# KV Cache
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class SlidingKVCache:
+    """Bounded key-value cache with rotating buffer for sliding-window attention.
+
+    Uses in-place writes for single-token autoregressive steps and
+    concatenation for multi-token prefills. Pre-allocates in blocks of
+    ``alloc_step`` entries to reduce repeated allocation.
+    """
+
+    alloc_step = 256
+
+    def __init__(self, capacity: int):
+        self.capacity = capacity
+        self.keys = None
+        self.values = None
+        self._offset = 0
+        self._write_idx = 0
+
+    @property
+    def offset(self) -> int:
+        return self._offset
+
+    # -- helpers --
+
+    def _reorder(self, buf):
+        """Return *buf* in temporal order (unwrap the circular buffer)."""
+        if self._write_idx == buf.shape[2]:
+            return buf
+        if self._write_idx < self._offset:
+            return mx.concatenate(
+                [buf[..., self._write_idx:, :], buf[..., : self._write_idx, :]],
+                axis=2,
+            )
+        return buf[..., : self._write_idx, :]
+
+    def _drop_oldest(self, buf, n_drop, tail=None):
+        parts = [buf[..., n_drop:, :]] if n_drop > 0 else [buf]
+        if tail is not None:
+            parts.append(tail)
+        return mx.concatenate(parts, axis=2)
+
+    # -- update strategies --
+
+    def _append_concat(self, k, v):
+        """Multi-token update via concatenation (used during prefill)."""
+        if self.keys is None:
+            self.keys, self.values = k, v
+        else:
+            self.keys = self._reorder(self.keys)
+            self.values = self._reorder(self.values)
+            self._write_idx = self.keys.shape[2]
+            overflow = self._write_idx - self.capacity + 1
+            self.keys = self._drop_oldest(self.keys, overflow, k)
+            self.values = self._drop_oldest(self.values, overflow, v)
+        self._offset += k.shape[2]
+        self._write_idx = self.keys.shape[2]
+        return self.keys, self.values
+
+    def _write_inplace(self, k, v):
+        """Single-token update via in-place write (autoregressive step)."""
+        B, n_heads, S, dim_k = k.shape
+        dim_v = v.shape[3]
+        prev = self._offset
+
+        if self.keys is None or (
+            prev >= self.keys.shape[2] and self.keys.shape[2] < self.capacity
+        ):
+            n_new = min(self.alloc_step, self.capacity - prev)
+            fresh_k = mx.zeros((B, n_heads, n_new, dim_k), k.dtype)
+            fresh_v = mx.zeros((B, n_heads, n_new, dim_v), v.dtype)
+            if self.keys is not None:
+                self.keys = mx.concatenate([self.keys, fresh_k], axis=2)
+                self.values = mx.concatenate([self.values, fresh_v], axis=2)
+            else:
+                self.keys, self.values = fresh_k, fresh_v
+            self._write_idx = prev
+
+        overflow = self.keys.shape[2] - self.capacity
+        if overflow > 0:
+            self.keys = self._drop_oldest(self.keys, overflow)
+            self.values = self._drop_oldest(self.values, overflow)
+            self._write_idx = self.capacity
+
+        if self._write_idx == self.capacity:
+            self._write_idx = 0
+
+        self.keys[..., self._write_idx : self._write_idx + S, :] = k
+        self.values[..., self._write_idx : self._write_idx + S, :] = v
+        self._offset += S
+        self._write_idx += S
+
+        if self._offset < self.capacity:
+            return (
+                self.keys[..., : self._offset, :],
+                self.values[..., : self._offset, :],
+            )
+        return self.keys, self.values
+
+    # -- public API --
+
+    def update_and_fetch(self, k, v):
+        if k.shape[2] == 1:
+            return self._write_inplace(k, v)
+        return self._append_concat(k, v)
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Encoder components
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class CausalConv(nn.Module):
+    """1-D causal convolution (left-padded so no future leakage)."""
+
+    def __init__(self, channels_in: int, channels_out: int, kernel: int, stride: int = 1):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.stride = stride
+        self.kernel = kernel
+        self.left_pad = kernel - stride
+        self.weight = mx.zeros((channels_out, kernel, channels_in))
+        self.bias = mx.zeros((channels_out,))
+
+    def __call__(self, x: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+        if self.left_pad > 0:
+            x = mx.pad(x, [(0, 0), (self.left_pad, 0), (0, 0)])
+        return mx.conv1d(x, self.weight, stride=self.stride) + self.bias
+
+
+class _EncoderSelfAttention(nn.Module):
+    def __init__(self, dim: int, n_heads: int, head_dim: int, rope_theta: float):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.n_heads = n_heads
+        self.head_dim = head_dim
+        self.scale = head_dim**-0.5
+        self.q_proj = nn.Linear(dim, n_heads * head_dim, bias=True)
+        self.k_proj = nn.Linear(dim, n_heads * head_dim, bias=False)
+        self.v_proj = nn.Linear(dim, n_heads * head_dim, bias=True)
+        self.out_proj = nn.Linear(n_heads * head_dim, dim, bias=True)
+        self.rope_theta = rope_theta
+
+    def __call__(self, x, mask, cache=None):
+        B, L, _ = x.shape
+        q = self.q_proj(x).reshape(B, L, self.n_heads, self.head_dim).transpose(0, 2, 1, 3)
+        k = self.k_proj(x).reshape(B, L, self.n_heads, self.head_dim).transpose(0, 2, 1, 3)
+        v = self.v_proj(x).reshape(B, L, self.n_heads, self.head_dim).transpose(0, 2, 1, 3)
+
+        pos = cache.offset if cache is not None else 0
+        q = mx.fast.rope(q, self.head_dim, traditional=True, base=self.rope_theta, scale=1.0, offset=pos)
+        k = mx.fast.rope(k, self.head_dim, traditional=True, base=self.rope_theta, scale=1.0, offset=pos)
+
+        if cache is not None:
+            k, v = cache.update_and_fetch(k, v)
+
+        out = mx.fast.scaled_dot_product_attention(q, k, v, scale=self.scale, mask=mask)
+        return self.out_proj(out.transpose(0, 2, 1, 3).reshape(B, L, -1))
+
+
+class _EncoderFFN(nn.Module):
+    """SwiGLU feed-forward for encoder layers."""
+
+    def __init__(self, dim: int, hidden: int):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.gate = nn.Linear(dim, hidden, bias=False)
+        self.up = nn.Linear(dim, hidden, bias=False)
+        self.down = nn.Linear(hidden, dim, bias=True)
+
+    def __call__(self, x):
+        return self.down(nn.silu(self.gate(x)) * self.up(x))
+
+
+class _EncoderBlock(nn.Module):
+    def __init__(self, dim, n_heads, head_dim, hidden, rope_theta):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.pre_attn_norm = nn.RMSNorm(dim, eps=1e-5)
+        self.self_attn = _EncoderSelfAttention(dim, n_heads, head_dim, rope_theta)
+        self.pre_ffn_norm = nn.RMSNorm(dim, eps=1e-5)
+        self.ffn = _EncoderFFN(dim, hidden)
+
+    def __call__(self, x, mask, cache=None):
+        x = x + self.self_attn(self.pre_attn_norm(x), mask, cache=cache)
+        x = x + self.ffn(self.pre_ffn_norm(x))
+        return x
+
+
+class StreamingEncoder(nn.Module):
+    """Causal Whisper-style encoder with two causal convolutions followed by
+    a stack of transformer blocks.  Supports both full-sequence and
+    incremental (streaming) forward passes."""
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        mel_channels: int = 128,
+        dim: int = 1280,
+        n_layers: int = 32,
+        n_heads: int = 32,
+        head_dim: int = 64,
+        hidden_dim: int = 5120,
+        rope_theta: float = 1e6,
+        sliding_window: int = 750,
+    ):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.conv1 = CausalConv(mel_channels, dim, kernel=3, stride=1)
+        self.conv2 = CausalConv(dim, dim, kernel=3, stride=2)
+        self.blocks = [
+            _EncoderBlock(dim, n_heads, head_dim, hidden_dim, rope_theta)
+            for _ in range(n_layers)
+        ]
+        self.final_norm = nn.RMSNorm(dim, eps=1e-5)
+        self.sliding_window = sliding_window
+
+    # -- full-sequence --
+
+    def _apply_convs(self, mel: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+        x = mel.T[None, :, :]  # [1, T, mel_channels]
+        x = nn.gelu(self.conv1(x))
+        x = nn.gelu(self.conv2(x))
+        return x
+
+    def forward(self, mel: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+        x = self._apply_convs(mel.astype(self.conv1.weight.dtype))
+        for blk in self.blocks:
+            x = blk(x, mask="causal")
+        return self.final_norm(x)
+
+    # -- incremental (streaming) --
+
+    def forward_conv_incremental(self, x_in, tail1, tail2):
+        """Process new mel frames through the two causal convs using cached tails.
