Lumotia/docs/architecture-map/02-tauri-runtime/commands/models.md

name, type, slice, last_verified

name	type	slice	last_verified
Model registry and runtime	architecture-map-page	02-tauri-runtime	2026/05/09

commands::models

Where you are: Architecture map → Tauri runtime → Commands → Models

Plain English summary. Owns the Whisper and Parakeet model lifecycle: download with progress events, presence checks, list, load (with optional sequential-GPU coordination against the LLM), and the runtime-capabilities snapshot that Settings consumes (accelerators list, active compute device, CPU features, parallel-mode availability). Also owns the silent warm-up pass that pre-allocates the Whisper context window so the user's first transcription is fast. Emits runtime warnings on startup when the CPU lacks AVX2 / FMA or the Vulkan loader is absent.

At a glance

• Path: src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs.
• LOC: 691.
• Tauri commands exposed (13 total):
  • Whisper: download_model(size), check_model(size), list_models(), load_model(size, concurrent), prewarm_default_model_cmd(), check_engine(), get_runtime_capabilities().
  • Parakeet: download_parakeet_model(name), check_parakeet_model(name), list_parakeet_models(), load_parakeet_model(name, concurrent), check_parakeet_engine().
• Public Rust helpers (used by other command modules): default_model_id_for_engine, ensure_model_loaded, prewarm_default_model, load_model_from_disk, detect_active_compute_device, emit_runtime_warnings.
• Events emitted: model-download-progress (whisper), parakeet-download-progress, runtime-warning (tagged enum: Avx2Missing, VulkanLoaderMissing, future CudaFallback).
• Depends on: magnotia_transcription::{model_manager, load_whisper, load_parakeet, LocalEngine, Transcriber}, magnotia_core::{model_registry, hardware, constants, types}.
• Called from frontend at: Settings → Models page (download, load, status), the dictation page boot path (prewarm_default_model_cmd), Settings → About (runtime capabilities).

What's in here

Model id mapping

• whisper_model_id(size) (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:18) — maps legacy size strings ("tiny", "base", "small", "distil-small", "medium", "distil-large-v3") to canonical ModelIds used by model_registry.
• parakeet_model_id(name) (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:32) — maps "ctc-int8" to parakeet-ctc-0.6b-int8.

load_model_from_disk (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:77)

Looks up the registry entry, picks the engine path:

• Engine::Whisper (gated on feature = "whisper") calls load_whisper(&model_file). Without the feature, returns a clear error explaining the feature is off.
• Engine::Parakeet calls load_parakeet(&dir).
• Engine::Moonshine returns "not yet supported".

Returns a Box<dyn Transcriber + Send>.

default_model_id_for_engine (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:111)

Returns parakeet-ctc-0.6b-int8 for "parakeet", whisper-base-en for everything else. Used by commands::transcription, commands::live, and prewarm_default_model.

ensure_model_loaded (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:118)

The shared model-load gateway used by both whisper and parakeet command paths. Validates the engine matches the model, checks the model is downloaded, and short-circuits if the engine already has the right model loaded. Implements the Phase A.1 sequential-GPU guard (brief item #28): when concurrent == Some(false) and the LLM is loaded, unloads the LLM before loading the transcription engine. The inverse guard lives in commands::llm::load_llm_model. Loads run inside spawn_blocking.

prewarm_default_model (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:180)

Loads the default Whisper model (if downloaded and not already loaded) plus runs a 1-second silence pass through transcribe_sync. The silence run pre-allocates the Whisper context window and warms GPU shader caches so the first real user transcription completes in ≤ 1.5× steady-state latency rather than the 4–5 s cold-start path documented in ufal/whisper_streaming issues #96 and #135. All errors are logged, never panic.

prewarm_default_model_cmd (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:225)

Tauri command wrapper. ensure_main_window. Triggers the warm-up. The frontend invokes this after the dictation page mounts, so warm-up runs in parallel with the first paint.

