pi-elevenlabs-tts

Pi extension that reads assistant text responses aloud with ElevenLabs text-to-speech. Tool calls and tool results are ignored. Bare http:// and https:// URL schemes are removed before speech. Current playback is stopped when the user submits a new message. On macOS, TTS skips playback by default when pmset reports active system audio or WebRTC audio activity, and the Pi status line shows when audio is blocking speech.

Requirements

• Pi (@mariozechner/pi-coding-agent)
• ElevenLabs API key
• An audio player:
  • macOS: built-in afplay
  • Linux/other: mpv or ffplay, or set ELEVENLABS_PLAYER

Setup

Install and authenticate the ElevenLabs CLI. The CLI is useful for login/account setup; TTS behavior is configured in the Pi extension via environment variables and /speak commands.

npm install -g @elevenlabs/cli
elevenlabs auth login

The extension reads the API key from either:

1. ELEVENLABS_API_KEY, or
2. ~/.elevenlabs/api_key created by elevenlabs auth login

Try locally

From this package directory:

pi -e ./extensions/elevenlabs-tts/index.ts

Or install as a local Pi package:

pi install /Users/ajsharp/code/pi-elevenlabs-tts

Then restart Pi or run /reload.

Commands

Inside Pi:

/speak status                  # show current config
/speak on                      # enable auto-read
/speak off                     # disable auto-read
/speak stop                    # stop playback
/speak last                    # replay last spoken assistant text
/speak voices [search]         # list available ElevenLabs voices
/speak voice <voice-id>        # set voice
/speak model <model-id>        # set TTS model
/speak skip-when-audio on|off  # skip TTS when macOS reports active audio
/speak stability <0-1>         # set voice stability
/speak similarity <0-1>        # set similarity boost
/speak style <0-1>             # set style exaggeration
/speak speed <0.7-1.2>         # set speaking speed
/speak boost on|off            # speaker boost
/speak reset                   # reset to environment/default config

Command changes are persisted into the current Pi session and restored after /reload.

Configuration

Environment variables:

| Variable | Default | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | ELEVENLABS_API_KEY | read from ~/.elevenlabs/api_key | ElevenLabs API key | | ELEVENLABS_TTS_ENABLED | true | Auto-read responses aloud | | ELEVENLABS_VOICE_ID | JBFqnCBsd6RMkjVDRZzb | Voice ID | | ELEVENLABS_MODEL_ID | eleven_turbo_v2_5 | TTS model | | ELEVENLABS_OUTPUT_FORMAT | mp3_44100_128 | ElevenLabs output format | | ELEVENLABS_API_BASE | https://api.elevenlabs.io | API base URL | | ELEVENLABS_MAX_CHARS | 4000 | Max characters spoken per response | | ELEVENLABS_STRIP_CODE_BLOCKS | true | Remove fenced code blocks from spoken text | | ELEVENLABS_SKIP_WHEN_AUDIO_ACTIVE | true | On macOS, skip TTS when pmset reports active output audio or WebRTC audio activity | | ELEVENLABS_AUDIO_ACTIVE_STATUS_INTERVAL_MS | 30000 | Status-line polling interval for macOS audio activity | | ELEVENLABS_STABILITY | ElevenLabs default | Voice stability, 0-1 | | ELEVENLABS_SIMILARITY_BOOST | ElevenLabs default | Similarity boost, 0-1 | | ELEVENLABS_STYLE | ElevenLabs default | Style exaggeration, 0-1 | | ELEVENLABS_SPEED | ElevenLabs default | Speaking speed, usually 0.7-1.2 | | ELEVENLABS_USE_SPEAKER_BOOST | ElevenLabs default | true/false speaker boost | | ELEVENLABS_PLAYER | afplay on macOS, mpv --really-quiet elsewhere | Audio player command |

Example:

export ELEVENLABS_VOICE_ID="JBFqnCBsd6RMkjVDRZzb"
export ELEVENLABS_MODEL_ID="eleven_turbo_v2_5"
pi -e ./extensions/elevenlabs-tts/index.ts