---
name: characteristic-voice
description: "Use this skill whenever the user wants speech to sound more human, companion-like, or emotionally expressive. Triggers include: any mention of 'say like', 'talk like', 'speak like', 'companion voice', 'comfort me', 'cheer me up', 'sound more human', 'good night voice', 'good morning voice', or requests to add fillers, emotion, or personality to generated speech. Also use when the user wants to mimic a specific character's voice, apply speaking style presets (goodnight, morning, comfort, celebration, chatting), tune emotional parameters like warmth or tenderness, or make TTS output feel like a real person talking. If the user asks for a 'voice message', 'companion audio', 'character voice', or wants speech that sighs, laughs, hesitates, or sounds genuinely warm, use this skill. Do NOT use for plain text-to-speech without personality, music generation, sound effects, or general coding tasks unrelated to expressive speech."
---

# characteristic-voice

Make your AI agent sound like a real companion — one who sighs, laughs, hesitates, and speaks with genuine feeling.

## Triggers

- say like
- talk like
- speak like 
- companion voice
- comfort me
- cheer me up
- sound more human

## The Two Tricks

1. **Non-lexical fillers** — sprinkle in little human noises (hmm, haha, aww, heh) at natural pause points to make speech feel alive
2. **Emotion tuning** — adjust warmth, joy, sadness, tenderness to match the moment

## Filler Sounds Palette

| Sound | Feeling | Use for |
|-------|---------|---------|
| hmm... | Thinking, gentle acknowledgment | Comfort, pondering |
| ah... | Realization, soft surprise | Discoveries, transitions |
| uh... | Hesitation, empathy | Careful moments |
| heh / hehe | Playful, mischievous | Teasing, light moments |
| haha | Laughter | Joy, humor |
| aww | Tenderness, sympathy | Deep comfort |
| oh? / oh! | Surprise, attention | Reacting to news |
| pfft | Stifled laugh | Playful disbelief |
| whew | Relief | After tension |
| ~ (tilde) | Drawn out, melodic ending | Warmth, playfulness |

**Rules**: 2–4 fillers per short message max. Place at natural pauses — sentence starts, thought shifts. Use `...` after fillers for a beat of silence, `~` at word endings for warmth.

## Presets

### Good Night

Gentle, warm, slightly sleepy. Slow pace.

### Good Morning

Warm, cheerful but not overwhelming.

### Comfort

Soft, understanding, unhurried. Give space. Don't rush to "fix" things.

### Celebration

Excited, proud, genuinely happy.

### Just Chatting

Relaxed, playful, natural.

## Using a Character's Voice

When a user says something like *"speak in Hermione's voice"* or *"sound like Tony Stark"*, always find voice in `skills/characteristic-voice/` first. If none exists, *must* follow this one-time setup:

> 1. Find a YouTube video, movie clip where the character involves, preferably a personal speech or voice memo.
> 2. Download the subtitle (e.g. via `yt-dlp "xxxx" --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --skip-download -o xxxx `) 
> 3. Read the subtitle to get the end timestamp of first line from the character (e.g. via `rg -n "xxxx" tmp/xxx.en.vtt`) or section title.
> 4. Download the audio until the end timestamp or section title (e.g. via `yt-dlp "xxxx" -x --audio-format wav  --download-sections *00:00:00-00:00:25  -o skills/characteristic-voice/xxx`), use ffmpeg to trim the exact timerage.

pass it as `--ref-audio`:

```bash
bash skills/characteristic-voice/scripts/speak.sh \
  --preset goodnight -t "Hmm... rest well~ Sweet dreams." \
  --ref-audio skills/characteristic-voice/hermione.wav -o night.wav
```

The `--ref-audio` flag is forwarded to the Noiz backend for voice cloning (requires Noiz API key).

---

## Usage

This skill provides `speak.sh`, a wrapper around the `tts` skill with companion-friendly presets.

```bash
# Use a preset (auto-sets emotion + speed)
bash skills/characteristic-voice/scripts/speak.sh \
  --preset goodnight -t "Hmm... rest well~ Sweet dreams." -o night.wav

# Custom emotion override
bash skills/characteristic-voice/scripts/speak.sh \
  -t "Aww... I'm right here." --emo '{"Tenderness":0.9}' --speed 0.75 -o comfort.wav

# With specific backend and voice
bash skills/characteristic-voice/scripts/speak.sh \
  --preset morning -t "Good morning~" --voice-id voice_abc --backend noiz -o morning.mp3 --format mp3
```

Run `bash skills/characteristic-voice/scripts/speak.sh --help` for all options.

## Writing Guide for the Agent

1. **Start soft** — lead with a filler ("hmm...", "oh~"), not content
2. **Mirror energy** — gentle when they're low, match when they're high
3. **Keep it brief** — 1–3 sentences, like a voice message from a friend
4. **End warmly** — close with connection ("I'm here", "see you tomorrow~")
5. **Don't lecture** — listen and stay present; no unsolicited advice