speak - Talk to your Claude!

Give your agent the ability to speak to you real-time. Local text-to-speech, voice cloning, and audio generation on Apple Silicon. Give your agent the ability to speak to you real-time. Local TTS with voice cloning on Apple Silicon.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Check	Install
Apple Silicon Mac	`uname -m` → arm64	Intel not supported
macOS 12.0+	`sw_vers`	-
sox	`which sox`	`brew install sox`
ffmpeg	`which ffmpeg`	`brew install ffmpeg`
poppler (PDF)	`which pdftotext`	`brew install poppler`

Input Sources

Source	Example
Text file	`speak article.txt`
Markdown	`speak doc.md`
Direct string	`speak "Hello"`
Clipboard	`pbpaste \| speak`
Stdin	`cat file.txt \| speak`

Web Articles

bash

lynx -dump -nolist "https://example.com/article" | speak --output article.wav

Converting Formats

Format	Convert Command
PDF	`pdftotext doc.pdf doc.txt`
DOCX	`textutil -convert txt doc.docx`
HTML	`pandoc -f html -t plain doc.html > doc.txt`

Output Modes

Goal	Command
Save for later	`speak text.txt --output file.wav`
Listen now (streaming)	`speak text.txt --stream`
Listen now (complete)	`speak text.txt --play`
Both	`speak text.txt --stream --output file.wav`

Default Behavior

bash

speak article.txt          # → ~/Audio/speak/article.wav (no playback)
speak "Hello"              # → ~/Audio/speak/speak_<timestamp>.wav

Directory Auto-Creation

Directory	Auto-Created?
`~/Audio/speak/`	✓ Yes
`~/.chatter/voices/`	✗ No
Custom directories	✗ No

Always create custom directories first:

bash

mkdir -p ~/.chatter/voices/
mkdir -p ~/Audio/custom/

Voice Cloning

Voice cloning generates speech that matches your vocal characteristics (pitch, tone, cadence) from a short recording.

Quality Expectations

•Output captures general voice characteristics but is not a perfect replica
•Quality depends heavily on sample quality
•15-25 seconds is optimal (10s minimum, 30s maximum)

Recording Your Voice

Using QuickTime:

•Open QuickTime Player → File → New Audio Recording
•Record 20 seconds of clear speech
•File → Export As → Audio Only (.m4a)
•Convert to WAV (see below)

Using sox (command line):

bash

# -d = use default microphone
# Recording starts immediately and stops after 25 seconds
sox -d -r 24000 -c 1 ~/.chatter/voices/my_voice.wav trim 0 25

Converting to Required Format

Voice samples MUST be: WAV, 24000 Hz, mono, 10-30 seconds.

bash

# From MP3
ffmpeg -i voice.mp3 -ar 24000 -ac 1 voice.wav

# From M4A (QuickTime)
ffmpeg -i voice.m4a -ar 24000 -ac 1 voice.wav

# Trim to 25 seconds
ffmpeg -i long.wav -t 25 -ar 24000 -ac 1 trimmed.wav

# Check sample properties
ffprobe -i voice.wav 2>&1 | grep -E "Duration|Stream"
# Should show: Duration ~15-25s, 24000 Hz, mono

Using Your Voice

bash

# Create directory
mkdir -p ~/.chatter/voices/

# Move sample
mv voice.wav ~/.chatter/voices/my_voice.wav

# Test
speak "Testing my voice" --voice ~/.chatter/voices/my_voice.wav --stream

# Use for content
speak notes.txt --voice ~/.chatter/voices/my_voice.wav --output presentation.wav

Path requirements:

•✓ Works: ~/.chatter/voices/my_voice.wav (tilde expanded by shell)
•✓ Works: /Users/name/.chatter/voices/my_voice.wav
•✗ Fails: my_voice.wav (relative path)
•✗ Fails: ./voices/my_voice.wav (relative path)

Voice Sample Tips

Good Sample	Bad Sample
Quiet room	Background noise
Natural pace	Rushed or monotone
Clear diction	Mumbling
Varied content	Repetitive phrases

Default Voice

When --voice is omitted, a built-in default voice is used:

bash

speak "Hello world" --stream  # Uses default voice

Emotion Tags

Tags produce audible effects (actual sounds), not spoken words:

bash

speak "[sigh] Monday again." --stream
# Output: (sigh sound) "Monday again."

Tag	Effect
`[laugh]`	Laughter
`[chuckle]`	Light chuckle
`[sigh]`	Sighing
`[gasp]`	Gasping
`[groan]`	Groaning
`[clear throat]`	Throat clearing
`[cough]`	Coughing
`[crying]`	Crying
`[singing]`	Sung speech

NOT supported: [pause], [whisper] (ignored)

For pauses: Use punctuation: "Wait... let me think."

Batch Processing

bash

mkdir -p ~/Audio/book/
speak ch01.txt ch02.txt ch03.txt --output-dir ~/Audio/book/
# Creates: ch01.wav, ch02.wav, ch03.wav

# With auto-chunking (for long files)
speak chapters/*.txt --output-dir ~/Audio/book/ --auto-chunk

# Skip completed files
speak chapters/*.txt --output-dir ~/Audio/book/ --skip-existing

Auto-Chunk Behavior

When using --auto-chunk with batch processing:

•Each input file is chunked independently
•Chunks are generated and automatically concatenated per file
•Final output: one .wav per input file (e.g., ch01.wav)
•Intermediate chunks deleted (unless --keep-chunks)

You don't need to manually concatenate chunks — only concatenate final chapter files.

