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Beware Piper Tts

Local text-to-speech using Piper for voice message delivery.

Rating: 4.6 (259 reviews)
Downloads: 11,720 downloads
Version: 1.0.0

Overview

Local text-to-speech using Piper for voice message delivery.

Complete Documentation

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Piper TTS — Local Voice Messages

Generate voice messages using Piper, a fast local TTS engine. Zero cloud calls, zero cost, zero API keys.

Setup

If Piper is not installed, run the setup script:

bash

scripts/setup-piper.sh

This installs piper-tts via pip and downloads a default voice (en_US-kusal-medium).

Generating Voice Messages

Use scripts/piper-speak.sh to generate and deliver voice:

bash

scripts/piper-speak.sh "<text>" [voice]

text: The text to speak (required)
voice: Piper voice name (default: en_US-kusal-medium)

The script outputs an MP3 path. Include it in your reply as:

text

[[audio_as_voice]]
MEDIA:<path-to-mp3>

This delivers the audio as a native voice message on supported channels (Telegram, Discord, etc.).

Example Workflow

User asks: "Tell me a joke as audio"
Run: scripts/piper-speak.sh "Why do programmers prefer dark mode? Because light attracts bugs!"
Get MP3 path from output
Reply with [[audio_as_voice]] + MEDIA:

Available Voices

After setup, download additional voices:

bash

scripts/setup-piper.sh --voice en_US-ryan-high
scripts/setup-piper.sh --voice en_GB-northern_english_male-medium

Popular voices:

en_US-kusal-medium — Clear male voice (default, recommended)
en_US-ryan-high — High quality US male
en_US-hfc_male-medium — US male
en_GB-northern_english_male-medium — British male
Browse all: https://huggingface.co/rhasspy/piper-voices

Important Notes

Speed: Local generation is ~0.5-1s. Much faster than cloud TTS.
No API keys: Works completely offline after setup.
Platform: macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel), Linux. Requires Python 3.9+.
Do NOT set messages.tts.auto: "always" in OpenClaw config — it makes every response slow. Keep TTS on-demand.

Installation

Terminal bash


openclaw install beware-piper-tts

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💻Code Examples

scripts/setup-piper.sh

scriptssetup-pipersh.txt

This installs `piper-tts` via pip and downloads a default voice (`en_US-kusal-medium`).

## Generating Voice Messages

Use `scripts/piper-speak.sh` to generate and deliver voice:

scripts/piper-speak.sh "<text>" [voice]

scriptspiper-speaksh-text-voice.txt

- `text`: The text to speak (required)
- `voice`: Piper voice name (default: `en_US-kusal-medium`)

The script outputs an MP3 path. Include it in your reply as:

MEDIA:<path-to-mp3>

mediapath-to-mp3.txt

This delivers the audio as a native voice message on supported channels (Telegram, Discord, etc.).

## Example Workflow

1. User asks: "Tell me a joke as audio"
2. Run: `scripts/piper-speak.sh "Why do programmers prefer dark mode? Because light attracts bugs!"`
3. Get MP3 path from output
4. Reply with `[[audio_as_voice]]` + `MEDIA:<path>`

## Available Voices

After setup, download additional voices: