diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4f25841..9179ca4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ La version 2 est une réécriture complète : plus de robot 3D, un pipeline voca
 * **Heures calmes et priorités** : plage horaire pendant laquelle les messages poussés s'affichent sans être lus ni faire clignoter le noyau (badge « non lus » à la place), thème nuit automatique, mots prioritaires lus quand même, résumé vocal des rapports longs (les premières phrases seulement).
 * **Mode mission** : un bouton dans la barre de commande bascule sur un second modèle Hermes (plus puissant) pour les tâches longues ; le modèle rapide reste utilisé pour la conversation courante.
 * **Widget compact « glanceable »** : état (veille, écoute, réflexion, parle), dernière phrase de l'assistant, badge de non-lus, indicateurs heures calmes et mission.
+* **Voix masculine ou féminine** : un réglage unique (Paramètres → Voix) appliqué à tous les moteurs. En local, Piper Tom ou Pierre (UPMC) pour le masculin, téléchargé automatiquement si aucune voix masculine n'est installée ; onyx / nova pour les API compatibles OpenAI ; Paul / Hortense pour les voix Windows.
 * **Barge-in** : en mains libres, parler par-dessus l'assistant coupe sa voix ; le seuil est relevé pendant qu'il parle pour ignorer l'écho du haut-parleur.
 * **Écoute permanente** : un détecteur de mot-clé de 3 Mo (sherpa-onnx, keyword spotting) tourne en continu sur le micro, quasi gratuit en CPU. « Jarvis » (ou n'importe quel mot-clé) ouvre l'écoute, « Jarvis, allume… » envoie directement la commande, et le mot coupe la voix en cours. Alternative : filtre du mot après transcription en mains libres.
 * **STT externe** : n'importe quelle API `/v1/audio/transcriptions` compatible OpenAI (Qwen3-ASR, Whisper, Speaches, faster-whisper-server, LocalAI, OpenAI). Repli sur la reconnaissance Chromium.
diff --git a/docs/ROADMAP.md b/docs/ROADMAP.md
index 5aad28c..27b74ff 100644
--- a/docs/ROADMAP.md
+++ b/docs/ROADMAP.md
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ Sources : [jarvis-desktop-ai](https://github.com/ccarloshenri/jarvis-desktop-ai)
 | Silero VAD sur phrase Kokoro de 2,3 s (2.3.0) | un seul segment, début et fin détectés, 6,7 s d'audio traités en 190 ms |
 | Capture d'écran → Hermes (2.3.0) | JPEG de 107 ko reçu côté Hermes (mock chat completions) |
 | Intention locale « coupe le son » (2.3.0) | traitée sans Hermes, résultat affiché dans le fil |
+| Correctifs 2.4.0.1 | réponse vide en chat completions désormais expliquée (JSON non streamé ou erreur HTTP 200), la liaison ne passe plus en « dégradé » quand seule l'API des crons échoue, transcriptions parasites (« (cliquant) », « *Claire* ») ignorées, préférence de voix masculine/féminine |
 | Serveur MCP (2.4.0) | initialize, tools/list (14 outils), tools/call côté principal (presse-papiers, capture image) et côté renderer (état, message dans le fil) |
 
 Sur un PC à 28 cœurs les temps sont nettement plus courts. Whisper small est maintenant recommandé pour le français.
diff --git a/electron/voice/catalog.ts b/electron/voice/catalog.ts
index 62f7fa1..7fa51b7 100644
--- a/electron/voice/catalog.ts
+++ b/electron/voice/catalog.ts
@@ -164,3 +164,12 @@ export const VOICE_CATALOG: VoiceModelSpec[] = [
 export function findModel(id: string): VoiceModelSpec | undefined {
   return VOICE_CATALOG.find((m) => m.id === id);
 }
+
+// Speaker gender from the label ("(homme, …)", "(femme, …)", known first names) so the UI and the
+// voice preference can pick a masculine or feminine voice without a lookup table per model.
