Audio Capability Probing Design

Issues: #1479, #1481, #1482, #1483 Date: 2026-05-08

Scope

This design separates radio-native LAN audio probing from consumer transport encoding and OS audio-device probing.

Direct stock-radio LAN policy is protocol-specific. For Icom LAN, probe artifacts test PCM/uLaw conninfo combinations and intentionally exclude Opus: wfview-server compatibility is a separate transport concern and is not a priority for radio-native defaults.

USB audio is out of scope for radio-native codec probing. USB-connected radios expose OS audio devices, so their hardening lives in #1480.

Boundaries

• Radio-native stream policy: codec/sample-rate/channels sent to the radio or accepted by the radio protocol endpoint.
• Probe result: one attempted candidate plus its accepted/rejected/failed state.
• Evidence artifact: machine-readable JSON containing model, profile, transport, metadata, candidates, statuses, reasons, and observed payload data.
• Profile update: a later explicit change to rigs/*.toml made only from passed evidence. Rejected or failed candidates remain evidence but never become defaults.

Foundation

rigplane.audio.probe defines:

• AudioProbeCandidate
• AudioProbeResult
• AudioProbeArtifact
• AudioProbeStatus
• build_stock_radio_lan_probe_matrix()
• classify_stock_radio_lan_probe_error()
• profile_policy_from_probe_results()

The initial Icom LAN matrix is conservative:

• RX codecs: PCM 2ch/1ch 16-bit, uLaw 2ch/1ch.
• TX codec: mono PCM 16-bit.
• Sample rates: 48000, 24000, 16000, 8000.
• Opus: excluded for direct stock-radio LAN.

Follow-Up Work

• 1481 adds the actual Icom LAN probe runner and CLI.

• 1482 records hardware validation artifacts.

• 1483 turns passed artifacts into guarded profile update proposals.