# Media to Text - Development Rules

## CRITICAL RULE: Never Upload Full Video Files

**Status**: MANDATORY - NEVER VIOLATE

### Rule Definition
- **NEVER** allow users to upload full video files (MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, FLV, WMV, WEBM) to the server
- **ALWAYS** extract audio on the browser BEFORE uploading
- Only audio files (MP3, WAV, M4A, etc.) should be uploaded to the server

### Why This Rule Exists
1. **Bandwidth Efficiency**: Video files are 10-100x larger than extracted audio
2. **User Experience**: Faster uploads = better UX
3. **Server Resources**: Reduces server storage and processing load
4. **Cost**: Minimizes data transfer costs

### Implementation Requirements
- Browser-side audio extraction is MANDATORY for video files
- Use ffmpeg.wasm or equivalent WebAssembly solution
- If browser extraction fails, show error message - DO NOT fall back to uploading full video
- Server-side extraction is NOT acceptable as a workaround

### Current Status
- ✅ Browser extraction via Web Audio API (`AudioContext.decodeAudioData`): IMPLEMENTED
  - Converts media file data (audio or video) into a `Float32Array` PCM buffer client-side in the browser.
  - For server upload, encodes the PCM buffer to a standard 16-bit mono 16kHz WAV Blob in Javascript.
  - Ensures absolute compliance with the rule that full video files are never uploaded to the server.

### NOT Acceptable
- ❌ Uploading full video files to server
- ❌ Server-side extraction as primary solution
- ❌ Removing this rule without explicit approval

## RULE: Show Model Download Progress

**Status**: MANDATORY

### Rule Definition
- **ALWAYS** show download progress when loading Whisper models
- Display percentage and/or file size being downloaded
- Models can be 150MB-500MB+ and take significant time to download

### Why This Rule Exists
1. **User Experience**: Users need to know the app isn't frozen
2. **Transparency**: Large downloads should be visible
3. **Expectations**: Users can estimate wait time

### Implementation Requirements
- Use progress callback from transformers.js pipeline
- Display progress percentage in status element
- Show "Downloading model: X%" or similar message