dsh-speak

dsh-speak 🔊 — Voice announcements for AI coding harnesses

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Let your agent tell you when a long task is done — no more staring at the screen.

dsh-speak reads the final assistant reply aloud through system speech synthesis — on Windows using natural voices (Windows 11 built-in, or [NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter] on Windows 10) with graceful fallback to stock voices; on macOS using the built-in say (can follow a Siri natural voice). It was built for DeepSeek Harness and is structured so any harness can plug in.

Features

• Automatic: DSH web plugin watches the session event stream and announces the

final reply (skips reasoning/tool-call narration, merges multi-step messages).

• Gets your attention: announces approval requests (hears "需要你的审批" when

the agent is waiting on you) and questions the agent asks via ask_user_question.

• Final-reply replay (1.7.0): every final reply (turn tail) has a 🔊 button

in its action bar — click to replay that message, click again to stop, click another to switch. Speech execution stays fully owned by the DSH host (keeps speaking even with the browser closed).

• Host speech queue (1.7.0): only one native speech process runs at a time;

queued items continue automatically. A WebSocket syncs the live state (which message is speaking, queue length) to the UI.

• Optional event announcements (1.6.0): turn end, command done, goal changes,

tool errors, and todo updates can each be announced, toggled independently (off by default).

• Visual configuration (1.7.0): a dedicated Settings → dsh-speak settings

page — every option (master switch, automatic speech, Markdown cleaning, code blocks, event toggles, fixed prompt, …) is editable from the Web UI, no hand-edited YAML.

• Master switch (1.6.0): silence everything with one toggle.
• Bundle auto-registration (1.3.0): declare the package in dsh.profile.bundles

and the plugin registers itself via the bundled cordis.patch.yml — no manual patch entry needed.

• Best-effort: never throws, never blocks the harness, never breaks a session.
• Natural voices: Windows prefers natural voices — Windows 11 built-in packs,

or voices registered via NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter on Windows 10 (e.g. Xiaoxiao); macOS uses the system reading voice (Siri natural voices on recent macOS). Both fall back to any installed voice.

• Robust text cleaning: strips markdown/URLs/emoji that make speech synthesis

fail silently, and guards the adapter's per-utterance character ceiling.

• Portable engine: any process can speak with one line:

Windows powershell -File speak.ps1 -Text "你好" / macOS ./speak.sh -t "你好".

How it works

harness event (DSH session event / Claude Code Stop hook / anything)
      │
      ▼  adapters/…  (harness-specific trigger: filter, throttle, cancel)
      ▼  engine/speak.ps1 / speak.sh  (harness-agnostic: clean text → SAPI5 / say)
      ▼  🔊 you hear the final reply

The adapter turns harness-specific events into engine calls; the engine cleans the text and speaks it, fully decoupled from any harness. Full design: docs/DESIGN.md.

Prerequisites

Windows:

• Windows 10 or 11, PowerShell (any recent version).
• Natural voices:
• Windows 11 (21H2–23H2): natural voice packs are built into the system —

no extra installation. Enable/switch them in *Settings → Accessibility → Narrator* or *Settings → Time & Language → Speech*.

• Windows 11 24H2/25H2: natural voices moved to MSIX app packages, which

System.Speech may not enumerate (falls back to a robotic stock voice). As on Windows 10, install NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter to bridge them.

• Windows 10: install

NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter and use its VoiceDownloader to download the natural voice pack(s) you want (Chinese or any other language).

• Without natural voices, the engine falls back to a stock voice (e.g. Huihui).

macOS:

• macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel), built-in say command — no extra software.
• Chinese voices: see the macOS section (incl. the Siri natural-voice

picker and its pitfalls).

Install & quick start

DSH — Option A: npm plugin (recommended)

# 1. install the plugin into your web profile (adds dsh-speak to
#    ~/.dsh/profiles/web/package.json dependencies)
dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-speak

# 2. register it in ~/.dsh/profiles/web/cordis.patch.yml
#    (for npm packages the bare package name is used — no file:/// URL needed):
#    - insert:
#        - id: speech-hook
#          name: 'dsh-speak'

# 3. restart the DSH web app — replies are now announced automatically

No pnpm? dsh plugin forwards to pnpm, which is not installed on every

machine. The exact same install can be done with npm directly:

复制代码

npm install --prefix "$env:USERPROFILE\.dsh\profiles\web" dsh-speak

On macOS (bash):

复制代码

npm install --prefix "$HOME/.dsh/profiles/web" dsh-speak

The engine ships inside the package (node_modules/dsh-speak/engine/), so no extra copying is needed.

