How 'murmur' Terminal Radio Handles Prefetching and Live Interruptions

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Murmur is a terminal-based companion radio that autonomously talks and plays music without user prompts, while also responding to typed listener input. A local orchestration component called the Director prepares speech and music content during playback to avoid audible gaps between segments. Content preparation — including text generation, speech synthesis, and music sourcing — can take anywhere from 9 to 34 seconds, making prefetching essential to a smooth experience. When a listener interrupts, the Director discards queued content and issues a fresh generation request, while the existing audio continues playing in the meantime. The system is built in TypeScript on Node.js, uses Claude's Agent SDK for model inference, and separates audio control from content preparation to handle uncertainties like unplayable music sources.

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