+const MALE = /\b(homme|tom|pierre|adam|michael|eric|liam|george|lewis|daniel|fenrir|puck|onyx|echo|santa)\b/i;
+for (const spec of VOICE_CATALOG) {
+  for (const sp of spec.speakers ?? []) {
+    if (!sp.gender) sp.gender = /\b(femme|female)\b/i.test(sp.name) ? 'f' : MALE.test(sp.name) ? 'm' : /\bfemme\b/i.test(spec.name) ? 'f' : /\bhomme\b/i.test(spec.name) ? 'm' : undefined;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index e47627b..62c0cdc 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "eveflow",
   "version": "2.4.0",
-  "releaseVersion": "2.4.0",
+  "releaseVersion": "2.4.0.1",
   "description": "JARVIS-style desktop HUD for Hermes Agent: voice, streaming runs, scheduled jobs, skills and telemetry",
   "main": "dist-electron/main.js",
   "private": true,
diff --git a/shared/voice.ts b/shared/voice.ts
index 7485b0c..a17ac4e 100644
--- a/shared/voice.ts
+++ b/shared/voice.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ export interface VoiceSpeaker {
   id: number;
   name: string;
   lang: string;
+  /** m = masculine, f = feminine (from the catalog label). */
+  gender?: 'm' | 'f';
 }
 
 export interface VoiceModelSpec {
diff --git a/src/App.tsx b/src/App.tsx
index 19ce752..1bcdbeb 100644
--- a/src/App.tsx
+++ b/src/App.tsx
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import { bridge } from './lib/bridge';
 import { Log } from './lib/log';
 import { handlePush, localToolContext, stopGeneration } from './services/conversation';
 import { initMcpBridge } from './services/mcpBridge';
+import { ensurePreferredVoice } from './services/voice/voicePreference';
 import { isQuietTime } from './lib/quietHours';
 import { speech } from './services/voice/speech';
 import { voiceController } from './services/voice/voiceController';
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ function useBoot(): boolean {
       }
       if (api) {
         disposers.push(useVoiceModels.getState().subscribe());
-        void useVoiceModels.getState().refresh();
+        void useVoiceModels.getState().refresh().then(() => ensurePreferredVoice());
         if (settings.voice.wakeMode === 'kws') void voiceController.startWakeMode();
         let lastWake = JSON.stringify([settings.voice.wakeMode, settings.voice.wakeWord, settings.voice.kwsSensitivity, settings.voice.micDeviceId]);
         disposers.push(
diff --git a/src/components/panels/OpsPanel.tsx b/src/components/panels/OpsPanel.tsx
index 642ac18..b790ed8 100644
--- a/src/components/panels/OpsPanel.tsx
+++ b/src/components/panels/OpsPanel.tsx
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { Fragment, useEffect, useState } from 'react';
 import { useShallow } from 'zustand/react/shallow';
 import {
+  AlertTriangle,
   Wrench, CalendarClock, Sparkles, Layers, History, Play, Pause, Trash2, Pencil, Plus, Save, X, RefreshCw,
   CheckCircle2, XCircle, Loader2, Bot, Cpu, GitBranch, Webhook, FolderOpen
 } from 'lucide-react';
@@ -41,6 +42,7 @@ function ActivityTab() {
 
 function JobsTab() {
   const jobs = useHermes((s) => s.jobs);
+  const jobsError = useHermes((s) => s.jobsError);
   const busy = useHermes((s) => s.busy);
   const lastSyncAt = useHermes((s) => s.lastSyncAt);
   const refreshJobs = useHermes((s) => s.refreshJobs);
@@ -95,8 +97,9 @@ function JobsTab() {
           </div>
         </div>
       )}
+      {jobsError && <div className="test-result fail" style={{ marginBottom: 8 }}><AlertTriangle size={13} /> Crons indisponibles : {jobsError}</div>}
       {jobs.length === 0 ? (
-        <div className="empty">Aucun cron Hermes. Créez une mission planifiée en langage naturel.</div>
+        <div className="empty">{jobsError ? 'La liaison Hermes reste utilisable ; seule la planification est indisponible.' : 'Aucun cron Hermes. Créez une mission planifiée en langage naturel.'}</div>
       ) : (
         <div className="list">
           {jobs.map((job) => {
diff --git a/src/components/settings/SettingsDrawer.tsx b/src/components/settings/SettingsDrawer.tsx
index 75a664e..04723d2 100644
--- a/src/components/settings/SettingsDrawer.tsx
+++ b/src/components/settings/SettingsDrawer.tsx
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { bridge } from '../../lib/bridge';
 import { HermesClient } from '../../services/hermes/client';
 import { listSystemVoices } from '../../services/voice/tts';
 import { speech } from '../../services/voice/speech';
+import { ensurePreferredVoice } from '../../services/voice/voicePreference';
 import { listMicrophones } from '../../services/voice/capture';
 import { transcribeWav } from '../../services/voice/stt';
 import { encodeWav } from '../../services/voice/wav';
@@ -357,6 +358,14 @@ export function SettingsDrawer({ onClose }: Props) {
 
         {section === 'speech' && (
           <div className="card">
+            <div className="field">
+              <label>Voix</label>
+              <div className="segmented">
