gensay

A multi-provider text-to-speech (TTS) tool that implements the Apple macOS /usr/bin/say command interface while supporting multiple TTS backends including Chatterbox (local AI), OpenAI, ElevenLabs, and Amazon Polly.

Features

• macOS say Compatible: Drop-in replacement for the macOS say command with identical CLI interface
• Multiple TTS Providers: Extensible provider system with support for:
  • macOS native say command (default on macOS)
  • Chatterbox (local AI TTS, default on other platforms)
  • ElevenLabs (cloud API)
  • OpenAI TTS (cloud API)
  • Amazon Polly (cloud API)
  • Mock provider for testing
• Smart Text Chunking: Intelligently splits long text for optimal TTS processing
• Audio Caching: Automatic caching with LRU eviction to speed up repeated synthesis
• Progress Tracking: Built-in progress bars with tqdm and customizable callbacks
• Multiple Audio Formats: Support for AIFF, WAV, M4A, MP3, CAF, FLAC, AAC, OGG
• Background Pre-caching: Queue and cache audio chunks in the background (Chatterbox only)
• Interactive REPL Mode: Start an interactive session with provider initialized once for repeated use
• Warm Inference Daemon: Keep local AI models loaded in a background process; ad-hoc gensay calls reuse the warm model via a Unix socket
• Offline Resilience: Cloud providers (ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Polly) automatically fall back to macOS say when the network is unreachable

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Quick Start
• Command Line Usage
• Python API
• Provider Configurations
• Advanced Features
• Development
• License

Installation

It's 2026, use uv

gensay is intended to be used as a CLI tool that is a drop-in replacement to the macOS say CLI.

System Dependencies (ElevenLabs provider only)

PortAudio is required if you plan to use the ElevenLabs provider. The pyaudio dependency needs the PortAudio C library to compile successfully.

Other providers (macOS, OpenAI, Amazon Polly, Chatterbox) do not require PortAudio.

Homebrew (macOS):

brew install portaudio

Nix:

nix-env -iA nixpkgs.portaudio

Install gensay

# Install as a tool
uv tool install gensay

# With extras: ElevenLabs provider (requires PortAudio, see above)
uv tool install 'gensay[elevenlabs]'

# With extras: Chatterbox provider (local Text-to-Speech model, ~2GB PyTorch dependencies)
uv tool install 'gensay[chatterbox]' \
  --with git+https://github.com/anthonywu/chatterbox.git@allow-dep-updates

# Or add to your project
uv add gensay

# From source (with automatic PortAudio path configuration)
git clone https://github.com/anthonywu/gensay
cd gensay
just setup

Optional Dependencies

# Audio format conversion (for non-native formats like MP3, OGG, FLAC)
# Requires ffmpeg installed on system
pip install 'gensay[audio-formats]'

# Install all optional dependencies
pip install 'gensay[all]'

DInstallation Help:

• PyAudio documentation - For PortAudio/PyAudio installation issues
• ElevenLabs Python library docs - Official ElevenLabs Python documentation

For developer/maintainer installation, just setup automatically configures PortAudio and FFmpeg paths for both Nix and Homebrew.

Developer/Maintainer Build Dependencies

PortAudio Paths (for ElevenLabs)

Homebrew:

export C_INCLUDE_PATH="$(brew --prefix portaudio)/include:$C_INCLUDE_PATH"
export LIBRARY_PATH="$(brew --prefix portaudio)/lib:$LIBRARY_PATH"

Nix:

export C_INCLUDE_PATH="$(nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A portaudio --no-out-link)/include:$C_INCLUDE_PATH"
export LIBRARY_PATH="$(nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A portaudio --no-out-link)/lib:$LIBRARY_PATH"

Then install into local venv:

uv sync --all-extras
# temporarily, we have to use a special release of chatterbox library to allow for dependency resolution
uv pip install git+https://github.com/anthonywu/chatterbox.git@allow-dep-updates

FFmpeg Library Path (for Chatterbox on macOS)

Chatterbox uses TorchCodec which requires FFmpeg libraries at process start. Since 0.5.0, gensay self-heals: if FFmpeg is detectable (Nix store or Homebrew), it re-executes itself once with DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH set correctly — no manual export needed for gensay -p chatterbox, the daemon, or daemon start children.

