diff --git a/image/Dockerfile b/image/Dockerfile
index 021fbe6..63a91e0 100644
--- a/image/Dockerfile
+++ b/image/Dockerfile
@@ -18,12 +18,6 @@ COPY models.yaml /app/models.yaml
 # time — survives docker rm + redeploy of the parakeet container.
 COPY parakeet_patches /app/parakeet_patches
 
-# WhisperX container build context (Dockerfile + requirements.txt + app/).
-# The "Install WhisperX" action in spark-control ships these files to Spark 2
-# over SSH, then runs `docker build` + `docker run` there. The container
-# becomes a managed always-on service alongside parakeet-asr and magpie-tts.
-COPY whisperx_container /app/whisperx_container
-
 RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -e .
 
 ENV BIND_PORT=9999
diff --git a/image/app/audio_proxy.py b/image/app/audio_proxy.py
index 92adbe0..0bfc95a 100644
--- a/image/app/audio_proxy.py
+++ b/image/app/audio_proxy.py
@@ -209,17 +209,6 @@ def build_router(settings: Settings, deep_health: Any = None) -> APIRouter:
             raise HTTPException(r.status_code, r.text[:500])
         return Response(content=r.content, media_type=r.headers.get("content-type", "application/json"))
 
-    def _whisperx_base() -> str:
-        return f"http://{settings.whisperx_host}:{settings.whisperx_port}"
-
-    async def _whisperx_healthy() -> bool:
-        try:
-            async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=2.0) as client:
-                r = await client.get(f"{_whisperx_base()}/health")
-            return r.status_code == 200 and bool(r.json().get("diarizer_loaded"))
-        except Exception:
-            return False
-
     # ---- /api/audio/transcribe-with-speakers (STT + diarization, merged) ----
     @router.post("/api/audio/transcribe-with-speakers")
     async def transcribe_with_speakers(
@@ -256,23 +245,8 @@ def build_router(settings: Settings, deep_health: Any = None) -> APIRouter:
         filename = file.filename or "audio.wav"
         content_type = file.content_type or "application/octet-stream"
 
-        # Prefer WhisperX (single-pipeline, handles long audio properly) when it's
-        # installed and healthy. Fall back to Parakeet + Sortformer otherwise.
-        if await _whisperx_healthy():
-            files = {"file": (filename, body, content_type)}
-            try:
-                async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=1800.0) as client:
-                    r = await client.post(
-                        f"{_whisperx_base()}/v1/audio/transcribe-with-speakers",
-                        files=files,
-                    )
-            except httpx.HTTPError as e:
-                raise HTTPException(502, f"whisperx unreachable: {e}")
-            if r.status_code != 200:
-                raise HTTPException(r.status_code, r.text[:500])
-            return r.json()
-
-        # ── Legacy fallback: Parakeet ASR + Sortformer diarizer in parallel ──
+        # Parakeet ASR + Sortformer diarizer in parallel. (A WhisperX detour
+        # lived here briefly — reverted in v0.13.0:0; see release notes.)
         async def _call_transcribe(client: httpx.AsyncClient) -> dict:
             files = {"file": (filename, body, content_type)}
             data = {"response_format": "verbose_json"}
diff --git a/image/app/config.py b/image/app/config.py
index 9392b21..678519e 100644
--- a/image/app/config.py
+++ b/image/app/config.py
@@ -35,11 +35,6 @@ class Settings:
     magpie_host: str
     magpie_user: str
     magpie_container: str
-    whisperx_host: str
-    whisperx_user: str
-    whisperx_container: str
-    whisperx_port: int
-    whisperx_model: str
     ssh_key_path: str
     ssh_known_hosts: str
     models_yaml: str
@@ -54,7 +49,7 @@ class Settings:
     def from_env(cls) -> "Settings":
         spark2_host = _env("SPARK2_HOST")
         spark2_user = _env("SPARK2_USER")
-        # Parakeet, Magpie, and WhisperX all default to Spark 2 unless overridden.
+        # Parakeet and Magpie default to Spark 2 unless explicitly overridden.
         return cls(
             spark1_host=_env("SPARK1_HOST"),
             spark1_user=_env("SPARK1_USER"),
@@ -66,11 +61,6 @@ class Settings:
             magpie_host=_env("MAGPIE_HOST") or spark2_host,
             magpie_user=_env("MAGPIE_USER") or spark2_user,
             magpie_container=_env("MAGPIE_CONTAINER") or "magpie-tts",
-            whisperx_host=_env("WHISPERX_HOST") or spark2_host,
-            whisperx_user=_env("WHISPERX_USER") or spark2_user,
-            whisperx_container=_env("WHISPERX_CONTAINER") or "whisperx-asr",
-            whisperx_port=int(_env("WHISPERX_PORT", "8002")),
-            whisperx_model=_env("WHISPERX_MODEL", "medium"),
             ssh_key_path=_env("SSH_KEY_PATH"),
             ssh_known_hosts=_env("SSH_KNOWN_HOSTS"),
             models_yaml=_resolve_models_yaml(),
diff --git a/image/app/server.py b/image/app/server.py
index fa42740..ed05be6 100644
--- a/image/app/server.py
+++ b/image/app/server.py
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ from .overrides import add_custom, delete_custom, extract_knobs_from_args, load_
 from .services import docker_state, run_action, services_from_settings
 from .speech_models import SpeechModelsManager
 from .ssh import ssh_run
-from .whisperx_install import WhisperXInstaller
 from .swap import SwapManager
 from .updates import UpdateManager, get_update_status
 from .validate import validate_launch
@@ -40,7 +39,6 @@ hardware_probe = HardwareProbe(settings)
 nim_manager = NimManager(settings)
 deep_health = DeepHealth(settings)
 speech_models = SpeechModelsManager(settings)
-whisperx_installer = WhisperXInstaller(settings)
 
 app = FastAPI(title="spark-control", version="0.1.0")
 
@@ -537,68 +535,10 @@ async def post_speech_models_restart() -> dict:
     return result
 