+                <button className={(settings.speech.voiceGender ?? 'male') === 'male' ? 'active' : ''} onClick={() => { update({ speech: { voiceGender: 'male' } }); void ensurePreferredVoice().then((m) => m && setTtsTest({ status: 'ok', message: m })); }}>Masculine</button>
+                <button className={settings.speech.voiceGender === 'female' ? 'active' : ''} onClick={() => { update({ speech: { voiceGender: 'female' } }); void ensurePreferredVoice().then((m) => m && setTtsTest({ status: 'ok', message: m })); }}>Féminine</button>
+              </div>
+              <span className="hint">S’applique à tous les moteurs : voix locale (Piper Tom ou Pierre pour le masculin, téléchargée automatiquement si besoin), voix OpenAI (onyx / nova), voix système Windows (Paul / Hortense).</span>
+            </div>
             <div className="field">
               <label>Moteur de synthèse</label>
               <select className="select" value={settings.speech.provider} onChange={(e) => update({ speech: { provider: e.target.value as typeof settings.speech.provider } })}>
diff --git a/src/lib/text.ts b/src/lib/text.ts
index ec2f3a6..c3956c5 100644
--- a/src/lib/text.ts
+++ b/src/lib/text.ts
@@ -154,3 +154,27 @@ export function formatDuration(seconds: number): string {
   if (h > 0) return `${h}h ${m.toString().padStart(2, '0')}m`;
   return `${m}m ${(s % 60).toString().padStart(2, '0')}s`;
 }
+
+const NOISE_PHRASES = [
+  'sous-titres réalisés par la communauté d\'amara.org',
+  'sous-titrage société radio-canada',
+  'merci d\'avoir regardé',
+  'abonnez-vous',
+  'thank you for watching',
+  'thanks for watching',
+  '...'
+];
+
+/**
+ * Whisper-style hallucinations on silence or clicks: "(cliquant)", "*Claire*", "[Musique]",
+ * "Sous-titres réalisés par…". Such transcripts must not be sent to Hermes.
+ */
+export function isTranscriptNoise(text: string): boolean {
+  const t = text.trim();
+  if (!t) return true;
+  if (/^[\s\p{P}\p{S}]*$/u.test(t)) return true;
+  // whole transcript wrapped in brackets/asterisks: a sound description
+  if (/^[(\[*«"'\s]+[^()\[\]*]{0,60}[)\]*»"'\s]+$/u.test(t) && !/[a-zà-ÿ]{3,}\s+[a-zà-ÿ]{3,}\s+[a-zà-ÿ]{3,}/i.test(t)) return true;
+  const lower = t.toLowerCase().replace(/[.!?…\s]+$/u, '');
+  return NOISE_PHRASES.some((p) => lower === p.replace(/[.!?…\s]+$/u, ''));
+}
diff --git a/src/lib/voicePreference.ts b/src/lib/voicePreference.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe1a668
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/voicePreference.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+/** Voice gender preference applied to every TTS provider (pure helpers, unit tested). */
+import type { VoiceModelStatus } from '../../shared/voice';
+
+export type VoiceGender = 'male' | 'female';
+
+const MALE_HINTS = /\b(homme|male|masculin|paul|thomas|claude|henri|guillaume|mathieu|antoine|nicolas|denis|pierre|tom|adam|michael|eric|liam|george|lewis|daniel|fenrir|puck|onyx|echo|david|mark|richard|james|ryan|guy)\b/i;
+const FEMALE_HINTS = /\b(femme|female|f[ée]minin|hortense|julie|denise|eloise|am[ée]lie|audrey|siwis|jessica|heart|bella|sarah|nicole|sky|alloy|nova|shimmer|zira|aria|jenny|emma|isabella|sophie|charlotte|vivienne|coral|sage)\b/i;
+
+/** Best-effort gender from a voice or speaker label ("Piper Tom (homme, français)", "Microsoft Paul", "am_adam"). */
+export function inferGender(name: string): VoiceGender | undefined {
+  const n = name.replace(/_/g, ' ');
+  if (/^(am|bm|em|hm|im|jm|pm|zm)\b/i.test(n) || MALE_HINTS.test(n)) return 'male';
+  if (/^(af|bf|ef|ff|hf|if|jf|pf|zf)\b/i.test(n) || FEMALE_HINTS.test(n)) return 'female';
+  return undefined;
+}
+
+/** OpenAI-compatible default voice for the preferred gender (used when the user left the field empty). */
+export function defaultOpenAiVoice(gender: VoiceGender): string {
+  return gender === 'male' ? 'onyx' : 'nova';
+}
+
+/** Rank system voices: language first, then gender, then quality hints. */
+export function rankSystemVoice(v: { name: string; lang: string; localService?: boolean }, lang: string, gender: VoiceGender): number {
+  const name = v.name.toLowerCase();
+  let score = v.lang.toLowerCase().startsWith(lang) ? 100 : 0;
+  const g = inferGender(v.name);
+  if (g === gender) score += 50;
+  else if (g && g !== gender) score -= 30;
+  if (name.includes('natural') || name.includes('neural') || name.includes('online')) score += 20;
+  if (name.includes('google')) score += 10;
+  if (name.includes('microsoft')) score += 5;
+  if (v.localService) score += 2;
+  return score;
+}
+
+export interface LocalVoiceChoice {
+  modelId: string;
+  speaker: number;
+}
+
+/** Installed local voice matching language + gender, or null. */
+export function findLocalVoice(models: VoiceModelStatus[], lang: string, gender: VoiceGender): LocalVoiceChoice | null {
+  const l = lang.toLowerCase().split('-')[0];
+  const installed = models.filter((m) => m.kind === 'tts' && m.installed);
