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+# Audio Similarity Scanning — Design
+
+**Goal:** Scan a video's audio track and highlight segments that match the sound profile of existing reference clips, so the user can quickly find similar moments without scrubbing manually.
+
+**Runs in:** Python/Qt client (`main.py`), not the server.
+
+---
+
+## Core Module: `core/audio_scan.py`
+
+New module alongside `core/tracking.py`. Two main functions:
+
+- `build_profile(clip_paths: list[str]) -> dict` — extracts MFCCs (20 coefficients) from each clip using `librosa`, returns a profile containing both the averaged vector and individual clip vectors.
+- `scan_video(video_path: str, profile: dict, mode: str, threshold: float, hop: float) -> list[tuple[float, float, float]]` — slides an 8s window across the video's audio, returns `(start_time, end_time, score)` tuples for segments above threshold.
+
+### Feature Extraction
+
+- Audio loaded via `librosa.load()` (handles video files directly, mono, 22050Hz).
+- MFCCs: `librosa.feature.mfcc(n_mfcc=20)`, averaged over time axis to produce a single vector per window/clip.
+- Similarity: cosine similarity (`numpy` dot product on L2-normalized vectors).
+
+### Matching Modes
+
+- **Average mode:** Compare each window to the mean of all reference MFCC vectors. Fast, good when references are homogeneous.
+- **Nearest mode:** Compare each window to every reference vector, take the max score. Better when references have variety within the style.
+
+### Parameters
+
+- `threshold` (float, 0.0–1.0): minimum cosine similarity to include a segment. Default 0.7.
+- `hop` (float, seconds): step size for the sliding window. Default 1.0s.
+- Window size fixed at 8s to match reference clip length.
+
+---
+
+## UI Integration in `main.py`
+
+### Controls
+
+Added near the existing tracking checkbox area:
+
+- **"Scan" button** — triggers audio scan on current video.
+- **Threshold slider** (0.0–1.0, step 0.05) — controls match strictness.
+- **Mode combobox** — "Average" / "Nearest".
+- **Reference source combobox** — "Current Profile" / "Custom Folder" (shows folder picker when "Custom Folder" selected).
+
+### Scan Workflow
+
+1. User clicks Scan.
+2. Reference clips collected: either all export `output_path` values from the current profile (via DB) or all audio/video files in a custom folder.
+3. Scan runs in a `QThread` so UI stays responsive.
+4. On completion, results sent to Timeline widget via signal.
+
+### Timeline Display
+
+- New `set_scan_regions(regions: list[tuple[float, float, float]])` method on Timeline.
+- Drawn as semi-transparent colored rectangles behind existing markers.
+- Color intensity proportional to score (brighter = higher match).
+- Cleared on file change or re-scan.
+
+### Keyboard Shortcut
+
+- `S` — jump cursor to the next scan region (similar to `M` for next marker).
+
+---
+
+## Data Flow
+
+```
+Reference clips (DB export paths or folder)
+    |
+librosa.load() each -> MFCC vectors (20-dim)
+    |
+Profile: { mean_vector, clip_vectors[] }
+    |
+Current video -> librosa.load() full audio (mono 22050Hz)
+    |
+Sliding 8s window (hop=1s) -> MFCC per window
+    |
+Cosine similarity vs profile -> score per position
+    |
+Threshold filter -> [(start, end, score), ...]
+    |
+Timeline: semi-transparent highlight regions
+```
+
+## Performance
+
+- 2-hour video at 22050Hz mono ~ 380MB memory.
+- MFCC extraction + sliding window: ~10-30s.
+- QThread keeps UI responsive.
+
+## What This Does NOT Do
+
+- No DB schema changes — scan results are ephemeral (visual only).
+- No auto-export — user decides what to cut.
+- No server integration — runs entirely in the Python client.
+- No GPU/ML model dependency — just librosa + numpy.