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hyperframes/skills/media-use/audio/references/tts.md
ukimsanov 08fadcef41 style: format the house-narrator note in tts.md, resync manifest
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was not oxfmt-clean. Formatted, and regenerated skills-manifest.json since the
media-use hash changed.

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studio/parsers sources) are not touched by this branch and fail on main too — a
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# Text To Speech
`npx hyperframes tts` synthesizes locally with Kokoro. It does not accept a
`--provider` or `--words` flag. For HeyGen audio plus word timestamps, use the
bundled `heygen-tts.mjs` script below.
> **Run the Preflight first — no credential is not a green light to silently use the local voice.** Before generating a voiceover, complete the sign-in **Preflight** (see `../SKILL.md` → Preflight): run `npx hyperframes auth status`, recommend signing in, and **STOP for the user's choice** (sign in for HeyGen voices, or continue offline with local Kokoro). This applies to a one-off "generate a voiceover" request just as much as inside a full workflow.
## Narrating a HyperFrames docs video
Anything that will sit on hyperframes.heygen.com uses one narrator, so the site
does not sound like two products.
| | |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Voice | **River** — "Relaxed, Neutral, Informative" |
| Provider | ElevenLabs |
| `voice_id` | `SAz9YHcvj6GT2YYXdXww` |
| Model | `eleven_multilingual_v2` |
| Pace | 145155 words per minute, with room to breathe |
| Music under it | about 31 LUFS, never masking the voice |
```bash
curl -s -X POST "https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/text-to-speech/SAz9YHcvj6GT2YYXdXww" \
-H "xi-api-key: $ELEVENLABS_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"text":"...","model_id":"eleven_multilingual_v2"}' -o take.mp3
```
This is the voice every user-journey film on the docs site already uses. Falling
back to local Kokoro because a key was not to hand produces a film that sounds
wrong beside the others — three docs videos were built that way and had to be
re-voiced. If you cannot reach ElevenLabs, say so and stop rather than
substituting a different voice.
Use another voice only for a documented reason, and write the reason down.
## Available routes
| Order | Provider | Env trigger | Voice IDs | Word timestamps | Audio format |
| ----- | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | -------------------- |
| 1 | HeyGen (Starfish) | `$HEYGEN_API_KEY` / `~/.heygen/credentials` | UUIDs from `GET /v3/voices?engine=starfish` | **Yes** (`word_timestamps[]` in response) | mp3 → wav via ffmpeg |
| 2 | ElevenLabs | `$ELEVENLABS_API_KEY` | UUIDs from elevenlabs.io dashboard | No | mp3 → wav via ffmpeg |
| 3 | Kokoro-82M | always (local fallback) | `am_michael`, `af_heart`, … (54 voices) | No | wav direct |
```bash
# Local Kokoro CLI
npx hyperframes tts "Welcome to HyperFrames" -o narration.wav
```
## Self-contained HeyGen (no CLI) — `scripts/heygen-tts.mjs`
The published `hyperframes tts` CLI synthesizes locally with Kokoro only. When you
want HeyGen specifically — best quality **plus** word timestamps in one call — use
the skill's bundled script, which calls the HeyGen v3 REST API directly and needs
no CLI provider plumbing:
The script resolves a HeyGen credential the same way the CLI does — first source
wins: `$HEYGEN_API_KEY``$HYPERFRAMES_API_KEY` → a project `.env` (auto-loaded,
walks up ≤5 dirs) → `~/.heygen/credentials` (shared with heygen-cli;
`$HEYGEN_CONFIG_DIR` overrides the dir). An OAuth login is sent as
`Authorization: Bearer`; an API key as `X-Api-Key`; both include
`X-HeyGen-Source: cli`. OAuth CLI users can consume the web-plan free allowance
(10 min/month) before paid usage; API keys follow normal API billing. If the
only credential is an expired OAuth token it stops with a hint to run
`npx hyperframes auth refresh`.