+  for (const model of installed) {
+    for (const sp of model.speakers ?? []) {
+      const spLang = (sp.lang || '').toLowerCase();
+      if (spLang && spLang !== l && spLang !== 'multi') continue;
+      const g = (sp as { gender?: string }).gender === 'm' ? 'male' : (sp as { gender?: string }).gender === 'f' ? 'female' : inferGender(sp.name);
+      if (g === gender) return { modelId: model.id, speaker: sp.id };
+    }
+  }
+  return null;
+}
+
+/** Catalog model to download when nothing installed offers the preferred gender (French). */
+export function suggestedDownload(models: VoiceModelStatus[], lang: string, gender: VoiceGender): string | null {
+  const l = lang.toLowerCase().split('-')[0];
+  if (l !== 'fr') return null;
+  const wanted = gender === 'male' ? ['piper-fr-tom', 'piper-fr-upmc'] : ['kokoro-v1', 'piper-fr-siwis'];
+  for (const id of wanted) {
+    const m = models.find((x) => x.id === id);
+    if (m && !m.installed) return id;
+  }
+  return null;
+}
diff --git a/src/services/hermes/client.ts b/src/services/hermes/client.ts
index c79aa07..baf999e 100644
--- a/src/services/hermes/client.ts
+++ b/src/services/hermes/client.ts
@@ -430,6 +430,7 @@ export class HermesClient {
       let iterationText = '';
       const errorChunks: string[] = [];
       let ready = false;
+      let rawBody = '';
       const parser = new SseParser((message) => {
         if (message.data === '[DONE]') return;
         const data = tryParseJson<unknown>(message.data);
@@ -451,7 +452,13 @@ export class HermesClient {
       if (sessionId) headers['X-Hermes-Session-Id'] = sessionId;
       const handle = await httpStream(
         { url: `${this.base}/v1/chat/completions`, method: 'POST', headers, body: JSON.stringify(payload), timeoutMs: 10 * 60_000 },
-        { onChunk: (text) => (ready ? parser.feed(text) : errorChunks.push(text)) }
+        {
+          onChunk: (text) => {
+            if (rawBody.length < 512_000) rawBody += text;
+            if (ready) parser.feed(text);
+            else errorChunks.push(text);
+          }
+        }
       );
       currentHandle = handle;
       if (!handle.start.ok) {
@@ -474,6 +481,17 @@ export class HermesClient {
 
       await handle.done;
       parser.end();
+      if (!iterationText && toolCalls.size === 0 && !aborted()) {
+        // Nothing streamed: the server may have answered with a plain JSON completion (stream ignored)
+        // or with a 200 carrying an error object. Surface it instead of an empty bubble.
+        const recovered = recoverCompletion(rawBody);
+        if (recovered.text) {
+          iterationText = recovered.text;
+          onEvent({ kind: 'delta', text: recovered.text });
+        } else {
+          throw new Error(recovered.error ?? `Réponse vide de Hermes (${rawBody.length} octets reçus${rawBody ? ` : ${rawBody.slice(0, 160).replace(/\s+/g, ' ')}` : ''})`);
+        }
+      }
       fullText += iterationText;
 
       if (finishReason === 'tool_calls' && toolsAllowed && toolCalls.size > 0 && !aborted()) {
@@ -498,6 +516,30 @@ export class HermesClient {
   }
 }
 
+/** Extract text or an error message from a non-streamed chat completion body. */
+export function recoverCompletion(raw: string): { text?: string; error?: string } {
+  const body = raw.trim();
+  if (!body) return {};
+  const candidates = body.startsWith('data:') || body.startsWith('event:')
+    ? body.split(/\n+/).filter((l) => l.startsWith('data:')).map((l) => l.replace(/^data:\s*/, '')).filter((l) => l && l !== '[DONE]')
+    : [body];
+  let text = '';
+  for (const c of candidates) {
+    const data = tryParseJson<Rec>(c);
+    if (!data || !isRec(data)) continue;
+    if (data.error) {
+      const e = data.error as Rec | string;
+      return { error: `Hermes : ${typeof e === 'string' ? e : String((e as Rec).message ?? JSON.stringify(e))}` };
+    }
+    const choice = Array.isArray(data.choices) && isRec(data.choices[0]) ? (data.choices[0] as Rec) : null;
+    const msg = choice && isRec(choice.message) ? (choice.message as Rec) : choice && isRec(choice.delta) ? (choice.delta as Rec) : null;
+    if (msg && typeof msg.content === 'string') text += msg.content;
+    else if (typeof data.output === 'string') text += data.output;
+    else if (typeof data.text === 'string') text += data.text;
+  }
+  return text ? { text } : {};
+}
+
 /** Session ids created by the sessions transport carry an `hs:` prefix; other endpoints get the bare id. */
 export function plainSession(id: string): string {
   return id.startsWith('hs:') ? id.slice(3) : id;
diff --git a/src/services/voice/tts.ts b/src/services/voice/tts.ts
index babae4a..1e2cba3 100644
--- a/src/services/voice/tts.ts
+++ b/src/services/voice/tts.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
  * OpenAI-compatible /v1/audio/speech, system voices, and the legacy Google Translate endpoint.
