wakeword: stop hands-free notifications leaking when away; surface paused state

Two reported bugs:

1) Notifications still appeared during hands-free use while away. A wakeword
   hit arriving while the previous clip was still transcribing went through
   toggle(), which popped a "Busy" notification — the away-from-keyboard
   notification storm. Wakeword triggers now call start_dictation(silent=True)
   directly, so a busy/not-ready state is ignored silently. Transcription and
   rewrite failures during a silent session are now logged instead of raising
   critical desktop notifications.

2) "Wakeword did not work" with the log line "muted via /tmp/wake_muted": a
   stale mute flag silently disabled detection. The tray "Pause wakeword"
   toggle (already added) clears it; the daemon now also logs a clear
   "Starting PAUSED" warning when it boots with the flag present.

Adds tests/test_daemon_notify.py covering silent-session suppression and the
busy-while-wakeword no-notify path.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

linux/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -18,7 +18,15 @@ The version is defined in [`blitztext/__init__.py`](blitztext/__init__.py).
 ### Fixed
 - **Wakeword stuck muted**: a leftover `/tmp/wake_muted` flag silently disabled
   detection with no in-app way to clear it. The state is now exposed and
-  reversible from the tray, so a stale flag no longer kills hands-free use.
+  reversible from the tray, so a stale flag no longer kills hands-free use. The
+  daemon also logs a clear `Starting PAUSED` warning when it boots muted.
+- **Away-from-keyboard "Busy" storm**: a wakeword hit arriving while the previous
+  clip was still transcribing went through `toggle()` and popped a "Busy"
+  notification. Wakeword triggers now go straight to `start_dictation()`, so a
+  busy/not-ready state is ignored silently instead.
+- **Quiet hands-free errors**: transcription/rewrite failures during a
+  wakeword-triggered session no longer raise critical desktop notifications —
+  they are logged instead, keeping background sessions silent.
 - **Notification storm / lock-screen pile-up**: desktop notifications are now
   sent as transient with a short expiry and reuse a single bubble, so they no
   longer stack in the notification log or persist on the lock screen.

linux/blitztext/daemon.py

@@ -48,12 +48,16 @@ class Daemon:
         self._wakeword_listener = None
         # When a session is started hands-free by the wakeword, its desktop
         # notifications are suppressed (kept quiet in the background).
-        self._wake_pending = False
         self._session_silent = False
 
     def _init_wakeword(self):
         if self.cfg.wakeword_enabled:
-            from .wakeword import WakewordListener
+            from .wakeword import WakewordListener, is_muted
+            if is_muted():
+                # A stale flag silently disables detection — make it visible so
+                # "the wakeword does nothing" has an obvious explanation/fix.
+                log("[wakeword] Starting PAUSED — /tmp/wake_muted is present; "
+                    "resume via the tray 'Pause wakeword' toggle.")
             self._wakeword_listener = WakewordListener(
                 uri=self.cfg.wakeword_uri,
                 model=self.cfg.wakeword_model,
@@ -63,10 +67,13 @@ class Daemon:
             self._wakeword_listener.start()
 
     def _on_wakeword(self):
-        if not self.is_recording:
-            # Hands-free trigger: keep this session's notifications quiet.
-            self._wake_pending = True
-            self.toggle(self._route_workflow)
+        # Hands-free trigger: start a quiet (notification-suppressed) session.
+        # We call start_dictation directly rather than toggle() so that a busy
+        # or not-yet-ready state is ignored silently instead of popping a
+        # "Busy"/"Please wait" notification — repeated false detections while a
+        # clip is still transcribing were the source of the away-from-keyboard
+        # notification storm.
+        self.start_dictation(self._route_workflow, silent=True)
 
     # -- feedback -------------------------------------------------------------
     def _notify(self, title: str, body: str = "", urgency: str = "normal") -> None:
@@ -158,14 +165,13 @@ class Daemon:
             sound.play(custom, fallback="complete")
 
