Hume TTS plugin guide | LiveKit Documentation

Available in

Python

Overview

This plugin allows you to use Hume as a TTS provider for your voice agents.

Installation

Install the plugin from PyPI:

uv add "livekit-agents[hume]~=1.5"

Authentication

The Hume plugin requires a Hume API key .

Set HUME_API_KEY in your .env file.

Usage

Use Hume TTS within an AgentSession or as a standalone speech generator. For example, you can use this TTS in the Voice AI quickstart.

from livekit.plugins import hume

session = AgentSession(
   tts=hume.TTS(
      voice=hume.VoiceByName(name="Colton Rivers", provider=hume.VoiceProvider.hume),
      description="The voice exudes calm, serene, and peaceful qualities, like a gentle stream flowing through a quiet forest.",
   )
   # ... llm, stt, etc.
)

Parameters

This section describes some of the available parameters. See the plugin reference for a complete list of all available parameters.

voiceVoiceByName | VoiceById

The voice, specified by name or id, to be used. When no voice is specified, a novel voice will be generated based on the text and optionally provided description .

descriptionstring

Natural language instructions describing how the synthesized speech should sound, including but not limited to tone, intonation, pacing, and accent. If a Voice is specified in the request, this description serves as acting instructions. If no Voice is specified, a new voice is generated based on this description .

speedfloatDefault: 1.0

Adjusts the relative speaking rate on a non-linear scale from 0.25 (much slower) to 3.0 (much faster), where 1.0 represents normal speaking pace.

instant_modeboolDefault: true

Enables ultra-low latency streaming, reducing time to first chunk. Recommended for real-time applications. Only for streaming endpoints. With this enabled, requests incur 10% higher cost.

Instant mode is automatically enabled when a voice is specified in the request.

Updating utterance options

To change the values during the session, use the update_options method. It accepts the same parameters as the TTS constructor. The new values take effect on the next utterance:

session.tts.update_options(
   voice=hume.VoiceByName(name="Colton Rivers", provider=hume.VoiceProvider.hume),
   description="The voice exudes calm, serene, and peaceful qualities, like a gentle stream flowing through a quiet forest.",
   speed=2,
)

Additional resources

The following resources provide more information about using Hume with LiveKit Agents.

Python package

The livekit-plugins-hume package on PyPI.

Plugin reference

Reference for the Hume TTS plugin.

Hume docs

Hume docs.

Voice AI quickstart

Get started with LiveKit Agents and Hume TTS.