fix(asr): treat a rooted POSIX path as local on Windows

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ metadata and the backend fallback mirror it.
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- Local speech-recognition model paths beginning with a slash work on Windows without a model-licence error (#2930) — thanks @DeryFerd!
+
 - "Text-to-speech is not ready" → Fix now downloads the model chosen for the selected engine instead of doing nothing and leaving the warning up (#2918)
 - Integrations show official logos for Cursor, Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenAI Agents, Docker and the VoiceStudio API instead of a generic placeholder or a GitHub avatar (#2918)
 - Tools → Convert includes saved Voice Design profiles and clones with locked reference audio in the target voice picker (#2899)

backend/services/asr_backend.py

@@ -3109,16 +3109,16 @@ def _licence_repo(name: str | None, *, faster_whisper: bool = False) -> str | No
 
     A local directory outside the HF cache has no registry identity (it is a
     user-provided asset) and yields None. Local paths are recognised by syntax
-    (absolute, ``./``, ``../``, ``~``, drive letters), never by probing the
-    filesystem with a user-provided name.
+    (absolute, a leading separator, ``./``, ``../``, ``~``, drive letters),
+    never by probing the filesystem with a user-provided name.
     """
     name = str(name or "").strip()
     if not name:
         return None
     cached = _HF_CACHE_DIR.search(name)
     if cached:
         return f"{cached.group(1)}/{cached.group(2)}"
-    if os.path.isabs(name) or name.startswith((".", "~")) or "\\" in name or _DRIVE_PATH.match(name):
+    if os.path.isabs(name) or name.startswith(("/", ".", "~")) or "\\" in name or _DRIVE_PATH.match(name):
         return None
     if name.lower() in _MOONSHINE_REPOS:
         return _MOONSHINE_REPOS[name.lower()]

tests/test_model_acceptance_asr.py

@@ -315,3 +315,14 @@ def test_local_model_paths_are_recognised_by_syntax_not_the_filesystem(name):
 
 def test_org_name_is_a_registry_identity():
     assert ab._licence_repo("someone/unreviewed-ct2") == "someone/unreviewed-ct2"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("faster_whisper", [False, True])
+def test_rooted_windows_path_is_local_independent_of_host(monkeypatch, faster_whisper):
+    from types import SimpleNamespace
+
+    # Python 3.13 Windows rejects a single leading slash as an absolute path.
+    # Isolate the backend's view rather than patching process-wide os.path.
+    monkeypatch.setattr(ab, "os", SimpleNamespace(path=SimpleNamespace(isabs=lambda name: False)))
+    assert ab._licence_repo("/models/whisper", faster_whisper=faster_whisper) is None
+    assert ab._licence_repo("Systran/faster-whisper-small", faster_whisper=faster_whisper) == "Systran/faster-whisper-small"