Use the system kokoro-onnx package, drop the venv

kokoro-onnx is now packaged (python3-kokoro-onnx, without
espeakng-loader) and finds the system espeak-ng with its default
config, so the explicit EspeakConfig and the .venv setup go away.
Tested live: two Italian questions answered and spoken correctly.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

4 files changed, 10 insertions, 31 deletions

diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a230a78..c18dd8d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
-.venv/
 __pycache__/
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index d53a530..bc01b7e 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -7,12 +7,9 @@ the glue between them.
 Status: **first working loop** in `assistant.py` (2026-09-25). Mic button
 on/off is push-to-talk, whisper large-v3-turbo on the Arc transcribes,
 the resident llama-server model answers, Kokoro speaks it. Button-off to
-first spoken word ~2 s. Kokoro is not packaged yet: it runs from the
-repo's gitignored `.venv`. See "Findings" and "Next steps".
+first spoken word ~2 s. See "Findings" and "Next steps".
 
-Run: `.venv/bin/python assistant.py` (`--test` for the self-check). The
-venv is `python3 -m venv --system-site-packages .venv && .venv/bin/pip
-install kokoro-onnx`; system-site-packages gives it the system onnxruntime.
+Run: `python3 assistant.py` (`--test` for the self-check).
 
 ---
 
@@ -26,8 +23,7 @@ mic button ──> arecord ──> whisper-server (STT) ──> llama-server (LL
 |-------|---------------------|--------|-------|
 | STT | `whisper.cpp` 1.9.4 | `whisper-server` (also `whisper-stream`, `whisper-cli`) | SDL2 mic capture, ffmpeg decoding, Vulkan + OpenVINO backends |
 | LLM | `llama.cpp-vulkan` 0.5.0 | `llama-server` | already running as a system service, see below |
-| TTS | none yet: `kokoro-onnx` from PyPI in `.venv` | | uses system `python3-onnxruntime` and `espeak-ng` |
-| (TTS, unused) | `piper-tts` 1.7.0 | `piper-tts` | voices rejected by ear, see Findings |
+| TTS | `python3-kokoro-onnx` 0.6.1 | (Python module) | uses system `python3-onnxruntime` and `espeak-ng`, no `espeakng-loader` |
 
 The three packages are in the `my-slackbuilds` repo
 (`../slackbuilds-superrepo/my-slackbuilds/`). Package-level changes (build
@@ -98,13 +94,6 @@ router. It already records 16 kHz mono WAV and sends it as `input_audio`
 to audio-capable models, and parses `presets.ini`. Reuse its findings, do
 not import from it.
 
-## piper-tts
-
-Prebuilt upstream wheel (OHF-voice/piper1-gpl), console script `piper-tts`,
-Python module `piper` under the system python3.12. Runtime deps
-`python3-onnxruntime` and `python3-pathvalidate` are packaged separately.
-Voices are ONNX models plus a `.onnx.json` config; none downloaded yet.
-
 ---
 
 ## Findings
@@ -336,6 +325,8 @@ kokoro-onnx GitHub release `model-files-v1.0`.
   espeak-ng instead:
   `EspeakConfig(lib_path="/usr/lib64/libespeak-ng.so.1", data_path="/usr/share/espeak-ng-data")`.
   A system package would do the same and drop `espeakng-loader`.
+  Done 2026-09-26: `python3-kokoro-onnx` (with `python3-phonemizer`,
+  `python3-dlinfo`) finds system espeak-ng with the default config.
 - Load 0.30 s. `create()` on the ~20 s paragraph: ~2.6 s, ~7x real time,
   same for `if_sara`, `im_nicola` (lang `it`), `af_heart` (`en-us`),
   `bm_george` (`en-gb`). `create()` returns only after the whole text, so
@@ -359,8 +350,6 @@ Steps 1-5 of the original plan are done (models, backend comparison, live
 mic, TTS, glue); push-to-talk came for free from the mic button. Open, in
 no particular order:
 
-- **Packaging Kokoro** in `my-slackbuilds` (`kokoro-onnx` without
-  `espeakng-loader`, pointed at system espeak-ng), then drop `.venv`.
 - **Run as a service/autostart** (it currently runs by hand).
 - **Barge-in:** pressing the button while it speaks does not stop the
   reply yet.
@@ -369,9 +358,6 @@ no particular order:
 - **Latency:** STT ~1.2 s is the biggest share; the double encoder pass
   (detect + transcribe) is the target if it matters.
 - **Tools** (time, weather, calendar) so the model stops guessing facts.
-- Piper leftovers: piper voices and ggml-base/small deleted 2026-09-26.
-  Installed `piper-tts` and `python3-pathvalidate` packages still to remove
-  (root).
 - OpenVINO in the whisper.cpp package: runs on CPU only here (no Intel
   compute-runtime), decision goes to `my-slackbuilds`.
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d9f4d28..ea51698 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -39,10 +39,8 @@ Paths, the card name and ports are constants at the top of `assistant.py`.
 ## Usage
 
 ```sh
-python3 -m venv --system-site-packages .venv
-.venv/bin/pip install kokoro-onnx
-.venv/bin/python assistant.py          # run
-.venv/bin/python assistant.py --test   # self-check
+python3 assistant.py          # run
+python3 assistant.py --test   # self-check
 ```
 
 ## License
diff --git a/assistant.py b/assistant.py
index 49fb082..00c1081 100644
--- a/assistant.py
+++ b/assistant.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 """Mic button on: record. Mic button off: transcribe (whisper-server),
 ask the loaded llama-server model, speak the reply (Kokoro).
 
-Run: .venv/bin/python assistant.py        (--test runs the self-check)
+Run: python3 assistant.py        (--test runs the self-check)
 """
 
 import ctypes
@@ -134,12 +134,8 @@ def ask(messages):
 
 
 def speaker(q):
-    from kokoro_onnx import Kokoro, EspeakConfig
-    # The espeakng-loader wheel's bundled lib has a broken data path; use
-    # the system espeak-ng.
-    k = Kokoro(f"{MODELS}/kokoro/kokoro-v1.0.onnx", f"{MODELS}/kokoro/voices-v1.0.bin",
-               espeak_config=EspeakConfig(lib_path="/usr/lib64/libespeak-ng.so.1",
-                                          data_path="/usr/share/espeak-ng-data"))
+    from kokoro_onnx import Kokoro
+    k = Kokoro(f"{MODELS}/kokoro/kokoro-v1.0.onnx", f"{MODELS}/kokoro/voices-v1.0.bin")
     voices = {"it": 0.8 * k.get_voice_style("if_sara") + 0.2 * k.get_voice_style("af_bella"),
               "en": k.get_voice_style("af_heart")}
     play = None