Port Windows installer/ncp fixes and a real nomic-embed-text default

- install-windows.ps1: warn about a leftover profile-based ncp() that
  would shadow ncp.cmd; the "press any key to close" footer now skips
  the wait when stdin is redirected (was hanging indefinitely) and
  exits cleanly instead of Stop-Process when it owns the window; pulls
  nomic-embed-text alongside the chat/memory models.
- management/ncp.py: ncp start / start -b bring Ollama up automatically;
  longer timeout + real error message on a slow model warm.
- synapse/nexus_config.py: DEFAULT_EMBED_MODEL, single source of truth
  alongside DEFAULT_CHAT_MODEL/DEFAULT_MEMORY_MODEL.
- synapse/ollama_manager.py: is_available() cached instead of spawning a
  process per /status poll; is_running() timeout dropped 2s -> 0.5s so a
  healthy backend stops reading as dead; embed() reads the new default
  instead of a hardcoded string; de-duplicated serve-env setup.

Ported via bin/publish.sh from NexusOS-jon.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

README.md

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ manually from the app (**Start AI** in the sidebar), not at boot.
 
 ```powershell
 # 0. Allow scripts to run (PowerShell blocks unsigned scripts by default, which
-#    stops Nexus's CLI from working). Process scope covers only one single window;
+#    stops Nexus's CLI from working). Process scope covers only this window;
 #    LocalMachine makes it permanent so ncp works from every future shell (run
 #    PowerShell as Administrator for the LocalMachine line).
 Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process       -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Force

install-windows.ps1

@@ -178,6 +178,30 @@ try {
     Write-Warn "  $RepoRoot\management"
 }
 
+# -- Legacy profile shim check --------------------------------------------------
+# An earlier version of this installer registered ncp as a `function ncp` in the
+# PowerShell profile instead of management\ncp.cmd (see the "why" above). Profile
+# functions resolve before PATH executables, so a leftover one silently shadows
+# the real ncp.cmd - `ncp` still runs, just the wrong code, with no error. We do
+# not rewrite the user's profile automatically: it is their file, and a blind
+# strip risks mangling whatever else lives in it alongside it. Just flag it.
+Write-Step "Checking for a stale ncp() in your PowerShell profile"
+$DocsRoot = [Environment]::GetFolderPath("MyDocuments")
+$ProfileCandidates = @(
+    (Join-Path $DocsRoot "WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1"),
+    (Join-Path $DocsRoot "PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1")
+)
+$Shadowed = $ProfileCandidates | Where-Object {
+    (Test-Path $_) -and (Select-String -Path $_ -Pattern '^\s*function\s+ncp\b' -Quiet)
+}
+if ($Shadowed) {
+    Write-Warn "Found an old 'function ncp' that will shadow the real ncp.cmd:"
+    foreach ($p in $Shadowed) { Write-Warn "  $p" }
+    Write-Warn "  Remove that function from the file(s) above so ncp resolves to ncp.cmd."
+} else {
+    Write-OK "No stale ncp() in your PowerShell profile"
+}
+
 # -- Desktop shortcut ----------------------------------------------------------
 Write-Step "Creating desktop shortcut"
 try {
@@ -213,8 +237,9 @@ try {
 Push-Location $RepoRoot
 $ChatModel  = (& $VenvPy -c "from synapse.nexus_config import DEFAULT_CHAT_MODEL as m; print(m)")
 $MemModel   = (& $VenvPy -c "from synapse.nexus_config import DEFAULT_MEMORY_MODEL as m; print(m)")
+$EmbedModel = (& $VenvPy -c "from synapse.nexus_config import DEFAULT_EMBED_MODEL as m; print(m)")
 Pop-Location
-if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0 -or -not $ChatModel -or -not $MemModel) {
+if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0 -or -not $ChatModel -or -not $MemModel -or -not $EmbedModel) {
     Write-Fail "Could not read the default models from synapse\nexus_config.py - the venv install is broken"
 }
 
@@ -255,7 +280,7 @@ Pop-Location
 if ($seedOk) { Write-OK "Default model set to $ChatModel" }
 else { Write-Warn "Could not persist default model - pick it at the top of the chat instead." }
 
