scitex-audio 0.2.6

Text-to-Speech with multiple backends for scientific workflows

SciTeX Audio (scitex-audio)

Text-to-Speech with multiple backends for scientific workflows

Full Documentation · pip install scitex-audio

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Problem

Scientific workflows increasingly rely on AI agents that often run in parallel on remote servers or headless environments. Researchers may prefer auditory feedback over text — for experiment completion notifications, error alerts, or accessibility — but have no direct access to audio hardware.

Solution

SciTeX Audio provides a unified TTS interface with automatic backend fallback and smart local/remote routing to speakers on your desktop. It works on local machines, remote servers (via relay), and WSL environments with automatic audio path detection.

Backend	Quality	Cost	Internet	Offline	Default Speed
ElevenLabs	High	Paid	Required	No	1.2x
LuxTTS	High	Free	First download	Yes	2.0x
Google TTS	Good	Free	Required	No	1.5x
System TTS	Basic	Free	No	Yes	150 wpm

_{Table 1. Supported TTS backends. The fallback order (elevenlabs → luxtts → gtts → pyttsx3) ensures the best available quality is always used.}

Installation

Requires Python >= 3.10.

pip install scitex-audio

Install with specific backends:

pip install scitex-audio[gtts]         # Google TTS
pip install scitex-audio[pyttsx3]      # System TTS (+ apt install espeak-ng)
pip install scitex-audio[elevenlabs]   # ElevenLabs
pip install scitex-audio[luxtts]       # LuxTTS (voice cloning, offline)
pip install scitex-audio[all]          # Everything

Quick Start

from scitex_audio import speak, available_backends

# Check what's available
print(available_backends())  # e.g., ['gtts', 'pyttsx3']

# Speak with auto-selected backend
speak("Hello from SciTeX Audio!")

# Choose a specific backend
speak("Bonjour", backend="gtts", voice="fr")

# Save without playing
speak("Save this", output_path="output.mp3", play=False)

Four Interfaces

Python API

import scitex_audio

scitex_audio.speak("Hello!")                         # auto backend
scitex_audio.speak("Fast", backend="gtts", speed=1.5)
scitex_audio.available_backends()                    # list backends
scitex_audio.check_wsl_audio()                       # WSL audio status
scitex_audio.generate_bytes("As bytes")              # raw MP3 bytes
scitex_audio.stop_speech()                           # kill playback

tts = scitex_audio.get_tts("gtts")                   # get engine
tts.speak("With engine", voice="fr")

Full API reference

CLI Commands

scitex-audio --help-recursive             # Show all commands
scitex-audio speak "Hello world"          # Speak text
scitex-audio speak "Bonjour" -b gtts -v fr
scitex-audio backends                     # List backends
scitex-audio check                        # Audio status (WSL)
scitex-audio stop                         # Stop playback
scitex-audio relay --port 31293           # Start relay server
scitex-audio list-python-apis             # List Python API tree
scitex-audio mcp list-tools               # List MCP tools

Full CLI reference

MCP Server — for AI Agents

AI agents can speak through the MCP protocol for notifications and accessibility. The agent generates text, the MCP server synthesizes speech on the host machine, and audio plays through the user's local speakers — even when the agent runs on a remote server (via the relay on port 31293).

Tool	Description
audio_speak	Convert text to speech with backend fallback
list_backends	List available TTS backends and status
check_audio_status	Check WSL audio connectivity
announce_context	Announce current directory and git branch

_{Table 2. Four MCP tools available for AI-assisted audio. All tools accept JSON parameters and return JSON results.}

Claude Code Setup

Add .mcp.json to your project root. Use SCITEX_AUDIO_ENV_SRC to load all configuration from a .src file — this keeps .mcp.json static across environments:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scitex-audio": {
      "command": "scitex-audio",
      "args": ["mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "SCITEX_AUDIO_ENV_SRC": "${SCITEX_AUDIO_ENV_SRC}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then switch environments via your shell profile:

# Local machine (has speakers)
export SCITEX_AUDIO_ENV_SRC=~/.scitex/audio/local.src

# Remote server (no speakers, uses relay)
export SCITEX_AUDIO_ENV_SRC=~/.scitex/audio/remote.src

Generate a template .src file:

scitex-audio env-template -o ~/.scitex/audio/local.src

Example local.src:

export SCITEX_AUDIO_MODE=local
export SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_PORT=31293
export SCITEX_AUDIO_ELEVENLABS_API_KEY="your-key-here"

Example remote.src:

export SCITEX_AUDIO_MODE=remote
export SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_PORT=31293
export SCITEX_AUDIO_ELEVENLABS_API_KEY="your-key-here"

Or install globally:

scitex-audio mcp install

Full MCP specification

Skills — for AI Agent Discovery

Skills provide workflow-oriented guides that AI agents query to discover capabilities and usage patterns.

