elevenlabs

name

elevenlabs

description

ElevenLabs audio generation — text-to-speech, voice cloning, and sound effects. Use this skill any time the agent needs to: convert text to spoken audio, narrate documents or content, generate voiceovers, clone voices from audio samples, create sound effects, or produce any audio output from text. Supports multiple voices, languages, models, voice cloning, batch processing, and sound effect generation. Requires ELEVENLABS_API_KEY.

ElevenLabs — Text-to-Speech, Voice Cloning & Sound Effects

ElevenLabs-powered audio generation. Convert any text to natural-sounding speech, clone voices, generate sound effects.

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Setup

Required env var: ELEVENLABS_API_KEY

The CLI script at scripts/tts.py uses only Python stdlib (urllib, json, argparse) — no pip dependencies needed.

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Quick Reference

All commands use the CLI script:

python skills/elevenlabs/scripts/tts.py <command> [args]

Speak — Convert text to speech

# Basic — default voice (George), multilingual v2 model
python scripts/tts.py speak "Hello, this is Kortix speaking."

# Named voice
python scripts/tts.py speak "Welcome to the presentation." --voice Rachel

# Custom output file
python scripts/tts.py speak "Chapter one." --voice George -o chapter1.mp3

# From a file (prefix with @)
python scripts/tts.py speak @article.txt -o narration.mp3

# From stdin
echo "Dynamic text" | python scripts/tts.py speak -

# With voice tuning
python scripts/tts.py speak "Dramatic reading." --voice Rachel --stability 0.3 --similarity 0.9 --style 0.7

# High quality output
python scripts/tts.py speak "Studio quality." --format mp3_44100_192

# Different model (faster, English-only)
python scripts/tts.py speak "Quick response." --model eleven_turbo_v2_5

# Speed control
python scripts/tts.py speak "Slowly now." --speed 0.7
python scripts/tts.py speak "Fast paced!" --speed 1.5

Voices — List and search

# List all available voices
python scripts/tts.py voices

# Search by name, gender, accent, or use case
python scripts/tts.py voices --search "female"
python scripts/tts.py voices --search "british"
python scripts/tts.py voices --search "narration"

Models — List available TTS models

python scripts/tts.py models

Clone — Create a custom voice from audio samples

# Clone from audio files (1-25 samples, each 1-10 minutes)
python scripts/tts.py clone "ClientVoice" sample1.mp3 sample2.mp3

# With description
python scripts/tts.py clone "CEO" ceo_speech.mp3 --description "Confident male voice, American accent"

# Use the cloned voice
python scripts/tts.py speak "Hello from my cloned voice." --voice-id <returned_voice_id>

Batch — Convert entire documents

# Convert a text file to a single audio file
python scripts/tts.py batch article.txt -o article_audio/

# Split by paragraphs — one audio file per paragraph
python scripts/tts.py batch book_chapter.txt --split-paragraphs -o chapter_audio/

# With specific voice
python scripts/tts.py batch script.txt --voice Rachel --split-paragraphs

Sound Effects — Generate from text prompts

# Generate a sound effect
python scripts/tts.py sound "ocean waves crashing on a beach"

# With specific output and duration
python scripts/tts.py sound "thunderstorm with heavy rain" -o thunder.mp3 --duration 10.0

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Voice Settings Guide

Fine-tune voice output with these parameters:

Parameter	Range	Default	Effect
--stability	0.0 - 1.0	0.5	Higher = more consistent, lower = more expressive/varied
--similarity	0.0 - 1.0	0.75	Higher = closer to original voice, lower = more creative
--style	0.0 - 1.0	0.0	Higher = more expressive style, can reduce stability
--speed	0.5 - 2.0	1.0	Playback speed multiplier

Recommended presets:

• Narration/Audiobook: --stability 0.5 --similarity 0.75 (balanced, natural)
• News/Formal: --stability 0.8 --similarity 0.8 (consistent, clear)
• Character/Dramatic: --stability 0.3 --similarity 0.8 --style 0.7 (expressive, varied)
• Conversational: --stability 0.4 --similarity 0.6 (natural variation)

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Output Formats

Format	Quality	Size	Use Case
mp3_44100_128	High (default)	Medium	General purpose, good quality
mp3_44100_192	Very high	Large	Studio quality, archival
mp3_22050_32	Low	Small	Voice messages, previews
pcm_44100	Lossless	Very large	Post-processing, editing
pcm_16000	Lossless low	Large	Speech recognition input
opus_48000_128	High	Small	Web streaming, efficient

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Models

Model	Speed	Quality	Languages	Best For
eleven_multilingual_v2	Normal	Highest	29 languages	Default — best quality, multilingual
eleven_turbo_v2_5	Fast	High	32 languages	Low-latency, near-instant generation
eleven_monolingual_v1	Normal	Good	English only	Legacy English-only workloads

Always use eleven_multilingual_v2 unless speed is critical (then use eleven_turbo_v2_5).

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Common Workflows

Narrate a document

# Read the document, generate speech
python scripts/tts.py speak @workspace/report.md --voice Rachel -o report_narration.mp3

Create a podcast intro

python scripts/tts.py speak "Welcome to the Kortix Weekly. I'm your host, and today we're diving into autonomous AI agents." \
  --voice George --stability 0.4 --similarity 0.8 --style 0.5 \
  -o podcast_intro.mp3

Narrate a presentation (per-slide)

For each slide, generate a separate audio file:

python scripts/tts.py speak "Slide 1: Introduction to our company" --voice Rachel -o slides/01.mp3
python scripts/tts.py speak "Slide 2: Our key metrics this quarter" --voice Rachel -o slides/02.mp3

Or write all narration to a text file (one paragraph per slide) and batch it:

python scripts/tts.py batch slide_notes.txt --split-paragraphs --voice Rachel -o slide_audio/

Voice clone for personalization

# Clone the user's voice from samples they provide
python scripts/tts.py clone "UserVoice" sample1.mp3 sample2.mp3 sample3.mp3 \
  --description "The user's natural speaking voice"

# Use it for all future TTS
python scripts/tts.py speak "Personalized message." --voice-id <voice_id> -o message.mp3

Generate ambient audio

python scripts/tts.py sound "coffee shop ambiance with gentle chatter" -o ambient.mp3 --duration 15
python scripts/tts.py sound "gentle rain on a window" -o rain.mp3 --duration 30

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Integration Notes

• No pip dependencies. The script uses only Python stdlib (urllib.request, json, argparse). Works on any Python 3.10+ installation.
• Output files are saved relative to the current working directory. Use -o to specify exact paths.
• Long text is handled automatically by the API. For very long documents (>5000 chars), consider using batch with --split-paragraphs for better quality and to avoid timeouts.
• Rate limits apply per your ElevenLabs plan. The script will return API errors if limits are hit.
• Character usage counts against your ElevenLabs monthly quota. Check your plan's limits.

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Env Vars

Variable	Required	Description
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY	Yes	Your ElevenLabs API key (also accepts ELEVEN_API_KEY)

Add to core/docker/.env (or the active OpenCode config dir .env during local materialization):

ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=your_key_here