nixpkgs/pkgs/talk/README.md

talk

ElevenLabs TTS voice notifications with a dismissable desktop popup. Generates speech from text via the ElevenLabs API, plays it through mpv, and shows a notification with a ⛔ Abbrechen button to stop playback.

Usage

Argument

talk "Build abgeschlossen. Alle Tests erfolgreich."

Stdin (pipe)

echo "Deployment fertig" | talk
nixos-rebuild build 2>&1 | tail -3 | talk
pi -p "Fasse zusammen" | talk

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY	✅	—	API key for ElevenLabs
ELEVENLABS_VOICE_ID	❌	KXxZd16DiBqt82nbarJx	Voice ID to use
VOICE_NOTIFY	❌	1	Set to 0 to silence all output

How It Works

1. Sends text to ElevenLabs text-to-speech API → receives MP3
2. Plays audio via mpv (background)
3. Shows notify-send popup with ⛔ Abbrechen action (background)
4. Polls every 0.2s:
   • If mpv finished → kill notification, exit
   • If user clicked Abbrechen → kill mpv, exit
5. Cleans up temp files on exit

Cancel Button

The notification popup has a ⛔ Abbrechen action button. Clicking it kills mpv playback immediately. The popup disappears when audio finishes or is cancelled.

The poll loop uses [ -s ] (non-empty file check) on the action output file. This ensures the loop only reacts when notify-send actually writes the action key — not when the empty file is created by the shell redirect.

Integration Patterns

After long-running tasks

nixos-rebuild switch 2>&1 | tail -5 | talk

With AI agents (print mode)

# Pi
pi -p "Review diesen Code" | talk

# OpenCode
opencode run "Erkläre diese Funktion" -q | talk

With crunch (scheduled jobs)

crunch ai pi daily "08:00" "Fasse Basecamp Todos zusammen"
# → talk speaks the summary at 08:00

NixOS Installation

# home-manager
home.packages = [ pkgs.m3ta.talk ];

# Requires in environment:
environment.sessionVariables.ELEVENLABS_API_KEY = "your-key";
# Or via agenix secrets

Dependencies

• curl — API calls
• python3 — JSON payload construction
• mpv — audio playback
• libnotify — desktop notification
• busybox — coreutils (rm, cat, grep, sleep, kill, stat)