[TheCause]

Summary

make setup installs piper-tts into .venv/bin. piper_tts.get_status() only checked shutil.which("piper"), so unless the venv was activated in the shell, the tool reported UNAVAILABLE while installed (e.g. when an agent runs .venv/bin/python -c ... without activating). It now also looks next to the running interpreter, and _generate calls the binary it found.

Related issue

None — found while running the preflight from a non-activated venv.

Changes

• tools/audio/piper_tts.py: _piper_binary() — PATH first, then Path(sys.executable).parent / "piper"; used by get_status() and _generate().
• tests/tools/test_piper_venv_binary.py: found in the venv when not on PATH; UNAVAILABLE when absent everywhere.

Testing

• The venv test fails on current main and passes with the fix.
• pytest tests: 1831 passed, 11 skipped, 3 xfailed (macOS, Python 3.12).

Checklist

• The change is focused on a single logical concern.
• I ran the relevant tests locally (make test-contracts / make test) where applicable.
• I updated docs/README if behavior or usage changed. (no doc change needed)
• No unrelated files (build artifacts, local config) are included in the diff.

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