OpenCode Smart Voice Notify

Overview

When you're using a coding agent for long-running tasks, the gap between "is it done yet" and "let me check the terminal" turns into a productivity drag. Smart Voice Notify is the OpenCode plugin I built to close that gap. It lets the agent speak when something needs your attention - approval prompts, completed jobs, errors, build failures - so you can step away and trust the session to call you back.

Multi-engine TTS

The plugin supports multiple TTS engines because no single one fits every setup. ElevenLabs sounds the best but costs money. Edge TTS is free and runs through the browser. Windows SAPI works offline on a Windows machine. OpenAI-compatible endpoints let you plug in self-hosted models. The plugin picks the engine you've configured and falls back gracefully if it's not available, which matters when you're moving between Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Designing reminders

The most useful feature ended up being the reminder system. If a task is taking too long, the plugin can surface a check-in - "Still working on the build, do you want to keep going or interrupt?" - instead of leaving you to wonder whether the agent is stuck. Designing reminders is harder than it sounds because they have to be helpful without being annoying. I tuned the defaults for a long time before they felt right.

What I learned

The thing that surprised me about this project was how much the audio layer changed the way I worked. With voice feedback in the loop, I started running multi-step tasks more confidently because I trusted the agent to interrupt me if anything went sideways. That's the kind of small workflow shift that compounds. The traction the plugin has picked up suggests other people are feeling it too.