OpenMontage/docs/PROVIDERS.md

OpenMontage Provider Guide

Everything you need to know about every provider in OpenMontage — setup instructions, pricing, free tiers, and what each unlocks.

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Quick Start: What Should I Set Up?

Start free, add paid providers as you need them. Here's the recommended order:

Step	Cost	What to set up	What it unlocks
1	$0	Pexels + Pixabay	Stock photos and videos — enough to produce basic videos
2	$0	Google API key	TTS with 700+ voices (1M chars/month free) + $300 new account credit
3	$0	ElevenLabs	Premium TTS + music + SFX (10K chars/month free)
4	$0	Piper (local install)	Fully offline TTS — no API key, no cost, no network
5	~$0.03/image	fal.ai	FLUX images + Kling/Veo/MiniMax video + Recraft — broad single-key image + video coverage
6	~$0.05/image	OpenAI	GPT Image 2 images + OpenAI TTS
7	~$0.04/image	Google Imagen	Imagen 4 images (shares the Google API key)
8	pay-as-you-go	Kling Official	Official direct Kling video, image, TTS, avatar, and lip-sync API, separate from fal.ai Kling
9	pay-as-you-go	Volcengine Ark	Official direct Seedance 2.0 Standard/Fast/Mini API
10	$12/month	Runway	Gen-4 video — highest quality AI video
11	pay-as-you-go	Hunyuan cloud video	Chinese-friendly T2V + I2V
12	pay-as-you-go	HeyGen	Avatar videos, multi-model video gateway
13	pay-as-you-go	Suno	Full song generation with vocals and lyrics
14	$0 + GPU	Local video gen	WAN 2.1, Hunyuan, CogVideo, LTX — free, offline
15	$0 + GPU	Local Diffusion	Stable Diffusion images — free, offline

Environment Variable Summary

# .env — add your keys here

# FREE (no cost, ever)
PEXELS_API_KEY=              # Stock photos + videos
PIXABAY_API_KEY=             # Stock photos + videos

# GOOGLE (one key, multiple tools, generous TTS free tier)
GOOGLE_API_KEY=              # Google TTS + Imagen + Lyria music + Gemini Omni/Veo video

# VOICE + MUSIC
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=          # TTS, music, sound effects (10K chars/month free)
FISH_AUDIO_API_KEY=          # fish.audio TTS (voice cloning via reference_id, inline emotion tags)
OPENAI_API_KEY=              # OpenAI TTS + GPT Image 2 images
XAI_API_KEY=                 # xAI Grok image generation/editing + Grok video generation
DOUBAO_SPEECH_API_KEY=       # Volcengine Doubao Speech TTS (strong Mandarin narration)
DOUBAO_SPEECH_VOICE_TYPE=    # Default Doubao speaker/voice type
DASHSCOPE_API_KEY=           # Alibaba DashScope (Qwen image gen, TTS, ASR with word timestamps)

# AZURE AI SPEECH (optional cloud STT + TTS; one key unlocks both directions)
AZURE_SPEECH_KEY=            # Azure AI Speech — azure_stt (Fast Transcription) + azure_tts (neural narration)
AZURE_SPEECH_REGION=         # Speech resource region, e.g. eastus

# MULTI-MODEL GATEWAY (one key, 6+ tools)
FAL_KEY=                     # FLUX, Recraft, Kling, Veo, MiniMax video
MINIMAX_API_KEY=             # MiniMax first-party image + MiniMax H3 video generation
ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY=          # Atlas Cloud image/video gateway

# KLING OFFICIAL DIRECT API
KLING_API_KEY=               # Official Kling video, image, TTS, avatar, lip sync
KLING_API_BASE_URL=          # Optional; default https://api-singapore.klingai.com

# VOLCENGINE ARK DIRECT SEEDANCE 2.0 / 2.5 API
ARK_API_KEY=                 # API key body only; do not include the "Bearer " prefix

# VIDEO
HEYGEN_API_KEY=              # HeyGen avatar video gateway
RUNWAY_API_KEY=              # Runway native + Seedance 2.5, Gemini Omni, MiniMax H3
SUNO_API_KEY=                # Suno music generation

