What is readthis?

readthis is a command line text to speech tool powered by a speech model called Kokoro-82M. You give it plain text, a web URL, piped input from another command, or nothing at all, in which case it reads whatever is currently on your clipboard, and it converts that content into spoken audio. For a URL, the tool extracts the readable article content and reads that aloud rather than reading raw page markup. The README notes that audio generation and playback happen on separate threads, so speech begins almost immediately instead of waiting for the entire text to finish being turned into audio first. Installation requires Python 3.12 and a tool called uv, which is used to install readthis directly from its GitHub repository as a command line tool. Once installed, you run it from the terminal with your text, a URL, or piped content as the argument, or with no argument to read from the clipboard. The tool accepts a few options. A voice flag lets you choose which voice to use, defaulting to one called af_heart. A speed flag controls how fast the speech plays, defaulting to normal speed. A language flag sets the language code, defaulting to American English. The README shows examples such as reading a short greeting at a faster speed, reading an article from a URL at one and a half times speed, and reading clipboard contents with default settings. This is a small, focused project: a single command line tool with no server component, database, or web interface described in the README. It is aimed at someone who wants a quick way to listen to text, an article, or clipboard content without opening a separate application. The README does not describe a license for the project.