@lilith/osx-tts-mcp

MCP server for local text-to-speech on macOS via the built-in say command. No GPU, no network — speech is synthesized and played on the machine running the server. Companion to @lilith/speech-synthesis-mcp (remote Chatterbox/GPU TTS): use this one when you want local, always-available spoken output.

Tools

• synthesize — speak text aloud. Args: text (required), personality, voice (overrides personality voice), rate (wpm, overrides personality rate). Fire-and-forget; inline tags like [laugh] are stripped.
• list_voices — installed macOS voices (say -v '?'), optional locale filter.
• list_personalities — named voice + rate presets.
• health_check — engine availability, default voice, installed-voice count.

Configuration (env)

Var	Default	Purpose
OSX_TTS_VOICE	Zoe (Premium)	Default voice (name from list_voices)
OSX_TTS_RATE	(voice default)	Default speaking rate, words/min
OSX_SAY_BIN	/usr/bin/say	Override the say binary path
OSX_TTS_PERSONALITIES_FILE	~/.claude/osx-speech-personalities.json	Custom personalities
OSX_TTS_PLAYBACK_HOST	(unset)	SSH target to stream audio to a remote listener
AUDIO_PLAYER	afplay (macOS)	Local player

Example ~/.mcp.json entry

"osx-tts": {
  "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/node",
  "args": ["/Users/natalie/Code/@packages/osx-tts-mcp/dist/index.js"],
  "env": { "OSX_TTS_VOICE": "Zoe (Premium)" }
}

Build

pnpm install && pnpm build