narrator

Narrator - Voice Output Plugin for Claude Code

A Claude Code plugin that speaks responses aloud using Kokoro TTS, a local neural text-to-speech engine. No cloud APIs, no latency — everything runs on your machine.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+ (tested on 3.13)
• macOS or Linux with audio output (speakers or headphones)
• Claude Code CLI

Installation

From GitHub (recommended)

In Claude Code, run these slash commands:

1. Add the marketplace:

   /plugin marketplace add shreyas-s-rao/claude-code-narrator
   

2. Install the plugin:

   /plugin install narrator
   

3. Reload:

   /reload-plugins
   

Linux note: If /tmp is a separate filesystem (tmpfs), plugin installation may fail with EXDEV: cross-device link not permitted. Fix by setting TMPDIR before launching Claude Code:

mkdir -p ~/.cache/tmp && TMPDIR=~/.cache/tmp claude

Then run the install commands above in that session. This is a Claude Code platform limitation, not specific to this plugin.

From local directory

If you've cloned the repo locally:

1. Add the marketplace:

   /plugin marketplace add /path/to/claude-code-narrator
   

2. Install and reload as above

Direct plugin loading (development)

claude --plugin-dir /path/to/claude-code-narrator

Getting Started

1. Enable narrator: Type /narrator:on in Claude Code
2. Kokoro TTS and all dependencies are automatically installed into a dedicated venv (~/.claude-narrator-venv) on first run. This takes a few minutes.
3. Once installed, the narrator speaks tool steps and responses aloud.
4. Change voice: /narrator:cast af_bella (or any voice from the table below)
5. Silence: /narrator:hush to stop current speech, /narrator:off to disable entirely

Commands

Command	Description
/narrator:on	Enable voice output (auto-installs Kokoro on first run)
/narrator:off	Disable voice output
/narrator:cast [voice]	Change voice or list available voices
/narrator:speed [value]	Change speech speed (0.5–2.0, default 1.1)
/narrator:speak [text]	Speak on demand, even if narrator is off
/narrator:hush	Silence all current and queued speech

All commands accept --local to apply settings to the current directory only (see Per-Directory Config).

Available Voices

Voice	Gender	Description
af_heart	Female	Warm, expressive (default)
af_bella	Female	Clear, professional
af_nicole	Female	Soft, gentle
af_sarah	Female	Bright, energetic
af_sky	Female	Calm, composed
am_adam	Male	Deep, authoritative
am_michael	Male	Warm, friendly
am_fenrir	Male	Bold, commanding

What Gets Spoken

Event	What you hear
Tool use (Read, Write, Bash, etc.)	Short description, e.g. "Reading file settings dot json"
Text between tool calls	The assistant's intermediate commentary
Final response	First ~1000 characters, ending at a sentence boundary
Notification	Title and message from Claude Code notifications
User input	Speech is automatically silenced when you type or click

Per-Directory Config

You can override narrator settings per directory, which is useful when running multiple Claude Code sessions with different voices.

/narrator:on --local          # enable narrator in this directory only
/narrator:cast --local am_adam  # use a different voice in this directory
/narrator:speed --local 1.5    # use a different speed in this directory
/narrator:off --local         # disable narrator in this directory only

Local settings are stored in <cwd>/.claude-code-narrator/config. Only the keys you set locally are overridden — missing keys fall back to the global config at ~/.claude-code-narrator/config.

Add the local config file to your .gitignore so it's not committed:

echo .claude-code-narrator >> .gitignore

Multi-Session Behavior

All sessions share a single daemon and FIFO (sequential playback, no overlap). Each session's utterances carry their own voice and speed settings, so if session A uses am_adam and session B uses af_bella, utterances interleave with the correct voices.

Documentation

• Architecture — pipeline diagram, state management, what gets spoken
• Commands — detailed reference for each command
• Project Structure — full directory tree with file descriptions

Development

To work on the plugin locally, clone the repo and load it:

git clone https://github.com/shreyas-s-rao/claude-code-narrator