yapit: Listen to anything. Open-source TTS for documents, web pages, and text.

Website | Self-Host | Architecture

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Paste a URL or upload a PDF. Yapit renders the document and reads it aloud.

• Handles the documents other TTS tools can't: academic papers with math, citations, figures, tables, messy formatting. Equations get spoken descriptions, citations become prose, page noise is skipped. The original content displays faithfully.
• 170+ voices across 15 languages. Premium voices or free local synthesis that runs entirely in your browser, no account needed.
• Vim-style keyboard shortcuts, document outliner, media key support, adjustable speed, dark mode, share by link.

Powered by Gemini, Kokoro, Inworld TTS, DocLayout-YOLO, Markxiv.

Self-hosting

git clone https://github.com/yapit-tts/yapit.git && cd yapit
cp .env.selfhost.example .env.selfhost
make self-host

Open http://localhost and create an account. Data persists across restarts.

.env.selfhost is self-documenting — see the comments for optional features (Gemini extraction, Inworld voices, RunPod overflow).

Scaling workers: Workers are pull-based — any machine with Redis access can run them, no gateway config needed. Connect from the local network or via Tailscale, for example.

# Kokoro TTS (GPU)
docker run --gpus all -e REDIS_URL=redis://<host>:6379 ghcr.io/yapit-tts/kokoro-gpu:latest
# Kokoro TTS (CPU)
docker run -e REDIS_URL=redis://<host>:6379 ghcr.io/yapit-tts/kokoro-cpu:latest
# YOLO figure detection (GPU)
docker run --gpus all -e REDIS_URL=redis://<host>:6379 ghcr.io/yapit-tts/yolo-gpu:latest
# YOLO figure detection (CPU)
docker run -e REDIS_URL=redis://<host>:6379 ghcr.io/yapit-tts/yolo-cpu:latest

GPU and CPU workers run side-by-side; faster workers naturally pull more jobs. Scale by running more containers on any machine that can reach Redis.

To stop: make self-host-down.

Roadmap

Now:

• Launch

Next:

• Support uploading images, EPUB.
• Support AI-transform for websites.
• Support exporting audio as MP3.

Later:

• Better support for self-hosting (better modularity for adding voices, extraction methods, documentation)

Development

make dev-cpu    # start backend services (Docker Compose)
cd frontend && npm run dev  # start frontend
make test-local # run tests

See agent/knowledge/dev-setup.md for full setup instructions.

The agent/knowledge/ directory is the project's in-depth knowledge base, maintained jointly with Claude during development.