 
-# ---- WhisperX install (Phase 2 of the WhisperX migration) ----
-
-@app.get("/api/whisperx/status")
-async def get_whisperx_status() -> dict:
-    """Is WhisperX installed + healthy on Spark 2 right now?"""
-    return await whisperx_installer.status()
-
-
-@app.post("/api/whisperx/install")
-async def post_whisperx_install() -> dict:
-    """One-click install: ships the WhisperX build context from inside
-    spark-control to Spark 2, runs `docker build` + `docker run`, polls
-    /health until both models are loaded. Streams progress via the matching
-    GET /api/whisperx/install/{job_id}/stream SSE endpoint."""
-    try:
-        job = await whisperx_installer.trigger()
-    except RuntimeError as e:
-        raise HTTPException(409, str(e))
-    return {"job_id": job.id, "started_at": job.started_at}
-
-
-@app.get("/api/whisperx/install/{job_id}")
-async def get_whisperx_install(job_id: str) -> dict:
-    job = whisperx_installer.get(job_id)
-    if not job:
-        raise HTTPException(404, "unknown job")
-    return {
-        "id": job.id,
-        "state": job.state,
-        "phase": job.phase,
-        "lines": job.lines,
-        "started_at": job.started_at,
-        "finished_at": job.finished_at,
-        "returncode": job.returncode,
-    }
-
-
-@app.get("/api/whisperx/install/{job_id}/stream")
-async def stream_whisperx_install(job_id: str) -> StreamingResponse:
-    job = whisperx_installer.get(job_id)
-    if not job:
-        raise HTTPException(404, "unknown job")
-
-    async def event_stream():
-        last_idx = 0
-        last_phase = ""
-        last_state = ""
-        while True:
-            new_lines = job.lines[last_idx:]
-            last_idx = len(job.lines)
-            for line in new_lines:
-                yield f"data: {json.dumps({'line': line})}\n\n"
-            if job.phase != last_phase or job.state != last_state:
-                yield f"event: phase\ndata: {json.dumps({'phase': job.phase, 'state': job.state})}\n\n"
-                last_phase = job.phase
-                last_state = job.state
-            if job.finished_at:
-                yield f"event: done\ndata: {json.dumps({'state': job.state, 'returncode': job.returncode})}\n\n"
-                return
-            await asyncio.sleep(0.6)
-
-    return StreamingResponse(event_stream(), media_type="text/event-stream")
+# NOTE: a WhisperX-on-Spark-2 install action lived here briefly in v0.12.0:0–4
+# but was reverted in v0.13.0:0. NGC's custom-versioned torch on ARM64 made
+# building torchaudio (which WhisperX needs via pyannote) unworkable. The
+# existing Parakeet + Sortformer pipeline stays as the audio path.
 
 
 @app.get("/api/endpoints")
diff --git a/image/app/services.py b/image/app/services.py
index ff7322a..7f4dce5 100644
--- a/image/app/services.py
+++ b/image/app/services.py
@@ -65,14 +65,6 @@ def services_from_settings(s: Settings) -> dict[str, ServiceDef]:
             container=s.magpie_container,
             port=s.magpie_port,
         ),
-        "whisperx": ServiceDef(
-            name="whisperx",
-            kind="stt+diarize",
-            host=s.whisperx_host,
-            user=s.whisperx_user,
-            container=s.whisperx_container,
-            port=s.whisperx_port,
-        ),
     }
     for entry in load_custom_services():
         key = entry.get("key")
diff --git a/image/app/static/app.js b/image/app/static/app.js
index 6c465ff..ef58f02 100644
--- a/image/app/static/app.js
+++ b/image/app/static/app.js
@@ -664,116 +664,10 @@ async function onSpeechModelsRestart() {
   }
 }
 
-// ===================== WhisperX install (v0.12) =====================
-
-const wxState = {
-  job_id: null,
-  eventsource: null,
-  timer_handle: null,
-  started_at: null,
-};
-
-async function renderWhisperXBanner() {
-  const card = el('#whisperx-install-card');
-  if (!card) return;
-  let status;
-  try {
-    status = await fetchJSON('/api/whisperx/status');
-  } catch {
-    card.classList.add('hidden');
-    return;
-  }
-  if (status.installed && status.healthy) {
-    card.classList.add('hidden');
-  } else if (status.configured) {
-    card.classList.remove('hidden');
-  } else {
-    card.classList.add('hidden');
-  }
-}
-
-async function onWhisperXInstall() {
-  if (wxState.job_id) {
-    // Just re-attach to the running job
-    showWhisperXDialog();
-    return;
-  }
-  if (!confirm('Install WhisperX on Spark 2? This builds a new Docker image (~10–15 min first time, mostly downloading pyannote + whisper weights). Parakeet/Magpie stay untouched.')) return;
-  try {
-    const r = await fetchJSON('/api/whisperx/install', { method: 'POST' });
-    attachToWhisperXInstall(r.job_id);
-  } catch (e) {
-    alert('Failed to start WhisperX install: ' + e.message);
-  }
-}
-
-function showWhisperXDialog() {
-  el('#whisperx-progress-dialog').showModal();
-}
-
-function attachToWhisperXInstall(jobId) {
-  wxState.job_id = jobId;
-  el('#wx-prog-title').textContent = 'Installing WhisperX…';
-  el('#wx-prog-phase').textContent = 'Starting…';
-  el('#wx-prog-log').textContent = '';
-  showWhisperXDialog();
-
-  // Tick a timer
-  wxState.started_at = Date.now();
-  if (wxState.timer_handle) clearInterval(wxState.timer_handle);
-  wxState.timer_handle = setInterval(() => {
-    const sec = Math.max(0, Math.floor((Date.now() - wxState.started_at) / 1000));
-    const m = Math.floor(sec / 60);
-    el('#wx-prog-elapsed').textContent = `${m}:${(sec % 60).toString().padStart(2, '0')}`;
-  }, 500);
-
-  // Backfill snapshot then connect SSE
-  fetchJSON(`/api/whisperx/install/${jobId}`).then((snap) => {
-    el('#wx-prog-phase').textContent = snap.phase || 'Working…';
-    el('#wx-prog-log').textContent = (snap.lines || []).join('\n');
-    el('#wx-prog-log').scrollTop = el('#wx-prog-log').scrollHeight;
-    if (snap.finished_at) {
-      handleWhisperXDone(snap);
-      return;
-    }
-    const es = new EventSource(`/api/whisperx/install/${jobId}/stream`);
-    wxState.eventsource = es;
-    es.onmessage = (ev) => {
-      try {
-        const log = el('#wx-prog-log');
-        log.textContent += JSON.parse(ev.data).line + '\n';
-        log.scrollTop = log.scrollHeight;
-      } catch {}
-    };
-    es.addEventListener('phase', (ev) => {
-      try { el('#wx-prog-phase').textContent = JSON.parse(ev.data).phase; } catch {}
-    });
-    es.addEventListener('done', (ev) => {
-      try { handleWhisperXDone(JSON.parse(ev.data)); } catch {}
-      es.close();
-      wxState.eventsource = null;
-    });
-    es.onerror = () => { es.close(); wxState.eventsource = null; };
-  }).catch(() => {});
-}
-
-function handleWhisperXDone(d) {
-  if (wxState.timer_handle) { clearInterval(wxState.timer_handle); wxState.timer_handle = null; }
-  wxState.job_id = null;
-  const rc = d.returncode;
-  if (d.state === 'failed' || (rc !== 0 && rc != null)) {
-    el('#wx-prog-title').textContent = `WhisperX install failed (rc=${rc})`;
-    el('#wx-prog-phase').textContent = 'Failed — check the build log below';
-  } else {
-    el('#wx-prog-title').textContent = 'WhisperX installed';
-    el('#wx-prog-phase').textContent = 'Ready ✓ — appears in Always-on services below';
-    // Refresh services + banner state
-    setTimeout(() => {
-      renderServices();
-      renderWhisperXBanner();
-    }, 1000);
-  }
-}
+// NOTE: a WhisperX install action lived here briefly in v0.12 but was
+// reverted in v0.13.0:0 — the NGC PyTorch container on ARM64 doesn't ship
+// torchaudio and we couldn't reliably build it from source. The existing
+// Parakeet + Sortformer pipeline stays as the audio path. See release notes.
 
