kokoro-tts-tool

A CLI that provides local text-to-speech using Kokoro TTS on Apple Silicon. No API keys required.

Table of Contents

• About
• Features
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Usage
• Infinite Streaming
• Available Voices
• Multi-Level Verbosity Logging
• Shell Completion
• Development
• Testing
• Security
• Contributing
• License
• Author

About

kokoro-tts-tool is a Python CLI tool for local text-to-speech synthesis using the Kokoro-82M model. It runs entirely on your machine with no cloud dependencies, optimized for Apple Silicon Macs.

Key highlights:

• Local inference: Uses ONNX runtime for fast, CPU-optimized synthesis
• 60+ voices: Multiple languages and accents (English, Japanese, Mandarin, etc.)
• Near real-time: Fast enough for interactive use on Apple Silicon
• Infinite streaming: Continuous TTS for long documents without audio artifacts
• No API keys: Everything runs locally, completely free

Features

• Local TTS with Kokoro-82M (82 million parameters)
• 60+ voices across 8 languages
• Near real-time synthesis on Apple Silicon
• Auto-download of model files (~350MB)
• WAV output or direct speaker playback
• Infinite streaming for long documents (books, articles)
• Seamless audio without pop artifacts between chunks
• Fast offline rendering (20-50x real-time on M4)
• Type-safe with mypy strict mode
• Tested with pytest
• Multi-level verbosity logging (-v/-vv/-vvv)
• Shell completion for bash, zsh, and fish
• Security scanning with bandit, pip-audit, and gitleaks

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.14 or higher
• uv package manager
• Apple Silicon Mac (recommended) or any platform with Python 3.14+

Install from source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dnvriend/kokoro-tts-tool.git
cd kokoro-tts-tool

# Install globally with uv
uv tool install .

Install with mise (recommended for development)

cd kokoro-tts-tool
mise trust
mise install
uv sync
uv tool install .

Verify installation

kokoro-tts-tool --version

Quick Start

# 1. Initialize (downloads models on first run, ~350MB)
kokoro-tts-tool init

# 2. Synthesize text to speakers
kokoro-tts-tool synthesize "Hello world!"

# 3. Save to file
kokoro-tts-tool synthesize "Hello world!" --output hello.wav

# 4. Use different voice
kokoro-tts-tool synthesize "This is Adam." --voice am_adam

# 5. List available voices
kokoro-tts-tool list-voices

Usage

Commands

# Show all commands
kokoro-tts-tool --help

# Download/update models
kokoro-tts-tool init

# Synthesize text
kokoro-tts-tool synthesize "Your text here"
kokoro-tts-tool synthesize "Your text" --output speech.wav
kokoro-tts-tool synthesize "Your text" --voice bf_emma --speed 1.2

# Read from stdin
echo "Hello from stdin" | kokoro-tts-tool synthesize --stdin

# List voices
kokoro-tts-tool list-voices
kokoro-tts-tool list-voices --language English
kokoro-tts-tool list-voices --gender Female
kokoro-tts-tool list-voices --json

# Show configuration
kokoro-tts-tool info

Synthesize Options

Infinite Streaming

Stream long documents (books, articles, study materials) without audio artifacts:

# Stream a markdown file to speakers
kokoro-tts-tool infinite --input book.md

# Render to WAV file (fast offline mode, 20-50x real-time on M4)
kokoro-tts-tool infinite --input book.md --output audiobook.wav

# Pipe from stdin
cat chapter.md | kokoro-tts-tool infinite --stdin

# With custom voice and speed
kokoro-tts-tool infinite --input notes.md --voice am_adam --speed 1.2

Infinite Streaming Options

Available Voices

The tool includes 60+ voices across 8 languages:

American English (20 voices)

British English (8 voices)

Other Languages

• Japanese: jf_alpha, jm_kumo, and more
• Mandarin: zf_xiaobei, zm_yunjian, and more
• Spanish: ef_dora, em_alex
• French: ff_siwis
• Hindi: hf_alpha, hm_omega
• Italian: if_sara, im_nicola
• Portuguese (Brazilian): pf_dora, pm_alex

Run kokoro-tts-tool list-voices for the complete list.

Voice Quality Grades

• A/A-: Highest quality, recommended for production
• B+/B: Good quality
• B-: Acceptable quality

Multi-Level Verbosity Logging

The CLI supports progressive verbosity levels for debugging:

# Quiet mode
kokoro-tts-tool synthesize "Hello"

# With debug output
kokoro-tts-tool -vv synthesize "Hello"

Shell Completion

The CLI provides native shell completion for bash, zsh, and fish:

# Bash - add to ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(kokoro-tts-tool completion bash)"' >> ~/.bashrc

# Zsh - add to ~/.zshrc
echo 'eval "$(kokoro-tts-tool completion zsh)"' >> ~/.zshrc

# Fish - save to completions
mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions
kokoro-tts-tool completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/kokoro-tts-tool.fish

Development

Setup Development Environment

git clone https://github.com/dnvriend/kokoro-tts-tool.git
cd kokoro-tts-tool
make install
make help

Available Make Commands

make install         # Install dependencies
make format          # Format code
make lint            # Run linting
make typecheck       # Type checking
make test            # Run tests
make security        # Security scans
make check           # All checks
make pipeline        # Full pipeline

Project Structure

kokoro-tts-tool/
├── kokoro_tts_tool/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── cli.py              # CLI entry point
│   ├── engine.py           # TTS engine wrapper
│   ├── models.py           # Model management
│   ├── voices.py           # Voice definitions
│   ├── splitter.py         # Text chunking for long documents
│   ├── streaming.py        # Audio streaming for speaker playback
│   ├── utils.py            # Utilities
│   ├── logging_config.py   # Logging setup
│   ├── completion.py       # Shell completion
│   └── commands/           # CLI commands
│       ├── synthesize_commands.py
│       ├── voice_commands.py
│       ├── init_commands.py
│       ├── info_commands.py
│       └── infinite_commands.py
├── tests/
├── references/             # Research documentation
├── plugins/                # Claude Code plugin
├── pyproject.toml
├── Makefile
├── README.md
└── CLAUDE.md

Testing

# Run all tests
make test

# Run tests with verbose output
uv run pytest tests/ -v

Security

The project includes security scanning:

# Run all security checks
make security

# Individual scans
make security-bandit       # Python security linting
make security-pip-audit    # Dependency CVE scanning
make security-gitleaks     # Secret detection

Prerequisites

# Install gitleaks (macOS)
brew install gitleaks

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Run make pipeline
5. Submit a Pull Request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Author

Dennis Vriend - @dnvriend

Acknowledgments

• Kokoro-82M - The TTS model
• kokoro-onnx - ONNX implementation
• Click - CLI framework
• uv - Fast Python tooling

Generated with AI

This project was generated using Claude Code.

Made with Python 3.14