Audio transcription lacks diagnostic logging
Status Closed — not planned
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 2 comments · opened Jan 31, 2026 · closed Mar 1, 2026
Summary
Audio transcription via Deepgram (or other providers) happens silently without any diagnostic logging, making it impossible to debug transcription failures.
Environment
- OpenClaw version: 2026.1.29 (dev channel)
- Audio config:
tools.media.audio.enabled: true, provider: deepgram, model: nova-3 - Diagnostics flags include:
audio.*
Problem
When a voice message arrives (e.g., from Telegram), the transcription either works or silently fails. There are no logs indicating:
- Whether a file download was attempted
- Whether Deepgram API was called
- Success/failure of transcription
- Any errors or reasons for skipping transcription
Reproduction
- Send two voice messages to the bot in quick succession
- First message: no transcript appeared in agent context
- Second message: transcript appeared correctly (
[Audio] Transcript: ...) - Logs show no difference between the two — no audio-related entries at all
Expected Behavior
With audio.* in diagnostics flags, expect to see logs like:
[audio] downloading file from telegram: file_id=xxx
[audio] deepgram transcription start: provider=deepgram model=nova-3
[audio] deepgram transcription complete: duration=1.2s chars=45
Or on failure:
[audio] deepgram transcription failed: error="rate limit" status=429
[audio] skipping transcription: reason="file download failed"
Impact
Without logging, users cannot:
- Debug why some voice messages aren't transcribed
- Detect Deepgram API issues (rate limits, auth failures)
- Verify audio pipeline is working correctly
Suggested Fix
Add subsystem logging to the audio transcription pipeline, gated by audio.* diagnostic flag.
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