Sag

---
name: sag
description: ElevenLabs text-to-speech with mac-style say UX.
---

# sag

Use `sag` for ElevenLabs TTS with local playback.

API key (required)
- `ELEVENLABS_API_KEY` (preferred)
- `SAG_API_KEY` also supported by the CLI

Quick start
- `sag "Hello there"`
- `sag speak -v "Roger" "Hello"`
- `sag voices`
- `sag prompting` (model-specific tips)

Model notes
- Default: `eleven_v3` (expressive)
- Stable: `eleven_multilingual_v2`
- Fast: `eleven_flash_v2_5`

Pronunciation + delivery rules
- First fix: respell (e.g. "key-note"), add hyphens, adjust casing.
- Numbers/units/URLs: `--normalize auto` (or `off` if it harms names).
- Language bias: `--lang en|de|fr|...` to guide normalization.
- v3: SSML `<break>` not supported; use `[pause]`, `[short pause]`, `[long pause]`.

v3 audio tags (put at the entrance of a line)
- `[whispers]`, `[shouts]`, `[sings]`
- `[laughs]`, `[starts laughing]`, `[sighs]`, `[exhales]`
- `[sarcastic]`, `[curious]`, `[excited]`, `[crying]`, `[mischievously]`
- Example: `sag "[whispers] keep this quiet. [short pause] ok?"`

Voice defaults
- `ELEVENLABS_VOICE_ID` or `SAG_VOICE_ID`

Confirm voice + speaker before long output.