Voice Mode for Claude Code

Voice Mode for Claude Code allows you to have a continuous two-way conversation with Claude Code, hands-free.

It uses the new Claude Code hooks to deliver voice input to Claude while it works.

This lets you speak continuously to Claude - interrupt, redirect, or provide feedback without stopping what Claude is doing.

Optionally enable text-to-speech to have Claude speak back to you.

Voice recognition and text-to-speech are handled by the browser, so there is nothing to download, and no API keys are needed.

Demo Video

Requirements

• Claude Code 2.1.69 or later (run claude --version to check)
• macOS (for system text-to-speech)
• Chrome or Safari (for speech recognition)

Installation

Installation is easy.

1. Install Claude Code

bashCopy code
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

2. Install Voice Mode

Add the following to any Claude Code settings file (~/.claude/settings.json, .claude/settings.json, or .claude/settings.local.json):

jsonCopy code
{
  "extraKnownMarketplaces": {
    "mcp-voice-hooks-marketplace": {
      "source": {
        "source": "git",
        "url": "https://github.com/johnmatthewtennant/mcp-voice-hooks.git"
      }
    }
  },
  "enabledPlugins": {
    "mcp-voice-hooks-plugin@mcp-voice-hooks-marketplace": true
  }
}

Restart Claude Code. Set "mcp-voice-hooks-plugin@mcp-voice-hooks-marketplace" to false to temporarily disable.

Usage

1. Start Claude Code

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claude

2. Start Listening

The browser interface will automatically open after 3 seconds (http://localhost:5111).

Click "Start Listening"

3. Speak

Say something to Claude. You will need to send one message in the Claude Code CLI to start the conversation.

4. Trigger Word Mode (Optional)

By default, utterances are sent automatically when you pause. You can switch to "Wait for Trigger Word" mode in the browser interface:

1. Toggle to "Wait for Trigger Word" mode
2. Enter a trigger word (e.g., "send", "claude", "go")
3. Speak your message(s) - they will queue up in the browser
4. Say your trigger word to send all queued messages at once (or click "Send Now")

The trigger word is case-insensitive and will be automatically removed from your message before sending.

Browser Compatibility

• ✅ Chrome: Full support for speech recognition, browser text-to-speech, and system text-to-speech
• ⚠️ Safari: Full support for speech recognition and system text-to-speech, but browser text-to-speech cannot load high-quality voices
• ❌ Edge: Speech recognition not working on Apple Silicon (language-not-supported error)

Voice responses

There are two options for voice responses:

1. Browser Text-to-Speech
2. System Text-to-Speech

Selecting and downloading high quality System Voices (Mac only)

Mac has built-in text to speech, but high quality voices are not available by default.

You can download high quality voices from the system voice menu: System Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > System Voice

Click the info icon next to the system voice dropdown. Search for "Siri" to find the highest quality voices. You'll have to trigger a download of the voice.

Once it's downloaded, you can select it in the Browser Voice (Local) menu in Chrome.

Test it with the bash command:

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say "Hi, this is your Mac system voice"

To use Siri voices with voice-hooks, you need to set your system voice and select "Mac System Voice" in the voice-hooks browser interface.

Other downloaded voices will show up in the voice dropdown in the voice-hooks browser interface so you can select them there directly, instead of using the "Mac System Voice" option.

There is a bug in Safari that prevents browser text-to-speech from loading high-quality voices after browser restart. This is a Safari Web Speech API limitation. To use high-quality voices in Safari you need to set your system voice to Siri and select "Mac System Voice" in the voice-hooks browser interface.

Known Limitations

• Background agents don't notify in voice mode. When Claude launches background agents (via the Agent tool), their completion notifications appear in the conversation text but don't trigger hooks. This means you won't hear a voice notification when a background task finishes. Workaround: Manually check background agent status, or avoid using background agents during voice sessions. (Verified with Claude Code 2.1.69, March 2026)

Uninstallation

Remove the extraKnownMarketplaces and enabledPlugins entries from your settings file and restart Claude Code.

Alternative: Manual Installation

If you prefer not to use the plugin system, you can install manually:

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npx mcp-voice-hooks@latest install-hooks
claude mcp add voice-hooks npx mcp-voice-hooks@latest

To uninstall:

bashCopy code
claude mcp remove voice-hooks
npx mcp-voice-hooks uninstall

Configuration

Port Configuration

The default port is 5111. To use a different port, set the MCP_VOICE_HOOKS_PORT environment variable in your project's .claude/settings.local.json:

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{
  "env": {
    "MCP_VOICE_HOOKS_PORT": "8080"
  }
}

This environment variable is used by both:

• The MCP server to determine which port to listen on
• The Claude Code hooks to connect to the correct port

Note: Setting this in .claude/settings.local.json is the recommended approach. The environment variable will be available to both the MCP server process and the hook commands.

HTTPS (for access from other devices)

Browsers block microphone access on insecure origins. HTTPS is enabled automatically — the server generates a self-signed certificate on first startup and serves HTTPS on port 5112 (HTTP port + 1).

To access from another device, open https://<your-hostname>.local:5112 and accept the self-signed certificate warning in the browser.

To customize the HTTPS port:

jsonCopy code
{
  "env": {
    "MCP_VOICE_HOOKS_HTTPS_PORT": "8443"
  }
}

To regenerate the certificate (e.g., after a hostname change), delete the certs/ directory and restart, or run ./scripts/generate-certs.sh.

Browser Auto-Open

When running in MCP-managed mode, the browser will automatically open if no frontend connects within 3 seconds. To disable this behavior:

jsonCopy code
{
  "env": {
    "MCP_VOICE_HOOKS_AUTO_OPEN_BROWSER": "false"
  }
}