Speechify TTS

Multi-provider Text-to-Speech: Speechify API (primary, Cristiane voice) with automatic Edge TTS fallback (FranciscaNeural). Outputs .ogg (Opus) ready for voice messages.

⚡ Quick Start

# Basic usage
python3 scripts/speechfy-tts.py "Hello, world!" /tmp/hello.ogg

# With custom voice via env
SPEECHIFY_VOICE=bruno python3 scripts/speechfy-tts.py "Texto" /tmp/saida.ogg

Architecture

Text (CLI)
    │
    ├── Speechify API ──► .mp3 ──► ffmpeg ──► .ogg (Opus)
    │   (primary)
    │
    └── Edge TTS ──────► .ogg (Opus)
        (fallback)

Speechify fails when:

• No API key configured (env var or vault missing)
• Monthly quota exceeded (HTTP 402 — spend_cap_exceeded)
• Rate limited (HTTP 429)
• Network timeout

Prerequisites

Tool	Required	Install
Python 3.10+	✅	System package
ffmpeg (libopus)	✅	apt install ffmpeg / pacman -S ffmpeg
edge-tts (PyPI)	For fallback	pip install edge-tts
vault-resolver	Optional	Hermes ecosystem

Configuration

All via environment variables (no hardcoded config):

Variable	Default	Description
SPEECHIFY_API_KEY	—	Speechify API key (sk_...)
SPEECHIFY_VOICE	cristiane	Voice ID (see voices reference)
SPEECHIFY_MODEL	simba-multilingual	TTS model
SPEECHIFY_LANG	pt-BR	Language code
EDGE_TTS_VOICE	pt-BR-FranciscaNeural	Edge TTS voice
EDGE_TTS_CMD	edge-tts	Edge TTS CLI command
SPEECHIFY_OUTPUT	/tmp/speech-output.ogg	Default output path
SPEECHIFY_VAULT_ITEM	speechfy_key	Vaultwarden item name
VAULT_RESOLVER	vault-resolver	Vault resolver path
SPEECHIFY_API_KEY	—	Overrides vault (highest priority)

Resolution order: SPEECHIFY_API_KEY env var → vault-resolver → empty (skip).

Usage

CLI

# Simple text, default output
python3 scripts/speechfy-tts.py "Hello, how are you?"

# Custom output path
python3 scripts/speechfy-tts.py \
  "Important announcement" /tmp/alert.ogg

# SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language)
python3 scripts/speechfy-tts.py \
  '<speak><prosody pitch="+5%">Excited</prosody></speak>'

Voice Messages (Telegram)

Include the .ogg path with MEDIA: prefix:

MEDIA:/tmp/speech-output.ogg

.ogg with Opus codec is the native voice bubble format on Telegram.

Programmatic (Python)

import subprocess

def generate_speech(text, output="/tmp/speech.ogg"):
    proc = subprocess.run(
        ["python3", "scripts/speechfy-tts.py", text, output],
        capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=60
    )
    if proc.returncode == 0:
        return output
    raise RuntimeError(f"TTS failed: {proc.stderr}")

Hermes Agent (skill integration)

import subprocess
output = "/tmp/response.ogg"
subprocess.run([
    "python3", "scripts/speechfy-tts.py",
    text, output
], check=True)

SSML Cheat Sheet

Speechify supports SSML via the input field. Pass XML as the text argument.

Emotions (<speechify:style>)

<speak>
  <speechify:style emotion="cheerful">Great news!</speechify:style>
  <break time="300ms"/>
  <speechify:style emotion="calm">Let's analyze calmly.</speechify:style>
</speak>

Emotion	Effect	Typical use
cheerful	Optimistic, excited	Good news
calm	Serene, composed	Explanations
bright	Light, positive	Subtle irony
warm	Friendly, welcoming	Personal chats
assertive	Confident, authoritative	Direct instructions
sad	Melancholic	Sadness
angry	Intense, irritated	Discontent
surprised	Astonished	Reactions
energetic	Dynamic, lively	Excitement
direct	Straight, no frills	Objective warnings

Prosody (pitch, rate, volume)

<speak>
  Normal tone.
  <prosody pitch="+5%">5% higher pitch</prosody>
  <prosody pitch="-10%" rate="slow">Lower and slower</prosody>
  <prosody pitch="high" rate="fast">High and fast</prosody>
</speak>

Pitch: percentage (-83% to +100%) or levels (x-low to x-high) Rate: percentage or levels (x-slow to x-fast)

Pauses and Emphasis

<speak>
  This is <emphasis level="strong">very</emphasis> important.
  <break time="500ms"/>
  And now <emphasis level="moderate">this</emphasis>.
</speak>

SSML Limitations

• ⚠️ Input limit: 2,000 chars on /v1/audio/speech (including SSML tags)
• ⚠️ For longer text: use streaming /v1/audio/stream (20,000 chars)
• ⚠️ Escape special chars: & → &, < → <, > → >

Plans and Limits

Tier	Speechify	Edge TTS
Free	50K chars/month (hard cap)	✅ Unlimited
Starter ($10/mo)	1M chars, overage $10/1M	✅ Unlimited
Pro ($99/mo)	3M chars, overage $8/1M	✅ Unlimited

Edge TTS is free and unlimited — always works as fallback.

Multi-platform

Hermes Agent

Use via terminal() or execute_code():

import subprocess
result = terminal(
    f"python3 scripts/speechfy-tts.py {shlex.quote(text)} /tmp/out.ogg"
)

OpenClaw

# Direct invocation
python3 scripts/speechfy-tts.py "Hello" /tmp/out.ogg

# With mcporter (if configured for Speechify MCP)
mcporter call speechify.synthesize text="Hello"

Troubleshooting

"No API key found"

• Set SPEECHIFY_API_KEY env var, or
• Add item to Vaultwarden with name matching SPEECHIFY_VAULT_ITEM

"Speechify HTTP 402"

• Monthly quota exhausted (50K chars on free tier)
• Script automatically falls back to Edge TTS

"Speechify HTTP 429"

• Too many concurrent requests (free limit: 3 simultaneous)
• Wait a few seconds and retry

Edge TTS not working

pip install edge-tts
edge-tts --voice pt-BR-FranciscaNeural --text "test" --write-media /tmp/test.ogg

ffmpeg not found

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install ffmpeg

# Arch/Manjaro
sudo pacman -S ffmpeg

Related

• Speechify API Docs
• Edge TTS (GitHub)
• SSML W3C Spec
• references/voices.md — Available voices reference
• docs/diagrama.svg — Architecture diagram