fix(voice): reset finalization gate on new turn + attach remote audio to DOM

[sergiopesch]

Two related but independent fixes in hooks/useVoiceInteraction.ts.

1. Dropped turn on fast re-speak

finalizeTurn sets isFinalizingTurnRef.current = true, then awaits onFinalTranscript (which is a fetch to /api/chat). If the user starts speaking again before that fetch resolves:

turn A: speech_stopped -> transcription.completed -> finalizeTurn()  [flag=true, awaiting fetch...]
turn B: speech_started    <- clears buffers, but does NOT clear the flag
turn B: speech_stopped
turn B: transcription.completed -> finalizeTurn()
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                                   if (isFinalizingTurnRef.current) return;   // 🔥 dropped

The user's second utterance is silently dropped.

Fix: reset isFinalizingTurnRef on input_audio_buffer.speech_started. The previous turn's in-flight fetch still completes normally; it just no longer blocks the next turn from finalizing.

2. Remote <audio> element not attached to DOM

On pc.ontrack we lazily constructed:

remoteAudioRef.current = new Audio();
remoteAudioRef.current.autoplay = true;

…and never appended it to the document. Most desktop browsers accept detached <audio> elements, but Safari on iOS is known to be inconsistent — autoplay can silently fail, and audio-route selection (speaker / earpiece / Bluetooth) can misbehave on detached nodes.

Fix: append to document.body with display: none + aria-hidden="true" on first creation. Remove it from its parent during teardown so repeated sessions don't leave orphaned nodes behind.

Why both in one PR

They're two lines of code each, both in the same hook, both about the lifetime of connection-scoped resources. Splitting them would create more review overhead than either deserves.

Verification

• ✅ npm run validate (type-check + lint + prettier)
• ✅ npm test — 12/12
• ✅ npm run build — production build succeeds
• ✅ No changes to the public hook API

Can't easily unit-test the race without a full Realtime-API harness; adding one was explicitly out of scope (would also have required jsdom or playwright). The fix is a two-line reset and the comment explains the invariant.

Depends on #12. Independent of #13/#14/#15/#16/#17/#18.

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
clitronic	Ready	Preview, Comment	Apr 21, 2026 10:32am