Fish Audio text-to-speech, voice cloning, and transcription from the terminal, with a local render log that tracks every byte and dollar the API never records.
Render text to audio files, clone a voice from a sample, design a voice from a prompt, and transcribe audio, all with agent-friendly JSON output. Every render lands in a local SQLite log so you can skip duplicate renders, report spend by voice or model, and verify a clone's fidelity before it goes live.
Authentication
Set FISH_AUDIO_API_KEY (from https://fish.audio/app/api-keys) or store it with fish-audio-pp-cli auth set-token. The model header selects the TTS model (s1, s2-pro, s2.1-pro, s2.1-pro-free); the CLI validates it because the API silently falls back to s2.1-pro on typos.
Quick Start
# confirm the key and API reachability
fish-audio-pp-cli doctor --dry-run
# find a public voice by description
fish-audio-pp-cli voice discover --query "warm female narrator" --limit 5
# render one line to a file and log its cost
fish-audio-pp-cli tts render --text "Hi, this is Pearl. How can I help?" --voice 802e3bc2b27e49c2995d23ef70e6ac89 --out greeting.mp3
# clone a voice from a reference clip
fish-audio-pp-cli voice clone --title "Pearl greeting" --audio sample.wav
# see what you have spent so far
fish-audio-pp-cli render spend --group-by model
Unique Features
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Local state that compounds
-
render log — See every past TTS render with its text, model, voice, byte count, and cost.
Use it to recover what was already rendered before spending credit again.
fish-audio-pp-cli render log --limit 20 --agent
-
render spend — Total Fish Audio spend grouped by voice, model, or day for a side-by-side with your ElevenLabs invoice.
Reach for it when the question is 'what did this voice cost us this month'.
fish-audio-pp-cli render spend --group-by model --since 30d --agent
-
tts render — Hash the request and reuse a prior identical render instead of paying for it again.
Use it in iteration loops where most lines have not changed.
fish-audio-pp-cli tts render --text "Hi, this is Pearl." --voice 802e3bc2b27e49c2995d23ef70e6ac89 --out greeting.mp3 --skip-if-rendered --agent
-
render diff — Show the cost, model, and byte deltas between two past renders.
Use it when picking between two takes of the same line.
fish-audio-pp-cli render diff 1 2 --agent
Verify before you ship
-
voice verify — Render a reference phrase with a cloned voice, transcribe it back, and report word-error-rate.
Run it before swapping a production voice to a new clone.
fish-audio-pp-cli voice verify 7f92f8afb8ec43bf81429cc1c9199cb1 --agent
-
tts batch — Estimate a batch's cost against your live API credit and refuse to start if it would overdraw.
Use it for unattended batch jobs so a long script cannot fail halfway on credit.
fish-audio-pp-cli tts batch --input lines.txt --voice 802e3bc2b27e49c2995d23ef70e6ac89 --out-dir ./out --budget-guard --agent
Recipes
Render a greeting and check its cost
fish-audio-pp-cli tts render --text "Hi, this is Pearl." --voice 802e3bc2b27e49c2995d23ef70e6ac89 --out greeting.mp3 --agent --select file,bytes,cost_usd,model
Writes the file and returns only the fields an agent needs to log.
Batch a script with a budget guard
fish-audio-pp-cli tts batch --input lines.txt --voice 802e3bc2b27e49c2995d23ef70e6ac89 --out-dir ./out --budget-guard --agent
Refuses to start if the estimated cost exceeds live API credit.
Verify a clone before going live
fish-audio-pp-cli voice verify 7f92f8afb8ec43bf81429cc1c9199cb1 --agent
Reports word-error-rate from a TTS-then-ASR round trip.
Find a public voice
fish-audio-pp-cli voice discover --query "calm British male" --limit 5 --agent --select id,title,languages
Searches the cached public catalog with FTS.
Usage
Run fish-audio-pp-cli --help for the full command reference and flag list.
Paths & environment variables
This CLI separates local files into four path kinds:
| Kind | Contents |
|---|
config | User-editable settings such as config.toml and saved profiles |
data | Durable local data: credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, browser-session proof files, and other auth sidecars |
state | Runtime state such as persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log |
cache | Regenerable HTTP/cache files |
Each kind resolves independently. The ladder is:
- Per-kind env var:
FISH_AUDIO_CONFIG_DIR, FISH_AUDIO_DATA_DIR, FISH_AUDIO_STATE_DIR, or FISH_AUDIO_CACHE_DIR
--home <dir> for this invocationFISH_AUDIO_HOME for a flat relocated root- XDG env vars:
XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME
- Platform defaults matching existing installs
For containers and agent sandboxes, prefer a single relocated root:
export FISH_AUDIO_HOME=/srv/fish-audio
fish-audio-pp-cli doctor
Under FISH_AUDIO_HOME=/srv/fish-audio, the four dirs resolve to /srv/fish-audio/config, /srv/fish-audio/data, /srv/fish-audio/state, and /srv/fish-audio/cache.
MCP servers do not receive CLI flags from the host. Put relocation in the host env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"fish-audio": {
"command": "fish-audio-pp-mcp",
"env": {
"FISH_AUDIO_HOME": "/srv/fish-audio"
}
}
}
}
Precedence matters in fleets: an ambient per-kind variable such as FISH_AUDIO_DATA_DIR overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use FISH_AUDIO_HOME or the per-kind variables for durable fleet relocation; treat --home as the weaker per-invocation lever.