If FFmpeg can't be auto-detected, set it manually:

Homebrew:

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$(brew --prefix ffmpeg)/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH"
gensay --provider chatterbox "Hello"

Nix:

# Find the ffmpeg-lib output in the Nix store
FFMPEG_LIB=$(nix-store -qR "$(which ffmpeg)" | grep 'ffmpeg.*-lib$')
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$FFMPEG_LIB/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH"
gensay --provider chatterbox "Hello"

Note: DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH must be set before the Python process starts; it cannot be set from within Python.

Quick Start

# Basic usage - speaks the text
gensay "Hello, world!"

# Use specific voice
gensay -v Samantha "Hello from Samantha"

# Save to audio file
gensay -o greeting.m4a "Welcome to gensay"

# List available voices (two ways)
gensay -v '?'
gensay --list-voices

Command Line Usage

Basic Options

# Speak text
gensay "Hello, world!"

# Read from file
gensay -f document.txt

# Read from stdin
echo "Hello from pipe" | gensay -f -

# Specify voice
gensay -v Alex "Hello from Alex"

# Adjust speech rate (words per minute)
gensay -r 200 "Speaking faster"

# Save to file
gensay -o output.m4a "Save this speech"

# Specify audio format
gensay -o output.wav --format wav "Different format"

Provider Selection

# Use macOS native say command
gensay --provider macos "Using system TTS"

# List voices for specific provider
gensay --provider macos --list-voices
gensay --provider mock --list-voices

# Use mock provider for testing
gensay --provider mock "Testing without real TTS"

# Use Chatterbox explicitly
gensay --provider chatterbox "Local AI voice"

# Default provider depends on platform
gensay "Hello"  # Uses 'macos' on macOS, 'chatterbox' on other platforms

Advanced Options

# Show progress bar
gensay --progress "Long text with progress tracking"

# Pre-cache audio chunks in background
gensay --provider chatterbox --cache-ahead "Pre-process this text"

# Adjust chunk size
gensay --chunk-size 1000 "Process in larger chunks"

# Cache management
gensay --cache-stats     # Show cache statistics
gensay --clear-cache     # Clear all cached audio
gensay --no-cache "Text" # Disable cache for this run

Interactive Modes and Performance Optimization

Warm Inference Daemon (recommended for Chatterbox)

Local AI providers (Chatterbox) pay multi-second model load on every process start. The daemon keeps the provider resident; subsequent gensay invocations are cheap RPCs over a user-local Unix socket.

Cloud providers (ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Polly) are intentionally not hostable in the daemon — their client init is milliseconds, so there is nothing worth keeping warm.

Defaults: daemon vs user config

When user config and the daemon meet, resolution is:

Situation	Result
daemon start without -p	Provider from daemon.provider config key → top-level provider config (if daemon-hostable) → chatterbox. A cloud speak-default (e.g. provider = "elevenlabs") is ignored here.
Bare gensay "…" with a cloud default provider	Cloud provider speaks directly (cold path); warm routing only engages for warm-eligible providers.
--via-daemon / warm routing without explicit -p	The running daemon decides. If your configured provider default differs, gensay prints a warning and forwards the request with no provider assertion.
--via-daemon with explicit -p	The provider is asserted; a daemon hosting a different one answers provider_mismatch (the fail-loud path for "you really meant it").

Rule of thumb: config picks your defaults, -p makes a claim, the daemon's resident model wins unless you make a claim.

