UtterPlan

UtterPlan is the canonical, engine-independent semantic compiler from one SSMD document (or explicitly selected plain-text document) to an executable speech plan. It produces deterministic language runs, prepared text, segments, resolved pauses, portable metadata, directives, markers, and render units shared by independent consumers such as ttsready and Readio. It does not manage books or consumer workspaces, and stops before G2P, synthesis, and audio.

CLI

Compile literal text directly:

utterplan compile "Doctor Smith bought 5 kg." --input-format plain --language en-us --json

Compile a file to a plan file:

utterplan compile examples/chapter.ssmd -o chapter.utterplan.json

SSMD header language is authoritative, so --language is optional when it is present. Otherwise pass --language as the fallback; plain input always requires a language. --language never forces a language over SSMD semantics.

Use stdin and shell pipelines:

cat examples/chapter.ssmd | utterplan compile --lang en-us --input-format ssmd | jq .

The CLI also provides:

utterplan --version
utterplan validate chapter.utterplan.json
utterplan inspect chapter.utterplan.json --segment 0
utterplan explain chapter.utterplan.json

explain presents the compiled plan as a human-readable speech plan, while inspect exposes lower-level diagnostic fields. Compile JSON is written to stdout when no output file is supplied. Status messages use stderr, and existing output files require --force.

SSMD source contract

UtterPlan accepts SSMD 0.9 syntax only. Use document_format="ssmd" or --input-format ssmd to compile canonical unversioned fragments as SSMD 0.9. Automatic detection recognizes .ssmd, .ssmd.md, and Markdown files with an SSMD version header; ordinary Markdown remains plain text.

Migrate older SSMD source before compilation with the SSMD project's migration command:

ssmd migrate old.ssmd --to 0.9

utterplan migrate is only for historical .utterplan.json schema migration. It does not migrate SSMD source.

Planning defaults

The minimal CLI defaults are explicit: spokenform is the default text-preparation backend, tts is the default pause mode, and spacy off is the default linguistic-resource policy. With spacy off, UtterPlan uses its deterministic fallback tokenizer and analysis and does not depend on an installed spaCy model.

Python PlannerConfig defaults to document_format="plain"; set it to "ssmd" when a Python string contains SSMD source.

spacy auto is opt-in. When enabled and a compatible local model is available, UtterPlan may expose richer tokenization, POS tags, lemmas, and tags; auto is not the default.

Python API

from utterplan import PlannerConfig, UtterancePlan, compile_document

ssmd_source = """---
ssmd_version: "0.9"
language: en-GB
---
Hello [world]{emphasis="strong"}.
"""
result = compile_document(
    ssmd_source,
    input_format="ssmd",
    config=PlannerConfig(language="en-us"),  # fallback; header language wins
    trace=True,
)
plan = result.plan
assert result.trace is not None
plan.save("example.utterplan.json")
assert UtterancePlan.load("example.utterplan.json") == plan

compile_document is the stable public one-document API shared by consumers. The immutable CompileResult contains the semantic plan, diagnostics, and optional explanatory trace. Trace is not serialized in the plan and does not affect its identity. Plain text must be explicitly selected in Python and always requires a language fallback. Existing UtterancePlanner.plan remains supported and returns only the plan; JSON is the portable persistence and interchange format.

Renderer-consumer boundary

Renderers consume PlanSegment.text, which is prepared/spoken text, and use spoken_start/spoken_end for spoken-text coordinates. Resolved segment pauses, language, directives, annotations, boundaries, markers, units, and document metadata are public plan fields. Plans contain no phonemes, model tokens, model sessions, renderer configuration, provider documents, or audio. For SSMD input, plan.annotations preserve declared source semantics and source provenance, document_metadata preserves portable header data, and segment.directives carries effective typed semantics after scope and voice-default resolution. Typed directives include voice, pronunciation, prosody, emphasis, say-as, substitution, audio references, and extension references. Audio and extensions are data only. UtterPlan does not fetch media or execute extension handlers.

The intended dependency direction is:

PyKokoro or another renderer -> UtterPlan

UtterPlan does not depend on PyKokoro, G2P engines, ONNX Runtime, or audio packages. Consumer-specific compatibility tests belong in the consuming renderer repository rather than UtterPlan's test suite.

Documentation

• Getting started
• CLI
• Format and schema
• Consumer guide
• Architecture
• Coordinates
• PyKokoro integration
• Python API
• Debugging
• Changelog

Versions

The package version is dynamically derived from Git tags by setuptools-scm. Package version and UtterPlan schema version are independent. Current plans use schema v3; released schema v1 and v2 remain immutable and supported through sequential v1-to-v2-to-v3 and direct v2-to-v3 migrations.

Schema v3 adds typed renderer-neutral SSMD semantics. Migration converts serialized plan data only. It does not reparse source, replan, or rerun linguistic analysis, G2P, rendering, or audio processing. Unit hashes retain the utterplan-unit-v2 algorithm. Schema v3 persists final pass-B token facts, including optional POS, tag, lemma, and morphology, plus per-language-run provider provenance. Unit hashes include pronunciation-relevant token semantics but exclude model/audio state.

Development

python -m pip install -e '.[dev,docs]'
python -m pytest -q
ruff check .
mypy utterplan
python -m build
sphinx-build -W --keep-going -b html docs docs/_build/html