 async function onServiceAction(key) {
   if (state.service_action_in_flight) return;
@@ -1971,11 +1865,6 @@ async function init() {
   } catch {}
   setupDashboardTabs();
   setupEndpointCollapse();
-  // WhisperX install button
-  const wxBtn = el('#wx-install');
-  if (wxBtn) wxBtn.addEventListener('click', onWhisperXInstall);
-  const wxCloseBtn = el('#wx-prog-close');
-  if (wxCloseBtn) wxCloseBtn.addEventListener('click', () => el('#whisperx-progress-dialog').close());
   await loadModels();
   await pollStatus();
   await renderServices();
@@ -1985,14 +1874,11 @@ async function init() {
   loadDiskStatus();
   // Speech-model patches panel — slow over SSH, runs after first paint.
   renderSpeechModels();
-  // WhisperX install banner — show only when not yet installed/healthy.
-  renderWhisperXBanner();
   setInterval(pollStatus, 5000);
   setInterval(pollHardware, 8000);    // every 8s
   setInterval(pollUpdates, 300000);  // every 5 min
   setInterval(loadDiskStatus, 60000); // every 60s — disk state changes rarely
   setInterval(renderSpeechModels, 120000); // every 2 min — patches change rarely
-  setInterval(renderWhisperXBanner, 60000); // every 60s — auto-hides banner after install
 }
 
 init();
diff --git a/image/app/static/index.html b/image/app/static/index.html
index da9ce2b..8accfe4 100644
--- a/image/app/static/index.html
+++ b/image/app/static/index.html
@@ -103,46 +103,6 @@
 
     <div class="tab-content" id="tab-audio" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="tab-audio-trigger">
 
-    <section id="whisperx-install-card" class="whisperx-install hidden">
-      <div class="wx-install-body">
-        <div class="wx-install-title">
-          <strong>Add WhisperX</strong>
-          <span class="tag ok">recommended</span>
-        </div>
-        <p class="muted small">
-          WhisperX is a single-container speech pipeline (faster-whisper for transcription + pyannote 3.1 for diarization)
-          designed to handle long audio cleanly. Replaces the Parakeet + Sortformer combo we patched together,
-          which crashed on a 90-min meeting. Pulled and built directly on Spark 2 (~10–15 min first time;
-          you only do this once).
-        </p>
-        <p class="muted small">
-          Requires a Hugging Face token at <code>~/.cache/huggingface/token</code> on Spark 2 (already set up).
-        </p>
-        <div class="wx-install-actions">
-          <button id="wx-install" class="btn primary">Install WhisperX</button>
-        </div>
-      </div>
-    </section>
-
-    <dialog id="whisperx-progress-dialog" class="modal">
-      <form method="dialog" class="modal-form">
-        <h3 id="wx-prog-title">Installing WhisperX…</h3>
-        <div class="phase-row">
-          <span class="spinner"></span>
-          <div class="phase" id="wx-prog-phase">Starting…</div>
-          <span class="spacer"></span>
-          <span class="timer" id="wx-prog-elapsed">0:00</span>
-        </div>
-        <details open>
-          <summary class="muted small">Build log</summary>
-          <pre id="wx-prog-log" class="log"></pre>
-        </details>
-        <div class="modal-actions">
-          <button type="button" id="wx-prog-close" class="btn">Close</button>
-        </div>
-      </form>
-    </dialog>
-
     <section id="services-panel" class="services hidden">
       <div class="section-header">
         <h2 class="section-title">Always-on services</h2>
diff --git a/image/app/static/style.css b/image/app/static/style.css
index fe7f0c9..81e93a5 100644
--- a/image/app/static/style.css
+++ b/image/app/static/style.css
@@ -907,15 +907,4 @@ main {
 .tab-content { display: none; }
 .tab-content.active { display: block; }
 
