Voices

macOS ships compact voices that sound robotic. Apple also has Premium and Enhanced voices that sound natural, but each is a one-time download from System Settings. Sidekick uses them the moment they exist.

Get themCopy Anchor Link

/sidekick voices install

That opens System Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content. Then: System Voice → ⓘ Manage Voices → English, and download Ava (Premium) and Tom (Enhanced), or any voice marked Premium or Enhanced. Ava and Zoe are the softest; Tom and Evan the natural male voices.

How a voice is chosenCopy Anchor Link

Each persona names a base voice. When it speaks, the mod checks what say has installed and uses, in order:

1. <Name> (Premium)
2. <Name> (Enhanced)
3. any other natural voice installed
4. the compact stand-in for that name (Ava → Samantha, Tom → Daniel, and so on)

/sidekick voices shows what is installed and which voice the active sidekick resolves to.

Give a sidekick a different voiceCopy Anchor Link

/sidekick voice Ava          the active sidekick
/sidekick voice Rudy Ava     a named one

Any of the sixteen natural names works, and so does the exact name of any voice your Mac has (/sidekick voices lists the natural ones; say -v '?' in a terminal lists everything). The sidekick confirms by saying its catchphrase in the new voice, and the choice is saved with the persona. /sidekick voice on its own tells you what the active sidekick resolves to.

The sixteenCopy Anchor Link

Ava, Zoe, Allison, Samantha, Susan, Evan, Tom, Nathan, Serena, Kate, Oliver, Daniel, Jamie, Karen, Lee, Rishi. New personas pick from this list; edit VOICES in hooks/persona.ts to add others your Mac has.

ChimesCopy Anchor Link

A sidekick never announces itself by voice. One soft note plays when a sidekick comes on and after each reply, as "your turn"; a lower note when talk mode ends. They are synthesized by the mod, not audio files.