scitex-audio skills list              # List available skill pages
scitex-audio skills get SKILL         # Show main skill page
scitex-dev skills export --package scitex-audio  # Export to Claude Code

Skill	Content
quick-start	Basic usage, first call, return values
available-backends	All TTS backends, capabilities, install commands
smart-routing	Auto/local/remote modes, relay server, SSH tunneling
cli-commands	Complete CLI reference
mcp-tools-for-ai-agents	MCP tools and installation
common-workflows	Notification patterns, multi-backend, save audio

Remote Audio Relay

When agents run on remote servers (NAS, cloud, HPC), they have no speakers. The relay server solves this: the local machine (with speakers) runs a lightweight HTTP server, and the remote agent sends speech requests over an SSH tunnel.

Architecture

Remote Server (NAS/Cloud)          Local Machine (has speakers)
┌─────────────────────┐            ┌──────────────────────┐
│ AI Agent            │            │ Relay Server         │
│   speak("Hello")    │            │   scitex-audio relay │
│     ↓               │            │     ↓                │
│ POST /speak ────────┼── SSH ─────┼→ TTS engine          │
│   (port 31293)      │  tunnel    │     ↓                │
│                     │            │   🔊 Speakers        │
└─────────────────────┘            └──────────────────────┘

Setup

Step 1: Start relay on local machine (has speakers)

scitex-audio relay --port 31293

Step 2: SSH tunnel from local to remote

Add to your ~/.ssh/config:

Host my-server
  HostName 192.168.0.69
  User myuser
  RemoteForward 31293 127.0.0.1:31293   # Audio relay

Then connect: ssh my-server. The tunnel maps remote port 31293 back to your local relay.

Step 3: Configure remote environment

On the remote server, set:

export SCITEX_AUDIO_MODE=remote
export SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_PORT=31293
# URL is auto-detected from the tunnel (localhost:31293)

Now speak("Hello") on the remote server plays audio on your local speakers.

Relay Endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description
/speak	POST	Play TTS ({"text": "...", "backend": "gtts"})
/health	GET	Health check (returns {"status": "ok"})
/list_backends	GET	List available backends

Auto-Start Relay (Shell Profile)

Add to your shell profile (e.g., ~/.bashrc) on the local machine (the one with speakers):

export SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_PORT=31293
export SCITEX_AUDIO_MODE=local

_audio_health_ok() {
    local port="${SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_PORT:-31293}"
    curl -sf --connect-timeout 2 "http://localhost:$port/health" >/dev/null 2>&1
}

_start_audio_relay() {
    local port="${SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_PORT:-31293}"

    # Already healthy -> skip
    _audio_health_ok && return

    # Start relay in background
    scitex-audio relay --port "$port" --force &>/dev/null &
    disown
}

_start_audio_relay

On the remote server (NAS, cloud, HPC), add to the shell profile:

export SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_PORT=31293
export SCITEX_AUDIO_MODE=remote
# Relay URL is auto-detected from the SSH RemoteForward tunnel

With this setup, every SSH session automatically has audio routed back to your speakers. AI agents (Claude Code, etc.) running on the remote server call speak() and the audio plays locally.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
SCITEX_AUDIO_MODE	auto	Audio mode: local, remote, or auto
SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_URL	(auto)	Full relay URL (e.g., http://localhost:31293)
SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_HOST	(none)	Relay host (combined with port to build URL)
SCITEX_AUDIO_RELAY_PORT	31293	Relay server port
SCITEX_AUDIO_HOST	0.0.0.0	Relay server bind host
SCITEX_AUDIO_ELEVENLABS_API_KEY	(none)	ElevenLabs API key
SCITEX_DIR	~/.scitex	Base directory for audio cache files
SCITEX_CLOUD	(none)	Set to true for browser relay mode (OSC escape)

_{Table 3. Environment variables. Port 31293 encodes "sa-i-te-ku-su" (サイテクス) in Japanese phone keypad mapping.}

Mode Resolution

• auto (default): Checks local audio availability. If suspended/unavailable and relay URL detected, routes to relay. Otherwise uses local.
• local: Always use local TTS engine and speakers.
• remote: Always send speech to relay server. Fails if relay unreachable.

Part of SciTeX

SciTeX Audio is part of SciTeX.

The SciTeX system follows the Four Freedoms for Research below, inspired by the Free Software Definition:

Four Freedoms for Research

0. The freedom to run your research anywhere — your machine, your terms.
1. The freedom to study how every step works — from raw data to final manuscript.
2. The freedom to redistribute your workflows, not just your papers.
3. The freedom to modify any module and share improvements with the community.

AGPL-3.0 — because we believe research infrastructure deserves the same freedoms as the software it runs on.

Acknowledgements

• LuxTTS — open-source, offline TTS engine with voice cloning support

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