diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index c040c39..3dd7d88 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -77,8 +77,8 @@ Pure-Go packages (`router`, `memory`, `mavweb`, …) run under a plain `go test
 | `mavweb` | HTTP UI + PWA (`/dash`, `/history`, `/trace`, `/notifications`, `/tools`); WebAuthn auth. Connects to mavend's socket. |
 | `mavsttd` | Speech-to-text (whisper.cpp, CGO). |
 | `mavttsd` | Text-to-speech (piper subprocess). |
-| `mavwaked` | Wake-word / VAD gate. |
-| `mavenclient` | Voice loop client (mic → stt → core → tts). |
+| `mavwaked` | Wake-word / VAD gate. **Not on homesrv** — see below. |
+| `mavenclient` | Voice loop client (mic → stt → core → tts). **Not on homesrv** — see below. |
 | `mavpoll` | Telegram long-poll reach. |
 | `mavcaldav` | CalDAV calendar sync. |
 | `mavmaild` | Mail reader (IMAP, read-only). Holds the IMAP password; core never sees it. |
@@ -87,6 +87,15 @@ Daemons are wired socket-to-socket, not linked. `internal/ipc` is the client/ser
 protocol; the config in `deploy/mavend.json` (with `${VAR}` env expansion from gitignored
 `deploy/telegram.env`) sets socket paths, model paths, and the phraser/embedder blocks.
 
+**Seven of the nine run on homesrv. `mavwaked` and `mavenclient` do not, and that is the
+decision, not an oversight** (Vikunja #463, `docs/plans/17-where-the-voice-loop-runs.md`).
+homesrv has a microphone — it is a laptop — but it is in the wrong room, so a wake-word
+daemon there listens to nobody. They belong on a client machine where he is standing.
+`ipc.Dial` already takes `tcp://host:port?token=...` through the netaddr seam, so nothing
+needs building to allow it, but no such machine exists yet. **The consequence: the wake
+word and the VAD gate are covered by unit tests and by nothing else, and no amount of
+sitting at the box changes that.** Push-to-talk through `/dash` is what QA actually covers.
+
 ## The ecosystem: Nexus, Praxis, Hexis
 
