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Rewrite setup instructions for non-specialist readers

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The audience for this is Home Assistant users, who are not necessarily
developers. The instructions assumed too much and buried the step most likely
to trip someone up.

Biggest fix: connecting to Home Assistant is two steps, not one. Adding the
Wyoming integration does nothing on its own -- the assistant keeps using
whatever speech-to-text it used before until you change it under Settings ->
Voice assistants. That was previously half a sentence at the end of a
paragraph, and its failure mode is silent: everything looks installed and
nothing improves. It is now its own numbered step with an explanation.

Also adds:

- "Check it's working" and "Troubleshooting", the latter drawn from failures
  actually hit while building and deploying this, including the wrong-Python
  error and the service-did-not-start-after-changing-user case.
- IP address guidance that survives contact with a real machine. Checking on
  the deployment host showed five addresses -- two Parallels interfaces, a
  Tailscale one, and two real ones -- so the docs now say which to ignore.
  The obvious `ipconfig getifaddr en0` was rejected: it returns nothing there.
- Requirements now lead with `brew install python@3.13` rather than an
  explanation of lzma; the reasoning moved into a collapsed block.
- A plain-English guide to reading the benchmark table, and an explicit note
  that the numbers are a snapshot nothing re-runs automatically.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
aharrison-fuller
2026-07-29 04:13:05 +01:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent ef1b10e7aa
commit 2e4c1b2371
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## Requirements
- Apple Silicon Mac (MLX is Metal/ANE-backed)
- Python 3.10+ **with the `lzma` module** — `librosa` pulls in `pooch`, which
imports it. Pythons built without `xz` (a common pyenv default) pass every
version check and then fail at import time with
`ModuleNotFoundError: _lzma`. Homebrew's Python is fine.
- ~2.3 GB disk for the model, ~600 MB for MLX wheels
- **An Apple Silicon Mac** (M1 or newer) that stays on. This does not run on
Intel Macs, a Raspberry Pi, or inside Home Assistant OS.
- **Homebrew Python.** If you are not sure you have it:
```bash
brew install python@3.13
```
- **About 3 GB of free disk** — 2.3 GB of model, 600 MB of libraries.
`ffmpeg` is **not** required — Wyoming already delivers 16 kHz mono PCM, so
the mel spectrogram is built directly.
<details>
<summary>Why Homebrew Python specifically</summary>
The installer needs Python 3.10 or newer that includes the `lzma` module.
macOS ships Python 3.9, which is too old, and `pyenv` frequently builds
Python without `lzma` (it needs `xz` present at build time). Both fail — the
pyenv case unhelpfully, passing every version check and then dying at import
time with `ModuleNotFoundError: _lzma`. Homebrew's builds are fine.
`ffmpeg` is **not** required, unlike most speech-to-text tooling. Wyoming
already delivers audio in the right format, so this builds the mel
spectrogram directly.
</details>
## Install
**1. Download and run the installer.**
```bash
git clone https://github.com/adamhf/wyoming-parakeet-mlx
cd wyoming-parakeet-mlx
./install.sh
```
This creates a virtualenv, runs the unit tests, pre-downloads the model, and
registers a LaunchDaemon on port 7892 that starts at boot without needing a
GUI login. It installs *in place*, so keep the checkout somewhere permanent.
It will ask for your password once, to register the background service.
Options: `--port`, `--model`, `--user`, `--python`, `--no-daemon`,
`--no-download`.
Expect it to take a few minutes — most of that is downloading the model. It
sets up its own Python environment, runs the test suite, downloads the model,
and registers a background service on port 7892 that starts automatically when
the Mac boots, with no need to log in.
Then in Home Assistant: **Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration →
Wyoming Protocol**, enter the host and port, and select the new engine as the
speech-to-text step of your Assist pipeline.
**Keep this folder where it is.** The installer sets things up inside it, so
moving or deleting the folder afterwards breaks the service.
Remove it with `./uninstall.sh`.
Remove it later with `./uninstall.sh`.
### Server options
<details>
<summary>Installer options</summary>
`install.sh` bakes these into the plist; run `script/run --help` to see them
