fix(vscode): disable voice input in remote windows

.changeset/remote-speech-to-text.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"kilo-code": patch
+---
+
+Hide voice input in remote VS Code windows, where microphone capture runs on the remote machine and fails, and explain the limit in the Speech to Text settings

packages/kilo-docs/pages/code-with-ai/features/speech-to-text.md

@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ The feature includes real-time audio level visualization and voice activity dete
 **Microphone button not appearing:**
 
 - Enable and sign in to the Kilo provider, or set a custom transcription base URL
+- Confirm you are in a local VS Code window. Voice input is unavailable in remote windows such as Remote-SSH, WSL, and dev containers, because audio capture runs on the machine that hosts the extension
 
 **Transcription errors:**
 
@@ -118,5 +119,6 @@ The feature includes real-time audio level visualization and voice activity dete
 Voice transcription has these requirements:
 
 - Requires an active internet connection, unless your custom base URL points at a local service
+- Requires a local VS Code window. In remote windows audio capture runs on the remote machine, which usually has no microphone
 - Requires Kilo Gateway access through your Kilo account, or a custom OpenAI-compatible base URL
 - Transcription accuracy depends on audio quality and speech clarity

packages/kilo-vscode/src/features.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { hasIndexingPlugin } from "@kilocode/kilo-indexing/detect"
 import type { KiloClient } from "@kilocode/sdk/v2"
+import * as vscode from "vscode"
 
 type PluginSpec = string | [string, Record<string, unknown>]
 
@@ -11,13 +12,19 @@ export type Features = {
   indexing: boolean
   sandboxControls: boolean
   backgroundSubagents: boolean
+  speechToText: boolean
 }
 
-export function configFeatures(config?: ConfigLike | null, backgroundSubagents = false): Features {
+export function configFeatures(
+  config?: ConfigLike | null,
+  backgroundSubagents = false,
+  remote = !!vscode.env.remoteName,
+): Features {
   return {
     indexing: hasIndexingPlugin(config?.plugin ?? []),
     sandboxControls: process.platform !== "win32",
     backgroundSubagents,
+    speechToText: !remote,
   }
 }
 

packages/kilo-vscode/tests/unit/indexing-utils.test.ts

@@ -126,6 +126,12 @@ describe("indexing feature detection", () => {
     expect(configFeatures({}, true).backgroundSubagents).toBe(true)
   })
 
+  it("disables speech input capture in remote windows", () => {
+    expect(configFeatures().speechToText).toBe(true)
+    expect(configFeatures({}, false, true).speechToText).toBe(false)
+    expect(configFeatures({}, false, false).speechToText).toBe(true)
+  })
+
   it("enables indexing settings when the indexing plugin is present", () => {
     expect(configFeatures({ plugin: ["kilo-indexing"] }).indexing).toBe(true)
   })

packages/kilo-vscode/tests/unit/speech-to-text-availability.test.ts

@@ -22,6 +22,11 @@ describe("speech-to-text availability", () => {
     expect(canUseSpeechToText({ enabled_providers: ["kilo"] }, { kilo: "oauth" })).toBe(true)
   })
 
+  it("hides speech input when the window cannot capture audio", () => {
+    expect(canUseSpeechToText({}, { kilo: "oauth" }, false)).toBe(false)
+    expect(canUseSpeechToText({}, { kilo: "oauth" }, true)).toBe(true)
+  })
+
   it("normalizes configured and unknown transcription models", () => {
     expect(
       selectedSpeechToTextModel({ experimental: { speech_to_text_model: "google/chirp-3" } }, [

packages/kilo-vscode/tests/unit/speech-to-text-prewarm.test.ts

@@ -44,14 +44,21 @@ const SCRIPT = `
 
   const [config, setConfig] = createSignal({ disabled_providers: ["kilo"] })
   const [auth, setAuth] = createSignal({})
+  const [capture, setCapture] = createSignal(false)
+  const features = () => ({
+    indexing: false,
+    sandboxControls: false,
+    backgroundSubagents: false,
+    speechToText: capture(),
+  })
   const root = document.createElement("div")
   const dispose = render(
     () =>
       createComponent(ProviderContext.Provider, {
         value: { authStates: auth },
         get children() {
           return createComponent(ConfigContext.Provider, {
-            value: { config },
+            value: { config, features },
             get children() {
               return createComponent(SpeechToTextPrewarm, {})
             },
@@ -65,8 +72,10 @@ const SCRIPT = `
   setAuth({ kilo: "api" })
   if (sent.length !== 0) fail("prewarmed while Kilo was disabled")
   setConfig({})
+  if (sent.length !== 0) fail("prewarmed without capture support")
+  setCapture(true)
   if (sent.length !== 1 || sent[0]?.type !== "speechToTextPrewarm") {
-    fail("did not prewarm after Kilo access became available")
+    fail("did not prewarm after capture became available")
   }
   setAuth({ kilo: "oauth" })
   if (sent.length !== 1) fail("prewarmed more than once")

packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/agent-manager/NewWorktreeDialog.tsx

@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ export const NewWorktreeDialog: Component<{
   const sandboxVisible = () => features().sandboxControls && globalConfig().sandbox?.enabled === true
   const speech = useSpeechToText(vscode, server, { t })
   const speechModels = useSpeechToTextModels()
-  const canUseSpeech = () => canUseSpeechToText(config(), provider.authStates())
+  const canUseSpeech = () => canUseSpeechToText(config(), provider.authStates(), features().speechToText)
   const speechModel = () => selectedSpeechToTextModel(config(), speechModels.models())
   let prior: string | null = null
   let request: string | undefined

packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/diff-viewer/review-setup.ts