+
+        Args:
+            x_in: [1, N, mel_channels]
+            tail1: [1, pad1, mel_channels] or None (first call)
+            tail2: [1, pad2, dim] or None (first call)
+
+        Returns:
+            (out, new_tail1, new_tail2)
+        """
+        # Conv1 (kernel=3, stride=1 → left_pad=2)
+        if tail1 is not None:
+            c1_in = mx.concatenate([tail1, x_in], axis=1)
+        else:
+            c1_in = mx.pad(x_in, [(0, 0), (self.conv1.left_pad, 0), (0, 0)])
+        new_tail1 = x_in[:, -self.conv1.left_pad :, :]
+        c1_out = nn.gelu(
+            mx.conv1d(c1_in, self.conv1.weight, stride=self.conv1.stride) + self.conv1.bias
+        )
+
+        # Conv2 (kernel=3, stride=2 → left_pad=1)
+        if tail2 is not None:
+            c2_in = mx.concatenate([tail2, c1_out], axis=1)
+        else:
+            c2_in = mx.pad(c1_out, [(0, 0), (self.conv2.left_pad, 0), (0, 0)])
+        new_tail2 = c1_out[:, -self.conv2.left_pad :, :]
+        c2_out = nn.gelu(
+            mx.conv1d(c2_in, self.conv2.weight, stride=self.conv2.stride) + self.conv2.bias
+        )
+
+        return c2_out, new_tail1, new_tail2
+
+    def forward_transformer_incremental(self, x, cache_list):
+        """Run transformer blocks with per-layer KV caches."""
+        for i, blk in enumerate(self.blocks):
+            x = blk(x, mask="causal", cache=cache_list[i])
+        return self.final_norm(x)
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Decoder components
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class _DecoderAttention(nn.Module):
+    """Grouped-query attention for the text decoder."""
+
+    def __init__(self, dim, n_heads, n_kv_heads, head_dim, rope_theta):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.n_heads = n_heads
+        self.n_kv_heads = n_kv_heads
+        self.head_dim = head_dim
+        self.scale = head_dim**-0.5
+        self.q_proj = nn.Linear(dim, n_heads * head_dim, bias=False)
+        self.k_proj = nn.Linear(dim, n_kv_heads * head_dim, bias=False)
+        self.v_proj = nn.Linear(dim, n_kv_heads * head_dim, bias=False)
+        self.out_proj = nn.Linear(n_heads * head_dim, dim, bias=False)
+        self.rope_theta = rope_theta
+
+    def __call__(self, x, mask=None, cache=None):
+        B, L, _ = x.shape
+        q = self.q_proj(x).reshape(B, L, self.n_heads, self.head_dim).transpose(0, 2, 1, 3)
+        k = self.k_proj(x).reshape(B, L, self.n_kv_heads, self.head_dim).transpose(0, 2, 1, 3)
+        v = self.v_proj(x).reshape(B, L, self.n_kv_heads, self.head_dim).transpose(0, 2, 1, 3)
+
+        pos = cache.offset if cache is not None else 0
+        q = mx.fast.rope(q, self.head_dim, traditional=True, base=self.rope_theta, scale=1.0, offset=pos)
+        k = mx.fast.rope(k, self.head_dim, traditional=True, base=self.rope_theta, scale=1.0, offset=pos)
+
+        if cache is not None:
+            k, v = cache.update_and_fetch(k, v)
+
+        out = mx.fast.scaled_dot_product_attention(q, k, v, scale=self.scale, mask=mask)
+        return self.out_proj(out.transpose(0, 2, 1, 3).reshape(B, L, -1))
+
+
+class _DecoderFFN(nn.Module):
+    """SwiGLU feed-forward for decoder layers."""
+
+    def __init__(self, dim, hidden):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.gate = nn.Linear(dim, hidden, bias=False)
+        self.up = nn.Linear(dim, hidden, bias=False)
+        self.down = nn.Linear(hidden, dim, bias=False)
+
+    def __call__(self, x):
+        return self.down(nn.silu(self.gate(x)) * self.up(x))
+
+
+class AdaptiveScaling(nn.Module):
+    """Small MLP that produces a multiplicative scale from the delay embedding,
+    used to condition the FFN on the streaming delay."""
+
+    def __init__(self, dim, bottleneck):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.proj_in = nn.Linear(dim, bottleneck, bias=False)
+        self.proj_out = nn.Linear(bottleneck, dim, bias=False)
+
+    def __call__(self, cond):
+        return self.proj_out(nn.gelu(self.proj_in(cond)))
+
+
+class _DecoderBlock(nn.Module):
+    def __init__(self, dim, n_heads, n_kv_heads, head_dim, hidden, rope_theta, cond_dim):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.pre_attn_norm = nn.RMSNorm(dim, eps=1e-5)
+        self.self_attn = _DecoderAttention(dim, n_heads, n_kv_heads, head_dim, rope_theta)
+        self.adaptive_scale = AdaptiveScaling(dim, cond_dim)
+        self.pre_ffn_norm = nn.RMSNorm(dim, eps=1e-5)
+        self.ffn = _DecoderFFN(dim, hidden)
+
+    def __call__(self, x, delay_cond, mask=None, cache=None):
+        x = x + self.self_attn(self.pre_attn_norm(x), mask, cache)
+        scaled = self.pre_ffn_norm(x) * (1.0 + self.adaptive_scale(delay_cond))
+        x = x + self.ffn(scaled)
+        return x
+
+
+class TextDecoder(nn.Module):
+    """Mistral-style causal language model with adaptive time-conditioning."""
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        dim: int = 3072,
+        n_layers: int = 26,
+        n_heads: int = 32,
+        n_kv_heads: int = 8,
+        head_dim: int = 128,
+        hidden_dim: int = 9216,
+        vocab_size: int = 131072,
+        rope_theta: float = 1e6,
+        cond_dim: int = 32,
+    ):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.token_embedding = nn.Embedding(vocab_size, dim)
+        self.blocks = [
+            _DecoderBlock(dim, n_heads, n_kv_heads, head_dim, hidden_dim, rope_theta, cond_dim)
+            for _ in range(n_layers)
+        ]
+        self.final_norm = nn.RMSNorm(dim, eps=1e-5)
+
+    def embed(self, token_ids: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+        return self.token_embedding(token_ids)
+
+    def __call__(self, x, delay_cond, mask=None, cache=None):
+        delay_cond = delay_cond.astype(x.dtype)
+        for i, blk in enumerate(self.blocks):
+            blk_cache = cache[i] if cache is not None else None
+            x = blk(x, delay_cond, mask, blk_cache)
+        x = self.final_norm(x)
+        return self.token_embedding.as_linear(x)
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Adapter & embeddings
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class EncoderToDecoderAdapter(nn.Module):
+    """Two-layer projection from encoder space to decoder space."""
+
+    def __init__(self, enc_dim: int, dec_dim: int):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.linear1 = nn.Linear(enc_dim, dec_dim, bias=False)
+        self.linear2 = nn.Linear(dec_dim, dec_dim, bias=False)
+
+    def __call__(self, x):
+        return self.linear2(nn.gelu(self.linear1(x)))
+
+
+class DelayEmbedding(nn.Module):
+    """Sinusoidal embedding that encodes the streaming delay as a conditioning
+    vector for the decoder's adaptive scaling."""