-Write-Step "Pulling models ($ChatModel for chat, $MemModel for memory)"
+Write-Step "Pulling models ($ChatModel for chat, $MemModel for memory, $EmbedModel for recall)"
 # A prompt, not "press Ctrl+C to skip": Ctrl+C in PowerShell 5.1 terminates the
 # whole script, so the escape hatch the installer advertised was also the one
 # thing that stopped it finishing - no Ollama cleanup, no summary, no window
@@ -277,6 +302,10 @@ if ($pullAnswer -match '^\s*(n|no)\s*$') {
     ollama pull $MemModel
     if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) { Write-OK "$MemModel ready (memory curator)" }
     else { Write-Warn "$MemModel pull skipped/failed - the memory service will fall back to the chat model." }
+
+    ollama pull $EmbedModel
+    if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) { Write-OK "$EmbedModel ready (conversation recall)" }
+    else { Write-Warn "$EmbedModel pull skipped/failed - recall will fall back to lexical search." }
 }
 
 # -- Make Ollama manual-start (NexusOS owns the lifecycle) ----------------------
@@ -326,15 +355,32 @@ Write-Host "  A process reads PATH once, when it starts. This shell started befo
 Write-Host "  the installer put management\ on PATH, so it will never see ncp no" -ForegroundColor DarkGray
 Write-Host "  matter what you run here. The next terminal you open will." -ForegroundColor DarkGray
 Write-Host ""
-Read-Host "  Press Enter to close this window"
 
-# Stop-Process on our own PID, not `exit`: `exit` only ends the window when the
+# Skip the wait entirely when stdin is redirected: nobody is at the keyboard to
-# host was started with -File. Run interactively - `& .\install-windows.ps1` from
+# press anything, and both ReadKey and Read-Host were confirmed (empirically,
-# a shell already open, which is the common case - it would just return to the
+# not just in theory) to hang indefinitely in that case instead of failing
-# prompt in a session whose PATH is permanently stale. Killing the host closes
+# fast - Read-Host only fails fast under an explicit -NonInteractive flag,
-# the window either way, which is the point: the user cannot accidentally keep
+# which is not how the self-elevation Start-Process above launches this script.
-# using a shell where ncp will never resolve.
+if (-not [Console]::IsInputRedirected) {
-# Caveat: a Start-Transcript in this window never reaches Stop-Transcript. The
+    Write-Host "  Press any key to close this window..." -ForegroundColor Yellow
-# transcript is flushed as it is written, so the content survives without the
+    try { $null = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown") } catch { Read-Host | Out-Null }
-# closing footer.
+}
-Stop-Process -Id $PID
+
+# $OwnsWindow means this is the elevated instance the self-elevation block above
+# launched with `-File`, so a clean `exit` closes it - and does so with exit code
+# 0, which is what lets Windows Terminal's closeOnExit actually close the tab
+# instead of treating an abrupt kill as a crash and falling back to a fresh
+# shell in the pane. Without $OwnsWindow we are in a shell the user already had
+# open (they ran an admin PowerShell and invoked the script directly, so it was
+# never re-launched with -File) - `exit` there would just return to the prompt
+# in a session whose PATH is permanently stale, so kill the host instead; the
+# point is the user cannot accidentally keep using a shell where ncp never
+# resolves.
+# Caveat: a Start-Transcript in this window never reaches Stop-Transcript in the
+# Stop-Process path. The transcript is flushed as it is written, so the content
+# survives without the closing footer.
+if ($OwnsWindow) {
+    exit 0
+} else {
+    Stop-Process -Id $PID
+}

management/ncp.py

@@ -304,14 +304,19 @@ def stop_service(svc: Service) -> bool:
 def start_ollama() -> None:
     """Driven through the backend endpoint (the path the control panel uses)
     rather than launching the binary, because OllamaManager owns model and GPU
-    selection. Requires the backend to be up."""
+    selection. Requires the backend to be up.