@@ -31,12 +31,12 @@ export function createReviewSpeech(t: T): {
   const vscode = useVSCode()
   const server = useServer()
   const provider = useProvider()
-  const { config } = useConfig()
+  const { config, features } = useConfig()
   const speech = useSpeechToText(vscode, server, { t })
   const models = useSpeechToTextModels()
   return {
     speech,
-    enabled: () => canUseSpeechToText(config(), provider.authStates()),
+    enabled: () => canUseSpeechToText(config(), provider.authStates(), features().speechToText),
     model: () => selectedSpeechToTextModel(config(), models.models()),
   }
 }

packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/src/components/chat/PromptInput.tsx

@@ -764,7 +764,7 @@ export const PromptInput: Component<PromptInputProps> = (props) => {
       globalConfig(),
     )
   const isDisabled = () => !server.isConnected() || locked() || goal.pending()
-  const canUseSpeech = () => canUseSpeechToText(config(), provider.authStates())
+  const canUseSpeech = () => canUseSpeechToText(config(), provider.authStates(), features().speechToText)
   const speechModel = () => selectedSpeechToTextModel(config(), speechModels.models())
   const hasInput = () =>
     text().trim().length > 0 ||

packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/src/components/settings/ModelsTab.tsx

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import { AUTOCOMPLETE_SELECTOR_MODELS, getAutocompleteSelection } from "./autoco
 import { preserveVariant } from "../../context/session-variant-store"
 
 const ModelsTab: Component = () => {
-  const { config, settings, updateConfig, updateSetting } = useConfig()
+  const { config, settings, updateConfig, updateSetting, features } = useConfig()
   const language = useLanguage()
   const provider = useProvider()
   const session = useSession()
@@ -246,11 +246,13 @@ const ModelsTab: Component = () => {
         <SettingsRow
           title={language.t("settings.models.speechToTextModel.title")}
           description={
-            customSpeech()
-              ? language.t("settings.models.speechToTextModel.customDescription")
-              : kiloReady()
-                ? language.t("settings.models.speechToTextModel.description")
-                : language.t("settings.models.speechToText.disabledDescription")
+            !features().speechToText
+              ? language.t("settings.models.speechToText.remoteDescription")
+              : customSpeech()
+                ? language.t("settings.models.speechToTextModel.customDescription")
+                : kiloReady()
+                  ? language.t("settings.models.speechToTextModel.description")
+                  : language.t("settings.models.speechToText.disabledDescription")
           }
         >
           <Show

packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/src/components/speech-to-text/SpeechToTextPrewarm.tsx

@@ -7,11 +7,11 @@ import { canUseSpeechToText } from "./availability"
 export const SpeechToTextPrewarm: Component = () => {
   const vscode = getVSCodeAPI()
   const provider = useProvider()
-  const { config } = useConfig()
+  const { config, features } = useConfig()
   let prepared = false
 
   createEffect(() => {
-    if (prepared || !canUseSpeechToText(config(), provider.authStates())) return
+    if (prepared || !canUseSpeechToText(config(), provider.authStates(), features().speechToText)) return
     prepared = true
     vscode.postMessage({ type: "speechToTextPrewarm" })
   })

packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/src/components/speech-to-text/availability.ts

@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ export function hasSpeechToTextAccess(cfg: Cfg, auth: Readonly<Record<string, Au
   return enabled && !cfg.disabled_providers?.includes(KILO_PROVIDER_ID) && (type === "api" || type === "oauth")
 }
 
-export function canUseSpeechToText(cfg: Cfg, auth: Readonly<Record<string, AuthState>>): boolean {
+export function canUseSpeechToText(cfg: Cfg, auth: Readonly<Record<string, AuthState>>, capture = true): boolean {
+  if (!capture) return false
   if (!hasSpeechToTextAccess(cfg, auth)) return false
   // A custom endpoint needs an explicit model. Never fall back to a Gateway model ID,
   // which the endpoint would reject or misinterpret.

packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/src/context/config.tsx

@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@ export const ConfigProvider: ParentComponent = (props) => {
     indexing: false,
     sandboxControls: false,
     backgroundSubagents: false,
+    speechToText: false,
   })
   const [loading, setLoading] = createSignal(true)
   const [draft, setDraft] = createSignal<Partial<Config>>({})

packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/src/i18n/de.ts

@@ -938,6 +938,8 @@ export const dict = {
   "settings.models.speechToTextApiKey.placeholder": "sk-...",
   "settings.models.speechToText.disabledDescription":
     "Aktivieren Sie den Kilo-Anbieter und melden Sie sich an, um Speech to Text zu verwenden, oder legen Sie unten eine eigene Transkriptions-Basis-URL fest.",
+  "settings.models.speechToText.remoteDescription":
+    "Spracheingabe ist in Remote-Fenstern nicht verfügbar. Öffnen Sie Kilo in einem lokalen Fenster, um das Mikrofon zu verwenden.",
   "settings.models.speechToTextModel.title": "Sprache-zu-Text-Modell",
   "settings.models.speechToTextModel.description":
     "Wählen Sie das Kilo Gateway-Transkriptionsmodell für die Spracheingabe.",

packages/kilo-vscode/webview-ui/src/i18n/en.ts

@@ -887,6 +887,8 @@ export const dict = {
 
   "settings.models.speechToText.disabledDescription":
     "Kilo Gateway is selected. Enable and sign in to the Kilo provider to choose a supported model, or enter a custom transcription base URL above.",
+  "settings.models.speechToText.remoteDescription":
+    "Voice input is unavailable in remote windows. Open Kilo in a local window to use the microphone.",
   "settings.models.speechToTextModel.title": "Speech to Text Model",
   "settings.models.speechToTextModel.description":
     "Kilo Gateway is the active speech-to-text source. Choose its transcription model for voice input.",