+
+    def __init__(self, dim: int = 3072, theta: float = 10000.0):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.dim = dim
+        half = dim // 2
+        freqs = mx.exp(-math.log(theta) * mx.arange(half, dtype=mx.float32) / half)
+        self._freqs = freqs
+
+    def __call__(self, delay: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+        t = delay.reshape(-1, 1).astype(mx.float32)
+        angles = t * self._freqs
+        return mx.concatenate([mx.cos(angles), mx.sin(angles)], axis=-1)
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Top-level model
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class VoxtralMLXModel(nn.Module):
+    """Top-level Voxtral Realtime model wiring encoder, adapter, and decoder."""
+
+    def __init__(self, config: dict):
+        super().__init__()
+
+        enc_cfg = config["multimodal"]["whisper_model_args"]["encoder_args"]
+        audio_cfg = enc_cfg["audio_encoding_args"]
+        ds_factor = config["multimodal"]["whisper_model_args"]["downsample_args"]["downsample_factor"]
+
+        self.encoder = StreamingEncoder(
+            mel_channels=audio_cfg["num_mel_bins"],
+            dim=enc_cfg["dim"],
+            n_layers=enc_cfg["n_layers"],
+            n_heads=enc_cfg["n_heads"],
+            head_dim=enc_cfg["head_dim"],
+            hidden_dim=enc_cfg["hidden_dim"],
+            rope_theta=enc_cfg["rope_theta"],
+            sliding_window=enc_cfg["sliding_window"],
+        )
+
+        adapter_input_dim = enc_cfg["dim"] * ds_factor
+        decoder_dim = config["dim"]
+        cond_bottleneck = config.get("ada_rms_norm_t_cond_dim", 32)
+
+        self.adapter = EncoderToDecoderAdapter(adapter_input_dim, decoder_dim)
+
+        self.decoder = TextDecoder(
+            dim=decoder_dim,
+            n_layers=config["n_layers"],
+            n_heads=config["n_heads"],
+            n_kv_heads=config["n_kv_heads"],
+            head_dim=config["head_dim"],
+            hidden_dim=config["hidden_dim"],
+            vocab_size=config["vocab_size"],
+            rope_theta=config["rope_theta"],
+            cond_dim=cond_bottleneck,
+        )
+
+        self.delay_embedding = DelayEmbedding(dim=decoder_dim)
+        self.ds_factor = ds_factor
+
+    # -- batch encode --
+
+    def encode(self, mel: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+        T = mel.shape[1]
+        if T % 2 != 0:
+            mel = mel[:, 1:]
+
+        h = self.encoder.forward(mel)  # [1, T/2, enc_dim]
+        h = h[0]
+
+        n = h.shape[0]
+        trim = n % self.ds_factor
+        if trim:
+            h = h[trim:]
+            n = h.shape[0]
+
+        h = h.reshape(n // self.ds_factor, -1)
+        return self.adapter(h)
+
+    # -- incremental encode --
+
+    def encode_incremental(self, new_mel, conv_tail1, conv_tail2, enc_cache, ds_remainder):
+        """Incrementally encode new mel frames.
+
+        Returns:
+            (audio_embeds | None, conv_tail1, conv_tail2, enc_cache, ds_remainder)
+        """
+        x = new_mel.T[None, :, :].astype(self.encoder.conv1.weight.dtype)
+
+        x, conv_tail1, conv_tail2 = self.encoder.forward_conv_incremental(x, conv_tail1, conv_tail2)
+
+        if enc_cache is None:
+            enc_cache = [SlidingKVCache(100_000) for _ in range(len(self.encoder.blocks))]
+
+        x = self.encoder.forward_transformer_incremental(x, enc_cache)
+        x = x[0]  # [N, enc_dim]
+
+        if ds_remainder is not None:
+            x = mx.concatenate([ds_remainder, x])
+
+        n_full = (x.shape[0] // self.ds_factor) * self.ds_factor
+        if n_full == 0:
+            return None, conv_tail1, conv_tail2, enc_cache, x
+
+        leftover = x[n_full:] if x.shape[0] > n_full else None
+        x = x[:n_full].reshape(n_full // self.ds_factor, -1)
+        return self.adapter(x), conv_tail1, conv_tail2, enc_cache, leftover
+
+    # -- decode --
+
+    def decode(self, embeddings, delay_cond, mask=None, cache=None):
+        return self.decoder(embeddings, delay_cond, mask, cache)
--- a/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx/spectrogram.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx/spectrogram.py
@@ -0,0 +1,202 @@
+"""
+Mel spectrogram computation for Voxtral Realtime.
+
+Provides both a full-audio function and an incremental streaming variant
+that maintains overlap state between calls.  The DFT is computed via
+matrix multiplication in MLX — no external FFT dependency required.
+"""
+
+import math
+
+import mlx.core as mx
+import numpy as np
+
+# Audio / mel constants matching the Voxtral Realtime model expectations.
+SAMPLE_RATE = 16_000
+WINDOW_SIZE = 400        # n_fft
+HOP = 160
+MEL_BANDS = 128
+MEL_MAX = 1.5            # global log-mel normalisation ceiling
+# Each output audio token spans: hop * conv_stride(2) * downsample_factor(4)
+SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN = HOP * 2 * 4  # = 1280 samples = 80 ms
+
+# Padding tokens used by the model prompt structure.
+LEFT_PAD_TOKENS = 32
+RIGHT_PAD_TOKENS = 17
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Slaney mel filterbank
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def _build_slaney_filterbank(
+    sr: int = SAMPLE_RATE,
+    n_fft: int = WINDOW_SIZE,
+    n_mels: int = MEL_BANDS,
+    lo_hz: float = 0.0,
+    hi_hz: float = 8000.0,
+) -> np.ndarray:
+    """Compute a Slaney-normalised triangular mel filterbank.
+
+    Returns an array of shape ``[n_mels, n_fft//2 + 1]``.
+    """
+
+    def _hz2mel(f):
+        threshold = 1000.0
+        base_mel = 15.0
+        log_coeff = 27.0 / np.log(6.4)
+        mel = 3.0 * f / 200.0
+        if isinstance(f, np.ndarray):
+            above = f >= threshold
+            mel[above] = base_mel + np.log(f[above] / threshold) * log_coeff
+        elif f >= threshold:
+            mel = base_mel + np.log(f / threshold) * log_coeff
+        return mel
+
+    def _mel2hz(m):
+        threshold = 1000.0
+        base_mel = 15.0
+        log_coeff = np.log(6.4) / 27.0
+        hz = 200.0 * m / 3.0
+        above = m >= base_mel
+        hz[above] = threshold * np.exp(log_coeff * (m[above] - base_mel))
+        return hz
+
+    n_bins = n_fft // 2 + 1
+    fft_hz = np.linspace(0, sr / 2, n_bins)
+    mel_lo, mel_hi = _hz2mel(lo_hz), _hz2mel(hi_hz)
+    mel_pts = np.linspace(mel_lo, mel_hi, n_mels + 2)
+    hz_pts = _mel2hz(mel_pts)
+    diffs = np.diff(hz_pts)
+
+    slopes = np.expand_dims(hz_pts, 0) - np.expand_dims(fft_hz, 1)
+    rising = -slopes[:, :-2] / diffs[:-1]
+    falling = slopes[:, 2:] / diffs[1:]
+    fb = np.maximum(0.0, np.minimum(rising, falling))
+
+    # Slaney area normalisation
+    widths = 2.0 / (hz_pts[2 : n_mels + 2] - hz_pts[:n_mels])
+    fb *= np.expand_dims(widths, 0)
+    return fb.T.astype(np.float32)
+
+
+_CACHED_FILTERS: mx.array | None = None
+
+
+def _mel_filters() -> mx.array:
+    global _CACHED_FILTERS
+    if _CACHED_FILTERS is None:
+        _CACHED_FILTERS = mx.array(_build_slaney_filterbank())
+    return _CACHED_FILTERS
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# DFT helpers
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def _hann_window() -> mx.array:
+    return mx.array(np.hanning(WINDOW_SIZE + 1)[:-1].astype(np.float32))
+
+
+def _dft_matrices():
+    """Pre-compute the real / imaginary DFT basis matrices."""
+    n_bins = WINDOW_SIZE // 2 + 1
+    k = mx.arange(n_bins, dtype=mx.float32)[:, None]
+    n = mx.arange(WINDOW_SIZE, dtype=mx.float32)[None, :]
+    phase = -2.0 * math.pi * (k @ n) / WINDOW_SIZE
+    return mx.cos(phase), mx.sin(phase)
+
+
+def _stft_frames(audio: mx.array, window: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+    """Frame *audio* using the Hann window and compute power spectrogram."""
