Agent Shell Speech And Privacy (Emacsvox User Manual)

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11.3 Choose automatic speech and privacy ¶

The focused session defaults to response: completed answers and routine completion feedback are presented, while thought, plan, and tool chatter is suppressed. An unfocused session defaults to notify: its notification names the session but does not disclose response or tool content.

full: Speak responses plus configured thought, plan, and tool detail. Full tool output can contain commands, file contents, or other sensitive provider data.
response: Speak completed agent responses while suppressing routine thought, plan, and tool content.
notify: Present routine completion without reading the response body.
quiet: Suppress routine automatic feedback. Explicit inspection remains available.
auto: Use emacsvox-agent-shell-foreground-speech-level or emacsvox-agent-shell-background-speech-level according to focus.

Press C-c C-q to run emacsvox-agent-shell-select-speech-level and choose the current session’s level, including auto. Press C-c C-S-q to run emacsvox-agent-shell-select-background-speech-level and change the shared background default. M-x emacsvox-agent-shell-cycle-speech-level cycles toward less routine speech; use a prefix argument to restore auto.

Adjust speech in the settings menu
Understand automatic speech limits

11.3.1 Adjust speech in the settings menu ¶

Press C-e S in an Agent Shell buffer or its viewport for focused Emacsvox settings. The same menu is available through C-e H j c and the integration chooser. s opens choices for the temporary session override. f and b open foreground and background defaults; t and o open thought and tool-output choices. Each list starts on the current value and explains its choices. Browse with arrows, press RET to apply and return, or q to cancel. Press ? followed by a choice’s key for its effect and scope; q returns from Help. ? ? opens the menu overview.

The p, c and l controls toggle permission speech, tool-call announcements and processing cues. Thought and tool content still depend on the effective speech level.

The a, n and k controls set automatic-content, line-navigation and block-navigation character limits. RET accepts an exact positive integer or none; Shift-left/right adjusts by 100. For line navigation, none restores the core long-line policy. For the other limits it allows complete content. w saves the displayed global defaults through Customize, excluding the session override. A opens advanced settings; q returns. From the direct C-e S entry, q closes the menu and leaves you in the captured buffer.

Thought content defaults to an icon under emacsvox-agent-shell-speak-thought-process. Tool feedback is separately controlled by emacsvox-agent-shell-speak-tool-calls and emacsvox-agent-shell-tool-output-verbosity. Selecting background response or full, thought speak, or full tool output is an explicit disclosure choice.

At full speech level, tool verbosity full reads the tool’s rendered output, including Codex command output and textual diffs. Changed output can be read even when the tool’s status has not changed; identical updates are suppressed. Tool verbosity status plays status cues as tools start and finish. Tool updates, steering outcomes, queue changes, and confirmed setting changes use the notification lane, leaving navigation speech independent.

11.3.2 Understand automatic speech limits ¶

Automatic response, tool, error, permission, and similar text is limited by emacsvox-agent-shell-automatic-content-max-characters, which defaults to 2,000 characters. A shortened presentation gives exact omitted character and line counts and tells you where to inspect the full content. The complete text rendered by Agent Shell stays in its buffer; Emacsvox limits the automatic announcement rather than editing that displayed text. Agent Shell separately shortens tool output lines longer than 32,768 characters, keeping their beginning and end with an omitted-character count. Full tool speech reads that notice; the removed middle is not available by reading the buffer.