vsh: Voice Shell

An interactive terminal controlled by voice, with local or cloud speech and AI providers.

Features

• Control Bash, Zsh, or Fish by voice.
• Use Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic, or any command-line AI.
• Pick local, cloud, or custom HTTP speech providers.
• Ignore steady background noise before transcription.

Installation

Requires portaudio and alsa-lib (Linux).

# uv
uv tool install git+https://github.com/creator54/vsh.git

# Nix
nix profile install github:creator54/vsh

• Local checkout: uv tool install -e .

Usage

• vsh: start the shell.
  • --voice: start listening immediately.
  • --verbose: show logs.
  • --echo: return recognized speech without an AI.
  • --serve --port 8770: expose the live shell on a local-only web server.
• vsh setup: configure the AI provider, microphone, and VSH keybind.
• vsh bind: change the VSH toggle keybind.
• vsh stt [--file <audio.wav>]: transcribe the microphone or a WAV file.
• vsh tts "<text>" [--save <out.wav>] [--stream]: speak or save text.

Voice replies

• Format: {"speech":"Opening it.","command":"cd ~/project"}
  • Use null when there is no command.
  • Invalid JSON is shown as text and never run.
• Speech comes first.
  • TTS available: play it.
  • TTS off or failed: print it.
• Command comes next.
  • auto_submit = true: run it.
  • auto_submit = false: leave it editable.

Environment overrides

• Shell and voice: VSH_SHELL, VSH_VOICE.
• AI provider: VSH_LLM, VSH_LLM_KEY.
• Output: VSH_OUTPUT_MODE (speak_and_command, command_only, or speak_only).
• Visual: VSH_OVERLAY (auto, kitty, or none).
• Voice command: VSH_VOICE_HANDLER='command {}'.
• Fish replies: VSH_RESPONSE_BRIDGE=fish-signal.

Keybinds

• Ctrl+]: toggle VSH voice capture.
  • Off: remove the voice indicator and restore the normal cursor.
  • On: follow the system microphone's mute state (Linux/PipeWire).
• Kitty may need explicit mappings for modified symbols:
  • Ctrl+,: map ctrl+, send_text all \x1b[44;5u
  • Ctrl+Backspace: map ctrl+backspace send_text all \x1b[127;5u
• The terminal driver may reserve control keys such as Ctrl+O or Ctrl+S.
  • Example: stty discard undef frees Ctrl+O.