# Start once per session (preloads model, detaches)
gensay daemon start -p chatterbox

# Ad-hoc speak — auto-routes to the daemon when provider is warm-eligible
gensay -p chatterbox "Build finished"
gensay -p chatterbox "Need your input"

# Force / forbid daemon routing
gensay --via-daemon -p chatterbox "must use daemon"
gensay --no-daemon -p chatterbox "cold path this time"
gensay --auto-daemon -p chatterbox "start daemon if missing"

# Lifecycle
gensay daemon status
gensay daemon status --json
gensay daemon stop

# Foreground (launchd / debugging)
gensay daemon run -p chatterbox

Environment knobs (twelve-factor):

Env	Meaning
GENSAY_RUNTIME_DIR	Directory for socket + pidfile
GENSAY_SOCKET	Explicit socket path
GENSAY_VIA_DAEMON	1 = require daemon
GENSAY_NO_DAEMON	1 = force cold path
GENSAY_AUTO_DAEMON	1 = auto-start when missing
GENSAY_DAEMON_IDLE_UNLOAD_S	Unload model after idle seconds (0 = never)
GENSAY_DAEMON_IDLE_EXIT_S	Exit process after idle seconds (0 = never)

Socket location defaults to platformdirs.user_runtime_dir("gensay") (not /tmp).

User config (per-user defaults)

Bare gensay "hello" can pick up preferred flags from a TOML file in the platform config dir (XDG on Linux):

Platform	Default path
Linux	~/.config/gensay/config.toml ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gensay/…)
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/gensay/config.toml
Override	GENSAY_CONFIG=/path/to/config.toml

Precedence: CLI flags > GENSAY_* env > config file > built-ins.

# Scaffold an annotated example, or set keys directly
gensay config init
gensay config path
gensay config keys
gensay config set provider chatterbox
gensay config set auto_daemon true
gensay config set daemon.provider chatterbox
gensay config get provider
gensay config get auto_daemon
gensay config unset voice
gensay config show
gensay config show --json

Example config.toml:

provider = "chatterbox"
voice = "default"
rate = 150
auto_daemon = true

[daemon]
provider = "chatterbox"
idle_unload_s = 0

After that, gensay "Build finished" uses chatterbox (and auto-starts the warm daemon if configured) without repeating flags.

Provider API keys

<provider>.api_key keys are secrets: config set stores them in the OS keychain (via keyring), never in the plaintext TOML file.

gensay config set elevenlabs.api_key '<your-key>'   # → Keychain/Secret Service
gensay config show    # prints "elevenlabs.api_key = (stored in OS keychain)"
gensay config unset elevenlabs.api_key              # removes from keychain

Runtime precedence: provider env var (ELEVENLABS_API_KEY, also via .env) > OS keychain.

REPL Mode

Start an interactive session where the provider is initialized once and reused for each prompt (in-process; no daemon required).

# Start REPL mode (--repl, --interactive, and -i are all equivalent)
gensay --repl
gensay --interactive
gensay -i

# With a specific provider and voice
gensay --provider openai -v nova --repl

# Chatterbox with REPL (keeps model loaded in this terminal)
gensay -p chatterbox -i

In REPL mode:

• Type text and press Enter to speak it
• Type exit or quit to exit
• Press Ctrl+C or Ctrl+D to exit

Python API

Basic Usage

from gensay import ChatterboxProvider, TTSConfig, AudioFormat

# Create provider
provider = ChatterboxProvider()

# Speak text
provider.speak("Hello from Python")

# Save to file
provider.save_to_file("Save this", "output.m4a")

# List voices
voices = provider.list_voices()
for voice in voices:
    print(f"{voice['id']}: {voice['name']}")

Advanced Configuration

from gensay import ChatterboxProvider, TTSConfig, AudioFormat

# Configure TTS
config = TTSConfig(
    voice="default",
    rate=150,
    format=AudioFormat.M4A,
    cache_enabled=True,
    extra={
        'show_progress': True,
        'chunk_size': 500
    }
)

