mudler/LocalAI · error

error: transcription failed

Error message

error: transcription failed

What it means

Whisper transcription failed on the input audio. Guard: validate audio input (non-empty, supported sample rate/format) before inference; propagate the failure reason in the response.

Source

Thrown at backend/go/whisper/cpp/gowhisper.cpp:184

  // Only install the new-segment callback when streaming is requested
  // (Go side calls set_new_segment_callback before transcribe()). Leaving
  // it always-on is harmless but adds a function-pointer dispatch per
  // segment for the offline path.
  if (g_go_new_segment_cb.load(std::memory_order_relaxed) != 0) {
      wparams.new_segment_callback = new_segment_cb;
      wparams.new_segment_callback_user_data = nullptr;
  }
  wparams.abort_callback = abort_cb;
  wparams.abort_callback_user_data = nullptr;

  fprintf(stderr, "info: Enable tdrz: %d\n", tdrz);
  fprintf(stderr, "info: Initial prompt: \"%s\"\n", prompt);

  if (whisper_full(ctx, wparams, pcmf32, pcmf32_len)) {
    if (g_abort.load(std::memory_order_relaxed)) {
      return 2;   // aborted by client
    }
    fprintf(stderr, "error: transcription failed\n");
    return 1;
  }

  *segs_out_len = whisper_full_n_segments(ctx);

  return 0;
}

const char *get_segment_text(int i) {
  return whisper_full_get_segment_text(ctx, i);
}

int64_t get_segment_t0(int i) { return whisper_full_get_segment_t0(ctx, i); }

int64_t get_segment_t1(int i) { return whisper_full_get_segment_t1(ctx, i); }

int n_tokens(int i) { return whisper_full_n_tokens(ctx, i); }

View on GitHub (pinned to 44413a9d06)

Solutions

1. Verify the input audio is valid and in a supported format.
2. Check whisper.cpp logs for the underlying decode error.
3. Retry with a shorter clip or different model to isolate the failure.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at backend/go/whisper/cpp/gowhisper.cpp:184 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of mudler/LocalAI@44413a9d06 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9a7db47ad51c8f62. Report an issue: GitHub.