# TENCLOUD HUNYUAN VIDEO
TENCENT_TOKENHUB_API_KEY=    # Tencent Hunyuan cloud video via TokenHub API

# LOCAL (no keys needed — just GPU + install)
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_ENABLED=     # Set to "true" for local video gen
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_MODEL=       # wan2.1-1.3b, wan2.1-14b, hunyuan-1.5, ltx2-local, cogvideo-5b

# COMFYUI (optional overrides; localhost:8188 is the default)
COMFYUI_SERVER_URL=          # Local ComfyUI server for shared workflows
COMFYUI_VIDEO_SERVER_URL=    # Optional video-specific ComfyUI server

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Current Video Model Coverage

The following integrations are based on documented, currently exposed model identifiers. Provider pages without a public API contract were not given speculative model strings.

Model	Direct provider	fal.ai	Runway	ComfyUI Partner Nodes	Local ComfyUI
Gemini Omni Flash	Google gemini_omni_video	gemini_omni_fal (T2V, I2V, references, editing)	runway_video model gemini_omni_flash	GeminiVideoOmni (hosted, paid credits)	Not available as local weights
Seedance 2.5	Volcengine seedance_ark model variant 2.5	seedance_video model version 2.5	runway_video model seedance2_5	ByteDance2TextToVideoNode (hosted, paid credits)	Not available as local weights
MiniMax H3	minimax_video model MiniMax-H3	minimax_fal_video (hailuo-03)	runway_video model hailuo3	MinimaxHailuo03TextToVideoNode (hosted, paid credits)	Supported with official open weights and an exported API workflow

ComfyUI Partner Nodes run inside the ComfyUI graph but call hosted services; they require network access, a logged-in Comfy account, and prepaid credits. Only the MiniMax H3 open-weight workflow in this table is a local model path.

Replicate, HeyGen, and Higgsfield were not updated for these exact model versions because their public API documentation did not expose a current, stable contract for them at the time of this update.

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Cloud Providers

xAI — Grok Image + Video

Best if you want one provider for image edits and reference-conditioned short video. Grok covers both image generation/editing and video generation under one key.

Tools unlocked: grok_image, grok_video Env var: XAI_API_KEY

Setup

1. Create an xAI developer account
2. Generate an API key in the xAI developer console
3. Add to .env: XAI_API_KEY=xai-...

What it's best for

• Image editing and style transfer
• Multi-image composites into one generated frame
• Short reference-image videos where a person, garment, or product must carry into motion

Pricing

Current xAI docs pricing for the Grok media models:

Model	Price
grok-imagine-image	$0.02 per generated image
grok-imagine-image input images (edits/composites)	$0.002 per input image
grok-imagine-video at 480p	$0.05/sec
grok-imagine-video at 720p	$0.07/sec
grok-imagine-video input images	$0.002 per input image

OpenMontage now uses those published rates in the Grok tool estimators.

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Volcengine Jimeng — 即梦 AI Video Generation

Direct ByteDance API via V4 signing. Calls the Volcengine visual API (visual.volcengineapi.com) with HMAC-SHA256 request signing using IAM AK/SK credentials. Supports text-to-video and image-to-video via Jimeng 3.0 Pro.

Tools unlocked: jimeng_video Env vars: VOLC_ACCESSKEY (Access Key ID) + VOLC_SECRETKEY (Secret Access Key)

Setup

1. Go to console.volcengine.com/iam/keymanage
2. Create a Volcengine account if you don't have one
3. Create an Access Key pair (AK + SK)
4. Ensure your account has access to Jimeng AI (即梦) video generation service
5. Add to .env: VOLC_ACCESSKEY=... and VOLC_SECRETKEY=...

What it's best for

• Direct ByteDance/Volcengine API quota usage
• Jimeng 3.0 Pro text-to-video and image-to-video
• Chinese-language prompt understanding
• Configurable frame count (121=5s, 241=10s) and aspect ratio

API notes

Authentication uses Volcengine IAM V4 signing (HMAC-SHA256), not a Bearer token. The signing process builds a canonical request, derives a signing key from SK → date → region → service, and signs the request.