# Create provider with config
provider = ChatterboxProvider(config)

# Add progress callback
def on_progress(progress: float, message: str):
    print(f"Progress: {progress:.0%} - {message}")

config.progress_callback = on_progress

# Use the configured provider
provider.speak("Text with all options configured")

Text Chunking

from gensay import chunk_text_for_tts, TextChunker

# Simple chunking
chunks = chunk_text_for_tts(long_text, max_chunk_size=500)

# Advanced chunking with custom strategy
chunker = TextChunker(
    max_chunk_size=1000,
    strategy="paragraph",  # or "sentence", "word", "character"
    overlap_size=50
)
chunks = chunker.chunk_text(document)

Provider Configurations

ElevenLabs

1. Install the optional dependency (requires PortAudio):

   pip install 'gensay[elevenlabs]'
   

2. Get an API key from ElevenLabs
3. Set the environment variable:

   export ELEVENLABS_API_KEY="your-api-key"
   

# List ElevenLabs voices
gensay --provider elevenlabs --list-voices

# Use a specific ElevenLabs voice
gensay --provider elevenlabs -v Rachel "Hello from ElevenLabs"

# Save to file with high quality
gensay --provider elevenlabs -o speech.mp3 "High quality AI speech"

OpenAI TTS

1. Get an API key from OpenAI Platform
2. Set the environment variable:

   export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
   

# List OpenAI voices
gensay --provider openai --list-voices

# Use a specific voice (alloy, ash, ballad, coral, echo, fable, onyx, nova, sage, shimmer)
gensay --provider openai -v nova "Hello from OpenAI"

# Save to file
gensay --provider openai -o speech.mp3 "OpenAI TTS output"

OpenAI offers two models via config.extra['model']:

• tts-1 (default): Faster, lower latency
• tts-1-hd: Higher quality audio

Amazon Polly

Option A - Environment variables:

1. Sign in to AWS Console
2. Go to IAM → Users → Create user
3. Attach the AmazonPollyReadOnlyAccess policy
4. Create access keys under Security credentials → Access keys
5. Configure credentials (choose one method):

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIA..."
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="..."
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="us-west-2"

Option B - AWS CLI v2:

This easy lets you sign in through the AWS Command Line Interface

export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-west-2
# on your desktop with a browser
aws login --region
# in an env without a browser
aws login --region --remote

# List Polly voices (60+ voices in many languages)
gensay --provider polly --list-voices

# Use a specific voice
gensay --provider polly -v Joanna "Hello from Amazon Polly"

# Save to file
gensay --provider polly -o speech.mp3 "Polly TTS output"

Polly supports multiple engines via config.extra['engine']:

• neural (default): Higher quality, natural-sounding
• standard: Lower cost, available for all voices

Advanced Features

Caching System

The caching system automatically stores generated audio to speed up repeated synthesis:

from gensay import TTSCache

# Create cache instance
cache = TTSCache(
    enabled=True,
    max_size_mb=10000,
    max_items=1000
)

# Get cache statistics
stats = cache.get_stats()
print(f"Cache size: {stats['size_mb']:.2f} MB")
print(f"Cached items: {stats['items']}")

# Clear cache
cache.clear()

Cache Location

Cache files are stored in platform-specific user cache directories:

• macOS: ~/Library/Caches/gensay
• Linux: ~/.cache/gensay
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\gensay\gensay\Cache

Managing Cache

# Show cache statistics
gensay --cache-stats

# Clear all cached audio
gensay --clear-cache

# Disable caching for a specific command
gensay --no-cache "Text to synthesize without caching"

Manual Deletion

To manually delete the cache, remove the cache directory:

# macOS/Linux
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/gensay  # macOS
rm -rf ~/.cache/gensay          # Linux

