Add dr-inference-engine and route every model session through it

One crate names the runtime, the providers and the devices; dr-face and
dr-segment ask it for a session by role. It hands ort an API table once
per process — from a libonnxruntime it dlopens when the app names a
directory holding one, otherwise from tract — so the Rust build stays
free of C on every target and a package can install the runtime as a
file (docs/inference.md §3).

Sessions live in a registry behind a Model handle that holds the bytes,
not the session: every use refreshes a timestamp and a reaper unloads
whatever sat idle past the decay. A scan that runs the detector on each
image never lets it go idle; a click in the develop view lets the
segmenter go after thirty seconds; a handle used after that reloads,
and reloads on a higher rung if a compiled engine has landed meanwhile.

The probe walks the platform's ladder by building strict sessions and
timing them against the CPU provider, caches the choice against a
fingerprint of the runtime, driver, hardware and models, and compiles
engines for the selected rung in the background, smallest model first.
Nothing in this commit turns the native path on: the apps still run on
tract until they call init with a runtime directory.

core/dr-face/Cargo.toml

@@ -9,10 +9,11 @@ license.workspace = true
 thiserror.workspace = true
 log.workspace = true
 
-# Inference. `ort` is the API; **tract is the engine** — see the workspace
-# manifest, and docs/faces.md §3, for why the C++ ONNX Runtime is not linked.
+# Inference. `ort` is the API; **what runs it is `dr-inference-engine`'s
+# business** — tract, or an ONNX Runtime the app found on disk, on whichever
+# provider the device has (docs/inference.md). This crate never names either.
 ort = { workspace = true, optional = true }
-ort-tract = { workspace = true, optional = true }
+dr-inference-engine = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 ndarray = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ zune-jpeg.workspace = true
 env_logger.workspace = true
 # The M1 probe drives `ort` directly so it can print the raw load error.
 ort = { workspace = true }
-ort-tract = { workspace = true }
+dr-inference-engine = { workspace = true }
 
 [[example]]
 name = "probe"
@@ -48,4 +49,4 @@ default = []
 # must be testable against synthetic embeddings on a machine with no weights on
 # it — a test suite that needs a research-licensed download is a test suite
 # that does not run in CI.
-inference = ["dep:ort", "dep:ort-tract", "dep:ndarray"]
+inference = ["dep:ort", "dep:dr-inference-engine", "dep:ndarray"]

core/dr-face/src/detect.rs

@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@
 
 use ndarray::Array4;
 
-use crate::{install_backend, FaceError};
+use crate::FaceError;
+use dr_inference_engine::{Form, Model, Role};
 
 /// The graph's input edge, in pixels. See the module note: not configurable.
 pub const INPUT_EDGE: usize = 640;
@@ -135,7 +136,10 @@ impl Detection {
 
 /// A loaded SCRFD graph.
 pub struct Detector {
-    session: ort::session::Session,
+    session: Model,
+    /// f32 or int8 — the int8 form finds a different set of faces and is a
+    /// different detector in `model_id` (docs/inference.md §7).
+    form: Form,
     /// Feature-map count: 3 for strides {8,16,32}, 4 for {8,16,32,64}.
     ///
     /// Discovered from the output count rather than assumed, because both
@@ -145,18 +149,29 @@ pub struct Detector {
 }
 
 impl Detector {
-    pub fn from_path(path: impl AsRef<std::path::Path>) -> Result<Self, FaceError> {
-        let bytes = std::fs::read(path).map_err(FaceError::ModelRead)?;
-        Self::from_bytes(&bytes)
+    /// Which form this detector was loaded from.
+    pub fn form(&self) -> Form {
+        self.form
     }
 
-    pub fn from_bytes(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<Self, FaceError> {
-        install_backend();
+    /// Load the canonical f32 file at `path`, or the form the device's
+    /// backend wants instead — the `.int8.onnx` beside it on a Hexagon —
+    /// which [`Detector::form`] then reports.
+    pub fn from_path(path: impl AsRef<std::path::Path>) -> Result<Self, FaceError> {
+        let (path, form) = dr_inference_engine::resolve_model(Role::Detector, path.as_ref());
+        let bytes = std::fs::read(path).map_err(FaceError::ModelRead)?;
+        Self::from_bytes_in(&bytes, form)
+    }
 
-        let session = ort::session::Session::builder()
-            .map_err(FaceError::Inference)?
-            .commit_from_memory(bytes)
-            .map_err(FaceError::Inference)?;
+    /// An f32 graph from memory.
+    pub fn from_bytes(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<Self, FaceError> {
+        Self::from_bytes_in(bytes, Form::F32)
+    }
+
+    fn from_bytes_in(bytes: &[u8], form: Form) -> Result<Self, FaceError> {
+        let model = dr_inference_engine::open(Role::Detector, form, bytes)?;
+        let acquired = model.acquire()?;
+        let session = acquired.lock();
 
         let n_out = session.outputs().len();
         if n_out % 3 != 0 || !(9..=12).contains(&n_out) {
@@ -191,7 +206,13 @@ impl Detector {
             }
         }
 