-/* ===== WhisperX install banner (v0.12) ===== */
-.whisperx-install {
-  background: var(--surface);
-  border: 1px solid var(--info);
-  border-radius: var(--radius);
-  padding: 16px 18px;
-  margin-bottom: 20px;
-}
-.wx-install-body { display: flex; flex-direction: column; gap: 10px; }
-.wx-install-title { display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 10px; }
-.wx-install-title strong { font-size: 15px; color: var(--text); }
-.wx-install-actions { display: flex; gap: 10px; margin-top: 4px; }
+/* (WhisperX install banner styles removed in v0.13.0:0 — see release notes) */
diff --git a/image/app/whisperx_install.py b/image/app/whisperx_install.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 1831b3f..0000000
--- a/image/app/whisperx_install.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,267 +0,0 @@
-"""WhisperX install action — ships the build context from inside spark-control
-to Spark 2 over SSH, then runs `docker build` + `docker run` on Spark 2 and
-streams progress back as SSE.
-
-Pattern mirrors NimManager (see nim.py) but for a locally-built container
-rather than an `nvcr.io` pull. Build context lives at
-/app/whisperx_container/ inside the spark-control Docker image (set up by
-the Dockerfile COPY directive).
-
-Endpoints:
-  POST /api/whisperx/install           — kick off
-  GET  /api/whisperx/install/{job_id}  — snapshot
-  GET  /api/whisperx/install/{job_id}/stream — SSE phase + log lines
-  GET  /api/whisperx/status            — installed + healthy?
-"""
-from __future__ import annotations
-import asyncio
-import shlex
-import uuid
-from dataclasses import dataclass, field
-from datetime import datetime, timezone
-from pathlib import Path
-from typing import Optional
-
-import httpx
-
-from .config import Settings
-from .ssh import _base_args, ssh_run, ssh_stream, StreamHandle
-
-
-# Build context shipped inside the spark-control image (Dockerfile COPYs it).
-BUILD_CONTEXT_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent / "whisperx_container"
-
-# Files we ship to Spark 2's build dir. Mapped local-name → remote-relative-path.
-BUILD_FILES = {
-    "Dockerfile": "Dockerfile",
-    "requirements.txt": "requirements.txt",
-    "README.md": "README.md",
-    "app/main.py": "app/main.py",
-}
-
-
-@dataclass
-class WhisperXInstallJob:
-    id: str
-    started_at: str
-    state: str = "starting"        # starting | sending | building | running | done | failed
-    phase: str = "Starting…"
-    lines: list[str] = field(default_factory=list)
-    returncode: Optional[int] = None
-    finished_at: Optional[str] = None
-
-    def append(self, line: str) -> None:
-        self.lines.append(line)
-        if len(self.lines) > 1500:
-            del self.lines[: len(self.lines) - 1500]
-
-
-class WhisperXInstaller:
-    def __init__(self, settings: Settings) -> None:
-        self.settings = settings
-        self.lock = asyncio.Lock()
-        self.jobs: dict[str, WhisperXInstallJob] = {}
-        self.current_job_id: Optional[str] = None
-
-    def get(self, job_id: str) -> WhisperXInstallJob | None:
-        return self.jobs.get(job_id)
-
-    async def status(self) -> dict:
-        """Probe whether WhisperX is installed + healthy on its configured host."""
-        s = self.settings
-        host_present = bool(s.whisperx_host and s.whisperx_user)
-        if not host_present:
-            return {"configured": False, "installed": False, "healthy": False}
-        # Probe HTTP health
-        url = f"http://{s.whisperx_host}:{s.whisperx_port}/health"
-        try:
-            async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=3.0) as client:
-                r = await client.get(url)
-            if r.status_code == 200:
-                body = r.json()
-                return {
-                    "configured": True,
-                    "installed": True,
-                    "healthy": True,
-                    "model": body.get("model"),
-                    "device": body.get("device"),
-                    "diarizer_loaded": body.get("diarizer_loaded", False),
-                }
-        except Exception:
-            pass
-        # No HTTP — check if the container exists at all
-        container_present = await self._container_exists()
-        return {
-            "configured": True,
-            "installed": container_present,
-            "healthy": False,
-            "current_job_id": self.current_job_id,
-        }
-
-    async def _container_exists(self) -> bool:
-        s = self.settings
-        cmd = f"docker ps -a --filter name=^{s.whisperx_container}$ --format '{{{{.Names}}}}'"
-        rc, out, _ = await ssh_run(s.whisperx_host, s.whisperx_user, cmd, s, timeout=10)
-        return rc == 0 and s.whisperx_container in out
-
-    async def trigger(self) -> WhisperXInstallJob:
-        if self.lock.locked():
-            raise RuntimeError("a WhisperX install is already in progress")
-        s = self.settings
-        if not s.whisperx_host or not s.whisperx_user:
-            raise RuntimeError("whisperx host/user not configured")
-        for local_name in BUILD_FILES:
-            if not (BUILD_CONTEXT_DIR / local_name).exists():
-                raise RuntimeError(f"build context file missing inside spark-control image: {local_name}")
-        job = WhisperXInstallJob(
-            id=uuid.uuid4().hex[:8],
-            started_at=datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat(),
-        )
-        self.jobs[job.id] = job
-        self.current_job_id = job.id
-        asyncio.create_task(self._run(job))
-        return job
-
-    async def _run(self, job: WhisperXInstallJob) -> None:
-        async with self.lock:
-            try:
-                await self._do(job)
-                if job.state != "failed":
-                    job.state = "done"
-                    job.returncode = 0
-                    job.phase = "Done — WhisperX is running on port 8002"
-            except Exception as e:
-                job.append(f"[error] {type(e).__name__}: {e}")
-                job.state = "failed"
-                if job.returncode is None:
-                    job.returncode = 1
-            finally:
-                job.finished_at = datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat()
-                if self.current_job_id == job.id:
-                    self.current_job_id = None
-
-    async def _ssh_pipe(self, host: str, user: str, remote_cmd: str,
-                       payload: bytes, timeout: float = 60.0) -> tuple[bool, str, str]:
-        """ssh user@host <remote_cmd> with payload piped to stdin."""
-        args = _base_args(self.settings) + [f"{user}@{host}", remote_cmd]
-        proc = await asyncio.create_subprocess_exec(
-            *args,
-            stdin=asyncio.subprocess.PIPE,
-            stdout=asyncio.subprocess.PIPE,
-            stderr=asyncio.subprocess.PIPE,
-        )
-        try:
-            stdout_b, stderr_b = await asyncio.wait_for(
-                proc.communicate(input=payload), timeout=timeout
-            )
-        except asyncio.TimeoutError:
-            proc.kill(); await proc.wait()
-            return False, "", f"timeout after {timeout}s"
-        return proc.returncode == 0, stdout_b.decode(errors="replace"), stderr_b.decode(errors="replace")
-
-    async def _do(self, job: WhisperXInstallJob) -> None:
-        s = self.settings
-        host = s.whisperx_host
-        user = s.whisperx_user
-        # NOTE: `~` does not expand inside shlex.quote() single-quotes (bit us
-        # in v0.12.0:0). Use a $HOME-relative path that the REMOTE shell
-        # expands; all path components are hardcoded so injection is moot.
-        build_dir_remote = "\"$HOME\"/whisperx-build"
-        build_dir_display = "~/whisperx-build"
-
-        # ── Phase 1: stage build context on Spark 2 ──
-        job.state = "sending"
-        job.phase = "Sending build context to Spark 2…"
-        job.append(f"$ ssh {user}@{host} 'mkdir -p {build_dir_display}/app'")
-        rc, out, err = await ssh_run(
-            host, user,
-            f"mkdir -p {build_dir_remote}/app && "
-            f"rm -f {build_dir_remote}/Dockerfile {build_dir_remote}/requirements.txt "
-            f"{build_dir_remote}/README.md {build_dir_remote}/app/main.py",
-            s, timeout=10,
-        )
-        if rc != 0:
-            job.append(f"[mkdir failed] {err.strip()}")
-            raise RuntimeError("failed to create build directory")
-        for local_name, remote_rel in BUILD_FILES.items():
-            local_path = BUILD_CONTEXT_DIR / local_name
-            body = local_path.read_bytes()
-            remote_path_for_shell = f"{build_dir_remote}/{remote_rel}"
-            # remote_rel is hardcoded ("Dockerfile" / "app/main.py" etc.) — safe
-            # to embed unquoted inside the double-quoted $HOME path.
