# elevenlabs

Turns documents and text into audio with ElevenLabs: single-voice narration or a two-host podcast.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 351 installs · ★ 447
- Author: sanjay3290
- License: Apache-2.0 · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/sanjay3290/ai-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/elevenlabs/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-09-10
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/sanjay3290-elevenlabs

## What it does

The skill drives the ElevenLabs TTS API from the command line. Two modes: one voice reading a document, or a podcast where two hosts discuss it. The script extracts the text, splits it at sentence boundaries around 4000 characters, voices each chunk, then joins the parts with `ffmpeg`.

You need an ElevenLabs key in `skills/elevenlabs/config.json` or the `ELEVENLABS_API_KEY` environment variable. PDF and DOCX input pulls in `PyPDF2` and `python-docx`. Multi-chunk narration and podcasts need `ffmpeg` — without it a long document will not come out as a single file, so check that first.

Podcast generation runs in two steps: `extract.py` pulls the text, then the agent writes a JSON script with `host1` and `host2` turns, and that script gets voiced. Keep each turn under 3000 characters. On a long document the character usage against your ElevenLabs plan adds up fast, so warn yourself before you start.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add sanjay3290/ai-skills --skill elevenlabs -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/elevenlabs/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/elevenlabs/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add sanjay3290/ai-skills --skill elevenlabs -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/elevenlabs/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add sanjay3290/ai-skills --skill elevenlabs -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/elevenlabs/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install sanjay3290/ai-skills elevenlabs
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/elevenlabs/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add sanjay3290/ai-skills --skill elevenlabs -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/sanjay3290/ai-skills --path skills/elevenlabs
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/elevenlabs/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add sanjay3290/ai-skills --skill elevenlabs -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/sanjay3290/ai-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/elevenlabs/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- narrate a PDF or DOCX with a single voice
- build a two-host podcast from an article
- list available voices and their IDs
- stitch a long text into one mp3 without manual joining
- turn a markdown note into audio for a commute

## Example prompts
- Narrate `~/docs/report.pdf` with voice JBFqnCBsd6RMkjVDRZzb and save it to `~/Downloads/report.mp3`
- Make a podcast from this article: two hosts, one deep voice and one bright
- List the ElevenLabs voices as JSON

## Source text · SKILL.md · Apache-2.0

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: f27832977e316267.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE f27832977e316267
````text
---
name: elevenlabs
description: |
  Convert documents and text to audio using ElevenLabs text-to-speech.
  Use this skill when the user wants to create a podcast, narrate a document,
  read aloud text, generate audio from a file, or convert text to speech.
license: Apache-2.0
metadata:
  author: sanjay3290
  version: "1.0"
---

# 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`:
```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

```bash
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

```bash
# 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:

```json
[
  {"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..."}
]
```

```bash
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**:
   ```bash
   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
````
END THIRD-PARTY FILE f27832977e316267

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