Documentation

Quickstart

Make Effects is the shared record for finished, reproducible media Assets. Use the makefx CLI when an agent, script, or local workflow needs to generate, upload, or download media files. Use makefx.app to review Variants, choose the main result, organize work, and collaborate. Both interfaces operate on the same Space state.

Install the CLI

npm install -g makefx
makefx --version

The CLI defaults to production at https://makefx.app.

Use --env stage for staging or --local for a local development server.

Sign in

makefx login

The login flow opens the browser, authenticates with Google, and stores local CLI credentials outside your project directory.

Create or bind a space

A Space is the shared project boundary for Assets, Variants, Recipes, References, Collections, and collaborators.

makefx spaces create "My Game Assets" --init

If you already have a space ID:

makefx init --space YOUR_SPACE_ID

This writes .inventory/config.json with the environment and Space ID. It does not store prompts, media, or auth tokens.

Generate your first media

Generate an image:

makefx image generate "A cozy pixel-art market background" \
  --name "Market Background" \
  --type scene \
  -o art/market.png

Generate sound:

makefx audio sfx generate "A crisp magical item pickup" \
  --name "Item Pickup" \
  -o audio/item-pickup.wav

Generate video:

makefx video generate "A looping idle animation for a tiny robot" \
  --name "Robot Idle" \
  --type animation \
  -o video/robot-idle.mp4

Each command creates a durable Asset, waits on its Variant state, and downloads the completed media.

Review and choose

makefx assets list
makefx assets show <asset-ref> --json

Open the Space at makefx.app, then open the Asset and compare its actual Variants. A completed result that needs creative changes can be opened with Regenerate…. A failed Variant exposes Retry, which runs the same Recipe again without changing its identity.

Choose More → Use as main variant on the completed result that should represent the Asset. The same explicit choice is available from the CLI:

makefx variants activate <variant-ref>

Organize or remove work

Use the folder action on an Asset—or selection mode after narrowing with search—to add work to Collections. Open Collections to create, find, rename, show, hide, or delete the saved sets. The CLI exposes the same organization:

makefx collections create "Approved"
makefx collections add <collection-id> <asset-ref>

Deletion is permanent and has no trash. Activate another completed Variant before deleting the current one; delete the Asset to remove its only Variant.

makefx variants delete <variant-ref> --yes
makefx assets delete <asset-ref> --yes

The authoritative Space state is shared by the web app, CLI, and MCP, so every interface now sees the chosen and organized result.

Next steps