- --goal
- States the one outcome you want the next actions to move toward, in up to 4,096 characters. It is required for every run. A specific goal, such as a date or a measurable result, produces far more specific ideas than a broad one.
- --project
- Loads the stored memory of one project, created earlier with project create, as context for this run. That memory is the project's title, its scope, and every suggestion you accepted or rejected with the reasons, and it travels through Vidbyte to the model with the rest of the request. Leave it out and the run reads no project file at all.
- --context
- Adds a background fact that does not fit a more specific option. Repeat it once per fact. Each value is carried to the agents as task data, never as an instruction.
- --files
- Adds a text, Markdown, or JSON file whose contents inform the run, repeated once per file. Only the paths you name are read; nothing else on disk is scanned. Oversized files are truncated and reported in the manifest rather than dropped silently. What is read is sent through Vidbyte to the model, so name only files you are willing to share.
- --attach
- Attaches one local file directly to the model's input, repeated once per file in order. Text files are sent as snapshots and supported images stay native images, both through Vidbyte to the model provider. Missing, duplicate, empty, unsupported, or oversized files fail before any model is called, and so does a call whose request would pass 2,000,000 bytes.
- --completed
- Records an outcome that is already true, so the agent does not propose it again. Repeat it once per finished item. This is the single most effective way to stop a slate from repeating work you already did.
- --in-progress
- Records work that has started but is not finished. The agent treats it as underway, so it can suggest how to finish or unblock it rather than proposing it as new. Repeat it once per item.
- --decision
- Records a decision already made, so ideas build on it instead of reopening it. Repeat it once per decision. Use it for settled choices, such as a vendor, a deadline, or an architecture.
- --constraint
- Records a hard limit every idea must respect, such as a budget, a team size, or a freeze. Repeat it once per constraint. Every idea is expected to respect it, and the independent critic reviews each idea against it.
- --avoid
- Names a direction you do not want proposed at all. Repeat it once per direction. It is softer than a forbidden action: it steers the search away rather than declaring something off limits.
- --mistakes
- Records a mistake already made, so the agent can suggest how to recover and avoid proposing a repeat. Repeat it once per mistake. Use it for errors that shaped where the work is now.
- --forbidden
- Declares an action that must never appear in a suggestion, such as deleting data or contacting customers. Repeat it once per action. Use it for anything that would be unacceptable, not merely unwanted.
- --approaches
- Records an approach you already tried or are considering, so the agent can compare against it or build on it. Repeat it once per approach. It keeps the slate from rediscovering what you already know.
- --outcomes
- Records a result you have already observed, such as a metric after a change. Repeat it once per outcome. Real outcomes let the agent judge what is working instead of guessing.
- --blockers
- Names something currently stopping progress. Repeat it once per blocker. Naming it points the agent at ideas that remove it.
- --hypotheses
- Records a belief you have not yet tested. Repeat it once per hypothesis. The agent can propose the cheapest way to confirm or kill each one.
- --risks
- Names a risk you already see. Repeat it once per risk. The agent can propose ways to reduce it, and spends less of the slate re-discovering it.
- --trajectory
- Describes the direction the work has been moving over time, such as a trend or the last few milestones. Repeat it once per note. It helps the agent tell a next step apart from a course correction.
- --question
- States an open question you want the ideas to help answer. Repeat it once per question. The agent treats each one as something worth resolving, not just as background.
- --capability
- Names a skill, tool, person, access grant, or resource available to you. Repeat it once per capability. Ideas can then use what you have instead of assuming you have nothing.
- --success
- States what success looks like for the goal. Repeat it once per criterion. The critic uses it to judge whether an idea actually moves you toward the finish line.
- --count
- Sets the most ideas the final slate may hold, from 2 to 100, defaulting to 5. It is a ceiling, not a quota, so a weaker field returns fewer ideas with a shortfall note. A larger count asks the model for a bigger pool of candidates, which means longer replies and more output tokens.
- --category
- Limits the search to one kind of opportunity, such as quick_wins, big_bets, risk_prevention, or strategy, repeated once per category. There are 31 categories, and unknown names are rejected before any model is called. Leave it out to consider the whole registry.
- --all-categories
- Explicitly asks for every category to be considered. This matches the behavior when no category is given, but records the intent in the saved request. It does not force one idea from each category.
- --horizon
- Chooses when ideas should become useful: now, next, later, or any, which is the default. Now keeps every idea to something you can start today, while later favors directions that pay off over time. Each idea still records its own horizon in the result.
- --rounds
- Sets how many critique-and-revision cycles refine the pool, from 1 to 8, defaulting to 2. More rounds help difficult or ambitious goals, and every round adds a critic call and a revision call, each metered against your balance. The run ends early if a revision leaves no candidates.
- --max-messages
- Caps how many times a critic may stop its review early and message the generator directly about one urgent problem, from 0 to 8, defaulting to 2. Once the limit is spent, critics always return a full review. Zero turns the messages off.
- --provider
- Names the model provider that Vidbyte sends the generator and critic calls to. The only accepted value is openai, which is also the default. It makes the source of a run's reasoning explicit in scripts.
- --model
- Names the model that drafts and revises the ideas, which every extra-compute generator uses too. It defaults to gpt-6-sol, and Vidbyte meters each call at the chosen model's own per-token rate plus 2%. Vidbyte refuses a model it has no rate for before any tokens are used.
- --critic-model
- Names the model for the independent critic only, leaving the generator on its own model. It also defaults to gpt-6-sol, and an unpriced model is refused the same way. Use it when you want review from a stronger, cheaper, or different model than the one drafting ideas.
- --extra-compute
- Runs one separate generator call for each selected category, on the generator model, and combines their ideas before critique. It finds more genuinely distinct directions, but every category adds its own metered model call, so it multiplies a run's usage. With all 31 categories, that is 31 generator calls before the first critique.
- --max-output-tokens
- Caps each individual model reply, from 1 to 128,000 tokens, defaulting to 32,000. The cap is sent with every call, so it bounds what one reply can use, and Vidbyte holds enough balance for a reply of that length while the call runs. A reply cut off at the cap stops the run with the last fully reviewed ideas and a warning to raise it.
- --max-total-tokens
- Bounds the token usage of the whole run, from 1 to 20,000,000 tokens, which makes it the main spend control for a run. It is checked before every model call, so once the budget is reached no new call starts and the run returns the last fully reviewed ideas. The result names the stop reason so a partial slate never looks complete.
- --timeout-seconds
- Sets a deadline for the whole run, from 1 second to 86,400 seconds. No new work starts after it passes, and the last fully reviewed ideas are returned. A request already in flight may finish slightly later.
- --dry-run
- Validates the whole request and prints its settings, the models it would use, and its context manifest without calling a model. It needs no stored key, sends nothing to Vidbyte, and uses none of your balance. Use it to confirm what a large request will read before you run it.