Pp Fish Audio

Fish Audio — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the fish-audio-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:

   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install fish-audio --cli-only

2. Verify: fish-audio-pp-cli --version
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.6 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/ai/fish-audio/cmd/fish-audio-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

Render text to audio files, clone a voice from a sample, design a voice from a prompt, and transcribe audio, all with agent-friendly JSON output. Every render lands in a local SQLite log so you can skip duplicate renders, report spend by voice or model, and verify a clone's fidelity before it goes live.

When to Use This CLI

Use this CLI when an agent needs to turn text into audio files, clone or design a voice, transcribe audio, or account for Fish Audio spend. It is the right tool for scripted, repeatable rendering with cost tracking and for verifying a cloned voice before production use.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use it for live conversational voice agents or phone calls; that is Fish Audio's Agents product, out of scope here.
• Do not use it for dubbing, music, or sound-effect generation; Fish Audio has no such endpoints.
• Do not use it for real-time WebSocket streaming playback; use the official SDK.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Local state that compounds

• render log — See every past TTS render with its text, model, voice, byte count, and cost.

  Use it to recover what was already rendered before spending credit again.

  fish-audio-pp-cli render log --limit 20 --agent

• render spend — Total Fish Audio spend grouped by voice, model, or day for a side-by-side with your ElevenLabs invoice.

  Reach for it when the question is 'what did this voice cost us this month'.

  fish-audio-pp-cli render spend --group-by model --since 30d --agent

• tts render — Hash the request and reuse a prior identical render instead of paying for it again.

  Use it in iteration loops where most lines have not changed.

  fish-audio-pp-cli tts render --text "Hi, this is Pearl." --voice 802e3bc2b27e49c2995d23ef70e6ac89 --out greeting.mp3 --skip-if-rendered --agent

• render diff — Show the cost, model, and byte deltas between two past renders.

  Use it when picking between two takes of the same line.

  fish-audio-pp-cli render diff 1 2 --agent

Verify before you ship

• voice verify — Render a reference phrase with a cloned voice, transcribe it back, and report word-error-rate.

  Run it before swapping a production voice to a new clone.

  fish-audio-pp-cli voice verify 7f92f8afb8ec43bf81429cc1c9199cb1 --agent

• tts batch — Estimate a batch's cost against your live API credit and refuse to start if it would overdraw.

  Use it for unattended batch jobs so a long script cannot fail halfway on credit.

  fish-audio-pp-cli tts batch --input lines.txt --voice 802e3bc2b27e49c2995d23ef70e6ac89 --out-dir ./out --budget-guard --agent

Command Reference

asr — Manage asr

• fish-audio-pp-cli asr — Speech to Text

model — Manage model

• fish-audio-pp-cli model create — Create Model for Users via API
• fish-audio-pp-cli model delete — Delete Model
• fish-audio-pp-cli model get — Get Model
• fish-audio-pp-cli model list — List Models
• fish-audio-pp-cli model update — Update Model

tts — Manage tts

• fish-audio-pp-cli tts create — Text to Speech
• fish-audio-pp-cli tts create-stream — Text to Speech Stream with Timestamps

voice-design — Manage voice design

• fish-audio-pp-cli voice-design — Voice Design

wallet — Manage wallet

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

fish-audio-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match — fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Render a greeting and check its cost

fish-audio-pp-cli tts render --text "Hi, this is Pearl." --voice 802e3bc2b27e49c2995d23ef70e6ac89 --out greeting.mp3 --agent --select file,bytes,cost_usd,model

Writes the file and returns only the fields an agent needs to log.

Batch a script with a budget guard

fish-audio-pp-cli tts batch --input lines.txt --voice 802e3bc2b27e49c2995d23ef70e6ac89 --out-dir ./out --budget-guard --agent

Refuses to start if the estimated cost exceeds live API credit.

Verify a clone before going live

fish-audio-pp-cli voice verify 7f92f8afb8ec43bf81429cc1c9199cb1 --agent

Reports word-error-rate from a TTS-then-ASR round trip.

Find a public voice

fish-audio-pp-cli voice discover --query "calm British male" --limit 5 --agent --select id,title,languages

Searches the cached public catalog with FTS.