+
+    Long timeout: the endpoint blocks until the model is warmed - weights read
+    off disk into RAM/VRAM - which the web UI's own "Loading model..." button
+    state calls out as routinely taking about a minute, not just the Ollama
+    process launching."""
     print("Starting OLLAMA...")
     req = urllib.request.Request("http://localhost:8000/ollama/start", method="POST")
     try:
-        urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=30).read(1)
+        urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=180).read(1)
         print("NEXUS OLLAMA STARTED")
-    except Exception:
+    except Exception as e:
-        print("  OLLAMA start request failed (backend not reachable on :8000)")
+        print(f"  OLLAMA start failed: {e}")
 
 
 def stop_ollama() -> None:
@@ -339,6 +344,7 @@ def cmd_start(target) -> None:
         launch(SERVICES["memory"]); wait_for_port(SERVICES["memory"])
     elif target in ("--backend", "-b"):
         launch(SERVICES["backend"]); wait_for_port(SERVICES["backend"])
+        start_ollama()
     elif target in ("--frontend", "-f"):
         launch(SERVICES["frontend"]); wait_for_port(SERVICES["frontend"])
     elif target in ("--ai", "-a"):
@@ -349,6 +355,7 @@ def cmd_start(target) -> None:
         launch(SERVICES["backend"])
         wait_for_port(SERVICES["memory"])
         wait_for_port(SERVICES["backend"])
+        start_ollama()
         launch(SERVICES["frontend"])
         wait_for_port(SERVICES["frontend"])
     else:
@@ -656,7 +663,7 @@ Commands:
    --memory,  -m        Start only the memory service
    --frontend,-f        Start only the frontend
    --backend, -b        Start only the backend
-   --ai,      -a        Start the AI (Ollama) — manual; not started by default
+   --ai,      -a        Start only the AI (Ollama); `start`/`start -b` already include it
 
   stop                  Stop ALL Nexus services
    --memory,  -m        Stop only the memory service

synapse/nexus_config.py

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ except Exception:
     VERSION = "0.0.0"
 
 # --- MODEL DEFAULTS ---
-# Single source of truth for the two models NexusOS ships with. The installers
+# Single source of truth for the three models NexusOS ships with. The installers
 # pull and pin these, the runtime falls back to them; keeping them in one place
 # is what stops installer and backend from drifting apart.
 #
@@ -30,8 +30,12 @@ except Exception:
 # 4 GB GPU into CPU/RAM). Chosen over Qwen3 because Qwen3 is a reasoning model:
 # smart only with its slow <think> step, weak without it.
 # Memory: mistral - the curator that extracts facts and titles conversations.
+# Embed: nomic-embed-text - powers semantic recall of past conversations
+# (OllamaManager.embed / store.semantic_search_conversations). Without it,
+# recall silently degrades to lexical substring matching.
 DEFAULT_CHAT_MODEL = "llama3.1:8b"
 DEFAULT_MEMORY_MODEL = "mistral:latest"
+DEFAULT_EMBED_MODEL = "nomic-embed-text"
 
 # --- CORE DIRECTORIES ---
 DATA_DIR = PROJECT_ROOT / "data"
@@ -144,7 +148,7 @@ settings = Settings()
 
 # explicit exports for static checkers and IDEs
 __all__ = ["Settings", "settings", "path", "VERSION",
-           "DEFAULT_CHAT_MODEL", "DEFAULT_MEMORY_MODEL",
+           "DEFAULT_CHAT_MODEL", "DEFAULT_MEMORY_MODEL", "DEFAULT_EMBED_MODEL",
            "PROJECT_ROOT", "DATA_DIR", "MODELS_DIR", "RUNTIME_DIR",
            "MEMORY_DIR", "LOGS_DIR", "PLAYBOOK_DIR", "UPLOADS_DIR",
            "EXPORTS_DIR", "MEMORY_DB",

synapse/ollama_manager.py

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import signal
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any
 
-from .nexus_config import settings, DEFAULT_CHAT_MODEL
+from .nexus_config import settings, DEFAULT_CHAT_MODEL, DEFAULT_EMBED_MODEL
 from .memory.store import store
 
 OLLAMA_PORT = 11434
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ class OllamaManager:
     def __init__(self, runtime_dir=None):
         self.process = None
         self.running = False
+        self._available = None      # see is_available()
 
         self.runtime_dir = Path(runtime_dir) if runtime_dir else Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent / "runtime"
         (self.runtime_dir / "logs").mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
@@ -241,17 +242,45 @@ class OllamaManager:
         except Exception as e:
             _log.warning("warm: preload failed: %s", e)
 
+    def _serve_env(self, gpu_env: dict) -> dict:
+        """Environment for a `serve` we spawn. One definition - this was
+        duplicated verbatim in two methods, so the Windows carve-out below had
+        to be fixed in both places or the two paths would disagree."""
