Provider Pluggability — Make All Services Swappable

[MCERQUA]

Overview

OpenVoiceUI's TTS system is the only component with true pluggability — registry-based auto-discovery, custom API URL support, admin panel selection, and per-agent profile overrides. Every other service (STT, Vision, Image Gen, Music Gen, LLM, Search, Voice Cloning) is either hardcoded to specific providers or missing a "bring your own endpoint" option.

The name is OpenVoiceUI — every service should be mix-and-match, plug-and-play.

Current State

Service	Pluggable?	Gap
TTS	✅ Done	Gold standard — registry + custom URL + admin UI
STT	❌ In Progress	No custom URL. Chrome WebSpeech or hardcoded cloud only. See #193
Vision / Camera	❌ Not Started	Hardcoded to Groq/Llama 4 Scout. No custom endpoint
Image Generation	⚠️ Partial	Multiple providers exist but no registry, no custom URL
Music Generation	❌ Not Started	Suno API endpoint hardcoded
Voice Cloning	⚠️ Partial	Embedded in TTS providers, inconsistent interfaces
LLM	⚠️ Partial	Profile system works but no generic "bring your own LLM URL"
Web Search	❌ Not Started	DuckDuckGo hardcoded, Brave only in OpenClaw

Target Architecture (Per Service)

Every service should follow the TTS pattern:

1. Abstract base class — provider contract (providers/<type>/base.py)
2. Provider registry — auto-discovery via config/providers.yaml
3. Custom API URL env var — <SERVICE>_API_URL for bring-your-own endpoints
4. Admin panel selection — radio buttons or dropdown to switch providers
5. Per-agent profile override — each agent profile can use different providers

Implementation Order

1. STT — [Proposal] Add Support for External Whisper ASR Docker Service #193 (most requested, closes the obvious gap)
2. Vision — camera + image upload analysis
3. Image Generation — unify existing providers into registry
4. LLM — generic endpoint support alongside gateway
5. Music Generation — abstract Suno, allow alternatives
6. Voice Cloning — unified interface across providers
7. Web Search — expose to voice UI, allow custom search APIs
8. Admin UI updates — unified service catalog view

Related

• [Proposal] Add Support for External Whisper ASR Docker Service #193 — External Whisper ASR (STT pluggability)