OpenMeow

A native macOS menu bar app providing local & cloud TTS/ASR services via an OpenAI-compatible API.

Features • Installation • API • OpenClaw • Models • Building • 中文

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Features

• Supported models — Kokoro TTS, Kitten TTS, Qwen3 TTS, MiMo v2 TTS, FireRedASR v2, Qwen3 ASR, and more (local or cloud)
• Menu bar app — runs quietly in the background on macOS (Apple Silicon)
• OpenAI-compatible API — drop-in replacement for /v1/audio/speech and /v1/audio/transcriptions
• Multiple engines — sherpa-onnx, speech-swift (Qwen3-TTS/ASR)
• Cloud TTS — cloud-model API access including OpenAI-compatible services, Xiaomi MiMo, and Alibaba Qwen3
• Audio format support — WAV, MP3, Opus (OGG/WebM), PCM, FLAC, AAC
• Model store — download and manage models from the built-in registry
• Works with OpenClaw — give OpenClaw local voice capabilities in one line of config
• Privacy first — local models keep data on your machine; cloud models are opt-in

Requirements

• macOS 15.0+
• Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4/M5)

Installation

Download the latest .dmg or .zip from Releases, drag to Applications, and launch. No additional tools required.

API

OpenMeow listens on http://127.0.0.1:23333 by default.

Endpoint	Method	Description
/v1/audio/speech	POST	Text-to-Speech
/v1/audio/transcriptions	POST	Speech-to-Text
/v1/models	GET	List available models
/v1/voices	GET	List available voices
/health	GET	Health check

TTS Example

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:23333/v1/audio/speech \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "kokoro-multi-lang-v1_0", "input": "Hello from OpenMeow!", "voice": "af_heart"}' \
  --output speech.mp3

ASR Example

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:23333/v1/audio/transcriptions \
  -F "file=@audio.wav" \
  -F "model=whisper-large-v3-turbo"

Use with OpenClaw

OpenMeow speaks the same API as OpenAI, so OpenClaw can use it as a local voice backend with zero cloud dependency.

TTS — add to your OpenClaw config:

"messages": {
  "tts": {
    "auto": "always",
    "provider": "openai",
    "providers": {
      "openai": {
        "apiKey": "dummy-key",
        "baseUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:23333/v1",
        "model": "qwen3-tts-1.7b-mlx",
        "voice": "Vivian"
      }
    },
    "timeoutMs": 60000
  }
}

ASR — add to tools.media.audio:

"tools": {
  "media": {
    "audio": {
      "enabled": true,
      "models": [
        {
          "type": "cli",
          "command": "/bin/sh",
          "args": [
            "-c",
            "curl -s http://127.0.0.1:23333/v1/audio/transcriptions -F file=@{{MediaPath}} -F model=qwen3-asr-0.6b-mlx | jq -r .text"
          ],
          "timeoutSeconds": 60
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Models

TTS — Local

Model	Size	Languages
Kokoro Multi-lang v1.0	360 MB	Chinese, English
Kitten Nano v0.1	26 MB	English
Kitten Mini v0.1	18 MB	English
Qwen3-TTS 0.6B (MLX)	1.7 GB	Multilingual
Qwen3-TTS 1.7B (MLX)	3.2 GB	Multilingual

TTS — Cloud

Model	Provider	Voices	Languages
OpenAI TTS (Cloud)	OpenAI / compatible	6	14 languages
MiMo TTS v2 (Cloud)	Xiaomi MiMo	3	Chinese, English
Qwen3 TTS Flash (Cloud)	Alibaba DashScope	44	10 languages (incl. Chinese dialects)

ASR

Model	Size	Languages
FireRedASR v2	200 MB	Chinese + 20 dialects
Qwen3-ASR 0.6B (MLX)	680 MB	30+ languages
Whisper Large v3 Turbo	600 MB	92+ languages
Whisper Base	150 MB	99 languages

Building

# 1. Clone
git clone https://github.com/user/openmeow.git
cd openmeow

# 2. Download frameworks
Scripts/download-sherpa-onnx.sh
Scripts/download-opus.sh
Scripts/download-lame.sh

# 3. Open in Xcode and build
open openmeow/openmeow.xcodeproj

Frameworks (sherpa-onnx, opus, lame) are not included in the repo due to size. Build scripts download and compile them locally.

License

MIT

Third-Party Components

Component	License	Link
sherpa-onnx	Apache-2.0	On-device speech (TTS/ASR)
speech-swift	Apache-2.0	Qwen3-TTS/ASR via MLX
LAME	LGPL-2.0	MP3 encoder (dynamically linked)

LAME is the only LGPL component and is dynamically linked as libmp3lame.dylib. You may replace it with your own build. See THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES for details.