+        env = os.environ.copy()
+        env["OLLAMA_HOST"] = self._api_base
+        # Every platform uses the project's own model store. Windows used to be
+        # exempt, because the installer pulled with a bare `ollama pull` into
+        # %USERPROFILE%\.ollama and a NexusOS-spawned serve pointed elsewhere
+        # would not have seen those models. The installer sets OLLAMA_MODELS for
+        # its pulls now (and migrates an existing store), so the exemption just
+        # meant Windows kept models somewhere `ncp models` could not see.
+        env["OLLAMA_MODELS"] = str(settings.models_dir)
+        env.update(gpu_env)
+        return env
+
     def is_available(self):
+        # ponytail: cached for the life of the process. This spawns a subprocess,
+        # and /status calls it on every poll - the frontend polls continuously,
+        # so it was a process spawn per tick to answer a question whose answer
+        # cannot change without someone installing Ollama. Restart to re-detect.
+        if self._available is None:
             bin_path = _ollama_bin()
             try:
-            subprocess.run([bin_path, "--version"], capture_output=True, check=True, timeout=5)
+                subprocess.run([bin_path, "--version"], capture_output=True,
-            return True
+                               check=True, timeout=5)
+                self._available = True
             except Exception:
-            return False
+                self._available = False
+        return self._available
 
     def is_running(self):
+        # 0.5s, not 2s: this is a loopback request to a server that is either
+        # listening or is not. Ollama ships OFF (the user presses Start AI), so
+        # the "not running" path is the common one and every /status paid the
+        # full 2s for it - which pushed /status past the 2s client timeout in
+        # bin/nexus_window.py and made a healthy backend look dead.
         try:
-            r = httpx.get(f"{self._api_base}/api/tags", timeout=2.0)
+            r = httpx.get(f"{self._api_base}/api/tags", timeout=0.5)
             return r.status_code == 200
         except httpx.RequestError:
             return False
@@ -269,15 +298,7 @@ class OllamaManager:
         try:
             backend, gpu_env = _detect_gpu_backend()
             _log.info("Starting Ollama service via %s (backend: %s)...", _ollama_bin(), backend)
-            env = os.environ.copy()
+            env = self._serve_env(gpu_env)
-            env["OLLAMA_HOST"] = self._api_base
-            # Linux ships a bundled model store under the project. On Windows,
-            # Ollama is installed system-wide and pulls into its default store,
-            # so don't override OLLAMA_MODELS or a NexusOS-spawned `serve` won't
-            # see the models the installer already pulled.
-            if os.name != "nt":
-                env["OLLAMA_MODELS"] = str(Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent / "models")
-            env.update(gpu_env)
 
             with open(self.log_file, "w") as log:
                 self.process = subprocess.Popen(
@@ -318,15 +339,7 @@ class OllamaManager:
         try:
             backend, gpu_env = _detect_gpu_backend()
             _log.info("Starting Ollama service via %s (backend: %s)...", _ollama_bin(), backend)
-            env = os.environ.copy()
+            env = self._serve_env(gpu_env)
-            env["OLLAMA_HOST"] = self._api_base
-            # Linux ships a bundled model store under the project. On Windows,
-            # Ollama is installed system-wide and pulls into its default store,
-            # so don't override OLLAMA_MODELS or a NexusOS-spawned `serve` won't
-            # see the models the installer already pulled.
-            if os.name != "nt":
-                env["OLLAMA_MODELS"] = str(Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent / "models")
-            env.update(gpu_env)
 
             with open(self.log_file, "w") as log:
                 self.process = subprocess.Popen(
@@ -522,7 +535,7 @@ class OllamaManager:
             _log.exception("chat error after %.3fs: %s", elapsed, e)
             return None
 
-    async def embed(self, text: str, model: str = "nomic-embed-text") -> list[float] | None:
+    async def embed(self, text: str, model: str = DEFAULT_EMBED_MODEL) -> list[float] | None:
         """Return an embedding vector for `text` via /api/embeddings.
 
         Returns None on any failure so callers can fall back to lexical search —