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Speech Synthesis

8.7. Speech Synthesis — Converting Text to Speech

10 native TTS providers

Edge TTS (free), ElevenLabs, OpenAI TTS, MiniMax, Mistral Voxtral, Google Gemini, xAI, NeuTTS, KittenTTS, Piper — plus the ability to attach any local CLI TTS via a custom command provider.

Works across all messaging platforms

Not just in the CLI — voice replies and voice message transcription work on all connected messaging platforms (Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp…), with no per-channel configuration.

Tool Gateway for TTS

Nous Portal bundles TTS (via OpenAI) into the Tool Gateway, in the same group as web search and image generation — a single OAuth login is enough, with no separate ElevenLabs/OpenAI account needed for the basic level.

Notes

  • Choose a provider to fit the need (detailed in chapter 16.6): ElevenLabs for the highest voice quality/cloning a voice, Piper/KittenTTS for private offline runs, OpenAI TTS via the gateway if you already have a Portal subscription.
  • For sensitive content that must be converted to speech, prefer a local provider (Piper/KittenTTS) so the data never leaves the machine — consistent with the “keep the surface handling sensitive data as narrow as possible” principle mentioned in chapters 11.3 and 16.6.
  • Test one real message through the exact messaging channel you plan to use before putting it into a production workflow — each platform has different display/audio-playback limits, so confirm directly rather than assume.