Quick Start

Hydracept gives game tools one API for production-ready assets.

Production-ready game assets, with a receipt for every run. BYOK is free; managed inference adds a 10% service fee.

5-minute path

Follow 5-minute game asset for activate → doctor → smoke / first job → BYOK.

Activate

Pick one:

1. CLI bootstrap (recommended): pip install -U hydracept then python -m hydracept init. When sign-in is required, open the connect URL printed by init (or returned as interaction_required in --json mode).
2. Studio (browser): app.hydracept.com/login — sign in with GitHub or Google, complete onboarding, then generate in Studio. Manage plans at Studio Billing.
3. Agents / headless: python -m hydracept init --apply --yes --json (or paste an existing key with python -m hydracept init --token <HYDRACEPT_API_KEY> --apply --yes --json).

See Authentication for workspace files (.hydracept/project.json, secrets, lazy BYOK) and CI mode (init --ci).

Public API: https://api.hydracept.com
Configuration directory (CLI): .hydracept/
Environment variables: HYDRACEPT_API_URL, HYDRACEPT_API_KEY, HYDRACEPT_PROJECT, HYDRACEPT_ENVIRONMENT

BYOK: Your Hydracept API key authenticates your application, while your provider key pays for inference. Run python -m hydracept smoke (trial budget or BYOK — a real image job) before connecting BYOK — see Connections / BYOK and Billing & plans.

CLI

pip install -U hydracept

# Prefer the module form if `hydracept` is not on PATH (common on Windows):
python -m hydracept init                              # human — opens connect URL when needed
python -m hydracept init --apply --yes --json         # agents
python -m hydracept init --ci --json                  # CI (setup grants)
python -m hydracept doctor
python -m hydracept smoke
python -m hydracept verify
python -m hydracept agent-context

configure and quickstart are deprecated aliases for init. Device login (python -m hydracept login) still works for advanced flows.

SDKs

The Python SDK and CLI are available now:

pip install -U hydracept
python -m hydracept --help

The TypeScript SDK is also available:

npm install @hydracept/sdk

.NET SDK

dotnet add package Hydracept.Client

HTTP-first integration

Registry packages are still rolling out. Until yours is available, use the public HTTP API and OpenAPI. The curl flow below is the supported clean-room path.

Discover capabilities

curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $HYDRACEPT_API_KEY" \
  https://api.hydracept.com/v1/capabilities

The live catalog is GET /v1/capabilities (or python -m hydracept agent-context). Do not freeze a launch-key list from this README.

See Capabilities for how capability keys work.

For image production (Sheet & Slice, transparent output, variants), see Image production.

For Unity 6 Editor integration (generate, sheet slice, import with provenance), see Unity integration.

Submit a durable job

JOB_JSON=$(curl -sS -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $HYDRACEPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "context": {
      "productId": "my-product",
      "projectId": "cpr_...",
      "environment": "development"
    },
    "input": { "prompt": "cute slime icon" },
    "execution": { "executionPreference": "automatic" },
    "idempotencyKey": "demo-1"
  }' \
  https://api.hydracept.com/v1/capabilities/image.generate.v1/jobs)

echo "$JOB_JSON"
JOB_ID=$(printf '%s' "$JOB_JSON" | python -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['jobId'])")

The submit response is a HydraceptJob object. Use jobId from that payload for poll and receipt calls.

Poll the job

curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $HYDRACEPT_API_KEY" \
  https://api.hydracept.com/v1/jobs/$JOB_ID

Poll until status is succeeded, failed, or canceled.

Fetch the receipt

curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $HYDRACEPT_API_KEY" \
  https://api.hydracept.com/v1/jobs/$JOB_ID/receipt

See Durable Jobs & Receipts for artifacts and outputs.

Next

• 5-minute game asset
• Authentication & Activation
• Pinned Execution
• Execution provenance
• Research Inference Protocol
• Billing & plans
• Connections / BYOK
• Errors
• Rate limits & quotas
• Coding Agents
• Plugin homepage: https://hydracept.com/plugin
• Public OpenAPI: https://hydracept.com/openapi/hydracept-v1.json