fix: surface audio save errors and handle fallback TTS in [w] save

Audio save (`w`) failed silently with "(audio failed)" because the
catch block swallowed all errors and the fallback TTS path (macOS `say`)
never produced an MP3 file. Now errors are surfaced in the audio panel,
the fallback state is tracked via `audioIsFallback`, and `[w]` is hidden
when no MP3 exists.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: asanmateu

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ### Fixed
 
 - App exits directly when pressing Esc during extraction/summarization if launched with a positional argument (`tldr <url>`), instead of returning to the interactive prompt
+- Audio save with `[w]` after fallback TTS (macOS `say`) no longer silently retries broken edge-tts; shows clear error instead
+- Audio save errors are now surfaced in the audio panel instead of being silently swallowed
+- `[w] save + audio` hidden when system TTS fallback was used (no MP3 file to save)
 
 ## [2.0.0] - 2026-02-19
 

src/App.tsx

@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ export function App({ initialInput, showConfig, editProfile, overrides }: AppPro
   const [discardPending, setDiscardPending] = useState(false);
   const [toast, setToast] = useState<string | undefined>(undefined);
   const [tempAudioPath, setTempAudioPath] = useState<string | undefined>(undefined);
+  const [audioIsFallback, setAudioIsFallback] = useState(false);
   const [cachedSpeechText, setCachedSpeechText] = useState<string | undefined>(undefined);
   const [isSavingAudio, setIsSavingAudio] = useState(false);
   const [profiles, setProfiles] = useState<{ name: string; active: boolean }[]>([]);
@@ -397,6 +398,7 @@ export function App({ initialInput, showConfig, editProfile, overrides }: AppPro
                   config.ttsModel,
                 );
                 setTempAudioPath(path);
+                setAudioIsFallback(false);
                 setIsGeneratingAudio(false);
                 const proc = playAudio(path);
                 setAudioProcess(proc);
@@ -408,7 +410,8 @@ export function App({ initialInput, showConfig, editProfile, overrides }: AppPro
                   const msg = ttsErr instanceof Error ? ttsErr.message : "OpenAI TTS failed";
                   setAudioError(msg);
                 } else {
-                  // edge-tts failed — fall back to system TTS
+                  // edge-tts failed — fall back to system TTS (no MP3 file produced)
+                  setAudioIsFallback(true);
                   const proc = speakFallback(speechText);
                   if (proc) {
                     setAudioProcess(proc);
@@ -438,6 +441,7 @@ export function App({ initialInput, showConfig, editProfile, overrides }: AppPro
         if (ch === "r") {
           if (config) {
             setTempAudioPath(undefined);
+            setAudioIsFallback(false);
             setCachedSpeechText(undefined);
             processInput(input, config);
           }
@@ -473,6 +477,8 @@ export function App({ initialInput, showConfig, editProfile, overrides }: AppPro
                     if (tempAudioPath) {
                       await saveAudioFile(saved, tempAudioPath);
                       audioSaved = true;
+                    } else if (audioIsFallback) {
+                      setAudioError("System TTS has no MP3 file to save");
                     } else if (config) {
                       const speechText =
                         cachedSpeechText ?? (await rewriteForSpeech(summary, config));
@@ -489,8 +495,8 @@ export function App({ initialInput, showConfig, editProfile, overrides }: AppPro
                       await saveAudioFile(saved, audioPath);
                       audioSaved = true;
                     }
-                  } catch {
-                    // Audio failure is non-fatal — summary still saved
+                  } catch (err) {
+                    setAudioError(err instanceof Error ? err.message : "Audio save failed");
                   }
                   setIsSavingAudio(false);
                 }
@@ -551,6 +557,7 @@ export function App({ initialInput, showConfig, editProfile, overrides }: AppPro
           setInput("");
           setCurrentSession(undefined);
           setTempAudioPath(undefined);
+          setAudioIsFallback(false);
           setCachedSpeechText(undefined);
           return;
         }
@@ -577,6 +584,7 @@ export function App({ initialInput, showConfig, editProfile, overrides }: AppPro
             setInput("");
             setCurrentSession(undefined);
             setTempAudioPath(undefined);
+            setAudioIsFallback(false);
             setCachedSpeechText(undefined);
           } else {
             // First press — start discard timer
@@ -680,6 +688,7 @@ export function App({ initialInput, showConfig, editProfile, overrides }: AppPro
             isSavingAudio={isSavingAudio}
             toast={toast}
             isSaved={!pendingResult}
+            audioIsFallback={audioIsFallback}
             summaryPinned={summaryPinned}
           />
         )}

src/__tests__/app.test.tsx

@@ -916,6 +916,123 @@ describe("App", () => {
       instance.unmount();
     });
 
