voice-reply

name	voice-reply
version	1.0.0
description	Local text-to-speech using Piper voices via sherpa-onnx. 100% offline, no API keys required. Use when user asks for a voice reply, audio response, spoken answer, or wants to hear something read aloud. Supports multiple languages including German (thorsten) and English (ryan) voices. Outputs Telegram-compatible voice notes with [[audio_as_voice]] tag.
metadata	{"openclaw":{"emoji":"🎤","os":["linux"],"requires":{"bins":["ffmpeg"],"env":["SHERPA_ONNX_DIR","PIPER_VOICES_DIR"]}}}

Voice Reply

Generate voice audio replies using local Piper TTS via sherpa-onnx. Completely offline, no cloud APIs needed.

Features

• 100% Local - No internet connection required after setup
• No API Keys - Free to use, no accounts needed
• Multi-language - German and English voices included
• Telegram Ready - Outputs voice notes that display as bubbles
• Auto-detect Language - Automatically selects voice based on text

Prerequisites

1. sherpa-onnx runtime installed
2. Piper voice models downloaded
3. ffmpeg for audio conversion

Installation

Quick Install

cd scripts
sudo ./install.sh

Manual Installation

1. Install sherpa-onnx

sudo mkdir -p /opt/sherpa-onnx
cd /opt/sherpa-onnx
curl -L -o sherpa.tar.bz2 "https://github.com/k2-fsa/sherpa-onnx/releases/download/v1.12.23/sherpa-onnx-v1.12.23-linux-x64-shared.tar.bz2"
sudo tar -xjf sherpa.tar.bz2 --strip-components=1
rm sherpa.tar.bz2

2. Download Voice Models

sudo mkdir -p /opt/piper-voices
cd /opt/piper-voices

# German - thorsten (medium quality, natural male voice)
curl -L -o thorsten.tar.bz2 "https://github.com/k2-fsa/sherpa-onnx/releases/download/tts-models/vits-piper-de_DE-thorsten-medium.tar.bz2"
sudo tar -xjf thorsten.tar.bz2 && rm thorsten.tar.bz2

# English - ryan (high quality, clear US male voice)
curl -L -o ryan.tar.bz2 "https://github.com/k2-fsa/sherpa-onnx/releases/download/tts-models/vits-piper-en_US-ryan-high.tar.bz2"
sudo tar -xjf ryan.tar.bz2 && rm ryan.tar.bz2

3. Install ffmpeg

sudo apt install -y ffmpeg

4. Set Environment Variables

Add to your OpenClaw service or shell:

export SHERPA_ONNX_DIR="/opt/sherpa-onnx"
export PIPER_VOICES_DIR="/opt/piper-voices"

Usage

{baseDir}/bin/voice-reply "Text to speak" [language]

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
text	The text to convert to speech	(required)
language	de for German, en for English	auto-detect

Examples

# German (explicit)
{baseDir}/bin/voice-reply "Hallo, ich bin dein Assistent!" de

# English (explicit)
{baseDir}/bin/voice-reply "Hello, I am your assistant!" en

# Auto-detect (detects German from umlauts and common words)
{baseDir}/bin/voice-reply "Guten Tag, wie geht es dir?"

# Auto-detect (defaults to English)
{baseDir}/bin/voice-reply "The weather is nice today."

Output Format

The script outputs two lines that OpenClaw processes for Telegram:

[[audio_as_voice]]
MEDIA:/tmp/voice-reply-output.ogg

• [[audio_as_voice]] - Tag that tells Telegram to display as voice bubble
• MEDIA:path - Path to the generated OGG Opus audio file

Available Voices

Language	Voice	Quality	Description
German (de)	thorsten	medium	Natural male voice, clear pronunciation
English (en)	ryan	high	Clear US male voice, professional tone

Adding More Voices

Browse available Piper voices at:

• https://rhasspy.github.io/piper-samples/
• https://github.com/k2-fsa/sherpa-onnx/releases/tag/tts-models

Download and extract to $PIPER_VOICES_DIR, then modify the script to include the new voice.

Troubleshooting

"TTS binary not found"

Ensure SHERPA_ONNX_DIR is set and contains bin/sherpa-onnx-offline-tts.

"Failed to generate audio"

Check that voice model files exist: *.onnx, tokens.txt, espeak-ng-data/

Audio plays as file instead of voice bubble

Ensure the output includes [[audio_as_voice]] tag on its own line before the MEDIA: line.

Credits

• sherpa-onnx - Offline speech processing
• Piper - Fast local TTS voices
• Thorsten Voice - German voice dataset