The short answer
Several tools run fully local; check the speech engine before you trust “local”.
Heard’s engine, VoiceMode, AgentVibes and claude-code-narrator can all speak with a local engine such as Kokoro or Piper, so nothing leaves your Mac. VoxAgent and VoiceLayer transcribe your voice locally but speak through edge-tts by default, and edge-tts is a client for Microsoft Edge’s online text-to-speech service. That is fine for many people, but it means the text being spoken goes to Microsoft.
Beyond privacy, the split is direction. Some tools let you talk to the agent, some let the agent talk to you, and some do both.
All tools
Six open-source voice tools for coding agents.
From each README. Checked October 6, 2026.
| Tool | License | Direction | Speech (default) | Agents | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heard engineheardlabs/heard | Apache-2.0 | Agent to you: spoken summaries | Kokoro, local; or your ElevenLabs or Speechify key | Claude Code, Codex CLI, Codex app, any CLI via heard run | macOS |
| VoiceModembailey/voicemode | MIT | Both: spoken conversation | Local Kokoro and Whisper.cpp, or OpenAI | Claude Code and MCP clients | macOS, Linux, Windows |
| AgentVibespaulpreibisch | Apache-2.0 | Agent to you: task start and finish | Piper or Kokoro, local; also say, SAPI, ElevenLabs | Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Warp, OpenClaw | macOS, Linux, Windows |
| claude-code-narratorplugin | MIT | Agent to you: reads along | Kokoro, local | Claude Code | macOS, Linux |
| VoxAgentMCP server | MIT | Both: listen, speak, ask | edge-tts (online); CosyVoice optional | Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw, MCP clients | macOS documented |
| VoiceLayerMCP server | Apache-2.0 | Both: voice_speak, voice_ask | edge-tts (online) | Claude Code and MCP clients | macOS, Linux |
The ones that can keep everything on your machine.
Heard’s engine speaks with Kokoro when you add no voice key, and without an Anthropic key it writes narration from local templates, so nothing about your session leaves the Mac. VoiceMode runs Whisper.cpp and Kokoro locally as OpenAI-compatible services. AgentVibes offers Piper, with hundreds of voices, and Kokoro. claude-code-narrator installs Kokoro into its own virtual environment and uses no cloud APIs.
Local ears, online voice.
VoxAgent transcribes with faster-whisper on your machine and speaks with edge-tts unless you run a local CosyVoice server. VoiceLayer transcribes with local whisper.cpp and speaks with edge-tts. Both are good projects; just know that what the agent says is sent to Microsoft’s service to be voiced.
Talk to the agent, hear from it, or both.
MCP servers like VoiceMode, VoxAgent and VoiceLayer give the agent speaking and listening tools, so the agent decides when to talk and can ask you a question out loud. Hook-based tools like Heard, AgentVibes and claude-code-narrator listen to agent events and speak on their own, which needs no prompt changes and works the same in every session.
What the free Heard engine does.
The engine is Apache 2.0. It narrates Claude Code and Codex with judgment rather than reading everything, has three listening modes, follows several sessions at once and fails over between ElevenLabs, Speechify and local Kokoro. Install it from source with pip and run heard install claude-code or heard install codex. The managed Mac app is a separate, closed build with cloud voices, voice input and Parrot.
git clone https://github.com/heardlabs/heard.git && cd heard
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate && pip install -e .
heard install claude-code # or: heard install codexQuestions
Frequently asked questions
Which coding-agent voice tools are open source?
Heard’s engine (Apache-2.0), VoiceMode (MIT), AgentVibes (Apache-2.0), claude-code-narrator (MIT), VoxAgent (MIT) and VoiceLayer (Apache-2.0), among others.
Is edge-tts local?
No. edge-tts is a client for Microsoft Edge’s online text-to-speech service, so the text being spoken is sent to Microsoft. Kokoro, Piper and macOS say run on your machine.
Which tools work on Windows?
VoiceMode and AgentVibes list Windows support. Heard and claude-code-narrator do not; Heard is macOS only.
Do I need an API key?
Not for the local paths. Heard’s engine runs on Kokoro and local templates with no keys; keys only add ElevenLabs or Speechify voices and LLM-written summaries.
Ready when your agents are
Hear the work without watching every screen.
Start with the full Heard Power experience for 14 days. No card required. The open source engine remains free.
Download Heard for Mac macOS 14 or later · Claude Code and Codex supported