-            cmd = f"cat > {remote_path_for_shell}"
-            ok, out, err = await self._ssh_pipe(host, user, cmd, body, timeout=30)
-            if not ok:
-                job.append(f"[scp {local_name} failed] {err.strip()[:200]}")
-                raise RuntimeError(f"failed to ship {local_name}")
-            job.append(f"  → {build_dir_display}/{remote_rel} ({len(body)} bytes)")
-
-        # ── Phase 2: docker build ──
-        job.state = "building"
-        job.phase = "Building Docker image on Spark 2 (this is the slow part — 5–15 min if base layers aren't cached)…"
-        build_cmd = (
-            f"set -e; "
-            f"cd {build_dir_remote}; "
-            f"echo '=== docker build -t {s.whisperx_container}:latest . ==='; "
-            f"docker build -t {s.whisperx_container}:latest ."
-        )
-        job.append(f"$ {build_cmd}")
-        handle = StreamHandle()
-        async for line in ssh_stream(host, user, build_cmd, s, handle=handle):
-            job.append(line)
-            if "Step " in line and "/" in line:
-                # docker build progress: "Step 5/10 : RUN pip install ..."
-                job.phase = f"Building: {line.strip()[:120]}"
-            elif "Successfully built" in line or "naming to" in line:
-                job.phase = "Image built — preparing to start container…"
-        if (handle.returncode or 0) != 0:
-            job.returncode = handle.returncode
-            raise RuntimeError(f"docker build failed (rc={handle.returncode})")
-
-        # ── Phase 3: docker run ──
-        job.state = "running"
-        job.phase = "Starting container…"
-        run_cmd = (
-            f"set -e; "
-            f"echo '=== removing any prior {s.whisperx_container} container ==='; "
-            f"docker rm -f {s.whisperx_container} 2>/dev/null || true; "
-            f"echo '=== docker run -d --restart unless-stopped --name {s.whisperx_container} ==='; "
-            f"HF_TOKEN=$(cat ~/.cache/huggingface/token 2>/dev/null || true); "
-            f"if [ -z \"$HF_TOKEN\" ]; then echo 'WARN: no HF_TOKEN found at ~/.cache/huggingface/token — diarization will be disabled until you set one'; fi; "
-            f"docker run -d --restart unless-stopped "
-            f"--name {s.whisperx_container} "
-            f"--gpus all --memory=40g "
-            f"-p {s.whisperx_port}:{s.whisperx_port} "
-            f"-v whisperx-models:/root/.cache/huggingface "
-            f"-e HF_TOKEN=\"$HF_TOKEN\" "
-            f"-e WHISPER_MODEL={s.whisperx_model} "
-            f"{s.whisperx_container}:latest"
-        )
-        job.append(f"$ {run_cmd}")
-        rc, out, err = await ssh_run(host, user, run_cmd, s, timeout=60)
-        if rc != 0:
-            job.append(f"[docker run failed rc={rc}] {(err or out).strip()[:300]}")
-            raise RuntimeError("docker run failed")
-        job.append(out.strip())
-
-        # ── Phase 4: wait for /health to report ready ──
-        job.phase = "Container is starting; loading whisper + alignment + pyannote models (~60–120 s on first boot)…"
-        url = f"http://{s.whisperx_host}:{s.whisperx_port}/health"
-        ready = False
-        for i in range(60):           # up to ~180 s
-            await asyncio.sleep(3)
-            try:
-                async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=4.0) as client:
-                    r = await client.get(url)
-                if r.status_code == 200:
-                    body = r.json()
-                    if body.get("status") == "ready":
-                        ready = True
-                        job.append(f"[ready] {body}")
-                        break
-                    job.phase = f"Loading models (transcribe={body.get('transcribe_loaded')}, align={body.get('align_loaded')}, diarize={body.get('diarizer_loaded')})…"
-            except Exception:
-                pass
-        if not ready:
-            raise RuntimeError("container started but /health did not report ready within ~180 s — check `docker logs whisperx-asr` on Spark 2")
-        job.phase = "Done — WhisperX is healthy and reachable on port 8002"
diff --git a/image/whisperx_container/Dockerfile b/image/whisperx_container/Dockerfile
deleted file mode 100644
index 4ce34b2..0000000
--- a/image/whisperx_container/Dockerfile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,96 +0,0 @@
-# WhisperX ASR + diarization container for Spark 2 (Blackwell GB10, sm_120).
-#
-# Replaces the custom Parakeet wrapper + Sortformer overlay with a single
-# mainline pipeline: faster-whisper for transcription + pyannote.audio 3.1
-# for diarization + wav2vec2 forced alignment for word-level timestamps.
-#
-# Build (on Spark 2, where Blackwell + nvcr.io credentials are available):
-#   docker build -t whisperx-asr:latest .
-#
-# Run:
-#   docker run -d --restart unless-stopped --name whisperx-asr \
-#     --gpus all --memory=40g \
-#     -p 8002:8002 \
-#     -v whisperx-models:/root/.cache/huggingface \
-#     -e HF_TOKEN="$(cat ~/.cache/huggingface/token)" \
-#     -e WHISPER_MODEL=medium \
-#     whisperx-asr:latest
-#
-# The memory cap is intentional: even if WhisperX hits a pathological input,
-# it gets OOM-killed cleanly instead of swap-thrashing the whole Spark.
-
-FROM nvcr.io/nvidia/pytorch:25.11-py3
-
-# WhisperX runs ffmpeg under the hood for audio decoding.
-# git + cmake + build-essential are needed to build torchaudio from source
-# (see below); we remove them at the end of the next layer to keep the image
-# from growing unnecessarily.
-RUN apt-get update \
- && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-      ffmpeg git cmake build-essential ninja-build \
- && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-
-# Pin torch + torchvision to whatever NGC actually shipped so pip can't swap
-# them out when it satisfies whisperx/pyannote deps. (NGC's torch is a custom
-# build with a non-standard local version like "2.10.0a0+b558c986e8.nv25.11"
-# — stock pip wheels would clobber it and break the ABI.)
-RUN python3 -c "import torch, torchvision; \
-import sys; \
-sys.stdout.write(f'torch=={torch.__version__}\ntorchvision=={torchvision.__version__}\n')" \
-  > /tmp/torch-constraints.txt \
- && echo '── pinned torch versions ──' && cat /tmp/torch-constraints.txt
-
-# NGC PyTorch images don't include torchaudio (NVIDIA optimizes for
-# vision/text workloads). Stock torchaudio wheels are ABI-incompatible with
-# NGC's custom torch 2.10a, so the only working option is building from
-# source against the NGC torch already in the image.
-#
-# Build env knobs:
-#   USE_CUDA=1                — build CUDA kernels (we have a GPU)
-#   BUILD_SOX=0               — skip libsox (we only use audio decoding)
-#   TORCH_CUDA_ARCH_LIST=...  — build kernels for Hopper + Blackwell datacenter
-#                               + Blackwell consumer (sm_120 = GB10)
-#   --no-build-isolation      — CRITICAL: PEP 517 build isolation creates a
-#                               fresh env with no torch in it. torchaudio's
-#                               setup.py imports torch to discover the build
-#                               flags, so it crashes without this flag.
-#                               With it, the build uses NGC's torch directly.
-ENV USE_CUDA=1 BUILD_SOX=0 TORCH_CUDA_ARCH_LIST="9.0;10.0;12.0"
-# Pre-install torchaudio's build-time deps (PEP 517 would normally install
-# these in the isolated build env, but we just turned isolation off).
-RUN pip install --break-system-packages --no-cache-dir \
-    "setuptools>=61" wheel ninja "pybind11>=2.10"
-RUN pip install --break-system-packages --no-cache-dir --no-build-isolation \
-    git+https://github.com/pytorch/audio.git@v2.5.1 \
- && python3 -c "import torchaudio; print('torchaudio built:', torchaudio.__version__)"
-
-# Append torchaudio to constraints so pip can't replace it later.
-RUN python3 -c "import torchaudio; print(f'torchaudio=={torchaudio.__version__}')" \
-  >> /tmp/torch-constraints.txt \
- && echo '── final pinned versions ──' && cat /tmp/torch-constraints.txt
-
-# Install whisperx + the FastAPI wrapper deps under the torch+torchaudio
-# constraint. pip will satisfy whisperx/pyannote without swapping any of the
-# pytorch-family packages.
-COPY requirements.txt /tmp/requirements.txt
-RUN pip install --break-system-packages --no-cache-dir \
-    -c /tmp/torch-constraints.txt -r /tmp/requirements.txt
-
-# Pre-warm the default Whisper + alignment models at build time so first-call
-# latency on a fresh container is small. (~3 GB cached into the image; if you
-# want a smaller image, comment this out and accept the first-call download.)
-ARG WHISPER_MODEL=medium
-ENV WHISPER_MODEL=${WHISPER_MODEL}
-RUN python3 -c "import whisperx; whisperx.load_model('${WHISPER_MODEL}', 'cpu', compute_type='int8')" \
