# Athena Local Talk for OpenClaw

This private OpenClaw provider connects browser/Desktop Talk to the existing
Athena speech stack:

1. local VAD collects a spoken utterance,
2. Athena Whisper transcribes it,
3. OpenClaw's normal agent-consult path answers with its configured model and
   tools,
4. Athena XTTS/Piper returns PCM audio to the Talk client.

No public speech provider is used. The provider reuses the already configured
`models.providers.athena` base URL and API key; no second key copy is required.

Recommended `talk.realtime` configuration:

```json
{
  "provider": "athena-talk",
  "model": "athena-local",
  "speakerVoice": "alloy",
  "language": "de",
  "mode": "realtime",
  "transport": "gateway-relay",
  "brain": "agent-consult",
  "providers": {
    "athena-talk": {
      "vadThreshold": 0.018,
      "silenceDurationMs": 750,
      "prefixPaddingMs": 300,
      "maxSpeechSeconds": 45
    }
  }
}
```

Install from the OpenClaw container with `openclaw plugins install <path>` and
restart the gateway once. The plugin is stored in OpenClaw's persistent data
directory, so normal image updates do not remove it.