Build on abs

The whole project, in four places

There's very little to learn. Everything abs does lives in one of these:

# the program — commands, persona, hooks, usage, all of it
abs.sh

# voice, both directions (local, no cloud)
transcribe.py   # voice note  → text
speak.py        # text        → voice note

# your runtime state, owner-only (never in git)
~/.abs/          # rc.json, access.json, usage.json …

The agent's behaviour isn't in a config file — it's the system prompt abs appends at launch, built in build_prompt().

Point it at a different model

Set a default model per profile, applied on every launch. An explicit abs --model … on the command line always wins for that one session.

abs config model opus        # default for this profile
abs config model --clear       # back to Claude Code's default
abs --model sonnet           # just this session

To change how the default is stored or applied, the logic is in cmd_config() (stores it) and cmd_run() (passes --model at launch).

Rewrite the persona & tone

How abs talks to you — when it messages, how short it keeps things, its safety rules — is one block of text appended to the session as a system prompt. Edit the heredoc in build_prompt() and it takes effect on the next launch. Nothing is compiled; it's plain English.

Replace the voice engine

Installing voice is opt-in — it's a few GB of models, so nothing downloads until you ask. Once installed, replies go out as a voice note by default wherever the machine can speak. You don't need a dev checkout any more; an installed abs keeps its engines in ~/.abs/voice:

abs voice setup       # install the speech engines
abs voice status      # what's installed, what's missing, how to fix it
abs voice samples     # one voice note per voice — choose by ear

The speaking engine is Kokoro: 82M parameters, built for the CPU, a note in seconds on a laptop. The alternative wants a GPU and is the only one that can clone a voice from a reference clip, so it's a separate opt-in:

abs voice setup --chatterbox         # adds the GPU engine, for cloning
abs config voice-sample <clip>       # point it at your reference audio

Underneath, it's standalone scripts with a dead-simple contract. Keep the same in/out and you can drop in any engine — a different Whisper size, a cloud STT, another TTS voice.

# in:  an audio file path  →  out: transcript on stdout
transcribe.py <file.oga>

# in:  text  →  out: a voice note sent to Telegram
speak_kokoro.py "the text to speak"     # CPU, the default
speak.py "the text to speak"            # chatterbox, for cloning

abs only ever calls these files, so swapping engines never touches the main script.

Tune how fast it goes quiet

Auto-silent trips after a set number of back-to-back terminal prompts. Want it to hold on longer, or mute sooner? Change one constant.

readonly SILENT_STREAK=3    # prompts at the terminal before it mutes

The counting itself lives in cmd_silent_hook() just below — that's where a Telegram message resets the streak.

Add your own command

Commands are a plain case in main(). Write a cmd_yours() function, add one line to the dispatch, and abs yours works. No registration, no plugin system.

cmd_hello() { ok "hi from $PROFILE"; }

# in main()'s case block:
hello) cmd_hello ;;

Change what the status bar shows

The bottom-bar dot and usage are rendered by cmd_statusline(); the 5h / week glance itself is formatted in usage_glance_str(). Edit either to change the text, order, or what's shown.