- && python3 -c "import whisperx; whisperx.load_align_model(language_code='en', device='cpu')"
-
-WORKDIR /opt/whisperx
-COPY app /opt/whisperx/app
-
-# Expose for spark-control's proxy on Spark 2
-EXPOSE 8002
-
-HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=10s --start-period=180s \
-  CMD python3 -c "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8002/health')" || exit 1
-
-CMD ["python3", "-m", "uvicorn", "app.main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8002", "--workers", "1"]
diff --git a/image/whisperx_container/README.md b/image/whisperx_container/README.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 901894e..0000000
--- a/image/whisperx_container/README.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,74 +0,0 @@
-# WhisperX container for Spark 2
-
-Replaces the custom Parakeet wrapper + Sortformer overlay (v0.10/v0.11) with a
-single mainline pipeline:
-
-- **faster-whisper** (CTranslate2-optimized) for STT
-- **pyannote.audio 3.1** for speaker diarization (sliding-window — handles
-  long files in bounded memory, fixes the Sortformer OOM on 90-min audio)
-- **wav2vec2 forced alignment** for word-level timestamps
-
-Exposes the same API surface spark-control already proxies to, so the cutover
-is a one-URL change in the audio proxy:
-
-- `GET  /health` — readiness probe
-- `GET  /v1/models` — model list
-- `POST /v1/audio/transcriptions` — OpenAI-shaped STT
-- `POST /v1/audio/transcribe-with-speakers` — merged diarized transcript
-  (matches spark-control's response shape exactly)
-
-## Deploy to Spark 2
-
-```bash
-# 1. Copy this directory to Spark 2
-rsync -av --delete image/whisperx_container/ <spark-user>@<spark-2-ip>:~/whisperx-build/
-
-# 2. SSH in and build
-ssh <spark-user>@<spark-2-ip>
-cd ~/whisperx-build
-docker build -t whisperx-asr:latest .
-
-# 3. Run alongside the existing parakeet-asr (which stays on 8000 for now)
-docker run -d --restart unless-stopped --name whisperx-asr \
-  --gpus all --memory=40g \
-  -p 8002:8002 \
-  -v whisperx-models:/root/.cache/huggingface \
-  -e HF_TOKEN="$(cat ~/.cache/huggingface/token)" \
-  -e WHISPER_MODEL=medium \
-  whisperx-asr:latest
-
-# 4. Watch first-start logs (model load + first health check)
-docker logs -f whisperx-asr
-```
-
-## Model size knobs
-
-`WHISPER_MODEL` env var. Defaults to `medium`. Options:
-
-| Model | Size | Speed (GB10) | Quality |
-|---|---|---|---|
-| `tiny`  | ~75M  | ~120x rt | low |
-| `base`  | ~74M  | ~80x rt  | ok |
-| `small` | ~244M | ~50x rt  | good |
-| `medium`| ~769M | ~30x rt  | excellent (**default**) |
-| `large-v3`| ~1.5B | ~15x rt | best |
-
-For a 90-min file, medium takes ~3 min STT + ~9 min diarize ≈ ~12 min total.
-
-## Memory budget
-
-The `--memory=40g` cap is intentional. Spark 2 has 122 GB unified, of which
-~35 GB is consumed by parakeet-asr + magpie-tts. The 40 GB cap leaves
-comfortable headroom for both the model weights (~5 GB) and pyannote's
-in-memory features (~5–15 GB for a 90-min audio). If WhisperX hits a
-pathological input it gets OOM-killed cleanly instead of swap-thrashing the
-whole Spark — the symptom we hit with the unbounded Sortformer container.
-
-## Rollback to Parakeet+Sortformer
-
-```bash
-docker stop whisperx-asr && docker rm whisperx-asr
-```
-
-The parakeet-asr container stays running throughout — spark-control's proxy
-URL switch is reversible via config or version downgrade.
diff --git a/image/whisperx_container/app/main.py b/image/whisperx_container/app/main.py
deleted file mode 100644
index bb72768..0000000
--- a/image/whisperx_container/app/main.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,355 +0,0 @@
-"""WhisperX FastAPI wrapper — STT + speaker diarization in a single endpoint.
-
-Endpoints (designed to be drop-in compatible with the existing spark-control
-audio API surface, so the proxy just changes its upstream URL):
-
-  GET  /                                 — service info
-  GET  /health                           — readiness probe
-  GET  /v1/models                        — list loaded models
-  POST /v1/audio/transcriptions          — OpenAI-shaped STT (no speakers)
-  POST /v1/audio/transcribe-with-speakers — merged diarized transcript
-
-The /transcribe-with-speakers response shape EXACTLY matches what
-spark-control's /api/audio/transcribe-with-speakers returns today (the one
-that recap-relay's PR spec was written against), so swapping the upstream
-from Parakeet+Sortformer to WhisperX is a one-URL change in the proxy.
-"""
-from __future__ import annotations
-import os
-import time
-import tempfile
-import logging
-from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
-from typing import Optional
-
-import torch
-import whisperx
-from fastapi import FastAPI, File, Form, UploadFile, HTTPException
-from fastapi.responses import JSONResponse
-from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware
-
-logging.basicConfig(
-    level=logging.INFO,
-    format="%(asctime)s [%(levelname)s] %(name)s: %(message)s",
-)
-logger = logging.getLogger("whisperx-api")
-
-DEVICE = "cuda" if torch.cuda.is_available() else "cpu"
-COMPUTE_TYPE = os.getenv("COMPUTE_TYPE", "float16" if DEVICE == "cuda" else "int8")
-WHISPER_MODEL = os.getenv("WHISPER_MODEL", "medium")
-DEFAULT_LANG = os.getenv("DEFAULT_LANGUAGE", "en")
-BATCH_SIZE = int(os.getenv("BATCH_SIZE", "16"))
-HF_TOKEN = os.getenv("HF_TOKEN") or None
-
-
-class WhisperXEngine:
-    def __init__(self) -> None:
-        self.transcribe_model = None
-        self.align_model = None
-        self.align_metadata = None
-        self.diarize_model = None
-        self._loaded = False
-
-    def load(self) -> None:
-        if self._loaded:
-            return
-        logger.info(f"Loading whisper-{WHISPER_MODEL} on {DEVICE} ({COMPUTE_TYPE})")
-        self.transcribe_model = whisperx.load_model(
-            WHISPER_MODEL, DEVICE, compute_type=COMPUTE_TYPE
-        )
-        logger.info(f"Loading alignment model for {DEFAULT_LANG}")
-        self.align_model, self.align_metadata = whisperx.load_align_model(
-            language_code=DEFAULT_LANG, device=DEVICE
-        )
-        if HF_TOKEN:
-            logger.info("Loading pyannote diarization pipeline (3.1)")
-            try:
-                self.diarize_model = whisperx.DiarizationPipeline(
-                    use_auth_token=HF_TOKEN, device=DEVICE
-                )
-            except Exception as e:
-                logger.exception(f"Diarization pipeline failed to load: {e}")
-                self.diarize_model = None
-        else:
-            logger.warning(
-                "HF_TOKEN not set — diarization disabled. /transcribe-with-speakers "
-                "will return 503. /transcriptions still works."
-            )
-        self._loaded = True
-        logger.info("WhisperX engine ready")
-
-    def transcribe(self, audio_bytes: bytes, filename: str, want_timestamps: bool = True) -> dict:
-        if not self._loaded:
-            self.load()
-        with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix=".wav", delete=False) as tmp:
-            tmp.write(audio_bytes)
-            tmp_path = tmp.name
-        try:
-            audio = whisperx.load_audio(tmp_path)
-            duration = float(audio.shape[0]) / 16000.0
-            result = self.transcribe_model.transcribe(
-                audio, batch_size=BATCH_SIZE, language=DEFAULT_LANG
-            )
-            language = result.get("language") or DEFAULT_LANG
-            if want_timestamps:
-                aligned = whisperx.align(
-                    result["segments"],
-                    self.align_model,
-                    self.align_metadata,
-                    audio,
-                    DEVICE,
-                    return_char_alignments=False,
-                )
-                segments = aligned.get("segments", [])
-            else:
-                segments = result.get("segments", [])
-            full_text = " ".join(s.get("text", "").strip() for s in segments).strip()
-            return {
-                "duration": duration,
-                "language": language,
-                "text": full_text,
-                "segments": segments,
-                "audio_path": tmp_path,
-                "audio": audio,  # caller can reuse for diarization without re-loading
-            }
-        finally:
-            # NOTE: caller is responsible for unlinking the temp file. We expose it
-            # in the return dict so diarization can run on the same audio without
-            # disk re-IO. The unlink happens in the request handler's finally.
-            pass
-
-    def diarize(self, audio) -> dict:
-        if self.diarize_model is None:
-            raise RuntimeError(
-                "Diarization pipeline not loaded (HF_TOKEN missing or load failed)"
-            )
-        diar = self.diarize_model(audio)
-        return diar