+    n_bins = WINDOW_SIZE // 2 + 1
+    n_frames = 1 + (audio.shape[0] - WINDOW_SIZE) // HOP
+    if n_frames <= 0:
+        return mx.zeros((0, n_bins))
+
+    offsets = (mx.arange(n_frames) * HOP)[:, None]
+    indices = offsets + mx.arange(WINDOW_SIZE)[None, :]
+    windowed = audio[indices] * window[None, :]
+
+    dft_re, dft_im = _dft_matrices()
+    real_part = windowed @ dft_re.T
+    imag_part = windowed @ dft_im.T
+    return real_part ** 2 + imag_part ** 2
+
+
+def _apply_mel_and_log(power: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+    """Convert a power spectrogram to log-mel and normalise."""
+    mel = power @ _mel_filters().T
+    log_mel = mx.log10(mx.maximum(mel, 1e-10))
+    log_mel = mx.maximum(log_mel, MEL_MAX - 8.0)
+    return (log_mel + 4.0) / 4.0
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Public API
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def compute_mel(audio: np.ndarray) -> mx.array:
+    """Compute log-mel spectrogram for a complete audio signal.
+
+    Args:
+        audio: 1-D float32 numpy array at ``SAMPLE_RATE``.
+
+    Returns:
+        ``[MEL_BANDS, T]`` MLX array.
+    """
+    x = mx.array(audio)
+    pad = WINDOW_SIZE // 2
+    x = mx.pad(x, [(pad, pad)])
+    window = _hann_window()
+
+    power = _stft_frames(x, window)
+    # Drop last frame to match reference STFT behaviour
+    power = power[:-1]
+    return _apply_mel_and_log(power).T
+
+
+def compute_mel_streaming(
+    chunk: np.ndarray,
+    overlap: np.ndarray | None,
+) -> tuple[mx.array, np.ndarray]:
+    """Incrementally compute log-mel for a new audio chunk.
+
+    Args:
+        chunk: New audio samples (float32 numpy).
+        overlap: The last ``WINDOW_SIZE - HOP`` = 240 samples from the
+            previous call, or *None* on the first call (uses zero-padding).
+
+    Returns:
+        ``(mel, new_overlap)`` where *mel* is ``[MEL_BANDS, N]`` and
+        *new_overlap* is the 240-sample tail for the next call.
+    """
+    tail_len = WINDOW_SIZE - HOP  # 240
+
+    if overlap is not None:
+        combined = np.concatenate([overlap, chunk])
+    else:
+        combined = np.concatenate([np.zeros(WINDOW_SIZE // 2, dtype=np.float32), chunk])
+
+    new_overlap = combined[-tail_len:].copy()
+
+    x = mx.array(combined)
+    window = _hann_window()
+    power = _stft_frames(x, window)
+
+    if power.shape[0] == 0:
+        return mx.zeros((MEL_BANDS, 0)), new_overlap
+
+    return _apply_mel_and_log(power).T, new_overlap
+
+
+def pad_audio(
+    audio: np.ndarray,
+    n_left: int = LEFT_PAD_TOKENS,
+    n_right: int = RIGHT_PAD_TOKENS,
+) -> np.ndarray:
+    """Pad audio with silence for batch (non-streaming) inference."""
+    left = n_left * SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN
+    align = (SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN - (len(audio) % SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN)) % SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN
+    right = align + n_right * SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN
+    return np.pad(audio, (left, right))
--- a/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx_asr.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/voxtral_mlx_asr.py
@@ -0,0 +1,521 @@
+"""
+Pure-MLX Voxtral Realtime ASR backend for WhisperLiveKit.
+
+Provides ``VoxtralMLXASR`` (model holder) and ``VoxtralMLXOnlineProcessor``
+(streaming processor) that plug into WhisperLiveKit's audio processing
+pipeline via ``insert_audio_chunk`` / ``process_iter`` / ``get_buffer`` etc.
+
+Unlike the HuggingFace backend, this runs the full inference loop in-process
+(no background thread / queue) — MLX operations on Apple Silicon are fast
+enough to run synchronously inside ``asyncio.to_thread(process_iter)``.
+"""
+
+import logging
+import sys
+import time
+from typing import List, Optional, Tuple
+
+import mlx.core as mx
+import numpy as np
+from mistral_common.tokens.tokenizers.base import SpecialTokenPolicy
+
+from whisperlivekit.timed_objects import ASRToken, Transcript
+from whisperlivekit.voxtral_mlx.loader import load_voxtral_model, DEFAULT_MODEL_ID
+from whisperlivekit.voxtral_mlx.model import SlidingKVCache
+from whisperlivekit.voxtral_mlx.spectrogram import (
+    SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN,
+    LEFT_PAD_TOKENS,
+    RIGHT_PAD_TOKENS,
+    compute_mel_streaming,
+)
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+# Decoder sliding-window size (matches the model's training configuration).
+_DECODER_WINDOW = 8192
+
+
+def _prompt_tokens(tokenizer, n_left_pad=LEFT_PAD_TOKENS, n_delay=6):
+    """Build the prompt token sequence and return ``(token_ids, n_delay)``."""
+    pad_id = tokenizer.get_special_token("[STREAMING_PAD]")
+    ids = [tokenizer.bos_id] + [pad_id] * (n_left_pad + n_delay)
+    return ids, n_delay
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Model holder
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class VoxtralMLXASR:
+    """Lightweight model holder — loads the MLX Voxtral model once and keeps
+    it alive for the lifetime of the server."""
+
+    sep = " "
+    SAMPLING_RATE = 16_000
+
+    def __init__(self, logfile=sys.stderr, **kwargs):
+        self.logfile = logfile
+        self.transcribe_kargs = {}
+
+        lan = kwargs.get("lan", "auto")
+        self.original_language = None if lan == "auto" else lan
+
+        model_path = kwargs.get("model_dir") or kwargs.get("model_path")
+        if not model_path:
+            model_size = kwargs.get("model_size", "")
+            if model_size and ("/" in model_size or model_size.startswith(".")):
+                model_path = model_size
+            else:
+                model_path = DEFAULT_MODEL_ID
+
+        t0 = time.time()
+        logger.info("Loading Voxtral MLX model '%s' ...", model_path)
+        self.model, self.tokenizer, self.config = load_voxtral_model(model_path)
+        logger.info("Voxtral MLX model loaded in %.2fs", time.time() - t0)
+
+        self.backend_choice = "voxtral-mlx"
+
+    def transcribe(self, audio):
+        pass  # all work happens in the online processor
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Online processor
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class VoxtralMLXOnlineProcessor:
+    """Streaming processor that incrementally encodes audio and decodes text
+    using the MLX Voxtral model.
+
+    Lifecycle (called by ``AudioProcessor.transcription_processor``):
+
+        insert_audio_chunk(pcm, time)  →  process_iter()  →  get_buffer()
+                      ... repeat ...
+        start_silence() / end_silence()
+        finish()
+    """
+
+    SAMPLING_RATE = 16_000
+
+    def __init__(self, asr: VoxtralMLXASR, logfile=sys.stderr):
+        self.asr = asr
+        self.logfile = logfile
+        self.end = 0.0
+        self.buffer: list = []
+        self.audio_buffer = np.array([], dtype=np.float32)
+
+        self._model = asr.model
+        self._tokenizer = asr.tokenizer
+
+        # Pre-compute prompt tokens and delay conditioning (constant across utterances).
+        self._prompt_ids, self._n_delay = _prompt_tokens(self._tokenizer)
+        self._prefix_len = len(self._prompt_ids)
+
+        self._delay_cond = self._model.delay_embedding(
+            mx.array([self._n_delay], dtype=mx.float32)
+        )
+        mx.eval(self._delay_cond)
+
+        self._prompt_embeds = self._model.decoder.embed(
+            mx.array([self._prompt_ids])
+        )[0]  # [prefix_len, dim]
+        mx.eval(self._prompt_embeds)
+
+        self._eos_id = self._tokenizer.eos_id
+        self._secs_per_token = SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN / self.SAMPLING_RATE
+        # The streaming model has an inherent delay: text for audio at position P
+        # is generated at decoder position P + n_delay. Compensate timestamps.