API flow: POST ?Action=CVSync2AsyncSubmitTask → poll POST ?Action=CVSync2AsyncGetResult → download video_url.

The implementation uses the compatible generic CVSync2Async* route (API version 2022-08-31) rather than the model-specific 2024-06-06 actions presented in the public API explorer. This is intentional — the generic route supports the same Jimeng 3.0 Pro model via req_key while remaining stable across model updates.

The req_key for video is jimeng_ti2v_v30_pro. Success code is 10000. Task statuses: in_queue, generating, done, not_found, expired.

Authoritative API reference: Jimeng TI2V V30 Pro SubmitTask

Schema constraints (enforced by input_schema to prevent paid-call failures):

• prompt: max 800 characters
• frames: must be exactly 121 (5s) or 241 (10s) at 24fps
• seed: -1 for random, or any non-negative integer

Pricing

Model	Price
Jimeng 3.0 Pro (video)	~$0.05/sec (check Volcengine console for actual rate)

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Volcengine Ark — Direct Seedance 2.0 and 2.5 Video Generation

Official direct Seedance API. Calls Volcengine Ark without routing through fal.ai or Replicate, while keeping those existing provider paths available as independent fallbacks.

Tool unlocked: seedance_ark

Env var: ARK_API_KEY

Setup

1. Open the Volcengine Ark API key console
2. Enable the Seedance model family and confirm that the account has balance or a valid resource package
3. Create a long-lived API key
4. Add the key body to .env: ARK_API_KEY=...

Do not include the Bearer prefix in the environment value. The tool adds the authorization scheme when it sends a request.

Optional overrides:

ARK_SEEDANCE_MODEL=doubao-seedance-2-0-260128
ARK_BASE_URL=https://ark.cn-beijing.volces.com/api/v3
ARK_CNY_PER_USD=7.2

Models and capabilities

Variant	Default model ID	Output
2.5	doubao-seedance-2-5-260628	480p or 720p; 4–30 seconds
Standard	doubao-seedance-2-0-260128	480p, 720p, 1080p, or 4K
Fast	doubao-seedance-2-0-fast-260128	480p or 720p
Mini	doubao-seedance-2-0-mini-260615	480p or 720p

The adapter supports:

• text-to-video, first-frame image-to-video, and multimodal reference-to-video
• local image and audio inputs encoded as validated Data URIs
• remote reference image, video, and audio URLs
• task create, query, cancel, and bounded polling
• synchronized audio, optional last-frame return, web search for text-only requests, and output download
• pre-submit dry-run and token-based cost estimates

Seedance 2.5 accepts up to 30 image, 10 video, and 10 audio references. Select it with model: "2.5" (or its exact model ID). Because the public documentation does not establish a stable default token price for this model, OpenMontage requires custom_price_cny_per_million_tokens before presenting a cost estimate; unknown pricing is never reported as free.

Local reference videos are intentionally rejected because the public API does not document video Data URI support. Use a provider-accessible HTTPS URL or an Ark asset reference instead.

API and billing notes

The asynchronous API flow is:

POST /contents/generations/tasks → GET /contents/generations/tasks/{id} → download the successful result URL.

Queued tasks can be cancelled with DELETE /contents/generations/tasks/{id}. Task records are retained for a limited period, and successful result URLs are short-lived, so the tool downloads outputs promptly.

Ark bills Seedance by completion tokens. Rates vary by model, resolution, and whether the request includes reference video. OpenMontage estimates cost before submission and reconciles against provider-returned usage when available. Check the Ark console for current rates before a paid run; custom endpoint IDs and Seedance 2.5 require an explicit custom price so unknown pricing is never treated as free.

Official references: Seedance model list, create task, query task.

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Alibaba DashScope — Qwen Image + TTS + ASR

Best for Chinese-language production. One key unlocks Qwen-Image generation, Qwen-TTS Mandarin narration, and Qwen-ASR with word-level timestamps — the only DashScope path that provides word-level granularity for subtitle alignment.

Tools unlocked: dashscope_image, dashscope_tts, dashscope_asr Env var: DASHSCOPE_API_KEY

Setup

1. Go to dashscope.aliyun.com
2. Create an Alibaba Cloud account if you don't have one
3. Generate an API key in the DashScope console
4. Add to .env: DASHSCOPE_API_KEY=sk-...

