abstractvoice 0.6.1

A modular Python library for voice interactions with AI systems

AbstractVoice

A modular Python library for voice I/O around AI applications.

• TTS (default): Piper (cross-platform, no system deps)
• STT (default): faster-whisper
• Local assistant: listen() + speak() with playback/listening control
• Headless/server: speak_to_bytes() / speak_to_file() and transcribe_*

Status: alpha (0.6.1). The supported integrator surface is documented in docs/api.md.

Next: docs/getting-started.md (recommended setup + first smoke tests).

AbstractVoice will ultimately be integrated as the voice modality of AbstractFramework.
An OpenAI-compatible voice endpoint is an optional demo/integration layer (see backlog).

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Install

pip install abstractvoice

Optional extras (feature flags):

pip install "abstractvoice[all]"

Notes:

• abstractvoice[all] enables most optional features (incl. cloning + AEC + audio-fx), but does not include the GPU-heavy Chroma runtime.
• For the full list of extras (and platform troubleshooting), see docs/installation.md.

Explicit model downloads (recommended; never implicit in the REPL)

Some features rely on large model weights/artifacts. AbstractVoice will not download these implicitly inside the REPL (offline-first).

After installing, prefetch explicitly (cross-platform):

abstractvoice-prefetch --stt small
abstractvoice-prefetch --piper en
abstractvoice-prefetch --openf5
abstractvoice-prefetch --chroma

Or equivalently:

python -m abstractvoice download --stt small
python -m abstractvoice download --piper en
python -m abstractvoice download --openf5
python -m abstractvoice download --chroma

Notes:

• --piper <lang> downloads the Piper ONNX voice for that language into ~/.piper/models.
• --openf5 is ~5.4GB. --chroma is very large (GPU-heavy).

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Quick smoke tests

REPL (fastest end-to-end)

abstractvoice --verbose
# or (from a source checkout):
python -m abstractvoice cli --verbose

Notes:

• Mic voice input is off by default for fast startup. Enable with --voice-mode stop (or in-session: /voice stop).
• The REPL is offline-first: no implicit model downloads. Use the explicit download commands above.

See docs/repl_guide.md.

Minimal Python

from abstractvoice import VoiceManager

vm = VoiceManager()
vm.speak("Hello! This is AbstractVoice.")

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Public API (stable surface)

See docs/api.md for the supported integrator contract.

At a glance:

• TTS: speak(), stop_speaking(), pause_speaking(), resume_speaking(), speak_to_bytes(), speak_to_file()
• STT: transcribe_file(), transcribe_from_bytes()
• Mic: listen(), stop_listening(), pause_listening(), resume_listening()

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Documentation (minimal set)

• Docs index: docs/README.md
• Getting started: docs/getting-started.md
• FAQ: docs/faq.md
• Orientation: docs/overview.md
• Acronyms: docs/acronyms.md
• Public API: docs/api.md
• REPL guide: docs/repl_guide.md
• Install troubleshooting: docs/installation.md
• Multilingual support: docs/multilingual.md
• Architecture (internal): docs/architecture.md + docs/adr/
• Model management (Piper-first): docs/model-management.md
• Licensing notes: docs/voices-and-licenses.md

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Project

• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
• Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
• Security: SECURITY.md
• Acknowledgments: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md

License

MIT. See LICENSE.