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<@1145576664366055464> Per my instructions I have transcripts coming with tags like [pause] - which I want. And since my voice engine and model is elevenlabs, I was hoping to get those pauses working in the speech as well. But thats not the case right now. Why are such tags not working? How can I add pauses otherwise for elevenlabs to work with aloud?

Thanks for tagging me <@803292707833118730>. I'll look through relevant sources and get back to you shortly.

### Answer
 

Tags like `[pause]` in your prompts won't automatically translate to pauses in ElevenLabs speech output. ElevenLabs uses SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language) for controlling pauses and speech timing.
[(1) ](<https://discord.com/channels/1186424376300679209/1421154798379601960>)

To add pauses with ElevenLabs, you should use SSML syntax directly in your prompts. The correct format is:


```
<break time="x.xs" />
```

For example, you can prompt it like:


```
Yes, let me get you the seller's details <break time="1.0s" /> [contact_info].
```

You can also try prompting the agent to "read the information back like x.. x.. x.. x.." to create natural pauses.


For more details on SSML and pause tags supported by ElevenLabs, refer to their documentation: <https://help.elevenlabs.io/hc/en-us/articles/24352686926609-Do-pauses-and-SSML-phoneme-tags-work-with-the-API>

Feel free to tag <@1145576664366055464> with additional questions. I also appreciate feedback, it helps me improve.

​
To learn more, see the sources I considered:

[[1] Agent not able to do multiple tool calls](https://discord.com/channels/1186424376300679209/1421154798379601960)
​

Thanks for the feedback, glad I was helpful.