reflector/server/docs/gpu/api-transcription.md

Reflector GPU Transcription API (Specification)

This document defines the Reflector GPU transcription API that all implementations must adhere to. Current implementations include NVIDIA Parakeet (NeMo) and Whisper (faster-whisper), both deployed on Modal.com. The API surface and response shapes are OpenAI/Whisper-compatible, so clients can switch implementations by changing only the base URL.

Base URL and Authentication

• Example base URLs (Modal web endpoints):

  • Parakeet: https://<account>--reflector-transcriber-parakeet-web.modal.run
  • Whisper: https://<account>--reflector-transcriber-web.modal.run

• All endpoints are served under /v1 and require a Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer <REFLECTOR_GPU_APIKEY>

Note: To switch implementations, deploy the desired variant and point TRANSCRIPT_URL to its base URL. The API is identical.

Supported file types

mp3, mp4, mpeg, mpga, m4a, wav, webm

Models and languages

• Parakeet (NVIDIA NeMo): default nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2
  • Language support: only en. Other languages return HTTP 400.
• Whisper (faster-whisper): default large-v2 (or deployment-specific)
  • Language support: multilingual (per Whisper model capabilities).

Note: The model parameter is accepted by all implementations for interface parity. Some backends may treat it as informational.

Endpoints

POST /v1/audio/transcriptions

Transcribe one or more uploaded audio files.

Request: multipart/form-data

• file (File) — optional. Single file to transcribe.
• files (File[]) — optional. One or more files to transcribe.
• model (string) — optional. Defaults to the implementation-specific model (see above).
• language (string) — optional, defaults to en.
  • Parakeet: only en is accepted; other values return HTTP 400
  • Whisper: model-dependent; typically multilingual
• batch (boolean) — optional, defaults to false.

Notes:

• Provide either file or files, not both. If neither is provided, HTTP 400.
• batch requires files; using batch=true without files returns HTTP 400.
• Response shape for multiple files is the same regardless of batch.
• Files sent to this endpoint are processed in a single pass (no VAD/chunking). This is intended for short clips (roughly ≤ 30s; depends on GPU memory/model). For longer audio, prefer /v1/audio/transcriptions-from-url which supports VAD-based chunking.

Responses

Single file response:

{
  "text": "transcribed text",
  "words": [
    { "word": "hello", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5 },
    { "word": "world", "start": 0.5, "end": 1.0 }
  ],
  "filename": "audio.mp3"
}

Multiple files response:

{
  "results": [
    {"filename": "a1.mp3", "text": "...", "words": [...]},
    {"filename": "a2.mp3", "text": "...", "words": [...]}]
}

Notes:

• Word objects always include keys: word, start, end.
• Some implementations may include a trailing space in word to match Whisper tokenization behavior; clients should trim if needed.

Example curl (single file):

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REFLECTOR_GPU_APIKEY" \
  -F "file=@/path/to/audio.mp3" \
  -F "language=en" \
  "$BASE_URL/v1/audio/transcriptions"

Example curl (multiple files, batch):

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REFLECTOR_GPU_APIKEY" \
  -F "files=@/path/a1.mp3" -F "files=@/path/a2.mp3" \
  -F "batch=true" -F "language=en" \
  "$BASE_URL/v1/audio/transcriptions"

POST /v1/audio/transcriptions-from-url

Transcribe a single remote audio file by URL.

Request: application/json

Body parameters:

• audio_file_url (string) — required. URL of the audio file to transcribe.
• model (string) — optional. Defaults to the implementation-specific model (see above).
• language (string) — optional, defaults to en. Parakeet only accepts en.
• timestamp_offset (number) — optional, defaults to 0.0. Added to each word's start/end in the response.

{
  "audio_file_url": "https://example.com/audio.mp3",
  "model": "nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2",
  "language": "en",
  "timestamp_offset": 0.0
}

Response:

{
  "text": "transcribed text",
  "words": [
    { "word": "hello", "start": 10.0, "end": 10.5 },
    { "word": "world", "start": 10.5, "end": 11.0 }
  ]
}

Notes:

• timestamp_offset is added to each word’s start/end in the response.
• Implementations may perform VAD-based chunking and batching for long-form audio; word timings are adjusted accordingly.

Example curl:

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REFLECTOR_GPU_APIKEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
        "audio_file_url": "https://example.com/audio.mp3",
        "language": "en",
        "timestamp_offset": 0
      }' \
  "$BASE_URL/v1/audio/transcriptions-from-url"

Error handling

• 400 Bad Request
  • Parakeet: language other than en
  • Missing required parameters (file/files for upload; audio_file_url for URL endpoint)
  • Unsupported file extension
• 401 Unauthorized
  • Missing or invalid Bearer token
• 404 Not Found
  • audio_file_url does not exist

Implementation details

• GPUs: A10G for small-file/live, L40S for large-file URL transcription (subject to deployment)
• VAD chunking and segment batching; word timings adjusted and overlapping ends constrained
• Pads very short segments (< 0.5s) to avoid model crashes on some backends

Server configuration (Reflector API)

Set the Reflector server to use the Modal backend and point TRANSCRIPT_URL to your chosen deployment:

TRANSCRIPT_BACKEND=modal
TRANSCRIPT_URL=https://<account>--reflector-transcriber-parakeet-web.modal.run
TRANSCRIPT_MODAL_API_KEY=<REFLECTOR_GPU_APIKEY>

Conformance tests

Use the pytest-based conformance tests to validate any new implementation (including self-hosted) against this spec:

TRANSCRIPT_URL=https://<your-deployment-base> \
TRANSCRIPT_MODAL_API_KEY=your-api-key \
uv run -m pytest -m model_api --no-cov server/tests/test_model_api_transcript.py