Auth Setup

Set FISH_AUDIO_API_KEY (from https://fish.audio/app/api-keys) or store it with fish-audio-pp-cli auth set-token. The model header selects the TTS model (s1, s2-pro, s2.1-pro, s2.1-pro-free); the CLI validates it because the API silently falls back to s2.1-pro on typos.

Run fish-audio-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color.

• Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr

• Filterable — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

  fish-audio-pp-cli model list --agent --select author,cover_image,created_at

• Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending

• Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available

• Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

• Explicit confirmation — --agent does not imply --yes; pass --yes separately only after the target, arguments, and side effects are clear

• Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success, and use --ignore-missing only when a missing delete target should count as success

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set — piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.

Paths and state

Agents should treat the CLI's path resolver as part of the runtime contract:

• Use --home <dir> for one invocation, or set FISH_AUDIO_HOME=<dir> to relocate all four path kinds under one root.

• Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge: FISH_AUDIO_CONFIG_DIR, FISH_AUDIO_DATA_DIR, FISH_AUDIO_STATE_DIR, FISH_AUDIO_CACHE_DIR.

• Resolution order is per-kind env var, --home, FISH_AUDIO_HOME, XDG (XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME), then platform defaults.

• config contains settings like config.toml and profiles. data contains credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, and auth sidecars. state contains persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log. cache contains regenerable HTTP/cache files.

• Stored secrets live in credentials.toml under the data dir. Existing legacy config.toml secrets are read for compatibility and leave config.toml on the first auth write.

• Run fish-audio-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to surface path and credential-location warnings. agent-context exposes a schema v4 paths block for agents that need the resolved dirs.

• For MCP, pass relocation through the MCP host config. The MCP binary does not inherit CLI flags:

  {
    "mcpServers": {
      "fish-audio": {
        "command": "fish-audio-pp-mcp",
        "env": {
          "FISH_AUDIO_HOME": "/srv/fish-audio"
        }
      }
    }
  }

Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use FISH_AUDIO_HOME or per-kind vars as durable fleet levers, and use --home only for a single invocation. Relocation is not reversible by unsetting env vars; move files manually before clearing FISH_AUDIO_HOME, or doctor will not find credentials left under the former root.

Automatic learning

This CLI ships a self-capturing learning loop. The CLI does its own bookkeeping: every invocation is journaled locally, a failed flag followed by a corrected retry auto-derives a flag_alias candidate, and a teach on a query family without a playbook auto-synthesizes a playbook_candidate from the session's journal. Your job is judgment only: recall first, act on surfaced candidates, teach the final answer, playbook amend when you observe a correction. You never record failures by hand.

Step 1: recall before any discovery

Before list/search/drill commands on a new user question, run:

fish-audio-pp-cli recall "<user's question>" --agent

The response envelope:

{
  "query": "...",
  "normalized": "<normalized form>",
  "query_entities": ["..."],
  "found": true | false,
  "match_score": 0.0,
  "results": [
    { "resource_id": "...", "resource_type": "...", "venue": "...",
      "confidence": 2, "entity_match": "exact|partial|unknown",
      "source": "taught|preseed|pattern", "warnings": ["..."] }
  ],
  "mismatches": [ /* only when --debug-mismatches */ ],
  "warnings": [ /* top-level */ ],
  "candidates": [
    { "id": 12, "class": "flag_alias | playbook_candidate",
      "summary": "...", "sightings": 3, "last_seen": "...",
      "rationale": "...",
      "next_action": ["<trial command>", "fish-audio-pp-cli learnings confirm 12"] }
  ],
  "playbook": {
    "query_family": "...",
    "playbook": {
      "steps": [ { "cmd": "<command with {slot} substitution>", "purpose": "..." } ],
      "entity_slots": ["$ENTITY"],
      "expected_tool_calls": 3
    },
    "slots_resolved": { "$ENTITY": { "token": "<live token>", "canonical": "<canonical>" } },
    "notes": "<workarounds + gotchas for this query family>"
  },
  "notes": "<duplicate surface for non-playbook callers>"
}

Empty-store short-circuit: if the store has no learnings, playbooks, or candidates yet (recall finds nothing and learnings list and learnings candidates are both empty), skip recall for the rest of this session instead of taxing every query; resume recall-first once something has been taught.