Let your agent do it? Paste this repo URL

(https://github.com/Alan2Z/dsh-speak) into your DSH session and ask it to

install the plugin — your agent follows this very README. Approving the

out-of-workspace writes (~/.dsh) is all that's needed.

DSH — Option B: file install (no npm needed)

# 1. clone
git clone https://github.com/Alan2Z/dsh-speak.git
cd dsh-speak

# 2. one-command install: copies engine + plugin, registers in cordis.patch.yml
powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File adapters\dsh\install.ps1

# 3. verify the engine speaks
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$env:USERPROFILE\.dsh\hooks\speak.ps1" -Text "你好，语音播报已就绪。"

# 4. restart the DSH web app — replies are now announced automatically

What the file installer did:

macOS

The same adapter runs natively on macOS — the plugin auto-detects the platform and calls engine/speak.sh (the built-in say command) instead of speak.ps1. Since 1.2.0 the macOS engine ships in the npm package — no extra software.

# 1. install into your web profile (no pnpm needed — only `dsh plugin` requires it)
npm install --prefix "$HOME/.dsh/profiles/web" dsh-speak

# 2. register in ~/.dsh/profiles/web/cordis.patch.yml (bare package name — no file:/// URL):
#    - insert:
#        - id: speech-hook
#          name: 'dsh-speak'

# 3. no restart needed — the patch watcher hot-reloads; replies are announced
#    after the throttle (~1.5 s); tool-calling replies are announced at turn end

With pnpm installed, dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-speak works identically.

Voices (important — two pitfalls)

• By default the engine follows the system reading voice (*Settings →

Accessibility → Spoken Content → System Voice*). On macOS 26 that picker has an ⓘ circle icon next to it — click it for the full voice list; the plain dropdown does not contain the Siri natural voices. Pick e.g. "普通话 Siri 声音1（男声）" there.

• Siri voice (*Settings → Siri → Voice*) and the system reading voice are

two independent settings; Siri voices are not exposed to say -v '?' and cannot be selected by name — they only work as the system default.

• ⚠️ Pitfall 1 (reproduced): opening the "Spoken Content / Siri Voice" settings

pane — even without changing anything — drifts/resets the system voice to the classic "婷婷 (Tingting)". If the voice suddenly changes, re-pick it via the ⓘ entry.

• ⚠️ Pitfall 2: the log lives at $TMPDIR/dsh-speech-hook.log

(os.tmpdir() — not /tmp).

• Use -v Eddy|Flo|Tingting to force a specific voice (say -v '?' lists them).
• say has no volume flag — volume follows the system output volume.

Test the engine alone (no DSH needed)

curl -sfL -o ~/speak.sh "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/Alan2Z/dsh-speak@main/engine/speak.sh"
chmod +x ~/speak.sh
~/speak.sh -t "你好，Mac 版语音播报测试"
~/speak.sh -t "测试" -v Eddy -r 200              # explicit voice + rate

Claude Code

Register the Stop hook in ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\\path\\to\\dsh-speak\\adapters\\claude-code\\stop-hook.ps1"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Any other harness

Call the engine directly from your agent / wrapper / script:

# announce a one-liner
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File engine\speak.ps1 -Text "构建完成"

# announce a long summary (blocking, returns when done)
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File engine\speech-summary.ps1 -Text "…"

# ask for user attention (blocking, for prompts/approvals)
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File engine\speech-prompt.ps1 -Text "请做出选择"

Configuration

Engine parameters

See docs/DESIGN.md §5 configuration reference:

speak.ps1 -Text "…" -Volume 50 -Rate 1 -MaxChars 300 -LongTextMessage "本次播报内容较长，请自行阅读。"

DSH plugin config

Either way works, and they stay in sync (both write the same settings document):

1. Web UI (1.7.0, recommended): a dedicated Settings → dsh-speak settings

page. Every option is editable and saved there (visible in dsh --dump-config, per-profile, survives npm updates).