 Maven is one of four services. It owns conversation and personal memory. It does not
diff --git a/docs/plans/17-where-the-voice-loop-runs.md b/docs/plans/17-where-the-voice-loop-runs.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e79fd6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/plans/17-where-the-voice-loop-runs.md
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# Plan: Where mavwaked and mavenclient run
+
+**The decision Vikunja #463 asked for. Written 04-08-2026.**
+
+**Verdict: not in compose on homesrv. They run on a client machine in the room he is in.**
+The transport for that already exists and nothing needs building to allow it. What needs
+building is a way to check the wake path at all, which is a separate task.
+
+## The state that prompted this
+
+`docker-compose.yml` runs mavend, mavsttd, mavttsd, mavweb and mavpoll. `mavwaked` and
+`mavenclient` appear in no compose file and run as no host process. Both build under
+`make build`. So the wake word and the voice-activity gate are untested by construction:
+QA session 1 step 2 covers push-to-talk from `/dash` only, and #287 (voice session
+quality) can never be more than half-answered while this holds.
+
+## The reason is not hardware
+
+homesrv has a microphone. It is a Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro, and `/proc/asound/cards` lists
+the ACP digital mic array with capture devices at `/dev/snd/pcmC1D0c` and
+`/dev/snd/pcmC2D0c`. Adding `/dev/snd` to compose and joining the `audio` group would
+work.
+
+It would also be pointless. A wake-word daemon is worth having in the room he is standing
+in. homesrv is a server, so its microphone hears the room the server is in, which is not
+where anybody talks to Maven. Wiring audio into a container to listen to an empty room is
+work spent on a capability nobody can use.
+
+## The reason it belongs off-box
+
+`mavenclient` is a client by name and by design: microphone, then STT, then core, then
+TTS. It is the one binary in the tree meant to run somewhere else. `mavwaked` is the gate
+in front of it, so it goes wherever the microphone goes.
+
+Maven already has components that are not containers on homesrv. `mavupdate` is a
+host-side tool. The resident model, STT and TTS prefer the workstation and fall back to
+homesrv (`docs/offload.md`). Off-box is a shape this system already has.
+
+**And the wire already supports it.** `ipc.Dial` takes a netaddr seam address:
+a bare path is the unix socket, and `tcp://host:port?token=...` reaches a core on another
+host, with the token checked in `internal/netaddr` before `internal/ipc` sees the
+connection. So a client machine reaching mavend over wg or the LAN needs no new protocol
+work. It needs mavend to listen on TCP, which `deploy/mavend.json` does not currently ask
+for.
+
+## What this means for the QA plan
+
+QA session 1 step 2 should say what it actually covers, which is push-to-talk through
+`/dash`. It should not read as though it covers the voice loop. The wake path is checked
+on the client machine or it is not checked, and today there is no client machine.
+
+That is the honest state, and it is worse than the task suggests: this is not a
+configuration gap that a compose entry closes. Until a machine with a microphone runs
+`mavwaked` and `mavenclient` against a TCP-listening mavend, `internal/wake` and
+`cmd/mavwaked`'s VAD are covered by their unit tests and by nothing else.
+
+## What was wrong in CLAUDE.md
+
+The daemon table lists all nine binaries with no column for where they run, which is how
+this went unnoticed for as long as it did. It now says which two are not on the box.
diff --git a/docs/qa.md b/docs/qa.md
index 500e9b6..293fb6f 100644
--- a/docs/qa.md
+++ b/docs/qa.md
@@ -105,9 +105,9 @@ turns look misaligned when they are not.
    **Passes** (02-08-2026, five turns): `я рада`, `поняла`, `помогла`,
    `проверила`, `записала`, `грустна`, `ты` throughout, no pet names.
 2. Press push-to-talk on `/dash`. Say `привет`. Confirm a spoken reply comes
-   back. This is the only check that covers mic to STT to core to TTS to
-   speaker as one path. It is also the path the eleven-day outage most likely
-   broke.
+   back. This covers browser mic to STT to core to TTS as one path. It does
+   **not** cover the wake word or the voice-activity gate, and no step here
+   does — see below.
 3. Say `тихий режим`. Expect `тихий режим включён. буду реже напоминать.` **Passes.**
 4. Say `выключи тихий режим`. Expect `тихий режим выключен.` Negation must win. **Passes.**
 5. Say `в комнате тихо`. Quiet mode must NOT flip. Confirm on `/history` that no
@@ -129,11 +129,18 @@ turns look misaligned when they are not.
    and stitch unrelated topics. Asked whether he should move flats, she opened
    with the weather. That is 287, and it is a phrasing problem, not a loop problem.
 
-**The wake path cannot be checked as deployed.** `mavwaked` and `mavenclient`
-appear in no compose file and run as no host process. Step 2 covers only
-push-to-talk, from `/dash` through mavsttd and mavttsd. Wake word and VAD
-are untested by construction. Decide whether they belong in compose or on a
-client machine, and say which in the deploy docs. Tracked as **463**.
+**The wake path cannot be checked here, and that is now the decision rather
+than a gap.** `mavwaked` and `mavenclient` appear in no compose file and run as
+no host process. They are not going to. They belong on a client machine in the
+room he is standing in, because homesrv's microphone is real and in the wrong
+room — **463**, written up in `docs/plans/17-where-the-voice-loop-runs.md`.
+
+So the wake word and the VAD gate are covered by their unit tests and by
+nothing else, and no session at this box changes that. Checking them needs a
+machine with a microphone running both binaries against a TCP-listening mavend.
+`ipc.Dial` already speaks `tcp://host:port?token=...`, so the work is a machine
+and a config line, not protocol work. Until then, **287** can only be
+half-answered, and step 2 above is push-to-talk, not the voice loop.
 
 **319's single-token bug is fixed** (01-08-2026). Single-word Russian utterances no longer come
 back as `не совсем поняла — можешь переформулировать?`. `привет` and `поужинал`