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README.md

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+# headroom
+
+AGC + compressor + true-peak limiter daemon for PipeWire, in Rust.
+
+Headroom puts a per-application audio safety net between noisy sources
+(browsers, voice chat, random video) and your speakers, while leaving
+the things you *don't* want compressed (music players, games, DAWs)
+untouched.
+
+- **Hard −0.1 dBTP ceiling** with proper inter-sample-peak handling.
+- **Per-app exclusion** with profile-driven rules.
+- **Single binary** daemon + CLI, controlled over a Unix-domain socket
+  with a documented JSON wire protocol (see [`IPC.md`](IPC.md)).
+- **First-party Rust crate** (`headroom-client`) for programmatic use;
+  third-party clients (Qt panels, status bars, …) target the wire
+  protocol directly.
+
+See [`PLAN.md`](PLAN.md) for the full design and roadmap.
+
+## Status
+
+Pre-alpha. Wire protocol and crate scaffolding are in; daemon and
+filter are under construction.
+
+## Building
+
+```sh
+nix develop          # toolchain + pipewire dev libs + helpers
+cargo build          # iterate
+nix build            # final packaged headroom binary
+```
+
+## License
+
+GPL-3.0-or-later for the daemon and CLI. `headroom-dsp` and `headroom-ipc`
+are MPL-2.0 so they can be reused by non-GPL plugin hosts and clients.