# Windows (PowerShell)
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $env:LOCALAPPDATA\gensay\gensay\Cache

Creating Custom Providers

from gensay.providers import TTSProvider, TTSConfig, AudioFormat
from typing import Optional, Union, Any
from pathlib import Path

class MyCustomProvider(TTSProvider):
    def speak(self, text: str, voice: Optional[str] = None,
              rate: Optional[int] = None) -> None:
        # Your implementation
        self.update_progress(0.5, "Halfway done")
        # ... generate and play audio ...
        self.update_progress(1.0, "Complete")

    def save_to_file(self, text: str, output_path: Union[str, Path],
                     voice: Optional[str] = None, rate: Optional[int] = None,
                     format: Optional[AudioFormat] = None) -> Path:
        # Your implementation
        return Path(output_path)

    def list_voices(self) -> list[dict[str, Any]]:
        return [
            {'id': 'voice1', 'name': 'Voice One', 'language': 'en-US'}
        ]

    def get_supported_formats(self) -> list[AudioFormat]:
        return [AudioFormat.WAV, AudioFormat.MP3]

Async Support

All providers support async operations:

import asyncio
from gensay import ChatterboxProvider

async def main():
    provider = ChatterboxProvider()

    # Async speak
    await provider.speak_async("Async speech")

    # Async save
    await provider.save_to_file_async("Async save", "output.m4a")

asyncio.run(main())

Development

This project uses just for common development tasks. First, install just:

# macOS (using Nix which you already have)
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.just

# Or using Homebrew
brew install just

# Or using cargo
cargo install just

Getting Started

# Setup development environment
just setup

# Run tests
just test

# Run all quality checks
just check

# See all available commands
just

Common Development Commands

Testing

# Run all tests
just test

# Run tests with coverage
just test-cov

# Run specific test
just test-specific tests/test_providers.py::test_mock_provider_speak

# Quick test (mock provider only)
just quick-test

Python version support

just test runs the nox matrix across Python 3.11–3.15.

• 3.15 is best-effort: verified against a pre-release interpreter (uv-managed 3.15.0a3); expect sharper edges until the final 3.15 release, and avoid claiming stable-grade 3.15 support to end users.
• Pre-release Pythons need modern Rust: on interpreters without published wheels, deps build from source and Rust-backed sdists (e.g. jiter via OpenAI) require rustup stable ≥ 1.88 (rustup update stable).

Code Quality

# Run linter
just lint

# Auto-fix linting issues
just lint-fix

# Format code
just format

# Type checking
just typecheck

# Run all checks (lint, format, typecheck)
just check

# Pre-commit checks (format, lint, test)
just pre-commit

Running the CLI

# Run with mock provider
just run-mock "Hello, world!"
just run-mock -v '?'

# Run with macOS provider
just run-macos "Hello from macOS"

# Cache management
just cache-stats
just cache-clear

Development Utilities

# Run example script
just demo

# Clean build artifacts
just clean

# Build package
just build

Manual Setup (without just)

If you prefer not to use just, here are the equivalent commands:

# Setup
uv venv
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Testing
uv run pytest -v
uv run pytest --cov=gensay --cov-report=term-missing

# Linting and formatting
uv run ruff check src tests
uv run ruff format src tests

# Type checking
uvx ty check src

Project Structure

gensay/
├── src/gensay/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── main.py              # CLI entry point
│   ├── providers/           # TTS provider implementations
│   │   ├── base.py         # Abstract base provider
│   │   ├── chatterbox.py   # Chatterbox provider
│   │   ├── macos_say.py    # macOS say wrapper
│   │   └── ...            # Other providers
│   ├── cache.py            # Caching system
│   └── text_chunker.py     # Text chunking logic
├── tests/                  # Test suite
├── examples/               # Example scripts
├── justfile                # Development commands
└── README.md

Code Style Guide

• Python 3.11+ with type hints
• Follow PEP8 and Google Python Style Guide
• Use ruff for linting and formatting
• Keep docstrings concise but informative
• Prefer pathlib.Path over os.path
• Use pytest for testing

License

gensay is distributed under the terms of the MIT license.