  */
 import { Log } from '../../lib/log';
+import { defaultOpenAiVoice, rankSystemVoice } from '../../lib/voicePreference';
 import { bridge } from '../../lib/bridge';
 import { chunkForSpeech, cleanForSpeech, extractSentences } from '../../lib/text';
 import { httpFetch } from '../../lib/transport';
@@ -26,6 +27,8 @@ export interface TtsConfig {
   localModel: string;
   /** Speaker id inside the local model. */
   localSpeaker: number;
+  /** Preferred voice gender, applied to every provider's default voice. */
+  voiceGender?: 'male' | 'female';
 }
 
 export type TtsState = 'idle' | 'loading' | 'speaking';
@@ -201,7 +204,7 @@ export class TtsEngine {
       body: JSON.stringify({
         model: model || 'tts-1',
         input: text,
-        voice: voice || 'alloy',
+        voice: voice || defaultOpenAiVoice(this.config.voiceGender ?? 'male'),
         speed: Math.max(0.5, Math.min(2, speed || 1)),
         response_format: format || 'mp3'
       }),
@@ -312,8 +315,8 @@ export class TtsEngine {
       if (exact) return exact;
     }
     const lang = (this.config.language || 'fr').toLowerCase().split('-')[0];
-    const candidates = voices.filter((v) => v.lang.toLowerCase().startsWith(lang));
-    return candidates.sort((a, b) => scoreVoice(b) - scoreVoice(a))[0] ?? voices[0];
+    const gender = this.config.voiceGender ?? 'male';
+    return [...voices].sort((a, b) => rankSystemVoice(b, lang, gender) - rankSystemVoice(a, lang, gender))[0];
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/services/voice/voiceController.ts b/src/services/voice/voiceController.ts
index 1cdf975..73025f7 100644
--- a/src/services/voice/voiceController.ts
+++ b/src/services/voice/voiceController.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
  * Voice controller: microphone → VAD → STT → conversation, plus hands-free loop and barge-in.
  */
 import { Log } from '../../lib/log';
+import { isTranscriptNoise } from '../../lib/text';
 import { useChat } from '../../state/chat';
 import { useSettings } from '../../state/settings';
 import { useVoice } from '../../state/voice';
@@ -344,6 +345,10 @@ class VoiceController {
     const settings = useSettings.getState().settings.voice;
     try {
       let text = await transcribeWav(wav.bytes, settings);
+      if (isTranscriptNoise(text)) {
+        Log.debug('voice', `transcript ignored as noise: ${text}`);
+        text = '';
+      }
       voice.setTranscript(text);
       voice.setPhase('off');
       Log.info('voice', `transcript (${wav.durationSec.toFixed(1)}s): ${text}`);
diff --git a/src/services/voice/voicePreference.ts b/src/services/voice/voicePreference.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e61f2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/services/voice/voicePreference.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+/**
+ * Applies the preferred voice gender to the active TTS provider: switches the local model/speaker,
+ * downloads a matching French voice when none is installed, and logs what it did.
