Integrations

Connect Talkie to Claude Code, the Anthropic API, MCP tools, Telegram, and manage your server.

Plugin Installation

Talkie is available as a Claude Code plugin, giving you 30 MCP tools and 5 skills without needing to run the full Talkie server. The 15 data tools work entirely offline by reading and writing directly to the SQLite database at ~/.wtb/wtb.db. The other 15 server tools require the Talkie server to be running for voice, IPC, and UI interaction.

Add the following to your Claude Code MCP configuration (typically ~/.claude/settings.json or your project's .mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wtb": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["wtb-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Once configured, Claude Code will automatically have access to all Walkie Walkie Talkie Bot tools and skills. Data tools like list_conversations, search_conversations, create_plan, and export_conversation work immediately with no server required. To use server tools like launch_wtb, get_transcript, or respond_to_wtb, start the WTB server with npx walkietalkiebot.

Claude Code Mode

Claude Code mode is the default integration. Each message you send spawns a fresh claude -p CLI process, giving Claude full access to tools like file editing, bash commands, web search, and more.

The CLI is invoked with the following flags:

• --output-format stream-json — Streams structured JSON events for real-time display
• --verbose — Includes detailed tool usage information in the event stream
• --permission-mode bypassPermissions — Skips interactive permission prompts so the CLI can run non-interactively
• --no-session-persistence — Each request is a fresh one-shot process with no session state carried over

Real-time activity feed

As Claude works, Talkie displays a live activity feed showing each tool call in real-time. You can see when Claude reads a file, edits code, runs a bash command, searches the web, or uses any other tool. The activity feed shows:

• Tool icon and label — Each of 40+ tools has a unique emoji icon and human-readable label (e.g. "Reading file", "Running command")
• Category color coding — Tools are grouped into 6 categories, each with a distinct accent color
• Clean display names — MCP tools like mcp__talkie__list_conversations display as "Conversations"
• Input parameters — The arguments passed to each tool
• Status — Whether the tool call is in progress, succeeded, or failed
• Duration — How long each tool call took to complete

Tool categories

Every tool in the activity feed is color-coded by category. Each category has a subtle left-border accent and tinted background that adapts to the active theme:

Category colors are defined per-theme, so they match each theme's design language (e.g. neon accents in Guestbook, muted tones in Finder).

Image attachments

You can attach images to your messages by dragging and dropping them onto the chat area or using the image button in the input bar. Images are sent to Claude via the vision API, allowing Claude to analyze screenshots, diagrams, error messages, and other visual content.

Voice-optimized system prompt

When using voice input, Talkie includes a system prompt optimized for spoken interactions. This encourages Claude to give concise, conversational responses that work well when read aloud by the text-to-speech engine.

Direct API Mode

Direct API mode is an alternative to the Claude Code CLI. Instead of spawning a CLI process, it calls the Anthropic API directly. This mode requires an API key but offers faster response times and streaming TTS integration.

Setup

1. Set the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable, or enter your API key in the settings drawer.
2. Open the settings drawer and enable Direct API mode.

Configuration options

• Model selection — Choose between Sonnet 4, Opus, and Haiku models depending on your speed and quality needs.
• Max tokens — Configure the maximum number of tokens in Claude's response.
• Custom system prompts — Override the default system prompt with your own instructions.
• Streaming TTS — In Direct API mode, text-to-speech starts reading the response as it streams in, rather than waiting for the complete response.

MCP Server

Talkie includes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server with 30 tools that allow Claude Code to interact with the Talkie interface. The MCP server uses stdio transport and is launched via the wtb-mcp command.

Setup

Add the following to your Claude Code MCP configuration (typically in ~/.claude/settings.json or your project's .mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wtb": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["wtb-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Once configured, Claude Code will have access to all 30 Talkie tools.

Data tools (work offline)

These 15 tools read and write directly to the SQLite database at ~/.wtb/wtb.db. They do not require the Talkie server to be running, making them available in any Claude Code session as soon as the MCP server is configured.

Server tools (require WTB server)

These 15 tools communicate with the WTB server over HTTP for voice interaction, UI state management, IPC messaging, and background jobs. The WTB server must be running (npx walkietalkiebot) for these tools to work.

IPC workflow

The MCP tools enable a bidirectional communication flow between Talkie and Claude Code:

1. User speaks or types in the Talkie UI
2. Message posted to /api/send on the server
3. MCP tool polls /api/pending to pick up the waiting message
4. Claude Code processes the message using its full tool suite
5. Response sent back via /api/respond
6. Talkie speaks the response aloud using text-to-speech

This workflow lets you use Talkie as a voice interface for Claude Code while Claude Code retains full access to file editing, bash commands, and all other tools.

Telegram Bot

Talkie includes a Telegram bot that lets you talk to Claude from any Telegram client. The bot auto-starts with the Talkie server when a bot token is configured.

Setup

1. Create a new bot via @BotFather on Telegram and copy the bot token.
2. Save the token as the TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN environment variable, or write it to ~/.wtb/telegram.token.
3. Start (or restart) the Talkie server. The bot will connect automatically.

# Option 1: Environment variable
export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="123456:ABC-DEF..."

# Option 2: Token file
echo "123456:ABC-DEF..." > ~/.wtb/telegram.token

Bot commands

• /start — Welcome message and introduction
• /help — Show available commands
• /conversations — List recent conversations with inline selection buttons
• /new <name> — Create a new conversation with the given name
• /current — Show the currently active conversation
• /status — Check Talkie server status

Message handling

• Text messages — Sent to Claude Code for processing. Responses are returned as Telegram messages.
• Photos — Analyzed using Claude vision. Claude describes and responds to the image content.
• Voice messages — The bot suggests using the Talkie web UI for voice input, as Telegram voice messages require server-side transcription.

Server Management

The wtb-server CLI manages the Talkie server lifecycle. It can run the server as a background process or install it as a macOS launchd daemon for automatic startup.

CLI commands

• wtb-server start [-f] — Start the server. Use -f to run in the foreground (useful for debugging). Without -f, starts as a background process.
• wtb-server stop — Stop the running server.
• wtb-server restart — Stop and restart the server.
• wtb-server status — Show server status including whether it is running, the port, launchd status, and database path.
• wtb-server logs [-f] — View server logs. Use -f to follow (tail) the log output in real-time.
• wtb-server install — Install Talkie as a macOS launchd daemon. The server will start automatically on login.
• wtb-server uninstall — Remove the launchd daemon.

Environment variables

Networking

Talkie runs over plain HTTP on localhost, which is a secure context in all modern browsers. No certificates or HTTPS setup needed. For remote access (e.g., via Tailscale), place your own TLS certificates at ~/.wtb/cert.pem and ~/.wtb/key.pem and Talkie will automatically use HTTPS.