```bash
# Only needed if you haven't run `npx hyperframes auth login`:
export HEYGEN_API_KEY=... # or put it in a project .env
# Synthesize + capture word timestamps in one call (skips a Whisper pass)
node skills/media-use/audio/scripts/heygen-tts.mjs \
"Welcome to HyperFrames." -o narration.wav --words narration.words.json
node skills/media-use/audio/scripts/heygen-tts.mjs ./script.txt -o narration.wav
node skills/media-use/audio/scripts/heygen-tts.mjs --list # public starfish voices
```
- **Voice:** `--voice <id>` must be a **starfish** voice_id (`--list`, or `GET /v3/voices?engine=starfish`). v2-catalog ids are rejected with HTTP 400. Omit `--voice` (English) and it defaults to **Marcia** (`05f19352e8f74b0392a8f411eba40de1`, a fixed default so the choice is deterministic). Non-English with no `--voice` falls back to the first matching catalog voice.
- **Output:** `.wav` → transcoded to 44.1k mono via ffmpeg; `.mp3` → raw bytes (no ffmpeg needed).
- **Words:** `--words <path>` writes the flat `[{id,text,start,end}]` shape below, drop-in for the captions pipeline. HeyGen's `<start>`/`<end>` boundary sentinels are filtered out and ids are re-contiguous.
- **Non-English:** `--lang <code>` (anything but `en`) is sent as the request `language`.
## When to use which provider
| Goal | Use |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| Best voice quality + word timestamps in one call | **HeyGen** |
| Drop-in cloud TTS, big voice catalog | **ElevenLabs** |
| Offline, no API key, fast iteration | **Kokoro** |
| Non-English multilingual with deterministic phonemization | **Kokoro** (`ef_dora`, `jf_alpha`, `zf_xiaobei`, …) |
## ffmpeg requirement
HeyGen + ElevenLabs return mp3. The bundled HeyGen helper transcodes to wav
when `--output` ends in `.wav` (the default and what downstream `ffprobe` +
Whisper expect). If you'd rather skip the transcode, pass `-o file.mp3`.
Without `ffmpeg` on PATH, wav output from cloud providers fails; the local
Kokoro CLI writes wav directly.
## Voice selection (Kokoro)
Default `af_heart`. Curated picks:
| Content type | Voice |
| ----------------- | ---------------------- |
| Product demo | `af_heart`, `af_nova` |
| Tutorial / how-to | `am_adam`, `bf_emma` |
| Marketing / promo | `af_sky`, `am_michael` |
| Documentation | `bf_emma`, `bm_george` |
| Casual / social | `af_heart`, `af_sky` |
Run `npx hyperframes tts --list` for the bundled set.
## Multilingual (Kokoro voice prefix → language)
The first letter of a Kokoro voice ID picks the phonemizer language; `--lang` overrides auto-detection.
| Prefix | Language |
| ------ | -------------------- |
| `a` | American English |
| `b` | British English |
| `e` | Spanish |
| `f` | French |
| `h` | Hindi |
| `i` | Italian |
| `j` | Japanese |
| `p` | Brazilian Portuguese |
| `z` | Mandarin |
```bash
npx hyperframes tts "La reunión empieza a las nueve" --voice ef_dora
npx hyperframes tts "Today is a nice day" --voice af_heart
```
Valid `--lang` codes (only needed to override the voice's auto-detected language): `en-us`, `en-gb`, `es`, `fr-fr`, `hi`, `it`, `pt-br`, `ja`, `zh`.
Non-English phonemization requires `espeak-ng` system-wide (`brew install espeak-ng` / `apt-get install espeak-ng`).
## Speed
- `0.7-0.8` — tutorial, complex content, accessibility
- `1.0` — natural pace (default)
- `1.1-1.2` — intros, transitions, upbeat content
- `1.5+` — rarely appropriate, test carefully
The `hyperframes tts` command honors `--speed` for Kokoro. Provider-specific
helpers document their own pacing controls.
## Long scripts
Past a few paragraphs, write the text to a `.txt` file and pass the path. Inputs over ~5 minutes of speech may benefit from splitting into segments.
## HeyGen word-timestamp shape
When `--words <path>` is passed to a HeyGen call, the file is written in the same flat shape `transcribe` produces — drop-in compatible with the captions pipeline:
```json
[
{ "id": "w0", "text": "Hi", "start": 0.0, "end": 0.21 },
{ "id": "w1", "text": "there", "start": 0.22, "end": 0.55 }
]
```
For ElevenLabs / Kokoro, run `npx hyperframes transcribe narration.wav --model small.en` to get the same shape.