-
-
-engine = WhisperXEngine()
-
-
-@asynccontextmanager
-async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):
-    engine.load()
-    yield
-
-
-app = FastAPI(
-    title="WhisperX ASR + Diarization",
-    version="1.0.0",
-    lifespan=lifespan,
-)
-app.add_middleware(
-    CORSMiddleware,
-    allow_origins=["*"],
-    allow_credentials=True,
-    allow_methods=["*"],
-    allow_headers=["*"],
-)
-
-
-@app.get("/")
-async def root() -> dict:
-    return {
-        "service": "whisperx",
-        "device": DEVICE,
-        "models": {
-            "transcription": f"whisper-{WHISPER_MODEL}",
-            "alignment": f"wav2vec2-{DEFAULT_LANG}",
-            "diarization": "pyannote-speaker-diarization-3.1" if engine.diarize_model else None,
-        },
-        "endpoints": {
-            "transcriptions": "/v1/audio/transcriptions",
-            "transcribe_with_speakers": "/v1/audio/transcribe-with-speakers",
-            "models": "/v1/models",
-            "health": "/health",
-        },
-    }
-
-
-@app.get("/health")
-async def health() -> dict:
-    return {
-        "status": "ready" if engine._loaded else "loading",
-        "transcribe_loaded": engine.transcribe_model is not None,
-        "align_loaded": engine.align_model is not None,
-        "diarizer_loaded": engine.diarize_model is not None,
-        "model": f"whisper-{WHISPER_MODEL}",
-        "device": DEVICE,
-    }
-
-
-@app.get("/v1/models")
-async def list_models() -> dict:
-    data = [
-        {"id": f"whisper-{WHISPER_MODEL}", "object": "model", "owned_by": "openai", "kind": "stt"},
-    ]
-    if engine.diarize_model is not None:
-        data.append(
-            {"id": "pyannote-speaker-diarization-3.1", "object": "model",
-             "owned_by": "pyannote", "kind": "diarization"}
-        )
-    return {"object": "list", "data": data}
-
-
-def _normalize_speaker(label: str) -> str:
-    """WhisperX/pyannote uses 'SPEAKER_00' / 'SPEAKER_01' / ... — normalize to
-    the same 'Speaker_0' shape spark-control's existing endpoint returns."""
-    if not label:
-        return "Speaker_unknown"
-    if label.upper().startswith("SPEAKER_"):
-        idx = label.split("_", 1)[1].lstrip("0") or "0"
-        return f"Speaker_{idx}"
-    return label
-
-
-def _segments_to_blocks(segments: list[dict]) -> list[dict]:
-    """Convert WhisperX's per-utterance segments into the
-    [{start_ms, end_ms, speaker, text}, ...] block shape spark-control returns
-    today. Groups consecutive same-speaker segments into one block."""
-    blocks: list[dict] = []
-    cur = None
-    for s in segments:
-        spk_raw = s.get("speaker") or "Speaker_unknown"
-        spk = _normalize_speaker(spk_raw)
-        text = (s.get("text") or "").strip()
-        start_ms = int(float(s.get("start", 0)) * 1000)
-        end_ms = int(float(s.get("end", 0)) * 1000)
-        if not text:
-            continue
-        if cur is None or cur["speaker"] != spk or start_ms - cur["end_ms"] > 1500:
-            if cur is not None:
-                blocks.append(cur)
-            cur = {"start_ms": start_ms, "end_ms": end_ms, "speaker": spk, "text": text}
-        else:
-            cur["text"] = (cur["text"] + " " + text).strip()
-            cur["end_ms"] = end_ms
-    if cur is not None:
-        blocks.append(cur)
-    return blocks
-
-
-@app.post("/v1/audio/transcriptions")
-async def transcribe(
-    file: UploadFile = File(...),
-    model: Optional[str] = Form(default=None),
-    language: Optional[str] = Form(default=None),
-    response_format: Optional[str] = Form(default="json"),
-    temperature: Optional[float] = Form(default=None),
-    prompt: Optional[str] = Form(default=None),
-):
-    if not engine._loaded:
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=503, detail="Engine loading")
-    audio_bytes = await file.read()
-    if not audio_bytes:
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Empty file")
-
-    start_t = time.time()
-    audio_path = None
-    try:
-        result = engine.transcribe(
-            audio_bytes,
-            file.filename or "audio.wav",
-            want_timestamps=(response_format == "verbose_json"),
-        )
-        audio_path = result.pop("audio_path", None)
-        result.pop("audio", None)
-    except Exception as e:
-        logger.exception("Transcription failed")
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=500, detail=f"Failed: {e}")
-    finally:
-        if audio_path:
-            try: os.unlink(audio_path)
-            except OSError: pass
-
-    elapsed = time.time() - start_t
-    duration = result.get("duration", 0.0)
-    logger.info(f"Transcribed {duration:.1f}s in {elapsed:.1f}s ({duration/elapsed:.0f}x rt)")
-
-    if response_format == "text":
-        return JSONResponse(content=result["text"], media_type="text/plain")
-    if response_format == "verbose_json":
-        words = []
-        for s in result.get("segments", []):
-            for w in s.get("words", []) or []:
-                words.append({
-                    "word": w.get("word"),
-                    "start": w.get("start"),
-                    "end": w.get("end"),
-                    "score": w.get("score"),
-                })
-        return {
-            "task": "transcribe",
-            "language": result.get("language", "en"),
-            "duration": duration,
-            "text": result["text"],
-            "segments": [
-                {"start": s.get("start"), "end": s.get("end"), "text": s.get("text", "").strip()}
-                for s in result.get("segments", [])
-            ],
-            "words": words,
-        }
-    return {"text": result["text"]}
-
-
-@app.post("/v1/audio/transcribe-with-speakers")
-async def transcribe_with_speakers(file: UploadFile = File(...)) -> dict:
-    """Merged STT + diarization. Response shape matches spark-control's
-    /api/audio/transcribe-with-speakers exactly — recap-relay's PR spec
-    needs no changes when we cut over."""
-    if not engine._loaded:
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=503, detail="Engine loading")
-    if engine.diarize_model is None:
-        raise HTTPException(
-            status_code=503,
-            detail="Diarization unavailable — HF_TOKEN not set or pyannote failed to load",
-        )
-    audio_bytes = await file.read()
-    if not audio_bytes:
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Empty file")
-
-    start_t = time.time()
-    audio_path = None
-    try:
-        result = engine.transcribe(
-            audio_bytes, file.filename or "audio.wav", want_timestamps=True
-        )
-        audio_path = result.pop("audio_path", None)
-        audio = result.pop("audio")
-        # Diarize on the in-memory audio (no second decode)
-        logger.info("Running pyannote diarization…")
-        diar = engine.diarize(audio)
-        # whisperx.assign_word_speakers writes speaker labels into the
-        # aligned segments + their nested words
-        result_with_speakers = whisperx.assign_word_speakers(
-            diar, {"segments": result["segments"]}
-        )
-        segments_in = result_with_speakers.get("segments", [])
-        blocks = _segments_to_blocks(segments_in)
-        speakers = sorted({b["speaker"] for b in blocks if b["speaker"] != "Speaker_unknown"})
-    except Exception as e:
-        logger.exception("Diarized transcription failed")
-        raise HTTPException(status_code=500, detail=f"Failed: {e}")
-    finally:
-        if audio_path:
-            try: os.unlink(audio_path)
-            except OSError: pass
-
-    elapsed = time.time() - start_t
-    duration = result.get("duration", 0.0)
-    logger.info(
-        f"Transcribed+diarized {duration:.1f}s in {elapsed:.1f}s "
-        f"({duration/elapsed:.0f}x rt), {len(speakers)} speakers, {len(blocks)} blocks"
-    )
-    return {
-        "duration": duration,
-        "language": result.get("language", "en"),
-        "speakers_detected": speakers,
-        "segments": blocks,
-        "models": {
-            "transcription": f"whisper-{WHISPER_MODEL}",
-            "diarization": "pyannote-speaker-diarization-3.1",
-        },
-    }
diff --git a/image/whisperx_container/requirements.txt b/image/whisperx_container/requirements.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 189185c..0000000
--- a/image/whisperx_container/requirements.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-whisperx==3.4.3
-fastapi>=0.115
-uvicorn[standard]>=0.32
-python-multipart>=0.0.9
-soundfile>=0.12
diff --git a/package/startos/versions/v0_1_0.ts b/package/startos/versions/v0_1_0.ts
index 197fc6e..f35fcef 100644
--- a/package/startos/versions/v0_1_0.ts
+++ b/package/startos/versions/v0_1_0.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 import { VersionInfo, IMPOSSIBLE } from '@start9labs/start-sdk'
 