Relocation is one-way. Unsetting FISH_AUDIO_HOME does not move files back to platform defaults, and doctor cannot find credentials left under a former root. Move the files manually before unsetting relocation variables.
Existing installs keep working because the platform-default rung matches the legacy layout. On the first auth write, stored secrets leave config.toml and are consolidated into credentials.toml under the data directory. Run fish-audio-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path and credential-location warnings in automation.
Commands
asr
Manage asr
fish-audio-pp-cli asr - Speech to Text
model
Manage model
fish-audio-pp-cli model create - Create Model for Users via APIfish-audio-pp-cli model delete - Delete Modelfish-audio-pp-cli model get - Get Modelfish-audio-pp-cli model list - List Modelsfish-audio-pp-cli model update - Update Model
tts
Manage tts
fish-audio-pp-cli tts create - Text to Speechfish-audio-pp-cli tts create-stream - Text to Speech Stream with Timestamps
voice-design
Manage voice design
fish-audio-pp-cli voice-design - Voice Design
wallet
Manage wallet
Self-learning loop
This CLI caches per-question discovery so repeat queries skip the walk and structurally similar queries get answered via entity substitution. The loop also self-captures: every invocation is journaled locally, and failed-flag corrections plus fresh teaches surface as candidates on the next recall for confirm/reject judgment. Agents call recall before discovery and fire teach & after answering. See the ## Automatic learning section in SKILL.md for the full protocol.
fish-audio-pp-cli recall <query> - Look up cached resources for a query before running discoveryfish-audio-pp-cli teach - Record a query -> resource mapping (silent on success, safe to background with &)fish-audio-pp-cli learnings list - Inspect taught rowsfish-audio-pp-cli learnings forget <query> - Undo a teachfish-audio-pp-cli learnings candidates - List auto-captured candidates awaiting confirm/rejectfish-audio-pp-cli learnings stats - Local loop metrics: recall hit rate, teach-to-reuse, playbook resolution, candidate countsfish-audio-pp-cli teach-pattern - Install a query/resource template up frontfish-audio-pp-cli teach-lookup - Add an entity mapping (e.g. country code, team alias) for pattern substitution
Pass --no-learn or set FISH_AUDIO_NO_LEARN=true to disable the loop for deterministic flows.
The local store's schema version stamp is one-way: once this version of fish-audio-pp-cli opens the database, older binaries refuse it with a version error — upgrade the binary rather than downgrading.
Output Formats
# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
fish-audio-pp-cli model list
# JSON for scripting and agents
fish-audio-pp-cli model list --json
# Filter to specific fields
fish-audio-pp-cli model list --json --select author,cover_image,created_at
# Dry run — show the request without sending
fish-audio-pp-cli model list --dry-run
# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
fish-audio-pp-cli model list --agent
Agent Usage
This CLI is designed for AI agent consumption:
- Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag
- Pipeable -
--json output to stdout, errors to stderr
- Filterable -
--select <field>[,<field>...] returns only fields you need
- Previewable -
--dry-run shows the request without sending
- Explicit retries - add
--idempotent to create retries and add --ignore-missing to delete retries when a no-op success is acceptable
- Explicit confirmation -
--agent does not imply --yes; pass --yes separately only after the target, arguments, and side effects are clear
- Piped input - write commands can accept structured input when their help lists
--stdin
- Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
- Agent-safe by default - no colors or formatting unless
--human-friendly is set
Exit codes: 0 success, 2 usage error, 3 not found, 4 auth error, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.
Health Check
fish-audio-pp-cli doctor
Verifies configuration, credentials, and connectivity to the API.
Configuration
Run fish-audio-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/fish-audio-pp-cli/config.toml; --home, FISH_AUDIO_HOME, and per-kind env vars can relocate it.
Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.
Environment variables:
| Name | Kind | Required | Description |
|---|
FISH_AUDIO_API_KEY | per_call | Yes | Set to your API credential. |
agentcookie (optional)
If you use agentcookie to sync secrets across machines, this CLI auto-adopts agentcookie-managed credentials with no extra setup. When the daemon writes to this CLI's config, fish-audio-pp-cli doctor reports agentcookie: detected and auth-status labels the source as agentcookie. Skip this section if you don't use agentcookie - the CLI works the same as any other.
Troubleshooting
Authentication errors (exit code 4)
- Run
fish-audio-pp-cli doctor to check credentials
- Verify the environment variable is set:
echo $FISH_AUDIO_API_KEY
Not found errors (exit code 3)
- Check the resource ID is correct
- Run the
list command to see available items
API-specific
- audio sounds like a different model than requested — The API falls back to s2.1-pro on unknown model strings; run
fish-audio-pp-cli tts resolve --voice 7f92f8afb8ec43bf81429cc1c9199cb1 --model s2.1-pro to validate before rendering.
- 402 or 'insufficient credit' on render — Run
fish-audio-pp-cli wallet balance; dev API credit and subscription package are separate ledgers.
- multi-speaker tags rejected —
<|speaker:N|> tags need an S2-family model; pass --model s2.1-pro.
- 429 on batch jobs — Concurrency is capped by spend tier (5/15/50 slots); lower
--concurrency on tts batch.
Sources & Inspiration
This CLI was built by studying these projects and resources:
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