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agent-chime-rs

Audible notifications for agentic CLI workflows on macOS. Native Rust rewrite of agent-chime for faster startup and single-binary distribution.

When your agent yields or asks for a decision, you hear a short, clear audio cue (TTS or earcon) while still seeing the full text output.

Why Rust?

Aspect Python (agent-chime) Rust (agent-chime-rs)
Startup ~500ms ~10ms
Distribution Requires Python + venv Single binary
TTS Backend mlx-audio pocket-tts / qwen3-tts-rs
Memory Higher (Python runtime) Lower
Install uv sync cargo install or download binary

Features

  • Event hooks: Detect yield and decision moments from agent tools
  • CLI adapters: Pluggable adapters for claude, codex, opencode
  • TTS broker: Normalize messages into compact, spoken prompts
  • Multiple TTS backends: PocketTTS (CPU, fast) and Qwen3-TTS (quality, emotion)
  • Earcon fallback: Short audio cues when TTS fails or for specific events
  • Audio caching: LRU cache for repeated prompts

Supported CLI Tools

  • claude — Claude Code CLI
  • codex — OpenAI Codex CLI
  • opencode — OpenCode CLI

TTS Backends

We integrate community Rust ports built on Candle:

Backend Model Class Speed Use Case
pocket-tts PocketTTS 0.5B ~0.3x RT Default — fast, CPU-friendly
qwen3-tts-rs Qwen3-TTS 0.6B/1.7B ~0.5-0.7x RT VoiceDesign and higher‑quality voices

Both are local-first and support CPU inference. Qwen3-TTS is heavy; CPU-only runs are not recommended (expect high latency). Prefer Metal/CUDA acceleration and build with --features metal. Repeated prompts are cached, so common event phrases become near-instant after the first run.

Quick Start

Installation

# From crates.io (once published)
cargo install agent-chime

# Or build from source
git clone https://github.com/kevinmichaelchen/agent-chime-rs
cd agent-chime-rs
cargo build --release

Configure Your CLI Tool

Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [
      { "type": "command", "command": "agent-chime notify --source claude" }
    ],
    "Notification": [
      { "type": "command", "command": "agent-chime notify --source claude" }
    ],
    "PreToolUse": [
      { "type": "command", "command": "agent-chime notify --source claude" }
    ]
  }
}

Note: PreToolUse is only used for AskUserQuestion events; configure your Claude hooks to forward those to agent-chime so decision prompts are audible.

Codex

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

notify = ["agent-chime", "notify", "--source", "codex"]

OpenCode

Create .opencode/plugin/agent-chime.js:

export const AgentChimePlugin = async ({ $ }) => ({
  event: async ({ event }) => {
    if (event.type === "session.idle")
      await $`agent-chime notify --source opencode --event AGENT_YIELD`;
    if (event.type === "session.error")
      await $`agent-chime notify --source opencode --event ERROR_RETRY`;
    if (event.type === "permission.asked")
      await $`agent-chime notify --source opencode --event DECISION_REQUIRED`;
  },
});

Usage

CLI Commands

# Show system info and recommended TTS backend
agent-chime system-info
agent-chime system-info --json

# List available TTS models and cache status
agent-chime models
agent-chime models --json

# Test TTS synthesis
agent-chime test-tts
agent-chime test-tts --text "Hello world"
agent-chime test-tts --backend pocket-tts
agent-chime test-tts --backend qwen3-tts --instruct "A cheerful voice"

# Manage configuration
agent-chime config              # Show config path
agent-chime config --show       # Show current config as JSON
agent-chime config --init       # Create default config file
agent-chime config --validate   # Validate configuration

# Process notifications (called by hooks)
agent-chime notify --source claude    # Reads JSON from stdin
agent-chime notify --source codex     # Reads JSON from argv
agent-chime notify --source opencode --event AGENT_YIELD
agent-chime notify --source opencode --event AGENT_YIELD --summary "Build complete"

Configuration

Create ~/.config/agent-chime/config.json:

