TTS Generation Skill | Agent Skills

TTS Generation

Overview

Generate speech audio from text using AI backends.

OpenAI TTS — tts-1 (low latency) / tts-1-hd (studio quality), 6 voices, 57 languages
ElevenLabs — eleven_turbo_v2 / eleven_multilingual_v2, cloneable voices, 29 languages
Google TTS — gTTS Python library, 40+ languages, free tier

Backend Comparison

| Feature | OpenAI TTS | ElevenLabs | Google TTS | | --------- | ------------- | ------------- | -------------- | | Quality | High | Highest | Medium | | Latency | Low (tts-1) | Medium | Low | | Cost | ~$15/1M chars | ~$22/1M chars | Free (limited) | | Voices | 6 preset | Cloneable | 40+ languages | | Max chars | 4096/request | Unlimited | ~5000/request | | Streaming | Yes | Yes | No |

Quick Start

OpenAI TTS (Recommended)

from pathlib import Path
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI()

response = client.audio.speech.with_streaming_response.create(
    model="tts-1-hd",  # tts-1 for speed, tts-1-hd for quality
    voice="nova",       # alloy | echo | fable | onyx | nova | shimmer
    input="Hello world",
    speed=1.0,          # 0.25 to 4.0
)
response.stream_to_file(Path("output.mp3"))

ElevenLabs

from elevenlabs import ElevenLabs

client = ElevenLabs(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
audio = client.text_to_speech.convert(
    voice_id="21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM",  # Rachel
    model_id="eleven_turbo_v2",
    text="Hello world",
    output_format="mp3_44100_128",
)
with open("output.mp3", "wb") as f:
    for chunk in audio:
        f.write(chunk)

Google TTS (Free)

from gtts import gTTS
gTTS(text="Hello world", lang="en", slow=False).save("output.mp3")

Long-Text Chunking

For text exceeding limits, split at sentence boundaries and concatenate with pydub. Pattern: iterate sentences, accumulate into current until max_chars (4000), flush to chunks on overflow.

Output Formats

mp3 (general), opus (streaming), flac (lossless archival), wav (editing), pcm (raw pipeline).

Installation

pip install openai elevenlabs gtts pydub
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export ELEVENLABS_API_KEY="..."

Agent Usage Pattern

OpenAI TTS: documentation/demos narration
ElevenLabs: cloned voices or highest quality
Google TTS: multilingual free-tier
Chunk at sentence boundaries; cache by content hash

Related Skills

transcription — Reverse: audio to text via Whisper
ai-ml-expert — Advanced ML pipeline integration

Memory Protocol (MANDATORY)

Before starting: Read .claude/context/memory/learnings.md

After completing:

New pattern → .claude/context/memory/learnings.md
Issue found → .claude/context/memory/issues.md
Decision made → .claude/context/memory/decisions.md

ASSUME INTERRUPTION: If it's not in memory, it didn't happen.

Agent Skills: TTS Generation

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