---
name: Core constants
type: architecture-map-page
slice: 05-core-storage-hotkey-build
last_verified: 2026/05/09
---

# Core constants

> **Where you are:** [Architecture map](../README.md) → [Core, Storage, Hotkey, Build](README.md) → Core constants

**Plain English summary.** A flat list of `pub const` values that other crates reach for so the same magic numbers (sample rate, mel-spectrogram dimensions, RAM thresholds, chunk timing) are not duplicated. If you change one of these, the change propagates by recompile to every consumer.

## At a glance

- File: `crates/core/src/constants.rs` (38 LOC).
- All items are `pub const` with concrete primitive types.
- No external deps.
- Consumers: slice 3 (transcription, audio capture), slice 4 (formatting paragraph break heuristic), `core::types::AudioSamples::mono_16khz` (slice 5 internal).

## What's in here

### Audio pipeline (Whisper baseline)

```rust
pub const WHISPER_SAMPLE_RATE: u32 = 16_000;   // crates/core/src/constants.rs:2
pub const WHISPER_CHANNELS: u16 = 1;           // crates/core/src/constants.rs:3
```

Used by `AudioSamples::mono_16khz`, the audio capture worklet target rate (cross-link to [`static-assets.md`](static-assets.md)), and the Whisper engine (slice 3). The frontend `pcm-processor.js` worklet uses literal `16000` rather than importing this constant, so a change here without a coordinated worklet edit produces silently wrong audio. Documented in [`static-assets.md`](static-assets.md).

### Parakeet mel spectrogram (`crates/core/src/constants.rs:6-12`)

```rust
pub const PARAKEET_N_FFT: usize = 512;
pub const PARAKEET_HOP_LENGTH: usize = 160;
pub const PARAKEET_WIN_LENGTH: usize = 400;
pub const PARAKEET_N_MELS: usize = 80;
pub const PARAKEET_PRE_EMPHASIS: f32 = 0.97;
pub const PARAKEET_BLANK_TOKEN: usize = 1024;
pub const PARAKEET_LOG_GUARD: f32 = 5.960_464_5e-8;  // 2^-24
```

These match the Parakeet TDT 0.6B v2 ONNX export's expected feature shape. Consumed by the Parakeet engine in slice 3. Touch only in lock-step with the model file revision pinned in [`core-model-registry.md`](core-model-registry.md).

### Live chunk timing (`crates/core/src/constants.rs:14-16`)

```rust
pub const CHUNK_INTERVAL_MS: u64 = 3000;
pub const MIN_CHUNK_SAMPLES: usize = 8000;  // 0.5 s at 16 kHz
```

Used by the live-session loop (slice 3). 3-second chunks at 16 kHz mean 48 000-sample buffers per inference call. The 8 000-sample minimum prevents very short final chunks producing garbage transcriptions when a session ends mid-buffer.

### Smart paragraph break (`crates/core/src/constants.rs:18-19`)

```rust
pub const SMART_PARAGRAPH_GAP_SECS: f64 = 2.0;
```

Consumed by `magnotia_ai_formatting::pipeline` (slice 4). When the gap between adjacent `Segment`s exceeds 2 seconds, a paragraph break is inserted. Cross-link: [Slice 4 formatting pipeline](../04-llm-formatting-mcp/README.md).

### History limits (`crates/core/src/constants.rs:21-22`)

```rust
pub const HISTORY_MAX_ENTRIES: usize = 100;
```

Used by the history page query path (slice 1 / slice 2). Today the storage layer pages with explicit `limit` arguments rather than reading this constant directly — the constant is a soft cap consumed by the frontend.

### RAM thresholds (`crates/core/src/constants.rs:24-28`)

```rust
pub const RAM_MINIMUM_FOR_LOCAL_STT: f64 = 2.0;   // GB
pub const RAM_THRESHOLD_LIGHTWEIGHT: f64 = 4.0;
pub const RAM_THRESHOLD_STANDARD: f64 = 8.0;
pub const RAM_THRESHOLD_COMFORTABLE: f64 = 16.0;
```

Used by the recommendation scoring path ([`core-recommendation.md`](core-recommendation.md)) and the runtime-capabilities banner (slice 2). The "comfortable" threshold drives the +10 score bonus.

### VAD configuration (`crates/core/src/constants.rs:30-35`)

```rust
pub const VAD_SPEECH_THRESHOLD: f64 = 0.5;
pub const VAD_MIN_SPEECH_DURATION_MS: u32 = 250;
pub const VAD_MAX_SPEECH_DURATION_S: u32 = 30;
pub const VAD_MIN_SILENCE_DURATION_MS: u32 = 300;
pub const VAD_SPEECH_PAD_MS: u32 = 100;
```

Defaults for the Silero VAD wrapper (slice 3). User-tunable via settings; these are the cold-start values.

### Model download (`crates/core/src/constants.rs:37-38`)

```rust
pub const DOWNLOAD_CHUNK_BYTES: usize = 65_536;  // 64 KiB
```

The chunk size at which the resumable HTTP downloader emits `DownloadProgress` events. 64 KiB is fine for both the Parakeet ONNX shards and the Whisper GGML files. Consumed by the model manager paths in slices 3 and 4.

## Watch-outs

- **No grouping or namespacing.** Everything is flat. Discoverability via `grep` against the constant names.
- **No serialisation.** These are compile-time constants. Changing one requires a rebuild; persisted user data is unaffected.
- **`PARAKEET_BLANK_TOKEN = 1024` is the model's vocabulary index.** Hard-coded to the 0.6B v2 export. A different Parakeet variant would use a different blank index — coordinate with the registry.

## See also

- [Public types and enums](core-types-and-enums.md)
- [Model registry](core-model-registry.md)
- [Recommendation scoring](core-recommendation.md)
- [Static assets and `pcm-processor.js`](static-assets.md)