Content Generation Commands

Generate text, images, videos, speech, and transcriptions.

Source: apps/cli/src/commands/generate/

Command Structure

lh generate (alias: gen)
├── text <prompt>                    # Text generation
├── image <prompt>                   # Image generation
├── video <prompt>                   # Video generation
├── tts <text>                       # Text-to-speech
├── asr <audioFile>                  # Audio-to-text (speech recognition)
├── download <genId> <taskId>        # Wait & download generation result
├── status <genId> <taskId>          # Check async task status
└── list                             # List generation topics

lh generate text <prompt> / lh gen text <prompt>

Generate text completion.

Source: apps/cli/src/commands/generate/text.ts

lh gen text "Explain quantum computing" [options]
echo "context" | lh gen text "summarize" --pipe

Pipe Mode

When --pipe is used, reads stdin and prepends it to the prompt. Useful for piping file contents:

cat README.md | lh gen text "summarize this" --pipe

lh generate image <prompt> / lh gen image <prompt>

Generate images from text prompt. This is an async operation — the command submits the task and returns a generation ID + task ID for tracking.

Source: apps/cli/src/commands/generate/image.ts

lh gen image "A sunset over mountains" [options]
lh gen image "A cute cat" --model dall-e-3 --provider openai --json

Output (non-JSON):

✓ Image generation started
  Batch ID: gb_xxx
  1 image(s) queued
  Generation gen_xxx → Task <taskId>

Use "lh generate status <generationId> <taskId>" to check progress.

Typical workflow:

# Generate image, then wait & download
lh gen image "A cute cat"
lh gen download <generationId> <taskId> -o cat.png

lh generate video <prompt> / lh gen video <prompt>

Generate video from text prompt. This is an async operation.

Source: apps/cli/src/commands/generate/video.ts

lh gen video "A cat playing piano" -m < model > -p < provider > [options]

Note: Unlike image, video requires -m and -p (no defaults). Use lh model list <provider> --type video to find available video models.

Output (non-JSON):

✓ Video generation started
  Batch ID: gb_xxx
  Generation gen_xxx → Task <taskId>

Use "lh generate status <generationId> <taskId>" to check progress.

lh generate tts <text> / lh gen tts <text>

Text-to-speech generation.

Source: apps/cli/src/commands/generate/tts.ts

lh gen tts "Hello, world!" [options]

lh generate asr <audioFile> / lh gen asr <audioFile>

Audio-to-text transcription (Automatic Speech Recognition).

Source: apps/cli/src/commands/generate/asr.ts

lh gen asr recording.wav [options]

lh generate download <generationId> <taskId>

Wait for an async generation task to complete and download the result file.

Source: apps/cli/src/commands/generate/index.ts

lh gen download <generationId> <taskId> [-o output.png]
lh gen download gen_xxx task_xxx -o ~/Desktop/result.mp4 --timeout 600

Behavior:

1. Polls generation.getGenerationStatus at the specified interval
2. Shows live progress: ⋯ Status: processing... (42s)
3. On success: downloads asset URL to local file
4. On error: displays error message and exits
5. On timeout: suggests using lh gen status to check later

Typical workflow:

# One-shot: generate and download
lh gen image "A sunset"
# Copy the generation ID and task ID from output
lh gen download gen_xxx taskId_xxx -o sunset.png

# Video (longer timeout)
lh gen video "A cat running" -m model -p provider
lh gen download gen_xxx taskId_xxx -o cat.mp4 --timeout 600

lh generate status <generationId> <taskId>

Check the status of an async generation task.

lh gen status <generationId> <taskId> [--json]

Displays:

• Status (color-coded): success (green), error (red), processing (yellow), pending (cyan)
• Error message (if failed)
• Asset URL and thumbnail URL (if completed)

lh generate list

List all generation topics.

lh gen list [--json [fields]]

Table columns: ID, TITLE, TYPE, UPDATED

Backend Architecture

Image and video generation use an async task pattern:

1. Create topic → generationTopic.createTopic
2. Submit generation → image.createImage / video.createVideo
   • Creates batch + generation + asyncTask records in a DB transaction
   • Triggers async background task (image via createAsyncCaller, video via initModelRuntimeFromDB)
   • Returns { data: { batch, generations }, success } with asyncTaskId in each generation
3. Poll status → generation.getGenerationStatus
   • Returns { status, error, generation } (generation includes asset URLs on success)

Server routes:

• src/server/routers/lambda/image/index.ts — image creation (uses authedProcedure + serverDatabase)
• src/server/routers/lambda/video/index.ts — video creation (uses authedProcedure + serverDatabase)
• src/server/routers/lambda/generation.ts — status checking

Note: Image/video routes do NOT use the keyVaults middleware — they read API keys from the database via initModelRuntimeFromDB or createAsyncCaller.