+ */
+import { Log } from '../../lib/log';
+import { findLocalVoice, inferGender, suggestedDownload } from '../../lib/voicePreference';
+import { useSettings } from '../../state/settings';
+import { useVoiceModels } from '../../state/voiceModels';
+
+let downloading: string | null = null;
+
+/** Make the local voice match `speech.voiceGender`. Returns a short status message. */
+export async function ensurePreferredVoice(): Promise<string> {
+  const { settings, update } = useSettings.getState();
+  const { speech } = settings;
+  const gender = speech.voiceGender ?? 'male';
+  if (speech.provider !== 'local') return '';
+  const models = useVoiceModels.getState().models;
+  if (!models.length) return '';
+  const lang = speech.language || 'fr-FR';
+  const current = models.find((m) => m.id === speech.localModel);
+  const currentSpeaker = current?.speakers?.find((s) => s.id === speech.localSpeaker);
+  const currentGender = currentSpeaker ? (currentSpeaker as { gender?: string }).gender === 'm' ? 'male' : (currentSpeaker as { gender?: string }).gender === 'f' ? 'female' : inferGender(currentSpeaker.name) : undefined;
+  if (current?.installed && currentGender === gender) return '';
+
+  const choice = findLocalVoice(models, lang, gender);
+  if (choice) {
+    update({ speech: { localModel: choice.modelId, localSpeaker: choice.speaker } });
+    const name = models.find((m) => m.id === choice.modelId)?.speakers?.find((s) => s.id === choice.speaker)?.name ?? choice.modelId;
+    Log.info('tts', `voice preference ${gender}: ${name}`);
+    return `Voix ${gender === 'male' ? 'masculine' : 'féminine'} : ${name}`;
+  }
+  const download = suggestedDownload(models, lang, gender);
+  if (!download || downloading === download) return download ? 'Téléchargement de la voix en cours…' : '';
+  downloading = download;
+  Log.info('tts', `no ${gender} voice installed, downloading ${download}`);
+  try {
+    await useVoiceModels.getState().download(download);
+    const after = findLocalVoice(useVoiceModels.getState().models, lang, gender);
+    if (after) update({ speech: { localModel: after.modelId, localSpeaker: after.speaker } });
+    return after ? `Voix ${gender === 'male' ? 'masculine' : 'féminine'} installée.` : 'Voix téléchargée.';
+  } catch (err) {
+    Log.warn('tts', `voice download failed: ${(err as Error).message}`);
+    return `Téléchargement impossible : ${(err as Error).message}`;
+  } finally {
+    downloading = null;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/state/hermes.ts b/src/state/hermes.ts
index 27b6a5d..6c94940 100644
--- a/src/state/hermes.ts
+++ b/src/state/hermes.ts
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ interface HermesStore {
   sessions: HermesSession[];
   jobs: HermesJob[];
   jobRuns: JobRun[];
+  /** Last cron sync failure (the chat link stays independent of it). */
+  jobsError: string | null;
   transport: ResolvedTransport;
   lastSyncAt: number | null;
   webhook: WebhookStatus | null;
@@ -88,6 +90,7 @@ export const useHermes = create<HermesStore>((set, get) => ({
   sessions: [],
   jobs: [],
   jobRuns: [],
+  jobsError: null,
   transport: 'completions',
   lastSyncAt: null,
   webhook: null,
@@ -119,8 +122,8 @@ export const useHermes = create<HermesStore>((set, get) => ({
         Log.warn('hermes', `capabilities unavailable: ${(err as Error).message}`);
       }
       const transport = resolveTransport(config, capabilities);
-      const degraded = String(health.status ?? 'ok').toLowerCase() !== 'ok';
-      set({ health, capabilities, transport, link: degraded ? 'degraded' : 'online', linkDetail: degraded ? `état ${health.status}` : '' });
+      const degraded = !isHealthyStatus(health.status);
+      set({ health, capabilities, transport, link: degraded ? 'degraded' : 'online', linkDetail: degraded ? describeHealth(health) : '' });
       Log.info('hermes', `connected (${transport})`, { status: health.status, model: capabilities?.model });
       void get().refreshCatalog();
       void get().refreshJobs();
@@ -165,7 +168,7 @@ export const useHermes = create<HermesStore>((set, get) => ({
       const merged = [...incoming, ...previous.filter((r) => !incoming.some((i) => i.id === r.id))]
         .sort((a, b) => new Date(b.at).getTime() - new Date(a.at).getTime())
         .slice(0, 100);
-      set({ jobs, jobRuns: merged, lastSyncAt: Date.now(), link: get().link === 'offline' || get().link === 'degraded' ? 'online' : get().link });
+      set({ jobs, jobRuns: merged, jobsError: null, lastSyncAt: Date.now(), link: get().link === 'offline' ? 'online' : get().link });
       const snapshot = JSON.stringify({ jobs, jobRuns: merged });
       if (snapshot !== lastCacheSnapshot) {
         lastCacheSnapshot = snapshot;
@@ -174,9 +177,8 @@ export const useHermes = create<HermesStore>((set, get) => ({
     } catch (err) {
       const message = (err as Error).message;
       Log.warn('hermes', `jobs sync failed: ${message}`);
-      if (/HTTP 404/.test(message)) return; // jobs API disabled on this server
-      // A failing jobs poll does not mean chat is down: degrade, and let the next health probe decide.