Runtime-capabilities reporting

• RuntimeCapabilities (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:237) — frontend-facing struct. Contains accelerators: Vec<String>, engines: Vec<EngineRuntimeCapabilities>, active_compute_device, cpu_features, parallel_mode_available.
• ActiveComputeDevice (:259) — kind, label, optional reason (set when we fell back from a richer backend).
• CpuFeaturesInfo (:270) — avx2 / avx512f / fma / sse4_2 / neon plus a has_ggml_baseline shortcut.
• EngineRuntimeCapabilities and ModelRuntimeCapabilities carry per-engine and per-model status (downloaded, loaded, language support, default model id).
• compose_accelerators (:337) — pure helper combining whisper-feature flag + Vulkan-loader-availability + target family. Always starts with "cpu", appends "metal" (macOS) or "vulkan" (other) only when whisper is compiled in AND the loader resolves. Replaces the old hard-coded ["cpu", "vulkan"] (RB-07).
• detect_active_compute_device (:369) — returns the ActiveComputeDevice snapshot. macOS gets "metal" (via MoltenVK) or a CPU-fallback message; everything else gets "vulkan" or a CPU-fallback message naming the missing loader package.
• emit_runtime_warnings (:428) — called from lib.rs::run setup. Emits runtime-warning events for the Avx2Missing and VulkanLoaderMissing cases. The frontend renders a one-line banner.
• get_runtime_capabilities (:454) — assembles and returns the RuntimeCapabilities snapshot. Called by Settings.

Whisper commands (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:515)

• download_model(size) -> Result<String, String> — main-window only. Calls model_manager::download with a closure that emits model-download-progress.
• check_model(size) -> Result<bool, String> — model_manager::is_downloaded.
• list_models() -> Result<Vec<String>, String> — returns human-readable size names of currently-downloaded whisper models.
• load_model(size, concurrent) -> Result<String, String> — main-window only. Calls ensure_model_loaded.
• check_engine(state) -> Result<bool, String> — returns whether the whisper engine has any model loaded.

Parakeet commands (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:576)

Same shape as whisper, prefixed parakeet_ and emitting parakeet-download-progress.

Tests (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:631)

Five compose_accelerators permutations cover the RB-07 regression. Confirm:

• Whisper disabled + loader present → ["cpu"].
• Whisper enabled + loader missing → ["cpu"].
• Whisper enabled + loader present + macOS → ["cpu", "metal"].
• Whisper enabled + loader present + Linux/Windows → ["cpu", "vulkan"].
• "cpu" is always first (frontend index-0 contract).

Data flow

• Download: frontend invokes download_model(size) → model_manager::download streams bytes → progress events fire on each chunk → frontend renders progress bar.
• Load: frontend invokes load_model(size, concurrent) → ensure_model_loaded validates and unloads LLM if concurrent=false → load_model_from_disk runs in spawn_blocking → LocalEngine.load(model, model_id) stashes the model on the engine.
• Transcribe: every transcription path calls ensure_model_loaded first. Idempotent when the right model is already loaded.
• Runtime warnings: fired once at startup via lib.rs::run setup → frontend listens for runtime-warning and shows a banner in Settings.

Watch-outs

• The concurrent flag is a tri-state. None and Some(true) keep the legacy parallel-residency behaviour. Only Some(false) triggers the unload-the-other-engine guard. Live transcription explicitly passes None. If you ever ship a 4 GB-VRAM Settings preset that flips concurrent=false by default, also test the live transcription path.
• parallel_mode_available is hard-wired to false until Phase A.4 lands a real GPU VRAM probe (src-tauri/src/commands/models.rs:509). Today's frontend reads this and disables the toggle. Flag for follow-up.
• prewarm_default_model only runs whisper. Parakeet has no warm-up. The Parakeet model is also smaller and loads faster, so the cold-start gap is less obvious. If you swap Magnotia's default to Parakeet, add an equivalent warm-up.
• Vulkan loader detection is per-platform (magnotia_core::hardware::vulkan_loader_available). The CPU-fallback reason strings are user-visible; keep them actionable (the Linux one names libvulkan1, the macOS one names the Vulkan SDK runtime).
• Whisper feature gating. --no-default-features builds compile but load_model_from_disk returns a runtime error when the user requests a Whisper model. list_models will still show whisper models that happened to be downloaded already; consider hiding them when the feature is off if a no-whisper build ever ships to users.
• Download progress events fire from a closure inside model_manager::download. That closure is called from inside an async spawn_blocking-equivalent. The let _ = app_clone.emit(...) pattern silently drops emit errors; if a window has been closed mid-download the progress events stop landing but the download itself completes.

See also

• Transcription — the consumer of ensure_model_loaded.
• Live transcription — also calls ensure_model_loaded (with concurrent=None).
• LLM — the inverse sequential-GPU guard lives in commands::llm::load_llm_model.
• App lifecycle — emit_runtime_warnings is called from setup.
• Cargo and features — feature = "whisper" is what gates load_model_from_disk.