StepFun stepaudio-2.5-tts

Generate Chinese / Japanese speech with stepaudio-2.5-tts (released 2026-04, verified 2026-04-23). Contextual TTS — emotion and prosody go through natural-language description, not fixed labels.

Companion: for transcription with stepaudio-2.5-asr (the sibling model), use the stepfun-asr skill — they share an API key but live on different endpoints with different body shapes.

Why this skill exists — StepAudio 2.5 has two non-obvious pitfalls that cost hours if you don't know them:

1. stepaudio-2.5-tts rejects voice_label (the step-tts-2 way). Emotion/prosody now goes through instruction (natural-language description, ≤200 chars) and inline () parentheses inside the text itself.
2. Censorship is stricter — anything containing 死 / 消失 / sensitive political terms returns censorship_block. Your rewrite options are in references/migration_from_v2.md.

Config and auth

API key lives in $STEPFUN_API_KEY (preferred) or ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/config.json (fallback for cross-session persistence). All bundled scripts try env first, then config.

First-time setup (one-liner):

mkdir -p "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}" && cat > "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/config.json" <<EOF
{"api_key": "<paste key here>"}
EOF

If the user hasn't set a key, ask them to paste it (don't guess / don't use a placeholder). StepFun API keys are available at https://platform.stepfun.com/ → API Keys. Use a Normal key, not a Plan key (Plan keys are restricted to text models and silently fail on audio endpoints).

Common tasks — decision tree

User wants...	Script	Key detail
Synthesize 1–500 char Chinese with emotion	scripts/tts_generate.py	Use instruction for mood, () for inline prosody
Synthesize long text (500–1000 char)	scripts/tts_generate.py	1000 char is the hard cap; split at semantic boundaries above that
Batch-generate game/app voice lines	scripts/tts_generate.py --batch <jsonl>	Handle censorship_block fallback individually
A/B compare two TTS models	scripts/ab_compare.sh	Compares duration/size across two directories
Migrate from step-tts-2	see references/migration_from_v2.md	voice_label.emotion → instruction rewrite + censorship list

Starting points

• Synthesize a single line: Run python3 scripts/tts_generate.py --text "你好" --out /tmp/hello.mp3 --instruction "温暖的希望感". For fine-grained control read the "Contextual TTS" section below.
• A full migration from step-tts-2 → stepaudio-2.5-tts: read references/migration_from_v2.md end-to-end before touching code. It has the INSTRUCTION_MAP, the SKIP_CENSORED list pattern, and the output-directory-strategy for non-destructive A/B.

Contextual TTS — beyond emotion labels

The headline feature of stepaudio-2.5-tts is that you stop mapping emotions to fixed tags and start describing what you want in natural language. Two layers:

Global context (instruction parameter) — sets the overall tone for the entire utterance. ≤200 chars. Think of it like giving stage direction to a voice actor.

instruction: "克制的悲伤，语气低沉柔弱，像快要消失一样"

Inline context (() parentheses inside input) —句内 directives. Parenthesised content is consumed as directions and is NOT read aloud. Use for precise control of pauses, breath, emphasis, or mid-sentence emotion shifts.

input: "(试探着问)你好吗？(开心地)太好了！(突然沉下来)不过...我快要消失了。"

Examples that worked in practice (from 2026-04-23 verification):

• instruction: "活泼俏皮，像是在撒娇，带点嘴硬" — visibly speeds up delivery vs neutral
• instruction: "耳语声，气声很重，几乎听不清" — produces audible whisper/breath
• input: "你好(停顿一下)我是蕾格(轻声)今天(加重)的天气真不错。" — inline directives all respected

What stepaudio-2.5-tts will NOT accept — voice_label parameter. Error: voice_label is not supported for v2 models. This is the #1 migration gotcha from step-tts-2.

Common error patterns (real errors, real fixes)

Error response	Actual cause	Fix
"voice_label is not supported for v2 models"	Sent voice_label to stepaudio-2.5-tts	Remove voice_label; put the same intent into instruction as natural language
"The content you provided or machine outputted is blocked." type: censorship_block	Sensitive word (死 / 消失 / etc.)	Rewrite the phrase OR fall back to step-tts-2 for that specific line (mixed-model is fine)
Silent audio truncation (input > 1000 chars)	Hard cap exceeded	Split at semantic boundaries; don't truncate mid-sentence

More in references/known_issues.md.

When to read references

• references/api_reference.md — exact request/response JSON for /v1/audio/speech, all fields, error responses. Read when writing raw HTTP calls instead of using the bundled scripts.
• references/migration_from_v2.md — complete playbook for moving a step-tts-2 project to stepaudio-2.5-tts. Has the emotion→instruction rewrite table, the A/B directory strategy, decision checkpoints, and the 2026-04 speed/quality trade-off data (stepaudio-2.5-tts is ~20% slower than step-tts-2; audible prosody improvement). Read before any migration work.
• references/known_issues.md — censorship patterns, TTS duration inflation, v2-family parameter naming gotcha, 1000-char hard cap. Read when debugging anomalous output or evaluating whether to adopt.

Design invariants (don't break these)

1. Non-destructive A/B output — when regenerating a corpus with a new model, write to a parallel directory (voice/zh_v25/), never overwrite the production corpus. The migration playbook shows why.
2. Per-line censorship handling — if 2/29 lines get censorship_block, don't fail the batch. Log the skipped IDs, continue. Mixed-model fallback (step-tts-2 for the skipped 2) is normal.
3. Don't duplicate voice_label logic in new code — any new TTS code targeting stepaudio-2.5-tts should only use instruction + inline (). Do not write a branch that conditionally emits voice_label.

Pricing (verified 2026-04-23, volatile)

• stepaudio-2.5-tts contextual synthesis: ~5.8 元 / 万字符
• Zero-shot voice cloning: ~9.9 元 / 音色

Re-verify at https://platform.stepfun.com/docs/zh/guides/pricing/details before quoting to stakeholders.