What it's best for

• Chinese-language image generation with strong prompt understanding (Qwen-Image)
• Natural Mandarin narration (Qwen-TTS, Cherry voice)
• Word-level timestamp transcription for subtitle alignment (Qwen-ASR filetrans)
• Replacing the broken whisperx slot for ASR

API notes

DashScope's /compatible-mode/v1/ only supports /chat/completions and /embeddings. Image gen, TTS, and ASR all use DashScope-native endpoints with nested {model, input, parameters} request shape — not OpenAI-compatible paths.

The ASR tool (qwen3-asr-flash-filetrans) uses an async submit-poll pattern. Audio must be at a publicly accessible URL (local files are not supported). Word timestamps are in milliseconds, normalized to seconds by the tool.

Pricing

Model	Price
qwen-image-2.0-pro	~$0.02 per image (check console for current rates)
qwen3-tts-flash	~$0.000015 per character
qwen3-asr-flash-filetrans	Per-minute billing (check console)

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Tencent Hunyuan Cloud — Image Generation

Chinese-friendly first-party image generation. hunyuan_image accesses Hunyuan Image 3.0 through Tencent TokenHub with Bearer-token authentication. It supports seeded text-to-image, up to three reference images, custom resolutions, prompt rewriting, and watermark controls.

Tool unlocked: hunyuan_image

Env var: TENCENT_TOKENHUB_API_KEY

Generate an API key in the Tencent Cloud TokenHub console and add it to .env. The tool reports approximately $0.08 per generated image based on TokenHub's credit price. It is available through image_selector; shared reference-image inputs are normalized to the provider's images array.

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fal.ai — Multi-Model Gateway

Broad single-key coverage. One API key unlocks image and video providers across multiple models.

Tools unlocked: flux_image, recraft_image, seedream_image, kling_video, veo_video, seedance_video, gemini_omni_fal, minimax_fal_video, fal_elevenlabs_tts, fal_elevenlabs_music Env var: FAL_KEY

Setup

1. Go to fal.ai and click Sign up (GitHub or Google)
2. Navigate to fal.ai/dashboard/keys
3. Click Create Key, copy it
4. Add to .env: FAL_KEY=your-key-here

Pricing

No subscription — pure pay-as-you-go, no minimum spend.

Image generation:

Model	Price	Per $1
FLUX Pro v1.1	$0.05/image	20 images
FLUX Dev	$0.03/image	33 images
Recraft v3	~$0.04/image	25 images
Seedream 5 Pro (up to 1536x1536)	$0.0675/image	~14 images
Seedream 5 Pro (up to 2048x2048)	$0.135/image	~7 images

Video generation:

Model	Price	Per $1
Kling 2.5 Turbo Pro	$0.07/sec	14 seconds
Seedance 2.5	endpoint-dependent	4–30 seconds
Gemini Omni Flash	endpoint-dependent	3–10 seconds
MiniMax H3 (hailuo-03)	endpoint-dependent	4–15 seconds
Veo 3	$0.40/sec	2.5 seconds
WAN 2.5	$0.05/sec	20 seconds

Free tier: None — but $0 to start, you only pay for what you use.

The same key can also access ElevenLabs speech and music through fal.ai. Use fal_elevenlabs_tts when direct ElevenLabs credentials are unavailable, or select it through tts_selector with preferred_provider: "fal.ai".

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MiniMax — Official Direct Image and Video API

First-party image and video generation. The direct MiniMax API supports seeded image generation plus MiniMax H3 video generation with text, first/last frames, image/video/audio references, and global or mainland-China routing.

Tools unlocked: minimax_image, minimax_video

Env var: MINIMAX_API_KEY

Optional region: MINIMAX_REGION=global (default) or cn

Setup

1. Create a MiniMax Open Platform account.
2. Generate an API key in the account's API-key page.
3. Add MINIMAX_API_KEY=... to .env.
4. For a mainland-China account, also set MINIMAX_REGION=cn.