 export const v0_1_0 = VersionInfo.of({
-  version: '0.12.0:4',
+  version: '0.13.0:0',
   releaseNotes: {
     en_US:
-      'v0.12.0:4 — hotfix: torchaudio build was failing with "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named torch" during its setup.py. Root cause: pip\'s PEP 517 build isolation creates a fresh Python env for the build that doesn\'t see NGC\'s torch (which is what we need for ABI compat). Fix: add --no-build-isolation to the pip install so the build uses the existing torch, plus pre-install setuptools/wheel/ninja/pybind11 since pip won\'t auto-pull them when build isolation is off. Should now finally compile torchaudio v2.5.1 against NGC\'s torch 2.10 and proceed to the whisperx install.',
+      'v0.13.0 — WhisperX migration reverted. Five hotfixes deep with no working build; the fundamental problem (NGC PyTorch on ARM64 ships a custom-versioned torch with no matching torchaudio anywhere) was always going to bite. All WhisperX install plumbing has been removed from spark-control: the install banner + progress dialog, the install endpoints, the audio-proxy WhisperX-preferred branch, the whisperx service registration, the WHISPERX_* env vars, and the build-context files. Spark 2 has been cleaned (container removed, build dir removed, ~6.8 GB of dangling layers + builder cache reclaimed). The dashboard now looks as it did before the migration attempt: Parakeet + Sortformer is the only audio path, unchanged. v0.13.0:1+ will add the actually-needed fixes: a memory cap on the parakeet container (so the 90-min audio crash can\'t take down Spark 2 again — worst case is a clean OOM-kill of the container), and a chunking proxy that splits long audio before sending to Sortformer.',
   },
   migrations: {
     up: async ({ effects }) => {},