Installation

System dependencies

Install the libraries or system-specific dependencies first:

sudo apt-get install portaudio19-dev xclip #  portaudio19-dev becomes portaudio with Homebrew
sudo apt install libcairo-dev libgirepository1.0-dev gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1  # Ubuntu ONLY (not needed on MacOS)
pip install PyGObject # Ubuntu ONLY (not needed on MacOS)

Install the app

Install the main app with all optional dependencies:

pip install bard-cli[all]          # OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Kokoro (no Piper)
pip install bard-cli[all-local]    # all of the above + Piper

You can also install individual backend extras:

Extra	Backend	Type
bard-cli[openai]	OpenAI TTS	remote (requires OPENAI_API_KEY)
bard-cli[elevenlabs]	ElevenLabs	remote (requires ELEVENLABS_API_KEY)
bard-cli[kokoro]	Kokoro	local, free, offline
bard-cli[piper]	Piper	local, free, offline

See Backends & voices for how to download the model files that the local backends (Kokoro, Piper) need.

GNOME launcher

On GNOME desktop you can subsequently run:

bard-install [...]

to produce a .desktop file for GNOME's quick-launch (the [...] indicates any argument that bard takes). API keys are read from the environment (OPENAI_API_KEY, ELEVENLABS_API_KEY) and inherited by the launched process.