Building Audio Alerts with TTS for Gemini CLI

Ever wish Gemini CLI could actually speak to you? I built an extension that adds audio alerts with text-to-speech.

Quick Install

gemini extensions install https://github.com/HainanZhao/gemini-extension-audio-alerts

Set your theme:

export AUDIO_ALERTS_THEME=retro

Available themes: retro, espionage, hero, portal, premium

The Problem

When running Gemini CLI in the background, you miss important moments:

• When the agent needs your permission to run a tool
• When an error occurs
• When a long task completes

The Solution

Plays themed sounds followed by spoken messages:

Sounds

• retro - 8-bit game sounds
• espionage - High-tech clicks
• hero - Dramatic fanfare
• portal - Magical transitions
• premium - Elegant chimes

Spoken Messages

Event	Retro Theme	Espionage Theme
Permission	"Permission needed"	"Agent requesting permission"
Error	"Error detected"	"Critical failure detected"
Done	"Game over. You win"	"Mission accomplished"

Cross-Platform

• macOS: say, afplay
• Linux: espeak, gtts-cli, play
• Windows: PowerShell System.Speech

Repo

https://github.com/HainanZhao/gemini-extension-audio-alerts

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This post was written with assistance from AI coding agents.