ElevenLabs - Text-to-Speech & Podcast Skill

Overview

This skill converts text and documents into high-quality audio using ElevenLabs TTS API. It supports two modes: single-voice narration and two-host conversational podcast generation.

When to Use This Skill

Activate when the user mentions:

• "create podcast", "generate podcast", "podcast from document"
• "narrate document", "narrate this file", "read aloud"
• "text to speech", "TTS", "convert to audio"
• "audio from document", "audio version of"

Setup

Config at skills/elevenlabs/config.json:

{
  "api_key": "your-elevenlabs-api-key",
  "default_voice": "JBFqnCBsd6RMkjVDRZzb",
  "default_model": "eleven_multilingual_v2",
  "podcast_voice1": "JBFqnCBsd6RMkjVDRZzb",
  "podcast_voice2": "EXAVITQu4vr4xnSDxMaL"
}

Only api_key is required. Or set ELEVENLABS_API_KEY env var.

Dependencies: pip install PyPDF2 python-docx (only needed for PDF/DOCX files).

Requires ffmpeg for multi-chunk narration and podcasts.

Commands

List Voices

python skills/elevenlabs/scripts/elevenlabs.py voices
python skills/elevenlabs/scripts/elevenlabs.py voices --json

Use this to find voice IDs for the user.

Single-Voice TTS

# From text
python skills/elevenlabs/scripts/elevenlabs.py tts --text "Hello world" --output ~/Downloads/hello.mp3

# From document
python skills/elevenlabs/scripts/elevenlabs.py tts --file /path/to/doc.pdf --output ~/Downloads/narration.mp3

# With specific voice
python skills/elevenlabs/scripts/elevenlabs.py tts --file doc.md --voice VOICE_ID --output out.mp3

The script handles text extraction, chunking at sentence boundaries (~4000 chars), TTS per chunk with voice continuity, and ffmpeg concatenation automatically.

Podcast Generation

Podcast mode requires a JSON script file with conversation segments:

[
  {"speaker": "host1", "text": "Welcome to our podcast! Today we're diving into..."},
  {"speaker": "host2", "text": "That's right! I found the section on..."},
  {"speaker": "host1", "text": "Let's break that down..."}
]

python skills/elevenlabs/scripts/elevenlabs.py podcast --script /tmp/script.json --voice1 ID1 --voice2 ID2 --output ~/Downloads/podcast.mp3

Podcast Workflow (for Claude)

When the user asks to create a podcast from a document:

1. Extract the document text:

   python skills/elevenlabs/scripts/extract.py /path/to/document.pdf

2. Generate a two-host conversation script from the extracted text. Follow these guidelines:

   • Write as a natural, engaging discussion between two hosts
   • Host 1 typically leads/introduces topics, Host 2 adds analysis and reactions
   • Start with a brief intro welcoming listeners and stating the topic
   • End with a summary/outro
   • Keep each turn under 3000 characters
   • Vary turn lengths - mix short reactions with longer explanations
   • Use conversational language: "That's a great point", "What I found interesting was..."
   • Reference specific details from the source document
   • Avoid reading the document verbatim - discuss and interpret it

3. Write the script as a JSON array to a temp file:

   # Write to /tmp/podcast_script.json
   [
     {"speaker": "host1", "text": "Welcome to today's episode..."},
     {"speaker": "host2", "text": "Thanks for having me..."},
     ...
   ]

4. Generate the podcast:

   python skills/elevenlabs/scripts/elevenlabs.py podcast --script /tmp/podcast_script.json --output ~/Downloads/podcast.mp3

5. Clean up the temp script file.

Tips

• Run voices first to let the user pick voices they like
• For podcasts, suggest voice pairs with contrasting qualities (e.g., one deep, one bright)
• Default output to ~/Downloads/ unless the user specifies otherwise
• For large documents, warn the user about character usage on their ElevenLabs plan