+        self._delay_secs = self._n_delay * self._secs_per_token
+
+        self._reset_state()
+
+    # -- state management --
+
+    def _reset_state(self):
+        """Reset all incremental state for a fresh utterance."""
+        # Audio accumulation
+        self._pending = np.zeros(0, dtype=np.float32)
+        # Mel overlap
+        self._mel_overlap: np.ndarray | None = None
+        # Encoder incremental state
+        self._conv_tail1 = None
+        self._conv_tail2 = None
+        self._enc_cache = None
+        self._ds_remainder = None
+        # Audio embeddings not yet decoded
+        self._audio_embeds: mx.array | None = None
+        # Decoder state
+        self._dec_cache: list[SlidingKVCache] | None = None
+        self._last_token: mx.array | None = None
+        # Bookkeeping
+        self._samples_encoded = 0
+        self._positions_decoded = 0
+        self._prefilled = False
+        self._first_chunk = True
+        # Text state
+        self._full_text = ""
+        self._n_text_tokens = 0
+        self._n_committed_words = 0
+        self._time_offset = 0.0
+        # Per-word audio position tracking: decoder position (relative to prefix)
+        # where each word in _full_text started and ended
+        self._word_audio_starts: list[int] = []   # audio pos where word i started
+        self._word_audio_ends: list[int] = []     # audio pos where word i last produced a token
+        self._current_word_pos: Optional[int] = None  # audio pos of current (incomplete) word's first token
+
+    # -- audio ingestion --
+
+    def insert_audio_chunk(self, audio: np.ndarray, audio_stream_end_time: float):
+        self.end = audio_stream_end_time
+        self._pending = np.append(self._pending, audio)
+        self.audio_buffer = self._pending
+
+    # -- core processing --
+
+    def process_iter(self, is_last=False) -> Tuple[List[ASRToken], float]:
+        try:
+            return self._step(is_last)
+        except Exception as e:
+            logger.warning("[voxtral-mlx] process_iter error: %s", e, exc_info=True)
+            return [], self.end
+
+    def _step(self, is_last: bool) -> Tuple[List[ASRToken], float]:
+        # 1. Encode any new audio
+        self._encode_pending()
+
+        if self._audio_embeds is None:
+            return [], self.end
+
+        # 2. Compute how many positions we can safely decode
+        total_safe = LEFT_PAD_TOKENS + self._samples_encoded // SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN
+        n_available = self._audio_embeds.shape[0]
+        n_decodable = min(n_available, total_safe - self._positions_decoded)
+
+        if n_decodable <= 0:
+            return [], self.end
+
+        # 3. Prefill if needed
+        if not self._prefilled:
+            if self._positions_decoded + n_available < self._prefix_len:
+                return [], self.end
+            self._do_prefill()
+            # Re-check after consuming prefix embeddings
+            n_available = self._audio_embeds.shape[0] if self._audio_embeds is not None else 0
+            n_decodable = min(n_available, total_safe - self._positions_decoded)
+
+        if n_decodable <= 0 or self._audio_embeds is None:
+            return [], self.end
+
+        # 4. Decode available positions
+        hit_eos = self._decode_positions(n_decodable)
+
+        if hit_eos:
+            # Flush words, reset for next utterance
+            words = self._flush_all_words()
+            logger.debug(
+                "[voxtral-mlx] EOS hit during stream: flushed %d words, "
+                "samples_encoded=%d (%.2fs), text='%s'",
+                len(words), self._samples_encoded,
+                self._samples_encoded / self.SAMPLING_RATE,
+                self._full_text[-60:] if self._full_text else "",
+            )
+            saved_offset = self._time_offset
+            self._reset_state()
+            self._time_offset = saved_offset
+            return words, self.end
+
+        # 5. Extract committed words (all but the last, which may still grow)
+        return self._extract_committed_words(), self.end
+
+    def _encode_pending(self):
+        """Feed pending audio through the incremental encoder."""
+        available = len(self._pending)
+        if available < SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN:
+            return
+
+        if self._first_chunk:
+            # First chunk: prepend silence for left-padding
+            n_take = (available // SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN) * SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN
+            left_pad = np.zeros(LEFT_PAD_TOKENS * SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN, dtype=np.float32)
+            chunk = np.concatenate([left_pad, self._pending[:n_take]])
+            self._pending = self._pending[n_take:]
+            self._samples_encoded += n_take
+            self._first_chunk = False
+        else:
+            n_take = (available // SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN) * SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN
+            chunk = self._pending[:n_take]
+            self._pending = self._pending[n_take:]
+            self._samples_encoded += n_take
+
+        mel, self._mel_overlap = compute_mel_streaming(chunk, self._mel_overlap)
+
+        embeds, self._conv_tail1, self._conv_tail2, self._enc_cache, self._ds_remainder = (
+            self._model.encode_incremental(
+                mel, self._conv_tail1, self._conv_tail2, self._enc_cache, self._ds_remainder
+            )
+        )
+
+        if embeds is not None:
+            mx.eval(embeds)
+            if self._audio_embeds is not None:
+                self._audio_embeds = mx.concatenate([self._audio_embeds, embeds])
+            else:
+                self._audio_embeds = embeds
+
+        self.audio_buffer = self._pending
+
+    def _do_prefill(self):
+        """Run the decoder prefill pass over the prompt + first audio embeddings."""
+        n_dec_layers = len(self._model.decoder.blocks)
+        self._dec_cache = [SlidingKVCache(_DECODER_WINDOW) for _ in range(n_dec_layers)]
+
+        prefix_embeds = self._prompt_embeds + self._audio_embeds[: self._prefix_len]
+        prefix_embeds = prefix_embeds[None, :, :]  # [1, prefix_len, dim]
+
+        logits = self._model.decode(prefix_embeds, self._delay_cond, "causal", self._dec_cache)
+        mx.eval(logits, *[x for c in self._dec_cache for x in (c.keys, c.values)])
+
+        self._last_token = self._sample(logits)
+        mx.async_eval(self._last_token)
+
+        # Remove consumed prefix embeddings
+        self._audio_embeds = self._audio_embeds[self._prefix_len :]
+        if self._audio_embeds.shape[0] == 0:
+            self._audio_embeds = None
+        self._positions_decoded = self._prefix_len
+        self._prefilled = True
+
+    def _decode_positions(self, n: int) -> bool:
+        """Autoregressively decode *n* positions.  Returns True on EOS."""
+        base_pos = self._positions_decoded  # absolute position before this batch
+        for i in range(n):
+            tok_embed = self._model.decoder.embed(self._last_token.reshape(1, 1))[0, 0]
+            combined = (self._audio_embeds[i] + tok_embed)[None, None, :]
+            logits = self._model.decode(combined, self._delay_cond, mask=None, cache=self._dec_cache)
+            next_tok = self._sample(logits)
+            mx.async_eval(next_tok)
+
+            token_id = self._last_token.item()
+            if token_id == self._eos_id:
+                # Close the current word if one is being built
+                if self._current_word_pos is not None:
+                    self._word_audio_ends.append(base_pos + i - self._prefix_len)
+                    self._current_word_pos = None
+                self._trim_embeds(i)
+                self._positions_decoded += i
+                return True
+
+            text = self._tokenizer.decode(
+                [token_id], special_token_policy=SpecialTokenPolicy.IGNORE
+            )
+
+            if text:
+                audio_pos = base_pos + i - self._prefix_len
+
+                # Detect word boundary: new word starts with space or is the very first text
+                if text.lstrip() != text or not self._full_text:
+                    # Close previous word if exists
+                    if self._current_word_pos is not None:
+                        self._word_audio_ends.append(audio_pos)
+                    # Start new word
+                    self._word_audio_starts.append(audio_pos)
+                    self._current_word_pos = audio_pos
+                elif self._current_word_pos is None:
+                    # First token of first word (no leading space)
+                    self._word_audio_starts.append(audio_pos)
+                    self._current_word_pos = audio_pos
+
+                self._full_text += text
+                self._n_text_tokens += 1
+
+            if i > 0 and i % 256 == 0:
+                mx.clear_cache()
+
+            self._last_token = next_tok
+
+        self._positions_decoded += n
+        self._trim_embeds(n)
+        return False
+
+    def _trim_embeds(self, n_consumed: int):
+        if self._audio_embeds is not None and self._audio_embeds.shape[0] > n_consumed:
+            self._audio_embeds = self._audio_embeds[n_consumed:]
+        else:
+            self._audio_embeds = None
+
+    def _sample(self, logits: mx.array) -> mx.array:
+        return mx.argmax(logits[0, -1:], axis=-1).squeeze()
+
+    # -- word extraction --
+
+    def _audio_pos_to_time(self, pos: int) -> float:
+        """Convert an audio position (relative to prefix end) to seconds."""