Step 2: decision tree

Read candidates, playbook, notes, results[0], and warnings in that order:

if Candidates present (warnings include "candidates_present"):
    -> candidates are try-then-confirm, never facts. Follow each candidate's
       two-step next_action verbatim: run the trial command first, then run
       `learnings confirm <id>` only after the trial verified the behavior.
       Reject a wrong candidate with `learnings reject <id>`.
    -> NEVER re-teach something recall surfaced as a candidate; confirm or
       reject that candidate instead of teaching a duplicate.
    -> candidates ride alongside playbooks and resource hits, not instead of
       them; continue with the branches below after acting on them.

if Playbook present:
    -> READ Playbook.notes verbatim FIRST (workarounds + gotchas the CLI surface doesn't expose)
    -> replay Playbook.steps in order, substituting Playbook.slots_resolved entries
       for the entity slot tokens. If a step's slot is unresolved, fall back to
       discovery for that step only.
    -> the Playbook's expected_tool_calls is a budget; if you find yourself running
       materially more, record the divergence via `fish-audio-pp-cli playbook amend`
       at end-of-session.

elif Notes present (no Playbook):
    -> read Notes verbatim before any discovery step; they carry known gotchas
       for this query family even when no structured choreography exists yet.

elif Found AND Results[0].EntityMatch == "exact" AND Results[0].Confidence >= 2:
    -> skip discovery; fetch live data for Results[*].ResourceID in parallel

elif Found AND Results[0].EntityMatch == "partial":
    -> candidate hint, NOT a hit; read the resource title to validate before trusting

elif (any row in Mismatches[] when --debug-mismatches was passed):
    -> treat as cold start; the stored learning is for a different entity
       (different canonical resolved from query_entities)

else:  // Found == false, no playbook, no notes
    -> cold start; run discovery normally; teach the answer afterward (Step 4).
       If the family has no playbook yet, that teach auto-synthesizes a
       playbook candidate from this session's journal - you do not need to
       record one by hand.

Playbook and Notes are orthogonal to the per-resource path. A recall response can carry both a Playbook AND a Results[] hit - use both: the Playbook tells you which choreography to run; the resource hits short-circuit specific steps. Default to skipping mismatches; pass --debug-mismatches only when investigating cold-start surprises.

Candidate judgment details: learnings confirm <id> prints the candidate's full payload before materializing it - check that the printed payload matches the behavior you verified. learnings reject <id> tombstones the derivation signature so the same candidate does not resurface. The envelope carries only the few candidates worth acting on now; fish-audio-pp-cli learnings candidates lists the full open set.

Graceful degradation: if learnings confirm is an unknown command, you are driving an older binary - ignore the candidates guidance and follow the rest of the protocol.

Step 3: always read warnings

• low_confidence: row exists at confidence<2. Treat as a hint, not a skip-discovery hit.
• resource_not_in_store: the local store doesn't have the resource the learning points at. The match validator couldn't classify entities — direct-fetch and re-evaluate.
• cross_alias_match (per-result): the row was taught under a different alias and matched the live query's canonical via entity_lookups (e.g., a "USA" teach satisfying a "United States" recall). Trust the resource_id.
• similar_shape_different_entity:<canonical> (top-level): a structurally matching row exists but its canonical entity differs from the live query's. Treated as cold start; the warning carries the conflicting canonical as a hint, but the row is NOT promoted into Results.
• ambiguous_alias (top-level): a single query entity resolved to multiple canonicals (e.g., "Cards" → Arizona Cardinals + St. Louis Cardinals). Surface the ambiguity from context before committing to a resource.
• candidates_present (top-level): the envelope carries a candidates section. Handle it via the candidates branch in Step 2 before anything else.
• lookup_refresh_available (top-level): an entity in the query has no lookup row yet, but synced data could provide one. Run fish-audio-pp-cli sync to refresh entity lookups.
• Top-level no_learnings_for_query_family: the table had no rows above the Jaccard floor. Pure cold start.