-      set({ linkDetail: message, link: get().link === 'online' ? 'degraded' : get().link });
+      // The cron API can be absent or restricted on a given Hermes: the chat link is unaffected.
+      set({ jobsError: /HTTP 404/.test(message) ? 'API des crons absente sur ce serveur Hermes' : message });
     }
   },
 
@@ -233,3 +235,31 @@ export const useHermes = create<HermesStore>((set, get) => ({
 }));
 
 export { jobStatus };
+
+const HEALTHY = new Set(['ok', 'healthy', 'up', 'alive', 'pass', 'ready', 'running', 'online', 'true']);
+
+/** Hermes /health reports "ok"; /health/detailed may report "healthy", "degraded" or "unhealthy". */
+export function isHealthyStatus(status: unknown): boolean {
+  if (status === undefined || status === null || status === '') return true;
+  return HEALTHY.has(String(status).toLowerCase());
+}
+
+/** Human summary of a degraded health payload: failing checks by name. */
+export function describeHealth(health: Record<string, unknown>): string {
+  const failing: string[] = [];
+  const visit = (node: unknown, prefix: string, depth: number) => {
+    if (!node || typeof node !== 'object' || depth > 3) return;
+    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(node as Record<string, unknown>)) {
+      if (key === 'status') continue;
+      if (value && typeof value === 'object') {
+        const rec = value as Record<string, unknown>;
+        const st = rec.status ?? rec.ok ?? rec.healthy;
+        if (st !== undefined && !isHealthyStatus(st)) failing.push(prefix + key);
+        else visit(value, `${prefix}${key}.`, depth + 1);
+      } else if (typeof value === 'boolean' && !value && /ok|healthy|ready|connected|available/i.test(key)) failing.push(prefix + key);
+    }
+  };
+  visit(health, '', 0);
+  const base = `état ${String(health.status)}`;
+  return failing.length ? `${base} · ${failing.slice(0, 4).join(', ')}` : base;
+}
diff --git a/src/state/settings.ts b/src/state/settings.ts
index f22c93d..89ca851 100644
--- a/src/state/settings.ts
+++ b/src/state/settings.ts
@@ -125,6 +125,7 @@ export const DEFAULT_SETTINGS: Settings = {
     volume: 1,
     localModel: 'kokoro-v1',
     localSpeaker: 30,
+    voiceGender: 'male',
     autoSpeak: true,
     speakIncoming: true
   },
diff --git a/tests/hermesHealth.test.ts b/tests/hermesHealth.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e7b142
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/hermesHealth.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { recoverCompletion } from '../src/services/hermes/client';
+import { describeHealth, isHealthyStatus } from '../src/state/hermes';
+
+describe('health status', () => {
+  it('accepts the usual healthy words', () => {
+    for (const s of ['ok', 'OK', 'healthy', 'ready', undefined]) expect(isHealthyStatus(s)).toBe(true);
+    for (const s of ['degraded', 'unhealthy', 'error']) expect(isHealthyStatus(s)).toBe(false);
+  });
+  it('names the failing checks', () => {
+    expect(describeHealth({ status: 'degraded', checks: { memory: { status: 'ok' }, sessions_db: { status: 'error' } } })).toBe('état degraded · checks.sessions_db');
+    expect(describeHealth({ status: 'degraded' })).toBe('état degraded');
+  });
+});
+
+describe('recoverCompletion', () => {
+  it('reads a plain JSON completion when the server ignored streaming', () => {
+    expect(recoverCompletion(JSON.stringify({ choices: [{ message: { role: 'assistant', content: 'Bonjour.' } }] }))).toEqual({ text: 'Bonjour.' });
+  });
+  it('surfaces an error object returned with HTTP 200', () => {
+    expect(recoverCompletion(JSON.stringify({ error: { message: 'model not found' } })).error).toContain('model not found');
+  });
+  it('handles SSE bodies and empty input', () => {
+    expect(recoverCompletion('data: {"choices":[{"delta":{"content":"A"}}]}\n\ndata: {"choices":[{"delta":{"content":"B"}}]}\n\ndata: [DONE]\n\n')).toEqual({ text: 'AB' });
+    expect(recoverCompletion('')).toEqual({});
+  });
+});
diff --git a/tests/text.test.ts b/tests/text.test.ts
index b122c78..984f18a 100644
--- a/tests/text.test.ts
+++ b/tests/text.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
-import { chunkForSpeech, cleanForSpeech, extractSentences, preprocessMedia } from '../src/lib/text';
+import { chunkForSpeech, cleanForSpeech, extractSentences, isTranscriptNoise, preprocessMedia } from '../src/lib/text';
 
