NOCITO MUSIC — WINDOWS LOCAL AI BETA

1. Extract into a NEW folder with at least 20 GiB free space. Do not overlay an
   existing AI installation. Internet is required only to prepare the runtime.
2. Run Install Nocito Music.cmd. It checks hardware before downloading anything,
   asks you to type INSTALL, uses isolated virtual environments, downloads only
   pinned Turbo + VAE + text embedding weights and verifies checksums. No planning
   language model, driver installation or paid service is used.
3. Setup first tests GPU kernels, then a real 10-second instrumental. Readiness is
   not declared unless generation and audio integrity checks pass. A failed or
   excessively slow proof is a blocker; see diagnostics and data/jobs logs.
4. Run Start Nocito Music.cmd. In the website choose Local AI studio, Connect and
   approve the local connection window. Keep that window open. After Windows
   restarts, start the companion again. Stop-Studio.cmd stops this service only.

Your uploads, audio and metadata stay in this folder's data directory. Do not
delete it to update the program. Public website results must also be downloaded
or explicitly saved in its browser library before closing. Those browser copies
are separate from the companion's local files.

Hardware: Windows x64, 8 GiB VRAM, approximately 32 GiB system RAM; 48 GiB helpful
for long jobs or reference encoding. Experimental AMD setup is limited to the
RX 6600. It is not an officially supported Windows ROCm card. NVIDIA setup follows
upstream torch 2.7.1 + cu128 pins, but has not been tested on our AMD machine.
Compatible existing drivers are required. Drivers are never installed for you.
CPU-only AI is not offered as a proven practical fallback.

The legacy .venv-engine-rocm folder name is retained for both runtime modes;
data/runtime.json explicitly selects the mode. Modes cannot be switched inside
an existing folder. Maximum generation is 10 minutes, one GPU job at a time,
85% framework GPU memory ceiling, 20 GiB process RAM ceiling, 2 GiB system RAM
reserve. Real consumption also includes driver allocations. Cancellation stops
only owned queue workers. No guarantee of throughput or melodic fidelity.

AI source variations A–E are 30-second excerpts with different settings of one
Turbo model, not five model downloads. Use only owned or appropriately licensed
reference audio. All settings and source declarations stay in local metadata.

Provenance: see SOURCE-MANIFEST.json, licenses and diagnostics/model-manifest.json.
Code: ACE-Step ca1e85fe9430179831e6bc6be790c332190a3866 (MIT).
Weights: ACE-Step/Ace-Step1.5 19671f406d603126926c1b7e2adc169acbcade22
(MIT per model card). Qwen embedding: Apache-2.0 per upstream card.
Dependency notices are retained after installation. Source-only distribution;
no wheels, binaries, model weights or example music are bundled.

Local API: http://127.0.0.1:8715/companion/health (readiness identity).
The popup transport is a scoped, nonce-bound protocol, version 1. Operations:
ping, import, start, status, audio, cancel, disconnect. Grant stays inside the
local consent window and is never sent to the public website. Private studio
API remains authenticated separately and is not exposed to the website.