Concatenating Audio

bash

# Explicit order (recommended)
speak concat ch01.wav ch02.wav ch03.wav --output book.wav

# Glob pattern (REQUIRES zero-padded filenames)
speak concat audiobook/*.wav --output book.wav

Zero-Padding Rules

Critical for correct concatenation order:

Files	Correct	Wrong
1-9	`01`, `02`, ..., `09`	`1`, `2`, ..., `9`
10-99	`01`, `02`, ..., `99`	`1`, `10`, `2`, ...
100+	`001`, `002`, ..., `999`	`1`, `100`, `2`, ...

Why: Shell glob expansion sorts alphabetically. 1, 10, 2 vs 01, 02, 10.

PDF to Audiobook (Complete Workflow)

Step 1: Find Chapter Boundaries

bash

# Preview table of contents
pdftotext -f 1 -l 5 textbook.pdf toc.txt
cat toc.txt  # Note chapter page numbers

# Or search for "Chapter" markers
pdftotext textbook.pdf - | grep -n "Chapter"

Step 2: Extract Chapters (Zero-Padded!)

bash

# For 100-page book with ~10 chapters
pdftotext -f 1 -l 12 -layout textbook.pdf ch01.txt
pdftotext -f 13 -l 25 -layout textbook.pdf ch02.txt
pdftotext -f 26 -l 38 -layout textbook.pdf ch03.txt
# ... continue for all chapters

Step 3: Estimate Time

bash

speak --estimate ch*.txt
# Shows: total audio duration, generation time, storage needed

# Quick estimates:
# 1 page ≈ 2 min audio ≈ 1 min generation
# 100 pages ≈ 200 min audio ≈ 100 min generation ≈ 500 MB

Step 4: Generate Audio

bash

mkdir -p audiobook/
speak ch01.txt ch02.txt ch03.txt --output-dir audiobook/ --auto-chunk
# Creates: audiobook/ch01.wav, audiobook/ch02.wav, audiobook/ch03.wav

Step 5: Concatenate

bash

speak concat audiobook/ch01.wav audiobook/ch02.wav audiobook/ch03.wav --output complete_audiobook.wav
# Or with glob (only if zero-padded):
speak concat audiobook/ch*.wav --output complete_audiobook.wav

PDF Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Empty/garbled text	Scanned PDF — use OCR: `brew install tesseract`
Wrong encoding	Try: `pdftotext -enc UTF-8 doc.pdf`
Check word count	`pdftotext doc.pdf - \| wc -w` (should be >100)

Multi-Voice Content

bash

mkdir -p podcast/scripts podcast/wav

echo "Welcome to the show." > podcast/scripts/01_host.txt
echo "Thanks for having me." > podcast/scripts/02_guest.txt

speak podcast/scripts/01_host.txt --voice ~/.chatter/voices/host.wav --output podcast/wav/01.wav
speak podcast/scripts/02_guest.txt --voice ~/.chatter/voices/guest.wav --output podcast/wav/02.wav

speak concat podcast/wav/01.wav podcast/wav/02.wav --output podcast.wav

Options Reference

Option	Description	Default
`--stream`	Stream as it generates	false
`--play`	Play after complete	false
`--output <path>`	Output file	~/Audio/speak/
`--output-dir <dir>`	Batch output directory	-
`--voice <path>`	Voice sample (full path)	default
`--timeout <sec>`	Timeout per file	300
`--auto-chunk`	Split long documents	false
`--chunk-size <n>`	Chars per chunk	6000
`--resume <file>`	Resume from manifest	-
`--keep-chunks`	Keep intermediate files	false
`--skip-existing`	Skip if output exists	false
`--estimate`	Show duration estimate	false
`--dry-run`	Preview only	false
`--quiet`	Suppress output	false

Commands

Command	Description
`speak setup`	Set up environment
`speak health`	Check system status
`speak models`	List TTS models
`speak concat`	Concatenate audio
`speak daemon kill`	Stop TTS server
`speak config`	Show configuration

Performance

Metric	Value
Cold start	~4-8s
Warm start	~3-8s
Speed	0.3-0.5x RTF (faster than real-time)
Storage	~2.5 MB/min, ~150 MB/hour

Resume Capability

For interrupted long generations:

bash

# Single file with auto-chunk — use --resume
speak long.txt --auto-chunk --output book.wav
# If interrupted, manifest saved at ~/Audio/speak/manifest.json
speak --resume ~/Audio/speak/manifest.json

# Batch processing — use --skip-existing
speak ch*.txt --output-dir audiobook/ --auto-chunk
# If interrupted, re-run same command:
speak ch*.txt --output-dir audiobook/ --auto-chunk --skip-existing

Common Errors

Error	Cause	Solution
"Voice file not found"	Relative path	Use full path: `~/.chatter/voices/x.wav`
"Invalid WAV format"	Wrong specs	Convert: `ffmpeg -i in.wav -ar 24000 -ac 1 out.wav`
"Voice sample too short"	<10 seconds	Record 15-25 seconds
"Output directory doesn't exist"	Not created	`mkdir -p dirname/`
"sox not found"	Not installed	`brew install sox`
Scrambled concat order	Non-zero-padded	Use `01`, `02`, not `1`, `2`
Timeout	>5 min generation	Use `--auto-chunk` or `--timeout 600`
"Server not running"	Stale daemon	`speak daemon kill && speak health`

Setup

bash

speak "test"     # Auto-setup on first run (downloads model ~500MB)
speak setup      # Or manual setup
speak health     # Verify everything works

Server Management

Server auto-starts and shuts down after 1 hour idle.

bash

speak health        # Check status
speak daemon kill   # Stop manually