say

name	say
description	Speak text aloud via ElevenLabs TTS with expressive audio tags. Use when the user is alone (solo on a call or away from the keyboard) or has asked you to talk back, narrate progress, or read something out loud. Never speak while the user is on a call with other people. Supports v3 inline tags like [laughs] and [whispers], and per-call routing to a specific output device.
argument-hint	text to speak (supports v3 audio tags)
allowed-tools	Bash

Say

Speak a line of text aloud.

~/.dotfiles/ai/skills/say/say.sh "your message here"

Setup

macOS-only — relies on mpv's CoreAudio backend.

Requirements:

• mpv (brew install mpv)
• ELEVENLABS_API_KEY in the environment (the script also sources ~/.zshrc.local if not set)

Optional environment variables:

• CLAUDE_SAY_VOICE_ID — ElevenLabs voice ID. Defaults to Charlie (cjVigY5qzO86Huf0OWal).
• CLAUDE_SAY_MODEL_ID — Model. Defaults to eleven_v3 (supports audio tags).
• CLAUDE_SAY_AUDIO_DEVICE — CoreAudio device display name to route audio through. Defaults to system default. Useful for routing into a virtual device (e.g., Loopback) so the audio enters a specific app's mic input.

Voice character

Sidekick / pair, not narrator. First-person, casual, conversational. Like a partner riding shotgun, not a status announcer.

• "I'm pulling up the form" not "Pulling up the form" or "The agent is fetching X"
• "Heads up, that didn't work" not "An error occurred"
• Use contractions, drop "just/so/I'm going to" filler
• If the user is wrong about something, say so directly — don't soften with "you might consider"

Length and pacing

• One or two sentences per call. Spoken text is slower than read text; don't dump paragraphs.
• Lead with the conclusion. "Tests pass" beats "I finished running the tests and they all passed."
• Don't read code, IDs, or URLs aloud — paraphrase ("the failing test is in user_spec").
• If you're continuing work after speaking, say what's next in five words or fewer.

v3 prompting (the default model)

Eleven v3 reads punctuation and inline tags as delivery direction. The voice you're using must support the requested emotion — a calm voice won't suddenly shout, a hyped voice won't whisper convincingly. Test combinations rather than guessing.

Audio tags

Wrap a tag in square brackets immediately before or after the text it modifies. Use sparingly — one or two tags per utterance, not on every clause.

Voice / emotion:

• [laughs], [laughs harder], [wheezing], [starts laughing]
• [whispers], [sighs], [exhales], [inhales deeply], [clears throat]
• [curious], [excited], [surprised], [skeptical], [sarcastic], [thoughtful], [happy], [sad], [annoyed], [appalled], [mischievously], [crying], [snorts]

Sound effects (use with intent, not for routine narration):

• [applause], [clapping], [gunshot], [explosion], [swallows], [gulps]

Special / experimental (test before relying):

• [strong X accent] (e.g. [strong French accent])
• [sings], [woo]

Punctuation as direction

• ... (ellipses) — adds a pause with weight
• WORD (caps) — emphasis
• ? and ! — natural inflection
• — (em-dash) — short conversational pause

v3 does not support SSML <break> tags. Use ellipses or [pauses] instead.

Examples

Good — expressive, sidekick voice:

[curious] Wait, the build is failing on a file you didn't touch? [thoughtful] That's CI cache poisoning, probably. I'll bust it.

Good — laugh + redirect:

[laughs] Oh, that's actually the same bug from last month... I'll just revert that commit.

Good — emphasis with caps:

The migration ran. All FIVE THOUSAND rows updated cleanly.

Bad — too long, too many tags:

[curious] So I was looking at the test [sighs] and it turns out [thoughtful] that the assertion [excited] is comparing the wrong values [laughs] which is why...

Bad — tag doesn't match voice character (whispering on an upbeat voice):

[whispers] Tests passed.

When NOT to use

• Check participants before speaking. Only speak when the user is solo on a call (or not on a call at all); if anyone else is present (check first, e.g. tuple-dev state), stay in the terminal — speech would interrupt their conversation and can leak into the call audio.
• Long output, lists, tables, code — those belong in the terminal where the user can read and scroll.
• Anything the user might not want audible to others in the room or on a call.
• Routine task-completion noise when the user is at their keyboard and can read it.
• Confirming a question — speech-only confirmations cost mic latency. If you need an answer, ask in chat.