+        return max(0.0, pos * self._secs_per_token - self._delay_secs + self._time_offset)
+
+    def _word_time_range(self, word_idx: int, n_words: int) -> Tuple[float, float]:
+        """Compute (start, end) time for a word using tracked word positions."""
+        starts = self._word_audio_starts
+        ends = self._word_audio_ends
+
+        if not starts:
+            return self._time_offset, self._time_offset
+
+        # Get start position for this word
+        if word_idx < len(starts):
+            t0 = self._audio_pos_to_time(starts[word_idx])
+        else:
+            # Fallback: estimate from last known position
+            last_pos = ends[-1] if ends else starts[-1]
+            t0 = self._audio_pos_to_time(last_pos + 1)
+
+        # Get end position: use the start of the next word, or the end of this word
+        if word_idx + 1 < len(starts):
+            t1 = self._audio_pos_to_time(starts[word_idx + 1])
+        elif word_idx < len(ends):
+            t1 = self._audio_pos_to_time(ends[word_idx] + 1)
+        else:
+            # Last word, still being built: use last known position + 1 token
+            last_pos = starts[word_idx] if word_idx < len(starts) else (ends[-1] if ends else 0)
+            t1 = self._audio_pos_to_time(last_pos + 1)
+
+        return t0, t1
+
+    def _extract_committed_words(self) -> List[ASRToken]:
+        """Return complete words (all except the last which may still grow)."""
+        if not self._full_text:
+            return []
+        words = self._full_text.split()
+        tokens: List[ASRToken] = []
+        n_total = max(len(words), 1)
+
+        while len(words) > self._n_committed_words + 1:
+            w = words[self._n_committed_words]
+            idx = self._n_committed_words
+            t0, t1 = self._word_time_range(idx, n_total)
+            label = w if idx == 0 else " " + w
+            tokens.append(ASRToken(start=t0, end=t1, text=label))
+            self._n_committed_words += 1
+
+        return tokens
+
+    def _flush_all_words(self) -> List[ASRToken]:
+        """Flush every word including the last partial one."""
+        if not self._full_text:
+            return []
+        words = self._full_text.split()
+        tokens: List[ASRToken] = []
+        n_total = max(len(words), 1)
+
+        while self._n_committed_words < len(words):
+            w = words[self._n_committed_words]
+            idx = self._n_committed_words
+            t0, t1 = self._word_time_range(idx, n_total)
+            label = w if idx == 0 else " " + w
+            tokens.append(ASRToken(start=t0, end=t1, text=label))
+            self._n_committed_words += 1
+
+        return tokens
+
+    # -- interface methods --
+
+    def get_buffer(self) -> Transcript:
+        if not self._full_text:
+            return Transcript(start=None, end=None, text="")
+        words = self._full_text.split()
+        remaining = words[self._n_committed_words :]
+        if remaining:
+            return Transcript(start=self.end, end=self.end, text=" ".join(remaining))
+        return Transcript(start=None, end=None, text="")
+
+    def start_silence(self) -> Tuple[List[ASRToken], float]:
+        words = self._flush_all_words()
+        logger.info("[voxtral-mlx] start_silence: flushed %d words", len(words))
+        return words, self.end
+
+    def end_silence(self, silence_duration: float, offset: float):
+        self._time_offset += silence_duration
+        self.end += silence_duration
+
+    def new_speaker(self, change_speaker):
+        self.start_silence()
+
+    def warmup(self, audio, init_prompt=""):
+        pass
+
+    def finish(self) -> Tuple[List[ASRToken], float]:
+        logger.debug(
+            "[voxtral-mlx] finish: pending=%d samples, audio_embeds=%s, "
+            "samples_encoded=%d, positions_decoded=%d, prefilled=%s, text so far='%s'",
+            len(self._pending),
+            self._audio_embeds.shape if self._audio_embeds is not None else None,
+            self._samples_encoded,
+            self._positions_decoded,
+            self._prefilled,
+            self._full_text[-80:] if self._full_text else "",
+        )
+
+        # Align pending audio to SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN boundary so nothing is lost
+        remainder = len(self._pending) % SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN
+        if remainder > 0:
+            align_pad = SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN - remainder
+        else:
+            align_pad = 0
+
+        # Add alignment + right-padding silence
+        total_pad = align_pad + RIGHT_PAD_TOKENS * SAMPLES_PER_TOKEN
+        if total_pad > 0:
+            self._pending = np.append(
+                self._pending, np.zeros(total_pad, dtype=np.float32)
+            )
+
+        # Encode remaining audio (including right-padding)
+        self._encode_pending()
+
+        logger.debug(
+            "[voxtral-mlx] finish after encode: audio_embeds=%s, pending=%d",
+            self._audio_embeds.shape if self._audio_embeds is not None else None,
+            len(self._pending),
+        )
+
+        hit_eos = False
+
+        # Decode everything that's left from right-padding
+        if self._audio_embeds is not None and self._prefilled:
+            hit_eos = self._decode_positions(self._audio_embeds.shape[0])
+            logger.debug(
+                "[voxtral-mlx] finish decode: hit_eos=%s, text='%s'",
+                hit_eos, self._full_text[-80:] if self._full_text else "",
+            )
+
+        # Flush last token if it wasn't EOS
+        if self._last_token is not None:
+            tid = self._last_token.item()
+            if tid != self._eos_id:
+                text = self._tokenizer.decode(
+                    [tid], special_token_policy=SpecialTokenPolicy.IGNORE
+                )
+                if text:
+                    last_pos = self._positions_decoded - self._prefix_len
+                    # Check if this starts a new word
+                    if text.lstrip() != text or not self._full_text:
+                        if self._current_word_pos is not None:
+                            self._word_audio_ends.append(last_pos)
+                        self._word_audio_starts.append(last_pos)
+                        self._current_word_pos = last_pos
+                    elif self._current_word_pos is None:
+                        self._word_audio_starts.append(last_pos)
+                        self._current_word_pos = last_pos
+                    self._full_text += text
+                    self._n_text_tokens += 1
+
+        # Close the last word if still open
+        if self._current_word_pos is not None:
+            last_pos = self._positions_decoded - self._prefix_len
+            self._word_audio_ends.append(last_pos)
+            self._current_word_pos = None
+
+        words = self._flush_all_words()
+        logger.info("[voxtral-mlx] finish: flushed %d words", len(words))
+        return words, self.end
--- a/whisperlivekit/whisper/val.py
+++ b/whisperlivekit/whisper/val.py
@@ -0,0 +1,200 @@
+"""
+The most atomic way to train and inference a GPT in pure, dependency-free Python.
+This file is the complete algorithm.
+Everything else is just efficiency.
