elevenlabs-sound-effects

name	elevenlabs-sound-effects
description	Generate sound effects from description. Use for: SFX, game audio, video soundscape
allowed-tools	Bash(curl *)
disable-model-invocation	true

Generate sound effects audio from a text description using ElevenLabs sound-generation API.

Ask the user for:

• TEXT: text description of the sound effect (e.g. "thunderstorm with heavy rain", "cat meowing")
• DURATION (optional): duration in seconds (1.0-22.0) — default: 5.0
• PROMPT_INFLUENCE (optional): how much the prompt influences the audio (0.0-1.0) — default: 0.3
• OUTPUT_FILE (optional): where to save the MP3 — default: ~/Downloads/sfx_[timestamp].mp3

Then run the following steps:

Step 1 — Check API key:

(bash) if [ -z "$ELEVENLABS_API_KEY" ]; then echo "ERROR: ELEVENLABS_API_KEY not set." echo "Run /pocket-knife:setup to configure your API keys." exit 1 fi

TEXT="[USER_DESCRIPTION_HERE]" DURATION="${DURATION:-5.0}" PROMPT_INFLUENCE="${PROMPT_INFLUENCE:-0.3}" OUTPUT_FILE="${OUTPUT_FILE:-$HOME/Downloads/sfx_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).mp3}" (end bash)

Step 2 — Generate sound effect:

(bash)

Source: https://elevenlabs.io/docs/api-reference/text-to-sound-effects/convert

Use -f (NOT --fail-with-body) for binary output — error body would corrupt the MP3 file

duration_seconds: 1.0-22.0; prompt_influence: 0.0-1.0 (higher = closer to prompt)

curl -f -s
-X POST "https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/sound-generation"
-H "xi-api-key: $ELEVENLABS_API_KEY"
-H "Content-Type: application/json"
-d "{"text": "${TEXT}", "duration_seconds": ${DURATION}, "prompt_influence": ${PROMPT_INFLUENCE}}"
--output "$OUTPUT_FILE"

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "ERROR: ElevenLabs Sound Effects API call failed." echo "Check that ELEVENLABS_API_KEY is correct in ~/.claude/.env" echo "Run /pocket-knife:setup to reconfigure." exit 1 fi

Verify the output file has content (empty = API error without proper exit code)

if [ ! -s "$OUTPUT_FILE" ]; then echo "ERROR: Audio file is empty. Possible causes:" echo " - Text description too vague or too short" echo " - duration_seconds out of range (must be 1.0-22.0)" echo " - API returned error without proper HTTP status code" rm -f "$OUTPUT_FILE" exit 1 fi

echo "Sound effect generated successfully: $OUTPUT_FILE" echo "Duration: ${DURATION}s | Prompt influence: ${PROMPT_INFLUENCE}" (end bash)

Report to the user:

• The path where the audio file was saved
• The text description and parameters used
• If any error: missing key run /pocket-knife:setup; empty file check text/duration range