pocket-tts
Speak text aloud using local TTS. Use when the user wants to hear something read out loud, spoken, voiced, narrated, or audibly rendered. Triggers on: "read this aloud", "say this", "speak", "out loud", "tell me [verbally]", "narrate", "voice this", "hear this", "read to me", "TTS", or any request to audibly render text.
Source facts
- Repository
- cailmdaley/skills
- Last source activity
- February 12, 2026 at 07:58
- Detected SKILL.md language
- English
- Stars
- 5
- Forks
- 2
Install options
The review-first prompt is selected by default. You can switch to a direct command or download a local copy.
Review the source files
Read SKILL.md and any companion files shown by SkillsMP before deciding whether to install.
Showing SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Source instructions · Read-only preview- name
- pocket-tts
- description
- Speak text aloud using local TTS. Use when the user wants to hear something read out loud, spoken, voiced, narrated, or audibly rendered. Triggers on: "read this aloud", "say this", "speak", "out loud", "tell me [verbally]", "narrate", "voice this", "hear this", "read to me", "TTS", or any request to audibly render text.
# Pocket TTS
Local text-to-speech via pocket-tts server. Streams audio for low latency. **macOS only** (uses `afplay` as fallback).
**Prerequisites**: `pip install pocket-tts` and `brew install ffmpeg`
## Quick Reference
```bash
# Ensure server is running (do this first)
curl -s http://localhost:8321/health > /dev/null 2>&1 || {
pocket-tts serve --voice ~/.config/pocket-tts/default-voice.wav --port 8321 > /dev/null 2>&1 &
sleep 4
}
# Speak with streaming playback (audio starts immediately)
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8321/tts -F "text=Hello world" -o - | ffplay -nodisp -autoexit -loglevel quiet -
# Or with temp file (if ffplay unavailable)
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8321/tts -F "text=Hello world" -o /tmp/speak.wav && afplay /tmp/speak.wav && rm /tmp/speak.wav
```
## Architecture
Always use the server — it keeps the model and voice embedding warm in memory.
- **Port:** 8321
- **Default voice:** `~/.config/pocket-tts/default-voice.wav` (loaded once at server start)
- **Streaming:** `/tts` returns chunked WAV. Pipe to `ffplay` for immediate playback during generation.
## Changing Voices
Per-request (server keeps default warm, but can generate with others):
```bash
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8321/tts -F "text=Hello" -F "voice_url=jean" -o - | ffplay -nodisp -autoexit -loglevel quiet -
```
**Built-in voices:** alba, marius, javert, jean, fantine, cosette, eponine, azelma
**Custom:** Any http://, https://, or hf:// URL
To change the default, restart server with different `--voice`.
## Creating Custom Voices
```bash
# Extract 30s clip from source (pocket-tts truncates to 30s anyway)
ffmpeg -y -ss START_SECONDS -t 30 -i input.mp3 -ar 24000 -ac 1 ~/.config/pocket-tts/default-voice.wav
```
## Troubleshooting
**Server not responding:** Check if process died, restart with serve command
**Slow first response:** Server needs ~4s to load model on first start
**No audio:** Ensure ffplay (from ffmpeg) or afplay (macOS built-in) is available
View on GitHub