{
  "tts": {
    "backend": "pocket-tts",
    "voice": null,
    "instruct": null,
    "timeout_seconds": 10,
    "allow_downloads": true,
    "pocket_tts": {
      "variant": "b6369a24",
      "voice": "alba",
      "use_metal": false
    },
    "qwen3_tts": {
      "model": null,
      "tokenizer": null,
      "speaker": "Ryan",
      "language": "English",
      "ref_audio": null,
      "ref_text": null,
      "device": "auto"
    }
  },
  "volume": 0.8,
  "cache_max_mb": 100,
  "cache_max_entries": 1000,
  "voicepack": {
    "enabled": false,
    "manifest_path": "./voicepack/manifest.json",
    "routes": [
      {
        "pattern": "error|failed|timeout",
        "phrases": ["system.timeout_fallback"],
        "events": ["ERROR_RETRY"]
      }
    ]
  },
  "events": {
    "AGENT_YIELD": {
      "enabled": true,
      "mode": "tts",
      "template": "Ready."
    },
    "DECISION_REQUIRED": {
      "enabled": true,
      "mode": "tts",
      "template": "I need your input."
    },
    "ERROR_RETRY": {
      "enabled": true,
      "mode": "earcon"
    }
  }
}

Audio is cached on disk (LRU by modification time) to speed up repeated prompts. Tune cache_max_mb and cache_max_entries to fit your system. If synthesis exceeds tts.timeout_seconds, the process is terminated and earcons are used instead. Set timeout_seconds to 0 to disable the circuit breaker.

Voice Packs (Pre-Generated Audio)

Enable voicepack.enabled to play pre-generated audio files instead of doing on-device TTS. manifest_path should point at a voice pack manifest (see agent-chime-voicepack-spec). When routes match the last message, agent-chime will choose a phrase from those keys; otherwise it falls back to the event mapping in the manifest.

If voicepack.enabled is true and a pack can be selected, playback happens before any TTS or earcon fallback.

This repo ships a small dev voice pack under ./voicepack. Regenerate the audio files with:

cargo run --example voicepack_gen

Selection Order (Voice Packs)

  1. Extract a summary from the CLI payload (Claude/Codex). For OpenCode, pass --summary to enable routing by message text.
  2. If routes are configured, scan in order and pick the first regex match that also matches the current event (if events is set).
  3. If a route matches, select a random phrase from route.phrases. Otherwise, fall back to manifest.events[<event>].
  4. Select a random variant and play it. If playback fails, fall back to TTS and then earcons.

Enable debug logs to see which phrase/file was selected:

agent-chime -v notify --source opencode --event AGENT_YIELD --summary "Build complete"

TTS Backend Selection

Backend Best For Voice Options
pocket-tts Fast notifications, low memory Predefined voices (e.g. alba)
qwen3-tts High quality, expressive speech Speakers, voice cloning, VoiceDesign text

For VoiceDesign speech with Qwen3-TTS:

agent-chime test-tts \
  --backend qwen3-tts \
  --text "I need your input on this decision." \
  --instruct "A calm, professional voice with slight urgency"

Model Downloads

Both backends can download model assets from Hugging Face when allow_downloads is true. Set it to false if you require fully offline operation and provide local paths for qwen3_tts.model (and optional qwen3_tts.tokenizer) and pocket_tts.voice where needed. If the model repo requires authentication, set HF_TOKEN in your environment.

Qwen3-TTS Setup (Optional)

To use Qwen3-TTS, point tts.qwen3_tts.model at a local model directory or a Hugging Face model ID:

{
  "tts": {
    "backend": "qwen3-tts",
    "allow_downloads": true,
    "qwen3_tts": {
      "model": "Qwen/Qwen3-TTS-12Hz-0.6B-CustomVoice",
      "speaker": "Ryan",
      "language": "English"
    }
  }
}

For Base models that support voice cloning, set qwen3_tts.ref_audio (WAV) and optionally qwen3_tts.ref_text to enable ICL-style cloning.

Event Types

Event Description Default Mode
AGENT_YIELD Agent finished, waiting for user TTS: "Ready."
DECISION_REQUIRED Agent needs explicit input TTS: "I need your input."
ERROR_RETRY Recoverable error occurred Earcon

Documentation

Scope

In Scope

  • macOS only (Apple Silicon optimized)
  • English-only prompts
  • Short spoken messages (1-2 sentences max)
  • Minimal setup and config
  • Adapter system for claude, codex, opencode

Out of Scope (initial release)

  • Cross-platform support (Windows, Linux)
  • Long-form narration
  • GUI configuration

Building

Prereqs:

  • cmake (required by PocketTTS dependency)
  • pre-commit (for prek hooks)
  • dprint (for markdown formatting)
# Debug build
cargo build

# Release build
cargo build --release

# With Metal acceleration (macOS)
cargo build --release --features metal

# Minimal build (disable heavy TTS backends)
cargo build --release --no-default-features

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run with logging
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run -- system-info

Prek Hooks

pre-commit install
pre-commit run --all-files

License

MIT

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🔔 Audible notifications for agentic CLI workflows (Rust)

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