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BytesAgain β€Ί Skills β€Ί Voice Reply
πŸ¦€ ClawHub

Voice Reply

by @stolot0mt0m

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.

Versionv1.0.0
Downloads4,541
Installs35
Stars⭐ 6
#api#audio#translation#legal#automation
TERMINAL
clawhub install voice-reply

πŸ“– About This Skill

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

    • πŸ’‘ 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."

    βš™οΈ Configuration

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

    πŸ“‹ Tips & Best Practices

    "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.