TalkToMePy TTS (Deprecated)

Deprecation Status

• Status: Deprecated

• Scope: Legacy-only, backward compatibility

• Successor: Use the speech workflow successor in gaelic-ghost/a11y-skills for new automation and active maintenance.

• Guidance: Do not choose this skill for new setups unless you explicitly need this older TalkToMePy-specific behavior.

Use this skill when the user asks to hear text spoken aloud from the local machine.

Post-Invocation Resolution Rules

Apply these rules before synthesis to make speech-source selection deterministic in ambiguous contexts.

Invocation detection

• Treat the skill as invoked when the user clearly calls it, including skill chip/link invocation, $talktomepy-tts , or equivalent direct imperative phrasing.

• Ignore incidental mention in unrelated prose.

Source text precedence

• Suffix invocation pattern:

• If invocation appears at the end of the user message, speak the user text before the invocation token.

• Standalone invocation pattern:

• If the user message is only the invocation, speak the immediately previous assistant message.

• Prefix invocation pattern:

• If invocation appears at the beginning of a longer user message, speak the immediately previous assistant message.

• After speaking, continue responding to the remaining user message normally.

No-prior-assistant fallback

• Standalone invocation with no previous assistant message:

• Explain there is no prior assistant message to read.

• Ask whether the user wants to provide text, or wants current text spoken.

• Prefix invocation with no previous assistant message:

• Explain the chat has no earlier assistant message.

• Ask whether to speak the current user text.

• If the user is upset or confused, explain invocation-placement rules and how to trigger the behavior they want.

• Suffix invocation:

• Speak the preceding user text even when no prior assistant message exists.

Long-content handling

• Estimate length using approximate whitespace-based word count.

• If selected text is longer than about 250 words, ask before synthesis with choices:

• Speak full

• Summarize then speak (recommended)

• Cancel

• If the user chooses summary, generate a concise summary first, then synthesize the summary.

• If the user chooses cancel, do not synthesize.

User dissatisfaction fallback

• If the user is displeased with the skill's default behavior or capabilities, offer to help adapt their own version.

• Offer options:

• Fork and customize from gaelic-ghost/productivity-skills.

• Use $skill-creator to create a custom variant modeled after this skill.

• Open an issue at repository issues.

• Prepare and submit a PR at repository pull requests.

• Contact Gale via GitHub profile to discuss improvements.

Execution order

• Resolve source text using the rules above.

• Apply long-content confirmation behavior if needed.

• Run the existing synthesis flow.

• Preserve existing load/retry/playback behavior.

What this skill does

• Calls the local TalkToMePy v0.5+ service (/health , /model/load , /model/status , /synthesize/voice-design )

• Handles async model loading behavior (/model/load may return 202 )

• Retries synthesis on 503 using Retry-After

• Saves generated WAV output to ./tts_outputs in the current working directory by default

• Plays audio via afplay on macOS

Preconditions

• TalkToMePy service is running (default http://127.0.0.1:8000 )

• macOS afplay is available

Default workflow

• Resolve which text to speak using post-invocation resolution rules.

• Ensure service is healthy:

• curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8000/health

• Trigger model load (idempotent):

• curl -sS -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/model/load -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"mode":"voice_design","strict_load":false}'

• Wait for ready state via /model/status

• Synthesize + save + play using bundled script:

• scripts/speak_with_talktomepy.sh --text "..."

Script usage

scripts/speak_with_talktomepy.sh --text "Read this text aloud"

Defaults:

• language : English

• default style: energetic (warm/friendly/brisk feminine-or-androgynous)

• output path: ./tts_outputs/tts-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.wav

Style preset flags:

• --style-energetic

• --style-soft

• --style-neutral

Alternative style syntax:

• --style energetic|soft|neutral

Optional flags:

• --instruct "..." fully custom voice/style instruction

• --language English

• --base-url http://127.0.0.1:8000

• --save /path/output.wav custom save path

• --no-play generate only, do not play

Optional env var overrides:

• TALKTOMEPY_BASE_URL

• TALKTOMEPY_OUTPUT_DIR

• TALKTOMEPY_MAX_WAIT_SECONDS

• TALKTOMEPY_MAX_SYNTH_RETRIES

• TALKTOMEPY_DEFAULT_RETRY_AFTER_SECONDS

Automation Templates

Use $talktomepy-tts inside automation prompts so Codex loads the service checks and synthesis guardrails in this skill.

For ready-to-fill Codex App and Codex CLI (codex exec ) templates, including unattended-safe defaults (--no-play ) and placeholders, use:

• references/automation-prompts.md

References

• Automation prompt templates: references/automation-prompts.md

If synthesis fails, surface HTTP status/body and suggest checking:

• /model/status

• launchd logs: ~/Library/Logs/talktomepy.stderr.log