Talon
d30c4ee2f5
The iOS audio path was a hybrid: Voice-Chat-class presets ran a native VPIO AVAudioEngine (core external) while Stereo/Studio/A2DP presets ran the core's miniaudio devices. Nearly every "no input / no output / both" bug lived in the seam between the two paths — the lingering miniaudio capture unit fighting VPIO, the audioRestart ordering dance, the route-change "glitching" loop, stereo<->mono stickiness, and "can't hear anyone". Switching presets/routes mid-call routinely dropped a direction. Drive ALL iOS audio through one AVAudioEngine with the core fully external at all times: setExternalPlayback(1) once at connect, every MIC stream external_feed=1, mic via vc_stream_feed_pcm, playback via vc_set_mixed_output_sink (drained by an always-on AVAudioSourceNode so remote audio plays before joining voice). VPIO + AGC toggle per preset. Every preset/route/interruption change funnels through one deterministic Swift-only reconfigure (stop -> apply session config -> rebuild -> start) — no second path to hand off to, so a change can't drop a direction. - IOSVoiceProcessingEngine.swift -> IOSAudioEngine: always-on source-node playback, conditional mic tap, VPIO/AGC; one rebuild() backing startListening/stop/startMic/stopMic/reconfigure/setCaptureChannels. - IOSAudioRouter: 7 presets -> 4 (Voice Chat / Stereo Mic / Mono Mic / Advanced); persisted voiceProcessingEnabled + agcEnabled; setters call IOSAudioEngine.reconfigure() instead of audioRestart/reconcileVoicePath. - AudioSessionManager slimmed; SessionState mic lifecycle collapsed; AppState wires external playback + listening at connect, stop at disconnect; SettingsView shows 4 presets + Advanced VPIO/AGC toggles. No core/ABI/test changes — relies on the already-shipped external API (test_external_pcm, test_external_playback). xcodebuild iOS device Debug BUILD SUCCEEDED. Updates docs/voice.md §8 and PROGRESS.md.
VoiceCat
Self-hosted, native voice & text chat in the spirit of classic TeamSpeak / Mumble —
channel-based voice, channel + private text, one server you run yourself. Plain TCP
(control) and UDP (media), no WebRTC. Encrypted by default. A shared C++ core
(libvoicecat) drives native clients (Swift on macOS/iOS, C# on Windows) and the server.
Status: Design complete in
docs/. M1–M5 are implemented — real TLS control plane, encrypted UDP voice (Opus), multi-stream, TOFU identity pinning, channel tree, permissions, moderation, disconnect/keepalive/reaper. Windows WinForms C# client shipped (M4). macOS/iOS Swift client is next. SeePROGRESS.mdanddocs/roadmap.md.
Read the design first
The docs/ folder is the source of truth. Start at docs/README.md,
then architecture → protocol → voice → security → tech-stack → deployment →
roadmap.
Build
The default development preset is dev — it builds everything (server + tools + tests)
with real vcpkg deps. It works on Windows, Linux, and macOS (vcpkg triplet auto-resolved).
# one-time vcpkg setup:
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg && ./vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.sh # .bat on Windows
export VCPKG_ROOT=/path/to/vcpkg # Linux/macOS; or $env:VCPKG_ROOT on PowerShell
# configure + build + test:
cmake --preset dev
cmake --build --preset dev
ctest --preset dev # 21 behavior tests
Artifacts land in build/dev/bin/ (voicecat-server, vccli, voicecat-admin).
The skeleton preset (no vcpkg deps, stubs only) is a fast smoke check that needs no
third-party libraries:
cmake --preset skeleton && cmake --build --preset skeleton && ctest --preset skeleton
See docs/building.md for the full preset matrix (including release,
server-release, windows-client, and Apple platform scaffolding).
Layout
docs/ design spec (read this)
core/ libvoicecat — the shared C++ core
include/ voicecat.h (the C ABI all clients call)
proto/ voicecat.proto (control-plane wire format, source of truth)
src/ net/ crypto/ codec/ protocol/ session/ audio/ (stubs today)
server/ voicecat-server (headless; links the core)
tools/vccli/ headless test client — drives the protocol from M1 on
clients/ apple/ (Swift, M4) windows/ (C#, M4) — placeholders for now
tests/ CTest targets
License
Permissive-only dependencies (no GPL/LGPL) so the project can be redistributed freely,
including closed-source. Project license: TBD (see docs/tech-stack.md §5).