5-minute game asset
Generate your first game asset through Hydracept in about five minutes.
BYOK vs managed trial: Hydracept does not mark up inference. New Free orgs get a small managed trial budget so your first smoke can run before you connect a provider key. For sustained use, connect OpenAI, ElevenLabs, or Meshy (BYOK).
1. Activate
Option A — Browser (fastest)
- Open https://hydracept.com/start
- Sign in with GitHub or Google
- Save the printed API key — click Copy setup for coding agent if an agent will continue
Option B — CLI (humans)
pip install -U hydracept
python -m hydracept login
python -m hydracept configure
Option C — Agents / headless (API key paste)
pip install -U hydracept
python -m hydracept quickstart --token "$HYDRACEPT_API_KEY" --json --smoke
Legacy path (still supported): login --token → init --apply --yes → doctor → smoke.
2. Verify
python -m hydracept doctor
Doctor prints Next actions when something is missing (PATH tip, BYOK URL, smoke command).
3. First image (managed trial or BYOK)
python -m hydracept smoke
Or submit manually:
export HYDRACEPT_API_URL=https://api.hydracept.com
# keys from activation / .hydracept/local.env
JOB_JSON=$(curl -sS -X POST \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $HYDRACEPT_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d "{
\"context\": {
\"productId\": \"demo-game\",
\"projectId\": \"$HYDRACEPT_PROJECT\",
\"environment\": \"$HYDRACEPT_ENVIRONMENT\"
},
\"input\": { \"prompt\": \"cute slime enemy icon, flat game art\" },
\"execution\": { \"executionPreference\": \"automatic\" },
\"idempotencyKey\": \"five-minute-slime-1\"
}" \
"$HYDRACEPT_API_URL/v1/capabilities/image.generate.v1/jobs")
4. Connect BYOK (recommended for production)
Open the BYOK form from activation (Configure BYOK), or visit:
https://api.hydracept.com/v1/onboarding/byok?organizationId=…&projectId=…&environment=development
Paste an OpenAI, ElevenLabs, or Meshy key — Hydracept encrypts and binds it. See Connections / BYOK.
What you proved
- Hydracept authenticated your caller
- A durable capability job is the right primitive for game asset pipelines
- Provider billing is yours (trial or BYOK)