Generation

generate_asset

RETURNS A COMMAND, NOT DATA. This tool hands you a helix … command string to RUN yourself — it executes nothing and returns no results. The answer is in that command’s output. FOR AN AVATAR (a playable character body) DO NOT USE THIS: create_avatar is the one path (it runs, blocks, checks and judges for you; this tool only hands back a command that needs the CLI on PATH and leaves the draft unjudged). LAST PLATFORM RUNG: generate a new prop or character only after list_materials and search_assets found no suitable resource. For a character, referenceSheetPath may supply an approved local FRONT/BACK/LEFT/RIGHT PNG/JPEG/WebP; the backend then skips image generation but preserves validation, mesh, texture, rig, LOD, thumbnail, billing, and Vault publication. This spends the signed-in creator’s LIX, and the up-front estimate is not a cap — helix jobs shows what each job actually cost. THIS COMMAND BLOCKS (default up to 20 minutes) waiting for the job — mesh generation on a complex prop can genuinely take a while. A "timed out" error is this wait giving up CLIENT-SIDE, not the job failing server-side: the printed helix assets resume <job-id> command checks on or continues that SAME job (never start a new one after a timeout). Pass timeoutMs to wait longer up front, or pollIntervalMs to poll less often.

generate_audio

Generate a sound effect, music track, or spoken line through the Asset Generation API, running the job to completion in ONE call. This executes the packaged HELIX CLI, which owns authentication, mode-specific validation, the long-running job, LIX accounting, provider access, and default-on Vault publication. Returns the CLI JSON receipt with the durable job/Vault ids and cost evidence. Sound effect is the default mode; music allows up to 4,100 prompt characters and 3-600 seconds; text_to_speech uses text + voiceId instead of prompt. NEVER use it for a vehicle: vehicle sound (engine, exhaust, horn, doors, tyres, any one-shot) is sourced from real recordings via import_vehicle_audio, never generated, and the vehicle gates refuse generated audio. PREFER start_asset_generation for anything slow: it also covers all three audio modes and hands back a job id, so a timeout or dropped connection cannot lose the job. AUDIO IS METERED — the charge settles on actual usage and can land above the estimate; there is no automatic refund. Check what it cost with helix jobs.

generate_environment_splat

RETURNS A COMMAND, NOT DATA. This tool hands you a helix … command string to RUN yourself — it executes nothing and returns no results. The answer is in that command’s output. EXPERIMENTAL: generate a World Labs Gaussian splat in SPZ format through the Asset Generation API. Declare whether it is a placeable object or full environment. Successful default-on runs publish a typed Gaussian-splat resource to Vault; consumers need an SPZ-capable renderer.

generate_image

RETURNS A COMMAND, NOT DATA. This tool hands you a helix … command string to RUN yourself — it executes nothing and returns no results. The answer is in that command’s output. Generate a standalone image through the Asset Generation API (creator/client-token auth). NOT for an avatar's turnaround sheet: the image is auto-published PUBLIC to the creator's Vault by default (a privacy surprise on a private request), and Asset Generation cannot condition a character on it unless it is a clean four-view sheet — for an avatar call create_avatar, which draws the sheet inside the job. This is NOT material generation. A successful default-on run includes a Vault asset id; explicit creator opt-out is returned as vaultAutoPublish="disabled". Spends the signed-in creator’s LIX — the up-front estimate is not a cap; helix jobs shows what it actually cost.

generate_material

RETURNS A COMMAND, NOT DATA. This tool hands you a helix … command string to RUN yourself — it executes nothing and returns no results. The answer is in that command’s output. Generate a validated portable PBR material bundle through the Asset Generation API and auto-publish it to Vault by default. Source PNG maps are retained; a KTX2 rendition is reported only when a real encoder produced it. 1K is the web/mobile default; 2K is explicit.

list_materials

FIRST ASSET RUNG: search the versioned HELIX platform material pack. Returns the offered PBR texture materials (photographed or scanned; procedural glass/water are not offered and are named under unlisted) and the immutable CDN base as JSON. Use before Vault search, generation, or external/CC0 sources. Apply one with use_material.

list_systems

List the runtime systems published on HELIX Instant (e.g. humanoid-character). A system is a versioned framework that hosts abilities; a world pins one. Returns slug@version + title.

No arguments.

poll_asset_generation

RETURNS A COMMAND, NOT DATA. This tool hands you a helix … command string to RUN yourself — it executes nothing and returns no results. The answer is in that command’s output. Poll ONE known job without starting or advancing a duplicate. Successful asset-pipeline jobs report vaultAssetId plus vaultAutoPublish; Asset Generation prop/character jobs report the universal item id and Vault receipt after publish. A JOB THAT IS NOT DONE IS NOT NECESSARILY DEAD: a job can be PAUSED AT A GATE — waiting on the creator, or holding a concept the server itself rejected — and is still live and advanceable. When that is the case the status output carries the advance actions THE SERVER OFFERS for that job; read them from the response and use those. Never assume a fixed menu of recovery verbs and never infer one from this description — the server is the authority on what can advance a job, and it changes. DO NOT HAVE A JOB ID, OR WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU SPENT? Run helix jobs — it lists your generation jobs with each one’s state and actual LIX cost, and prints the exact command that advances each parked job. helix jobs --state unfinished or --state awaiting_approval narrows it to what is stuck. That is the answer to "what did I spend" and "what is still waiting on me"; this tool is for a job you can already name.

start_asset_generation

RETURNS A COMMAND, NOT DATA. This tool hands you a helix … command string to RUN yourself — it executes nothing and returns no results. The answer is in that command’s output. FOR AN AVATAR USE create_avatar INSTEAD (it blocks until the job is done, then checks and judges the result; a job started here and left is how an avatar run ended with LIX spent and nothing published). THE DURABLE ASYNC ROUTE — prefer it for every other generation: it returns a job id immediately, so a timeout or a dropped connection never loses the job (poll it with poll_asset_generation instead of starting a duplicate). Covers all five generation surfaces. Prop/character route through the Asset Generation job lane (legacy pipeline: 'dreamer'); image/material/audio/Gaussian splat use the standalone asset lane; animation delegates to the CLI’s explicit no-charge unavailable boundary. AUDIO: audioMode selects sound_effect (default), music, or text_to_speech — speech takes text + voiceId + languageCode from list_voices instead of a prompt. NEVER for vehicle sound (engine, exhaust, horn, doors, tyres, any one-shot): that is sourced from real recordings via import_vehicle_audio, not generated. COST IS NOT CAPPED BY THE ESTIMATE. The up-front quote is an estimate, and metered generations (audio in particular) settle on ACTUAL usage — the charge can land ABOVE or below it, and there is no automatic refund of a difference. A real music job quoted ~1.2 LIX settled at 1.4. To bound the spend, pass maxLix: the CLI refuses to start when the ESTIMATE exceeds it — that is a pre-flight guard on the quote, still not a guarantee about the final charge. Check what anything actually cost with helix jobs.

use_material

Resolve one HELIX platform material id to its immutable CDN map URLs, its assetBaseUrl and its authored rendering defaults, at the texture resolution you pick. APPLY IT with the visual system, never by hand: pin "visual": "^0.1" in helix.json (then install_world_packages with update: true), const materials = await loadMaterialLibrary(assetBaseUrl, { renderer }) from @helix/visual, materials.apply(mesh, id) — exact per-axis tiling for boxes, planes, spheres, cylinders and capsules; pass { size: [w, h] } (metres the 0..1 UV span covers) for imported meshes — then await materials.ready(). Details: read_doc({ name: "world-look" }). The output states which resolution was resolved and which ones the material offers, under resolution.