 describe('text', () => {
   it('cleans markdown for speech', () => {
@@ -25,3 +25,18 @@ describe('text', () => {
     expect(preprocessMedia('MEDIA:/tmp/a.png')).toContain('![image](/tmp/a.png)');
   });
 });
+
+describe('isTranscriptNoise', () => {
+  it('drops Whisper hallucinations on silence', () => {
+    expect(isTranscriptNoise('(cliquant)')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isTranscriptNoise('*Claire*')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isTranscriptNoise('[Musique]')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isTranscriptNoise('...')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isTranscriptNoise("Sous-titres réalisés par la communauté d'Amara.org")).toBe(true);
+  });
+  it('keeps real sentences', () => {
+    expect(isTranscriptNoise('Jarvis, allume la lumière du salon.')).toBe(false);
+    expect(isTranscriptNoise('(Jarvis) quelle heure est-il maintenant ?')).toBe(false);
+    expect(isTranscriptNoise('Oui')).toBe(false);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/tests/voicePreference.test.ts b/tests/voicePreference.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c50a21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/voicePreference.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { defaultOpenAiVoice, findLocalVoice, inferGender, rankSystemVoice, suggestedDownload } from '../src/lib/voicePreference';
+import type { VoiceModelStatus } from '../shared/voice';
+
+const model = (id: string, installed: boolean, speakers: Array<{ id: number; name: string; lang: string }>): VoiceModelStatus =>
+  ({ id, kind: 'tts', engine: 'piper', name: id, description: '', languages: ['fr'], sizeMb: 1, url: '', dir: id, files: [], speakers, installed, installedBytes: 0 }) as unknown as VoiceModelStatus;
+
+describe('inferGender', () => {
+  it('reads catalog labels, system voices and kokoro ids', () => {
+    expect(inferGender('Piper Tom (homme, français)')).toBe('male');
+    expect(inferGender('Siwis (femme, français)')).toBe('female');
+    expect(inferGender('Microsoft Paul - French (France)')).toBe('male');
+    expect(inferGender('Microsoft Hortense - French (France)')).toBe('female');
+    expect(inferGender('am_adam')).toBe('male');
+    expect(inferGender('Voix 3')).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+});
+
+describe('local voice selection', () => {
+  const models = [
+    model('kokoro-v1', true, [{ id: 30, name: 'Siwis (femme, français)', lang: 'fr' }, { id: 4, name: 'Adam (homme, anglais US)', lang: 'en' }]),
+    model('piper-fr-tom', false, [{ id: 0, name: 'Tom', lang: 'fr' }]),
+    model('piper-fr-upmc', true, [{ id: 0, name: 'Jessica (femme)', lang: 'fr' }, { id: 1, name: 'Pierre (homme)', lang: 'fr' }])
+  ];
+  it('prefers an installed speaker of the wanted gender in the right language', () => {
+    expect(findLocalVoice(models, 'fr-FR', 'male')).toEqual({ modelId: 'piper-fr-upmc', speaker: 1 });
+    expect(findLocalVoice(models, 'fr-FR', 'female')).toEqual({ modelId: 'kokoro-v1', speaker: 30 });
+    expect(findLocalVoice(models.slice(0, 2), 'fr', 'male')).toBeNull();
+  });
+  it('suggests a French download when nothing matches', () => {
+    expect(suggestedDownload(models, 'fr', 'male')).toBe('piper-fr-tom');
+    expect(suggestedDownload(models, 'en', 'male')).toBeNull();
+  });
+});
+
+describe('provider defaults', () => {
+  it('picks onyx for male and nova for female on OpenAI-compatible APIs', () => {
+    expect(defaultOpenAiVoice('male')).toBe('onyx');
+    expect(defaultOpenAiVoice('female')).toBe('nova');
+  });
+  it('ranks system voices by language then gender', () => {
+    const paul = { name: 'Microsoft Paul - French (France)', lang: 'fr-FR', localService: true };
+    const hortense = { name: 'Microsoft Hortense - French (France)', lang: 'fr-FR', localService: true };
+    const david = { name: 'Microsoft David - English (US)', lang: 'en-US', localService: true };
+    expect(rankSystemVoice(paul, 'fr', 'male')).toBeGreaterThan(rankSystemVoice(hortense, 'fr', 'male'));
+    expect(rankSystemVoice(hortense, 'fr', 'female')).toBeGreaterThan(rankSystemVoice(paul, 'fr', 'female'));
+    expect(rankSystemVoice(paul, 'fr', 'male')).toBeGreaterThan(rankSystemVoice(david, 'fr', 'male'));
+  });
+});