Claude Speak

Vocalize text using high-quality text-to-speech. British male voice (bm_george) by default.

When to Use

Invoke when user:

• Asks to "say this out loud" or "speak this"
• Wants narration or audio feedback
• Uses /speak command
• Requests vocalization of content

Core Command

~/Projects/claude-speak/.venv/bin/claude-speak-client "Text to speak"

That's it. The daemon runs in background via launchd - instant response.

TIP: For longer text, append & to run fire-and-forget (see "Long Text" section below).

Options

# Different voice
~/Projects/claude-speak/.venv/bin/claude-speak-client -v af_heart "Warm female voice"

# Adjust speed (default 1.0)
~/Projects/claude-speak/.venv/bin/claude-speak-client -s 1.2 "Speaking faster"

# Quiet mode (suppress errors)
~/Projects/claude-speak/.venv/bin/claude-speak-client -q "Silent on success"

# Custom timeout (default: 300s / 5 min)
~/Projects/claude-speak/.venv/bin/claude-speak-client -t 600 "Very long text..."

Long Text (3+ sentences)

For longer content, use fire-and-forget mode with shell backgrounding:

~/Projects/claude-speak/.venv/bin/claude-speak-client "Your longer text here..." &

The trailing & runs the command in the background at the shell level, so Claude Code doesn't track it as a task. The audio plays while the conversation continues—no timeout errors or false "failed" notifications.

Why this works: Claude Code's run_in_background still monitors the task and may report timeout failures even when audio completes successfully. Shell backgrounding (&) avoids this entirely.

Available Voices

Voice	Description
bm_george	British male, distinguished (DEFAULT)
af_heart	American female, warm
am_adam	American male, deep
bf_emma	British female, elegant

Troubleshooting

If "Daemon not running" error:

~/Projects/claude-speak/.venv/bin/claude-speak-daemon start

Best Practices

• For short text (1-2 sentences): run normally
• For longer text (paragraphs): use & fire-and-forget
• Check daemon status if issues arise