+
+@karpathy
+"""
+
+import os       # os.path.exists
+import math     # math.log, math.exp
+import random   # random.seed, random.choices, random.gauss, random.shuffle
+random.seed(42) # Let there be order among chaos
+
+# Let there be an input dataset `docs`: list[str] of documents (e.g. a dataset of names)
+if not os.path.exists('input.txt'):
+    import urllib.request
+    names_url = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/karpathy/makemore/refs/heads/master/names.txt'
+    urllib.request.urlretrieve(names_url, 'input.txt')
+docs = [l.strip() for l in open('input.txt').read().strip().split('\n') if l.strip()] # list[str] of documents
+random.shuffle(docs)
+print(f"num docs: {len(docs)}")
+
+# Let there be a Tokenizer to translate strings to discrete symbols and back
+uchars = sorted(set(''.join(docs))) # unique characters in the dataset become token ids 0..n-1
+BOS = len(uchars) # token id for the special Beginning of Sequence (BOS) token
+vocab_size = len(uchars) + 1 # total number of unique tokens, +1 is for BOS
+print(f"vocab size: {vocab_size}")
+
+# Let there be Autograd, to recursively apply the chain rule through a computation graph
+class Value:
+    __slots__ = ('data', 'grad', '_children', '_local_grads') # Python optimization for memory usage
+
+    def __init__(self, data, children=(), local_grads=()):
+        self.data = data                # scalar value of this node calculated during forward pass
+        self.grad = 0                   # derivative of the loss w.r.t. this node, calculated in backward pass
+        self._children = children       # children of this node in the computation graph
+        self._local_grads = local_grads # local derivative of this node w.r.t. its children
+
+    def __add__(self, other):
+        other = other if isinstance(other, Value) else Value(other)
+        return Value(self.data + other.data, (self, other), (1, 1))
+
+    def __mul__(self, other):
+        other = other if isinstance(other, Value) else Value(other)
+        return Value(self.data * other.data, (self, other), (other.data, self.data))
+
+    def __pow__(self, other): return Value(self.data**other, (self,), (other * self.data**(other-1),))
+    def log(self): return Value(math.log(self.data), (self,), (1/self.data,))
+    def exp(self): return Value(math.exp(self.data), (self,), (math.exp(self.data),))
+    def relu(self): return Value(max(0, self.data), (self,), (float(self.data > 0),))
+    def __neg__(self): return self * -1
+    def __radd__(self, other): return self + other
+    def __sub__(self, other): return self + (-other)
+    def __rsub__(self, other): return other + (-self)
+    def __rmul__(self, other): return self * other
+    def __truediv__(self, other): return self * other**-1
+    def __rtruediv__(self, other): return other * self**-1
+
+    def backward(self):
+        topo = []
+        visited = set()
+        def build_topo(v):
+            if v not in visited:
+                visited.add(v)
+                for child in v._children:
+                    build_topo(child)
+                topo.append(v)
+        build_topo(self)
+        self.grad = 1
+        for v in reversed(topo):
+            for child, local_grad in zip(v._children, v._local_grads):
+                child.grad += local_grad * v.grad
+
+# Initialize the parameters, to store the knowledge of the model.
+n_embd = 16     # embedding dimension
+n_head = 4      # number of attention heads
+n_layer = 1     # number of layers
+block_size = 16 # maximum sequence length
+head_dim = n_embd // n_head # dimension of each head
+matrix = lambda nout, nin, std=0.08: [[Value(random.gauss(0, std)) for _ in range(nin)] for _ in range(nout)]
+state_dict = {'wte': matrix(vocab_size, n_embd), 'wpe': matrix(block_size, n_embd), 'lm_head': matrix(vocab_size, n_embd)}
+for i in range(n_layer):
+    state_dict[f'layer{i}.attn_wq'] = matrix(n_embd, n_embd)
+    state_dict[f'layer{i}.attn_wk'] = matrix(n_embd, n_embd)
+    state_dict[f'layer{i}.attn_wv'] = matrix(n_embd, n_embd)
+    state_dict[f'layer{i}.attn_wo'] = matrix(n_embd, n_embd)
+    state_dict[f'layer{i}.mlp_fc1'] = matrix(4 * n_embd, n_embd)
+    state_dict[f'layer{i}.mlp_fc2'] = matrix(n_embd, 4 * n_embd)
+params = [p for mat in state_dict.values() for row in mat for p in row] # flatten params into a single list[Value]
+print(f"num params: {len(params)}")
+# Define the model architecture: a stateless function mapping token sequence and parameters to logits over what comes next.
+# Follow GPT-2, blessed among the GPTs, with minor differences: layernorm -> rmsnorm, no biases, GeLU -> ReLU
+
+def linear(x, w):
+    return [sum(wi * xi for wi, xi in zip(wo, x)) for wo in w]
+
+
+def softmax(logits):
+    max_val = max(val.data for val in logits)
+    exps = [(val - max_val).exp() for val in logits]
+    total = sum(exps)
+    return [e / total for e in exps]
+
+def rmsnorm(x):
+    ms = sum(xi * xi for xi in x) / len(x)
+    scale = (ms + 1e-5) ** -0.5
+    return [xi * scale for xi in x]
+
+def gpt(token_id, pos_id, keys, values):
+    tok_emb = state_dict['wte'][token_id] # token embedding
+    pos_emb = state_dict['wpe'][pos_id] # position embedding
+    x = [t + p for t, p in zip(tok_emb, pos_emb)] # joint token and position embedding
+    x = rmsnorm(x)
+
+    for li in range(n_layer):
+        # 1) Multi-head attention block
+        x_residual = x
+        x = rmsnorm(x)
+        q = linear(x, state_dict[f'layer{li}.attn_wq'])
+        k = linear(x, state_dict[f'layer{li}.attn_wk'])
+        v = linear(x, state_dict[f'layer{li}.attn_wv'])
+        keys[li].append(k)
+        values[li].append(v)
+        x_attn = []
+        for h in range(n_head):
+            hs = h * head_dim
+            q_h = q[hs:hs+head_dim]
+            k_h = [ki[hs:hs+head_dim] for ki in keys[li]]
+            v_h = [vi[hs:hs+head_dim] for vi in values[li]]
+            attn_logits = [sum(q_h[j] * k_h[t][j] for j in range(head_dim)) / head_dim**0.5 for t in range(len(k_h))]
+            attn_weights = softmax(attn_logits)
+            head_out = [sum(attn_weights[t] * v_h[t][j] for t in range(len(v_h))) for j in range(head_dim)]
+            x_attn.extend(head_out)
+        x = linear(x_attn, state_dict[f'layer{li}.attn_wo'])
+        x = [a + b for a, b in zip(x, x_residual)]
+        # 2) MLP block
+        x_residual = x
+        x = rmsnorm(x)
+        x = linear(x, state_dict[f'layer{li}.mlp_fc1'])
+        x = [xi.relu() for xi in x]
+        x = linear(x, state_dict[f'layer{li}.mlp_fc2'])
+        x = [a + b for a, b in zip(x, x_residual)]
+
+    logits = linear(x, state_dict['lm_head'])
+    return logits
+
+# Let there be Adam, the blessed optimizer and its buffers
+learning_rate, beta1, beta2, eps_adam = 0.01, 0.85, 0.99, 1e-8
+m = [0.0] * len(params) # first moment buffer
+v = [0.0] * len(params) # second moment buffer
+# Repeat in sequence
+num_steps = 1000 # number of training steps
+for step in range(num_steps):
+
+    # Take single document, tokenize it, surround it with BOS special token on both sides
+    doc = docs[step % len(docs)]
+    tokens = [BOS] + [uchars.index(ch) for ch in doc] + [BOS]
+    n = min(block_size, len(tokens) - 1)
+
+    # Forward the token sequence through the model, building up the computation graph all the way to the loss.
+    keys, values = [[] for _ in range(n_layer)], [[] for _ in range(n_layer)]
+    losses = []
+    for pos_id in range(n):
+        token_id, target_id = tokens[pos_id], tokens[pos_id + 1]
+        logits = gpt(token_id, pos_id, keys, values)
+        probs = softmax(logits)
+        loss_t = -probs[target_id].log()
+        losses.append(loss_t)
+    loss = (1 / n) * sum(losses) # final average loss over the document sequence. May yours be low.
+
+    # Backward the loss, calculating the gradients with respect to all model parameters.
+    loss.backward()
+
+    # Adam optimizer update: update the model parameters based on the corresponding gradients.