-        Ok(Self { session, fmc })
+        drop(session);
+        drop(acquired);
+        Ok(Self {
+            session: model,
+            form,
+            fmc,
+        })
     }
 
     /// Stride levels this graph emits.
@@ -223,8 +244,9 @@ impl Detector {
         let lb = Letterbox::fit(width as f32, height as f32);
         let input = lb.sample(rgb, width, height);
 
-        let outputs = self
-            .session
+        let acquired = self.session.acquire()?;
+        let mut session = acquired.lock();
+        let outputs = session
             .run(ort::inputs![
                 ort::value::Tensor::from_array(input).map_err(FaceError::Inference)?
             ])

core/dr-face/src/embed.rs

@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ use ndarray::Array4;
 
 use crate::align::{Aligned112, ALIGNED_EDGE};
 use crate::embedding::{normalise, Embedding, ModelId, EMBEDDING_DIM};
-use crate::{install_backend, FaceError};
+use crate::FaceError;
+use dr_inference_engine::{Form, Model, Role};
 
 /// What one pass of the embedder produces: the direction, and the length.
 ///
@@ -53,7 +54,7 @@ impl Embedded {
 
 /// A loaded ArcFace graph.
 pub struct Embedder {
-    session: ort::session::Session,
+    session: Model,
     model: ModelId,
 }
 
@@ -64,12 +65,11 @@ impl Embedder {
     }
 
     pub fn from_bytes(bytes: &[u8], model: ModelId) -> Result<Self, FaceError> {
-        install_backend();
-
-        let session = ort::session::Session::builder()
-            .map_err(FaceError::Inference)?
-            .commit_from_memory(bytes)
-            .map_err(FaceError::Inference)?;
+        // Always the f32 form: an embedding must compare across devices
+        // (docs/inference.md §7), and the engine pins this role to it.
+        let loaded = dr_inference_engine::open(Role::Embedder, Form::F32, bytes)?;
+        let acquired = loaded.acquire()?;
+        let session = acquired.lock();
 
         // One output, `[1, 512]`. Checked because an ArcFace variant with a
         // different embedding width would otherwise be read as a truncated
@@ -90,7 +90,12 @@ impl Embedder {
             });
         }
 
-        Ok(Self { session, model })
+        drop(session);
+        drop(acquired);
+        Ok(Self {
+            session: loaded,
+            model,
+        })
     }
 
     pub fn model(&self) -> &ModelId {
@@ -111,8 +116,9 @@ impl Embedder {
             }
         }
 
-        let outputs = self
-            .session
+        let acquired = self.session.acquire()?;
+        let mut session = acquired.lock();
+        let outputs = session
             .run(ort::inputs![
                 ort::value::Tensor::from_array(input).map_err(FaceError::Inference)?
             ])

core/dr-face/src/lib.rs

@@ -124,25 +124,21 @@ pub enum FaceError {
     ImageShape { expected: usize, got: usize },
 }
 
-/// Install tract as `ort`'s backend.
-///
-/// Idempotent, and it must happen before any other `ort` call: with
-/// `alternative-backend` there is no linked runtime to fall back on, so an
-/// un-set API is a panic rather than a slow path. Same helper as
-/// `dr-segment::semantic`, for the same reason.
 #[cfg(feature = "inference")]
-pub(crate) fn install_backend() {
-    use std::sync::Once;
-    static ONCE: Once = Once::new();
-    ONCE.call_once(|| {
-        let _ = ort::set_api(ort_tract::api());
-    });
+impl From<dr_inference_engine::Error> for FaceError {
+    fn from(e: dr_inference_engine::Error) -> Self {
+        match e {
+            dr_inference_engine::Error::Inference(e) => FaceError::Inference(e),
+            dr_inference_engine::Error::Io(e) => FaceError::ModelRead(e),
+        }
+    }
 }
 
-/// [`install_backend`] for the M1 probe example, which drives `ort` directly
-/// rather than through [`detect::Detector`] so it can report the raw error.
+/// Make sure `ort` has a backend, for the M1 probe example, which drives
+/// `ort` directly rather than through [`detect::Detector`] so it can report
+/// the raw error. Every other path goes through `dr-inference-engine`.
 #[cfg(feature = "inference")]
 #[doc(hidden)]
 pub fn install_backend_for_probe() {
-    install_backend();
+    dr_inference_engine::ensure_runtime();
 }