[Bug] Voice capture UI freeze & Linux compatibility issues (ffmpeg process & Bun.file dependency)

[dhdjdjdhdjddj904-eng]

Description

When using the voice capture feature (Ctrl + V), two main issues occur:

1. UI Refresh Bug: After speaking, the transcribed text is added to stdinInput, but renderInput() is not called and activeFooter status is not cleared. This leaves the "Recording..." popup visible and hides the transcribed text until extra keypresses force a UI re-render.
2. Linux/Node Process Management: On Linux/Node runtime, ffmpeg doesn't exit cleanly with SIGKILL/SIGTERM during voice capture, leading to empty/corrupted audio files or hanging processes. Switching to SIGINT allows ffmpeg to finalize the WAV header properly.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Press Ctrl + V to start recording.
2. Speak a phrase and press Ctrl + V (or Enter) to stop.
3. Observe that the footer status message remains stuck on "Recording..." and the text does not appear in the input prompt immediately.

Suggested Fixes / Code Context

In startVoiceCapture() / input event handler:

• UI Reset & Render: Ensure activeFooter.setStatusMessage("") is called in the finally block or on success, followed by renderInput() after setting stdinInput so the transcribed text is displayed right away.
• Process Termination: Send SIGINT instead of SIGTERM/SIGKILL to the ffmpeg spawned process so it cleanly stops recording and flushes the WAV file headers before transcription.
• Platform Agnostic Audio: Fallback gracefully when avfoundation or Bun.file are not available in non-macOS or non-Bun environments.

Environment

• OS: Linux (CachyOS / Arch)
• Audio Subsystem: PipeWire / PulseAudio

Opened on behalf of @YounessTaki0.

[YounessTaki0]

Hi! For anyone running into this on Linux, here is the working wrapper workaround that patches the compiled build in real-time:

function supercode
    set -l MAIN_FILE "$HOME/.supercode/package/dist/main.js"

    if test -f $MAIN_FILE; and grep -q "avfoundation" $MAIN_FILE
        # 1. Audio driver for Linux
        sed -i 's/"avfoundation"/"pulse"/g; s/":0"/"default"/g' $MAIN_FILE
        # 2. Node.js native Blob compatibility
        sed -i 's/Bun\.file(filePath)/new Blob([readFileSync3(filePath)])/g' $MAIN_FILE
        # 3. Clean ffmpeg exit using SIGINT
        sed -i 's/activeFfmpegProcess\.kill("SIGTERM")/activeFfmpegProcess\.kill("SIGINT")/g' $MAIN_FILE
        # 4. Clear footer on voice capture completion
        sed -i 's/voiceCaptureActive = prevMode;/voiceCaptureActive = prevMode; if (activeFooter) activeFooter.setStatusMessage("");/g' $MAIN_FILE
        # 5. Immediate UI re-render after transcription
        sed -i 's/stdinCursor += text2\.length + 1;/stdinCursor += text2\.length + 1; renderInput();/g' $MAIN_FILE
    end

    command supercode $argv
end

[yashdev9274]

thanks for mention this issue, as I'm a Mac user so I'm not sure how things are working on Linux.
can you please share some screenshot or demo video regarding this issue. it will help me understand the ui better

[YounessTaki0]

Hi! Thanks for getting back to me. Since you are on macOS, I completely understand why some of these Linux-specific issues and edge cases were hard to reproduce.

I've attached a screencast showing the Silent UI Failure in action. I also spent some time digging through the bundled source code (dist/main.js) to trace the root causes and identified three critical bugs/improvements:

---

1. Silent UI Failure (API Errors Hidden from User) — [See Video]

• What happens: The CLI displays the execution timer (e.g. Worked for 816ms), but prints no AI output or error message at all.
• Root Cause: When an API provider returns an HTTP error (in my case, an HTTP 402 Insufficient Funds) formatted as a JSON object rather than a standard SSE text stream, the streaming callback passes this object to stripToolCallXml(chunk). Because stripToolCallXml expects a string, it drops/corrupts the chunk, leaving fullResponse empty without surfacing the API error to the user.
• Suggested Fix: Add type-checking in stripToolCallXml (or at the stream callback start) so that if chunk is an object, it safely extracts .error, .textDelta, or stringifies it instead of discarding it.

---

2. Voice/Audio Feature Incompatibility on Linux

• What happens: The voice recording feature (Ctrl+V) fails or hangs silently on Linux environments.
• Root Cause: The ffmpeg recording command in the source is hardcoded with macOS-specific input flags: -f avfoundation and -i :0.
• Suggested Fix: Add a platform check (process.platform === 'linux') to dynamically switch the flags to -f pulse and -i default when running under Linux.

---

3. ReferenceError: usage is not defined Crash

• What happens: Uncaught fatal runtime crash when a stream closes prematurely or when using models/proxies that do not emit token usage statistics.
• Root Cause: Inside the streaming handler, streamFooter(usage, ...) is called assuming usage exists in the local scope. If the stream aborts early, usage remains undefined and throws a unhandled ReferenceError.
• Suggested Fix: Provide a safe fallback parameter inside streamFooter or when invoking it, e.g.:

  const safeUsage = typeof usage !== 'undefined' && usage !== null ? usage : { inputTokens: 0, outputTokens: 0 };

Hope this technical breakdown helps! Let me know if you release a fix or need me to test a patch on Linux.

Screencast_20260726_132502.webm

[YounessTaki0]

Quick update: I went through dist/main.js again to highlight the exact code snippets responsible for these behaviors to make it easier to locate in the source codebase.

1. Code location for the Silent UI Failure (stripToolCallXml)

Inside the stream handling logic:

const result = await provider.sendMessage(aiMessages, (chunk) => {
  if (chunk == null)
    return;
  // ...
  const filtered = stripToolCallXml(chunk);
  if (filtered) {
    md.push(filtered);
    fullResponse += filtered;
  }
}, toolsToUse, ...);

If an API provider returns an HTTP error payload formatted as a JSON object (like an HTTP 402/500 object), stripToolCallXml drops it because it expects a string. Adding an object check prevents dropping the error payload:

if (typeof chunk === 'object' && chunk !== null) {
  chunk = chunk.error ? JSON.stringify(chunk) : (chunk.textDelta || chunk.text || chunk.content || JSON.stringify(chunk));
}

---

2. Code location for the usage is not defined crash

When streams abort early or proxies don't return usage stats:

if (statusBar2) {
  const totalTokens = usage?.totalTokens ?? 0;
  if (totalTokens > 0)
    statusBar2.addTokens(totalTokens);
  statusBar2.update({ isStreaming: false, elapsed: 0 });
}

If usage wasn't initialized prior to this block due to an interrupted stream, it throws a ReferenceError. A quick fallback check resolves it safely:

const safeUsage = typeof usage !== 'undefined' && usage !== null ? usage : { totalTokens: 0 };

---

Hope these code references help narrow down the fix!