+    lr_t = learning_rate * (1 - step / num_steps) # linear learning rate decay
+    for i, p in enumerate(params):
+        m[i] = beta1 * m[i] + (1 - beta1) * p.grad
+        v[i] = beta2 * v[i] + (1 - beta2) * p.grad ** 2
+        m_hat = m[i] / (1 - beta1 ** (step + 1))
+        v_hat = v[i] / (1 - beta2 ** (step + 1))
+        p.data -= lr_t * m_hat / (v_hat ** 0.5 + eps_adam)
+        p.grad = 0
+
+    print(f"step {step+1:4d} / {num_steps:4d} | loss {loss.data:.4f}")
+
+# Inference: may the model babble back to us
+temperature = 0.5 # in (0, 1], control the "creativity" of generated text, low to high
+print("\n--- inference (new, hallucinated names) ---")
+for sample_idx in range(20):
+    keys, values = [[] for _ in range(n_layer)], [[] for _ in range(n_layer)]
+    token_id = BOS
+    sample = []
+    for pos_id in range(block_size):
+        logits = gpt(token_id, pos_id, keys, values)
+        probs = softmax([l / temperature for l in logits])
+        token_id = random.choices(range(vocab_size), weights=[p.data for p in probs])[0]
+        if token_id == BOS:
+            break
+        sample.append(uchars[token_id])
+    print(f"sample {sample_idx+1:2d}: {''.join(sample)}")
Author	SHA1	Message	Date
Quentin Fuxa	b1fc23807a	docs: add benchmark collaboration call, voxtral in powered-by section	2026-02-23 10:37:22 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	10c4e5f730	docs: add speed vs accuracy scatter plot to benchmark and README WER vs RTF scatter plot showing all backend/policy/model combos on the 30s English file. Sweet spot zone highlights the best tradeoffs. Added to both BENCHMARK.md and README.md.	2026-02-23 10:27:53 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	c76b2ef2c6	docs: rewrite benchmark with base/small comparison, proper French results - Re-ran all whisper benchmarks with --lan fr for the French file (previously ran with --lan en which made the results meaningless) - Added small model results alongside base for all backends - Added model size comparison table (base vs small tradeoffs) - Added benchmark chart (30s English, WER + RTF by backend) - Added caveats section about dataset size and RTF variance - Key findings: SimulStreaming saturates at 5.3% WER on base already, small model mainly helps LocalAgreement and French timestamps - mlx-whisper LA base is unstable on French (hallucination loops)	2026-02-23 10:16:34 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	4b2377c243	fix: correct false auto-detect claim, median bug, RTF inflation - BENCHMARK.md: whisper also supports --language auto, voxtral is not the only one. Fixed mlx-whisper speed comparison (LA is actually faster than SS for mlx-whisper, not comparable). - metrics.py: median calculation was wrong for even-length lists (took upper middle instead of averaging the two middle values). - metrics_collector.py: RTF was inflated because log_summary() used wall-clock elapsed time instead of sum of actual ASR call durations. - README.md: clarified that whisper also supports auto language detection, voxtral just does it better. - Added 2 new median tests (even + odd length).	2026-02-22 23:38:04 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	a4da246ea5	feat: add voxtral-mlx native backend for Apple Silicon Pure-MLX implementation of Voxtral Mini 4B Realtime for low-latency speech transcription on Apple Silicon. Avoids the transformers/torch overhead and runs at 0.18-0.32x real-time factor. - voxtral_mlx/model.py: MLX model with spectrogram, encoder, decoder - voxtral_mlx/loader.py: model loading with 6-bit quantized weights - voxtral_mlx/spectrogram.py: mel spectrogram computation in MLX - voxtral_mlx_asr.py: VoxtralASR adapter for the AudioProcessor pipeline	2026-02-22 23:28:10 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	9b2c3ee844	docs: update README with voxtral backend, benchmarks, testing sections - Add Voxtral Backend section explaining voxtral-mlx and voxtral (HF). - Add Testing & Benchmarks section with commands to run tests/benchmarks. - Update --backend parameter docs to include voxtral-mlx and voxtral. - Update optional dependencies table with Voxtral entry. - Link to BENCHMARK.md for detailed performance comparisons.	2026-02-22 23:27:57 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	83d0fa3fac	feat: benchmark suite with WER, timestamp accuracy, cross-backend comparison - Extend test_backend_offline.py with WER and timestamp accuracy metrics computed via whisperlivekit.metrics against ground truth transcripts. - Add --benchmark flag to auto-detect all installed backends and run each (backend, policy) combination in sequence. - Add --policy flag to override the streaming policy. - Add detect_available_backends() probing faster-whisper, mlx-whisper, voxtral-mlx, voxtral (HF), and openai-whisper. - Add print_cross_backend_comparison() with per-combo averages. - Add run_benchmark.py for comprehensive multi-model benchmarking. - Add BENCHMARK.md with full results on Apple M4: speed, WER, timestamp accuracy, VAC impact, and recommendations. - Add ground truth transcript JSON files for all audio test files.	2026-02-22 23:27:50 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	5a12c627b4	feat: add 99-test unit test suite with zero model dependencies Test suite covering: - metrics.py: WER computation, timestamp accuracy, text normalization - config.py: defaults, .en model detection, policy aliases, from_namespace - timed_objects.py: ASRToken, Silence, Transcript, Segment, FrontData - hypothesis_buffer.py: insert, flush, LCP matching, pop_committed - silence_handling.py: state machine, double-counting regression test - audio_processor.py: async pipeline with MockOnlineProcessor All tests run in ~1.3s without downloading any ASR models. Add pytest and pytest-asyncio as optional test dependencies. Update .gitignore to allow tests/ directory.	2026-02-22 23:27:40 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	f5eee67b11	fix: silence double-counting bug, add metrics module and runtime instrumentation - Fix _begin_silence pushing same object reference as _end_silence, causing the consumer to process two ended events and double the silence duration. - Fix initial silence never cleared when VAC is disabled, causing the no-VAC path to enqueue zero audio. - Add sample-precise silence boundaries (at_sample parameter). - Add whisperlivekit/metrics.py with WER computation (word-level Levenshtein) and timestamp accuracy (greedy alignment). No external dependencies. - Add whisperlivekit/metrics_collector.py with SessionMetrics dataclass for per-session runtime observability. Instrumented at 6 points in AudioProcessor: init, process_audio, transcription_processor, _end_silence, results_formatter, cleanup. Emits SESSION_METRICS structured log line on session end.	2026-02-22 23:27:12 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	4a6868e3e1	correct processor attributes mixtral	2026-02-22 21:13:21 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	3c15246fc0	mixstral hf v0	2026-02-20 20:49:57 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	d337248fda	feat: add healthcheck to Dockerfiles (#228 )	2026-02-20 20:48:28 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	b8d9d7d289	fix: handle numpy object_ dtype from ctranslate2 encoder (#337 )	2026-02-20 20:48:28 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	4c7706e2cf	fix: use vac_chunk_size for audio processing interval when VAC is enabled (#334 )	2026-02-20 20:48:06 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	7f3a3df620	simulstreaming mlx & torch dedup of common base	2025-02-15 23:52:00 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	e7e82f7c19	bump to 0.2.18	2026-02-11 22:10:00 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	8c799fa4d1	fix simulstreaming vram leak: cap cross-attn accumulation + token budget fixes #283, fixes #275 - accumulated_cross_attns was growing unboundedly during decoding loop, using up to ~5GB for repetition loops. now capped to rolling window of 16 - max_tokens_per_chunk was using TOKENS_PER_SECOND (mel frame rate = 50) instead of actual text token rate (~15/s), allowing 10-40x too many decoding steps - removed unused torch.cat on early return path - removed dead self.committed/last_result_tokens lists (never read) - same fixes applied to mlx variant	2026-02-11 22:10:00 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	8923337380	fix --direct-english-translation not setting task=translate for localagreement backends the flag was only used for tokenizer language selection but never actually passed to whisper/faster-whisper transcribe calls. also init OpenaiApiASR.task and read from transcribe_kargs. fixes #306	2026-02-11 22:10:00 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	aded1649ae	fix model_cache_dir + direct_english_translation task in simulstreaming pass actual cache dir instead of None, and use proper task string instead of boolean for AlignAttConfig fixes #310	2026-02-11 22:10:00 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	3b535e857a	fix NoneType concatenation in add_translation fixes #296	2026-02-11 22:10:00 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	d649250b9a	fix Segment classmethod call + isinstance type narrowing fixes #331, fixes #329	2026-02-11 22:10:00 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	7735478286	add insert_audio_chunk to DiartDiarization fixes #332	2026-02-11 22:10:00 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	b9e72d2b9a	add probability field to ASRToken fixes #330, fixes #313	2026-02-11 22:10:00 +01:00
Quentin Fuxa	e5b01033af	add json normalizers for english language in build	2026-01-16 10:47:46 +01:00