eidos-podcast 0.3.0

NotebookLM-style two-host podcasts — free, no API key (claude -p + edge/kokoro/dia)

eidos-podcast

NotebookLM-style two-host podcasts from any text — free and fixed-cost.

content ──► claude -p ──► 2-host dialogue ──► TTS engine ──► audio
           (subscription,    (ALEX + JORDAN)   edge → .mp3
            no API key)                         kokoro → .wav

No paid APIs anywhere. The script is written by claude -p (your Claude subscription — fixed cost, no token bill, no key). The voices are Microsoft Edge neural TTS via edge-tts (free, no key). That's the whole pitch vs. Podcastfy and the other podcast MCPs, which route the script and/or the audio through paid APIs.

Install

uv tool install .          # gives `eidos-podcast` + `eidos-podcast-mcp`

Requires claude CLI on PATH (Claude Code).

CLI

eidos-podcast "any text you want explained"      # text as arg
eidos-podcast --file notes.md -o show.mp3        # from a file
pbpaste | eidos-podcast                           # from stdin
eidos-podcast --file paper.md --turns 20          # longer show
eidos-podcast --file notes.md --engine kokoro    # more expressive, local

Engines

--engine	Voices	Output	Speed	When
edge (default)	MS Edge neural	.mp3	instant	quick, networked, good enough
kokoro	Kokoro-82M local	.wav	fast	offline, more natural prosody
dia	Dia 1.6B local (MLX)	.wav	~2× real-time	the keeper: two speakers + real laughs/overlap in one pass

All three are free, no API key. edge networks to Microsoft; kokoro and dia run fully local.

kokoro needs two model files in ~/.cache/eidos-podcast/ (kokoro-v1.0.onnx, voices-v1.0.bin) from the kokoro-onnx releases.

dia needs mlx-audio (Apple Silicon only): uv tool install mlx-audio --with misaki --prerelease=allow. It generates both speakers together — real nonverbals and overlap that edge/kokoro can't do — auto-chunking long scripts. Voices can drift slightly at chunk seams (upgrade path: a fixed audio-prompt seed to pin S1/S2).

MCP

Register the server with Claude Code:

claude mcp add eidos-podcast eidos-podcast-mcp

Then ask Claude to "make a podcast from this." Exposes one tool: create_podcast(content, out_path?, turns?) -> mp3 path.

Tuning

• Voices: edit HOSTS in eidos_podcast.py (edge-tts --list-voices for options).
• "Compelling": the entire quality lever is SCRIPT_PROMPT in eidos_podcast.py — cold opens, host disagreement, concrete examples, callbacks.

Files

File	What
eidos_podcast.py	Core: script generation + TTS render
cli.py	eidos-podcast CLI
server.py	eidos-podcast-mcp FastMCP server