claude-voice

Use Claude Code's native /voice dictation when Claude Code runs on a remote server over SSH (plain SSH or VS Code Remote-SSH terminals).

Claude Code records audio on the machine where claude runs. Over SSH that machine has no microphone, so /voice fails with could not open an audio capture device. claude-voice streams the microphone of your computer to the server through the SSH connection:

your mic -> claude-voice daemon -> ssh -R tunnel -> server: fake `arecord`/`rec` -> claude /voice

No WSL, PulseAudio, sox or root access needed. Nothing listens on the network: everything goes through SSH.

Requirements

Install (on your computer)

uv tool install claude-ssh-voice
# or: pipx install claude-ssh-voice
# or the latest development version:
uv tool install git+https://github.com/MatteoSid/Claude-SSH-Voice-Tunnel

This gives you the claude-voice command.

Quick start

HOST is anything ssh accepts: user@server, or better an alias from ~/.ssh/config.

claude-voice test                   # 1. records 3 s into mic-test.wav and checks it isn't silent
claude-voice install-remote HOST    # 2. installs the server side (once per server)
claude-voice autostart HOST         # 3. keeps the mic tunnel running, now and at every login

Then, in a new terminal on the server (VS Code included): run claude, type /voice, and hold space to talk. Set the dictation language with /config inside Claude Code.

That's it. To check it's working: on the server ss -ltn | grep 48713 should show a listening socket.

Commands

Options for daemon, autostart, connect: --port (remote port, default 48713), --device. Extra ssh options go after --, e.g. claude-voice autostart myserver -- -p 2222 -i ~/.ssh/id_work. You can autostart one daemon per server.

If you change --port, also set export CLAUDE_VOICE_PORT=<port> in your shell rc on the server.

How it works

• Client: a small Python bridge opens the microphone only while the server is reading from it, and streams 16 kHz mono PCM to 127.0.0.1. The daemon runs ssh -N -R 48713:127.0.0.1:<bridge> so the stream appears on the server at 127.0.0.1:48713.
• Server: install-remote puts a fake arecord/rec in ~/.claude-voice/shim that just reads that socket, and defines claude as a shell function calling ~/.claude-voice/bin/claude-wrap. When the tunnel is up, the wrapper puts the shim first in PATH for that claude process only; when it's down, it runs plain claude. CLAUDE_VOICE_OFF=1 claude forces plain mode.

Why the wrapper hides /proc/asound/cards

Claude Code uses native ALSA capture whenever /proc/asound/cards lists any sound card, even a playback-only one (e.g. GPU HDMI), and then never calls arecord (symptom: ALSA lib ... cannot find card '0'). In that case the wrapper starts claude in an unprivileged user+mount namespace (same uid) where that file is empty. Side effect: no sudo inside that claude session. If unprivileged user namespaces are disabled, it runs without.

Troubleshooting

Security

The bridge listens on 127.0.0.1 only and opens the microphone only while a recorder is connected. While the tunnel is up, any process on the server that connects to the forwarded port can hear your microphone (including other users on multi-user machines). Only use this with servers you trust.

Limitations

• Server must be Linux. The VS Code Claude Code extension (its own bundled binary) is not supported; the claude CLI in a VS Code terminal is.
• Tested: Windows 11 client, Ubuntu 22.04 server, bash, VS Code Remote-SSH terminal. macOS/Linux autostart and zsh/fish hooks are newer and less tested: reports welcome.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT. Not affiliated with Anthropic.