1. Profile patch config block (equivalent):

# ~/.dsh/profiles/web/cordis.patch.yml
- insert:
    - id: speech-hook
      name: 'dsh-speak'
      config:
        enabled: true           # master switch: false silences everything
        automaticSpeech: true   # auto-speak final replies
        queueAllMessages: false # true = enqueue every assistant message as it arrives
        replayFullRead: false   # true = manual replay skips the long-text truncation, reads everything
        cleanMarkdownFormatting: true # convert Markdown to natural speech
        readInlineCode: true    # read inline code without backticks
        codeBlocks: smart       # all | smart | replace (fenced code blocks)
        codeBlockMaxChars: 300  # smart-mode code block character limit
        codeBlockReplacementText: 'You can see the code in our history.' # replace-mode text
        throttleMs: 1500        # merge delay before announcing (ms)
        engine: ''              # engine path override; '' = auto-resolve
        announceApprovals: true # speak approval requests
        announceQuestions: true # speak ask_user_question content
        stripApprovalPrefix: true  # strip "escalate sandbox to ...: " prefix
        questionGapMs: 2000      # pause between multiple question announcements (ms)
        longTextMode: message   # message | heading (speak largest md heading)
        longTextMessage: '本次播报内容较长，请自行阅读。' # fixed prompt for message mode
        maxChars: 300           # per-utterance ceiling (macOS default 0 = unlimited)
        volume: 50              # Windows only
        rate: 0                 # 0 = engine default (Windows SAPI scale / macOS wpm)
        # —— optional event announcements (1.6.0, all off by default) ——
        announceTurnEnd: false     # turn/end — "第 N 轮对话完成"
        announceCommandDone: false # command/done — command finished/failed
        announceGoalChange: false  # goal/change — goal created/updated/completed
        announceToolErrors: false  # tool/result error — announce (english dropped)
        announceTodoWrite: false   # todo/write — todo list updated

Resolution order: schema default → patch config → UI user settings. Fields

written in YAML show up in the UI too. Platform note: maxChars defaults to

0 on macOS (say has no ceiling) and 300 on Windows (SAPI safe limit).

Option reference

Long-text modes

When cleaned text exceeds maxChars:

• message (default): speak longTextMessage (本次播报内容较长，请自行阅读。,

editable in the UI or YAML).

• heading: pick the *largest* markdown heading in the raw text — fewest #

wins, tie → first; if there is no heading line, the first non-empty line is used. The chosen candidate is still cleaned and subject to the maxChars ceiling, falling back to the message if it is itself too long.

Full architecture and design rationale: docs/DESIGN.md.

Customizing (survives npm updates)

You can tune behavior without forking, and your changes survive npm update:

1. Copy the engine out and edit it (recommended — this is where defaults live: volume,

rate, MaxChars, LongTextMessage, voice logic):

   # Windows
   Copy-Item "$env:USERPROFILE\.dsh\profiles\web\node_modules\dsh-speak\engine\speak.ps1" "$env:USERPROFILE\.dsh\hooks\my-speak.ps1"
   # macOS
   cp ~/.dsh/profiles/web/node_modules/dsh-speak/engine/speak.sh ~/.dsh/hooks/my-speak.sh

Then point the plugin at your copy in the config block:

   - insert:
       - id: speech-hook
         name: 'dsh-speak'
         config:
           engine: 'C:/Users/<you>/.dsh/hooks/my-speak.ps1'   # or ~/.dsh/hooks/my-speak.sh on macOS

The plugin resolves the engine as config.engine → package engine → ~/.dsh/hooks/, so your copy wins. npm update only touches the package — your engine stays.

1. Edit the file inside node_modules — works, but the next npm update overwrites it.

1. Fork the repo — full control, publish your own package if you want.

Troubleshooting

Plugin diagnostics: Windows %TEMP%\dsh-speech-hook.log; macOS $TMPDIR/dsh-speech-hook.log

Repository layout

engine/                  harness-agnostic speech engine (PowerShell + SAPI5 / bash + say)
  speak.ps1 / speak.sh   clean + speak (the only seam any adapter needs)
  speech-prompt.ps1      blocking short announcement
  speech-summary.ps1     blocking reply-summary announcement
adapters/
  dsh/                   DSH web plugin + one-command installer
    speech-hook.js       session-event trigger (throttle/cancel + optional events + FIFO speech queue + WebSocket + settings registration)
    install.ps1          copies + registers + backs up
  claude-code/
    stop-hook.ps1        Claude Code Stop hook trigger
client/
  client.js              DSH browser bundle: turn-tail Speak/Stop button + Settings → dsh-speak settings page
docs/
  DESIGN.md              full design rationale, pitfalls, extension guide

Writing a new adapter

Three reference patterns exist: event-stream (DSH), stop-hook (Claude Code), agent-called (speech-summary.ps1 from a shell). In every case the adapter only needs to: capture the *final reply text* → invoke the engine. See docs/DESIGN.md §7.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

[NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter]: https://github.com/gexgd0419/NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter