Installing the command-line executable

Assuming you have Rust/Cargo installed, run this command in a terminal:

cargo install voice

It will make the voice command available in your PATH if you've allowed the PATH to be modified when installing Rust. cargo uninstall voice uninstalls.

Back to the crate overview.

Readme

voice

Like say, but with Kokoro TTS and Moonshine STT. A command-line speech tool for macOS, powered by MLX on Apple Silicon.

Install

Pre-built binary (recommended)

Install with cargo-binstall to get a pre-built binary — no compilation required:

# Install cargo-binstall if you don't have it
cargo install cargo-binstall

# Install voice
cargo binstall voice

Build from source

Requires Git LFS for embedded voice/model data:

# Install git-lfs if you don't have it
brew install git-lfs
git lfs install

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/rgbkrk/voice.git
cd voice
cargo install --path crates/voice-cli

Note: cargo install voice compiles from source on crates.io, but the Metal shader library path can break — see the main README for details. Use cargo binstall voice or build from a local clone instead.

Usage

# Just talk (backward compatible — no subcommand needed)
voice Hello world

# Text-to-speech with the say subcommand
voice say -v am_michael "How are you today?"
voice say -f script.txt -o output.wav
echo "Hello" | voice say
voice say --markdown -f post.mdx

# Speech-to-text from microphone
voice listen
voice listen --continuous

# Transcribe an audio file
voice transcribe recording.wav

# JSON-RPC 2.0 server on stdin/stdout
voice serve -v am_michael

Options

Top-level

Usage: voice [OPTIONS] [COMMAND] [TEXT]...

Commands:
  say         Speak text aloud (default when no subcommand given)
  listen      Record from microphone and transcribe (speech-to-text)
  transcribe  Transcribe a WAV audio file
  serve       Run as a JSON-RPC 2.0 server on stdin/stdout

Arguments:
  [TEXT]...  Text to speak (shorthand for `voice say <text>`)

Options:
  -q, --quiet  Suppress progress output
  -h, --help   Print help

`voice say`

Usage: voice say [OPTIONS] [TEXT]...

Options:
  -f, --input-file <FILE>        Read text from a file (use - for stdin)
      --phonemes <IPA>           Raw phoneme string (IPA)
  -v, --voice <VOICE>            Voice name [default: af_heart]
  -o, --output <PATH>            Write WAV to file instead of playing
  -s, --speed <SPEED>            Speech speed factor [default: 1.0]
      --markdown                 Strip markdown/MDX formatting before speaking
      --sub <WORD=REPLACEMENT>   Word substitution (repeatable)
      --sub-file <PATH>          Load substitutions from a file

`voice listen`

Usage: voice listen [OPTIONS]

Options:
      --continuous  Record and transcribe segments continuously

`voice transcribe`

Usage: voice transcribe <FILE>

Voices

American: af_heart, af_bella, af_nicole, af_sarah, af_sky, am_adam, am_michael

British: bf_emma, bf_isabella, bm_george, bm_lewis

See the full list in the main README.

License

MIT