Merge pull request #116 from second-state/alabulei1-patch-6

Alabulei1 patch 6

Author: alabulei1

doc/2025-12-12-echokit-day-16-elevenlabs-01.png

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+---
+slug: echokit-30-days-day-17-elevenlabs
+title: "Day 17: Giving EchoKit a Voice — Using ElevenLabs TTS | The First 30 Days with EchoKit"
+tags: [echokit30days]
+---
+
+
+
+Over the past three weeks, we’ve covered almost every core piece of a voice AI agent:
+
+* **ASR**: turning human speech into text
+* **LLMs**: reasoning, chatting, and tool calling
+* **System prompts**: shaping personality and behavior
+* **MCP tools**: letting EchoKit take real actions
+
+Today, we complete the loop.
+
+It’s time to talk about **TTS — Text to Speech**.
+
+Without TTS, your agent can think, plan, and decide — but it can’t *speak back*.
+And for a voice-first device like EchoKit, that’s a deal breaker.
+
+In Day 17, we’ll start with one of the most popular choices:
+**ElevenLabs TTS**.
+
+
+
+## Why ElevenLabs?
+
+ElevenLabs is widely used because it offers:
+
+* Very natural-sounding voices
+* Low latency for real-time conversations
+* Multiple languages and accents
+* Voice cloning support (we’ll get to that later 😉)
+
+For builders, it’s also simple to integrate and well-documented — which makes it a great first TTS provider for EchoKit.
+
+
+## What EchoKit Needs for ElevenLabs TTS
+
+EchoKit’s ElevenLabs configuration lives in the EchoKit server’s `config.toml` file.
+
+```toml
+[tts]
+platform = "Elevenlabs"
+token = ""
+voice = "yj30vwTGJxSHezdAGsv" # The voice I choose here is Jessa
+```
+
+* **platform**: set to `"Elevenlabs"`
+* **token**: your ElevenLabs API key. You can generate one from the
+  [ElevenLabs Developer Dashboard](https://elevenlabs.io/app/developers/api-keys)
+* **voice**: the voice ID you want EchoKit to speak with
+
+![](2025-12-12-echokit-day-16-elevenlabs-01.png)
+
+> ⚠️ **Important:**
+> If you pick a voice in ElevenLabs, you **must add it to “My Voices”**.
+> Otherwise, your API key may not be able to call it, even if the voice plays fine in the UI.
+
+
+That’s it.
+`model_id` is optional in EchoKit’s config and not required for basic TTS.
+
+
+## Restart and Reconnect the Server
+
+After updating the config, restart the EchoKit server, then reconnect the EchoKit device.
+
+When you chat with the device again, you should hear EchoKit speak back —
+using the voice you selected.
+
+With TTS working, EchoKit finally feels complete as a voice AI companion.
+
+
+
+Want to get your own EchoKit device and make it unique?
+
+* [EchoKit Box](https://echokit.dev/echokit_box.html)
+* [EchoKit DIY](https://echokit.dev/echokit_diy.html)
+
+Join the [EchoKit Discord](https://discord.gg/Fwe3zsT5g3) to share your welcome voices and see how others are personalizing their voice AI agents!