+    it("'w' after successful 'a' saves with audio using temp path", async () => {
+      mocks.rewriteForSpeech.mockResolvedValue("speech text");
+      mocks.generateAudio.mockResolvedValue("/tmp/audio.mp3");
+      mocks.saveAudioFile.mockResolvedValue(undefined);
+      const fakeProc = { on: vi.fn((_e: string, cb: () => void) => cb()), kill: vi.fn() };
+      mocks.playAudio.mockReturnValue(fakeProc);
+
+      const instance = render(<App initialInput="https://example.com/article" />);
+
+      await vi.waitFor(
+        () => {
+          expect(instance.lastFrame()).toContain("TL;DR");
+        },
+        { timeout: 2000 },
+      );
+
+      // Press 'a' to generate and play audio
+      instance.stdin.write("a");
+
+      await vi.waitFor(
+        () => {
+          expect(mocks.generateAudio).toHaveBeenCalled();
+        },
+        { timeout: 2000 },
+      );
+
+      // Now press 'w' to save with audio — should use tempAudioPath
+      instance.stdin.write("w");
+
+      await vi.waitFor(
+        () => {
+          expect(instance.lastFrame()).toContain("Saved with audio");
+        },
+        { timeout: 3000 },
+      );
+
+      expect(mocks.saveAudioFile).toHaveBeenCalledWith(TEST_SESSION, "/tmp/audio.mp3");
+
+      instance.unmount();
+    });
+
+    it("'w' after fallback TTS shows audio failed", async () => {
+      mocks.rewriteForSpeech.mockResolvedValue("speech text");
+      mocks.generateAudio.mockRejectedValue(new Error("edge-tts failed"));
+      const fakeProc = { on: vi.fn((_e: string, cb: () => void) => cb()), kill: vi.fn() };
+      mocks.speakFallback.mockReturnValue(fakeProc);
+
+      const instance = render(<App initialInput="https://example.com/article" />);
+
+      await vi.waitFor(
+        () => {
+          expect(instance.lastFrame()).toContain("TL;DR");
+        },
+        { timeout: 2000 },
+      );
+
+      // Press 'a' — edge-tts fails, falls back to system TTS
+      instance.stdin.write("a");
+
+      await vi.waitFor(
+        () => {
+          expect(mocks.speakFallback).toHaveBeenCalled();
+        },
+        { timeout: 2000 },
+      );
+
+      // [w] should be hidden when audioIsFallback is true
+      await vi.waitFor(
+        () => {
+          expect(instance.lastFrame()).not.toContain("[w]");
+        },
+        { timeout: 2000 },
+      );
+
+      instance.unmount();
+    });
+
+    it("'w' surfaces saveAudioFile errors", async () => {
+      mocks.rewriteForSpeech.mockResolvedValue("speech text");
+      mocks.generateAudio.mockResolvedValue("/tmp/audio.mp3");
+      mocks.saveAudioFile.mockRejectedValue(new Error("ENOSPC: disk full"));
+      const fakeProc = { on: vi.fn((_e: string, cb: () => void) => cb()), kill: vi.fn() };
+      mocks.playAudio.mockReturnValue(fakeProc);
+
+      const instance = render(<App initialInput="https://example.com/article" />);
+
+      await vi.waitFor(
+        () => {
+          expect(instance.lastFrame()).toContain("TL;DR");
+        },
+        { timeout: 2000 },
+      );
+
+      // Press 'a' first so tempAudioPath is set
+      instance.stdin.write("a");
+
+      await vi.waitFor(
+        () => {
+          expect(mocks.generateAudio).toHaveBeenCalled();
+        },
+        { timeout: 2000 },
+      );
+
+      // Press 'w' — saveAudioFile will reject
+      instance.stdin.write("w");
+
+      await vi.waitFor(
+        () => {
+          const frame = instance.lastFrame();
+          expect(frame).toContain("ENOSPC: disk full");
+        },
+        { timeout: 3000 },
+      );
+
+      instance.unmount();
+    });
+
     it("HelpView shows 'w' shortcut and 'Save with audio'", async () => {
       const instance = render(<App />);
 

src/components/SummaryView.tsx

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ interface SummaryViewProps {
   isSavingAudio: boolean;
   toast?: string | undefined;
   isSaved?: boolean | undefined;
+  audioIsFallback?: boolean | undefined;
   summaryPinned?: boolean | undefined;
 }
 
@@ -35,6 +36,7 @@ export function SummaryView({
   isSavingAudio,
   toast,
   isSaved,
+  audioIsFallback,
   summaryPinned,
 }: SummaryViewProps) {
   const theme = useTheme();
@@ -94,7 +96,7 @@ export function SummaryView({
               <Text>
                 <Text color={theme.accent}>[a]</Text>
                 <Text dimColor> {audioError ? "retry" : "listen"}</Text>
-                {!isSaved && (
+                {!isSaved && !audioIsFallback && (
                   <>
                     <Text dimColor> · </Text>
                     <Text color={theme.accent}>[w]</Text>