     # -- recording control ----------------------------------------------------
-    def start_dictation(self, workflow: Workflow | None = None) -> None:
+    def start_dictation(self, workflow: Workflow | None = None, silent: bool = False) -> None:
         wf = workflow or self._route_workflow
         streamer: RivaRealtimeStreamer | None = None
         with self._lock:
             if not self.ready or self._busy or self.is_recording:
                 return
-            self._session_silent = self._wake_pending
-            self._wake_pending = False
+            self._session_silent = silent
             self._target_window = active_window_id()
             self._active_workflow = wf
             if wf.mode == "stream":
@@ -384,7 +390,8 @@ class Daemon:
                     )
                 except LLMError as exc:
                     self._emit("error", label, str(exc))
-                    self._notify("Rewrite failed", str(exc), "critical")
+                    self._dnotify("Rewrite failed", str(exc), "critical")
+                    log(f"ERROR ({label} rewrite): {exc}")
                     return
 
             if not text:
@@ -405,7 +412,7 @@ class Daemon:
             self._dnotify(f"✓ {label}", text[:80] + ("…" if len(text) > 80 else ""))
         except Exception as exc:  # noqa: BLE001 - surface any failure
             self._emit("error", label, str(exc))
-            self._notify("Error", str(exc), "critical")
+            self._dnotify("Error", str(exc), "critical")
             log(f"ERROR ({label}): {exc}")
         finally:
             audio_path.unlink(missing_ok=True)

linux/tests/test_daemon_notify.py

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+"""Hands-free (wakeword) sessions must stay quiet.
+
+Regression tests for two reported bugs:
+  1. The wakeword produced desktop notifications when the user was away — most
+     notably a "Busy" storm from repeated false detections arriving while a
+     previous clip was still transcribing.
+  2. A hands-free session's errors popped up as critical notifications.
+"""
+
+import blitztext.daemon as daemon_mod
+from blitztext.config import Config
+from blitztext.daemon import Daemon
+
+
+def _make_daemon(monkeypatch):
+    # Don't probe real audio devices when constructing the daemon.
+    monkeypatch.setattr(daemon_mod, "detect_recorder", lambda pref="auto": "pw-record")
+    return Daemon(Config())
+
+
+def test_dnotify_suppressed_in_silent_session(monkeypatch):
+    calls = []
+    monkeypatch.setattr(daemon_mod, "notify", lambda *a, **k: calls.append((a, k)))
+    d = _make_daemon(monkeypatch)
+
+    d._session_silent = True
+    d._dnotify("Recording", "…")
+    assert calls == [], "per-dictation notifications must be suppressed for hands-free sessions"
+
+    d._session_silent = False
+    d._dnotify("Recording", "…")
+    assert len(calls) == 1, "keyboard/GUI sessions should still notify"
+
+
+def test_on_wakeword_starts_a_silent_session(monkeypatch):
+    started = {}
+    d = _make_daemon(monkeypatch)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(d, "start_dictation", lambda wf=None, silent=False: started.update(wf=wf, silent=silent))
+
+    d._on_wakeword()
+
+    assert started.get("silent") is True
+    assert started.get("wf") is d._route_workflow
+
+
+def test_wakeword_while_busy_does_not_notify(monkeypatch):
+    """The away-from-keyboard "Busy" storm: a detection arriving while the
+    previous clip is still being processed must be ignored silently."""
+    calls = []
+    monkeypatch.setattr(daemon_mod, "notify", lambda *a, **k: calls.append((a, k)))
+    d = _make_daemon(monkeypatch)
+    d._prepared = True       # model "loaded"
+    d._busy = True           # still transcribing the previous clip
+
+    d._on_wakeword()
+
+    assert calls == [], "a wakeword hit while busy must not pop a 'Busy' notification"
+    assert d.is_recording is False, "no new session should start while busy"