all. The ones worth knowing:
`--port`, `--model`, `--user`, `--python`, `--no-daemon`, `--no-download`.
Run `./install.sh --help` for details. See [Security](#security) for why
`--user` is worth using.
</details>
## Connect it to Home Assistant
Installing it is not enough on its own — Home Assistant has to be told about
it, and then told to *use* it. That is two separate steps, and the second one
is easy to miss.
**1. Find your Mac's IP address.** System Settings → Network → click your
active connection → Details → the "IP address" field. Or in a terminal:
```bash
ifconfig | grep "inet " | grep -v 127.0.0.1
```
That command often lists more addresses than you expect. Ignore anything
belonging to virtualisation software (Parallels, VMware, Docker — commonly
`10.211.55.x`, `10.37.129.x`, `172.17.x.x`) or a VPN (Tailscale uses
`100.x.x.x`); those are not reachable from Home Assistant in the usual case.
You want the one on the same network as Home Assistant itself — if Home
Assistant is on `192.168.1.50`, you want the Mac's `192.168.1.x` address.
If your Mac has both Wi-Fi and Ethernet active you will see two candidates.
Either works, but pick one that will stay put — a wired address, ideally with
a DHCP reservation on your router — because if that interface goes away, Home
Assistant loses speech-to-text.
**2. Add the integration.** In Home Assistant: **Settings → Devices &
Services → Add Integration → Wyoming Protocol**. Enter the IP address from
step 1 and port **7892**.
If it succeeds you get a new entry called `parakeet-mlx`. If it says it cannot
connect, see [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting).
**3. Actually use it.** Go to **Settings → Voice assistants**, click your
assistant, and set **Speech-to-text** to `parakeet-mlx`. Save.
Until you do this, nothing changes — you will have installed it and Home
Assistant will carry on using whatever it used before. If you have more than
one assistant configured, change each one you care about.
**4. Try it.** Click the Assist icon (top right of Home Assistant), press the
microphone, and say something like "turn off the kitchen lights".
## Check it's working
Is the service running?
```bash
sudo launchctl print system/local.wyoming-parakeet | grep "state ="
```
Expect `state = running`.
Watch it work — leave this running, then speak to Assist:
```bash
tail -f /tmp/local.wyoming-parakeet.stderr
```
Each command produces a line like
`2.70s audio -> 124ms, 45 chars`. The `124ms` is how long transcription took.
The text itself is deliberately not logged; see [Security](#security).
Test it without speaking, using generated audio:
```bash
./test/make-clips.sh
.venv/bin/python test/wy-test.py test/clips/*.wav
```
Expect ten commands transcribed correctly, `silence.wav` coming back empty,
and times around 100–150 ms.
## Troubleshooting
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Home Assistant says **"Failed to connect"** when adding the integration | Wrong IP, or the service is not running. Check `state = running` above, confirm the IP with `ifconfig`, and make sure both machines are on the same network. |
| Integration added fine, but **Assist is no worse and no faster** | You missed step 3 — the assistant is still using its old speech-to-text engine. Settings → Voice assistants → Speech-to-text. |
| **`No matching distribution found for parakeet-mlx`** during install | Wrong Python. Run `brew install python@3.13` and try again, or point the installer at it: `./install.sh --python /opt/homebrew/bin/python3.13`. |
| **`error: service did not start`** at the end of install | Look at `/tmp/local.wyoming-parakeet.stderr` for the reason. If you changed `--user`, re-run `./install.sh` rather than editing the service file by hand. |
| The **first command after a reboot is slow** (~300 ms), then it is fast | Expected. The graphics framework compiles its kernels on first use. It settles by the second or third command. |
| Everything works, then **stops after a few weeks** | Check the Mac has not gone to sleep. System Settings → Displays → Advanced → prevent automatic sleeping. |
| You want to see **what it actually heard** | Add `--debug`, but read [Security](#security) first — the log then contains everything spoken near your microphones. |
## Server options
Most people never need these. `install.sh` bakes them into the service
definition, so to change one, re-run the installer rather than editing the
service file by hand. Run `script/run --help` for the full list.
| Flag | Default | |
|---|---|---|