MINIMAX_BASE_URL may be used for a documented private/enterprise endpoint override. The default global and mainland-China hosts are selected from MINIMAX_REGION.

MiniMax H3 video

Use minimax_video with model: "MiniMax-H3". The tool uses the v2 task contract (POST /v2/video_generation, then GET /v2/query/video_generation/{task_id}) and supports 4–15 second 2K clips. Older Hailuo models continue to use the v1 API. MiniMax H3 reference generation can combine images, video, and audio; reference audio requires a visual reference.

Pricing

Models	Global pay-as-you-go price
image-01, image-01-live	$0.0035 per generated image

MiniMax also offers subscription token plans with included daily image quota. OpenMontage conservatively reports the standard pay-as-you-go amount in cost estimates and generation results.

The tools are automatically discoverable through the image and video selectors; choose them with preferred_provider: "minimax".

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Atlas Cloud — Image and Video Gateway

Tools: atlas_image, atlas_video Env var: ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY (aliases: ATLAS_CLOUD_API_KEY, ATLAS_API_KEY) Skill: .agents/skills/atlas-cloud/SKILL.md

Atlas Cloud provides one endpoint and key for the following explicitly cataloged routes. OpenMontage validates each model's real schema instead of treating task suffixes or parameter names as interchangeable.

Family	Supported routes	Current Atlas rate
Seedance 2.5	text/image/reference to video	$0.134/sec
Seedance 2.0	text/image/reference to video	$0.112/sec
Gemini Omni Flash	text/image/reference to video; video edit; developer text/image/reference	$0.112–0.140/sec
MiniMax H3	text/image/reference to video	$0.100/sec
Seedream 5.0 Pro	text to image; edit; layer decomposition	$0.022–0.045/image
GPT Image 2	text to image; edit	$0.009–0.010/image
Nano Banana 2	text to image; edit	$0.080/image

Inspect get_info()["model_catalog"] for exact IDs, operations, media shapes, durations, and resolutions. Prices are estimates sourced from each model's machine-readable Atlas page and should be reconfirmed before a paid batch.

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Kling Official — Direct API

Official Kling path. This is separate from kling_video via fal.ai: it uses Kling's official Authorization: Bearer <KLING_API_KEY> API, provider name kling_official, and direct Classic/Turbo/Omni task protocols.

Tools unlocked: kling_official_video, kling_official_image, kling_tts, kling_avatar, kling_lip_sync Env vars: KLING_API_KEY, optional KLING_API_BASE_URL

Setup

1. Create or open a Kling AI Open Platform account.
2. Generate an official API key in the Kling API console.
3. Add to .env:

   KLING_API_KEY=your-key-here
   # Optional, defaults to Singapore:
   KLING_API_BASE_URL=https://api-singapore.klingai.com
   

What It Is Best For

• Direct official Kling API provenance rather than fal.ai gateway routing
• Text-to-video, image-to-video, and deep Video Omni reference workflows via kling_official_video
• Text-to-image, image edit/reference, and Image Omni multi-reference or series workflows via kling_official_image
• Text-to-speech via kling_tts when you already know the official Kling voice_id
• Cloud avatar presenter clips via kling_avatar, without replacing local talking_head
• Cloud lip-sync via kling_lip_sync, with explicit face selection for multi-person videos
• Accounts that need to use official Kling model permissions, resource packs, or regional endpoints

Notes

• provider="kling_official" is intentionally different from fal.ai's provider="kling".
• Official Kling is a paid remote API. OpenMontage uses conservative cost estimates and includes high-cost factors such as Omni references, series output, 4k mode, and native sound.
• Local image paths are sent as raw base64 for supported Classic/image-generation fields. Turbo image-to-video requires a URL and will not silently upload through fal.ai.
• Video Omni and Image Omni can pass official element_id references through element_list; Elements remain an internal Kling Official helper, not a standalone OpenMontage capability.
• Account Usage is available as a low-frequency diagnostic helper under tools/_kling/account.py; it is not a selector or pipeline tool.
• callback_url is passed through and recorded when supplied, but OpenMontage still polls tasks by default.
• kling_tts requires an explicit voice_id; OpenMontage does not guess a default official voice.
• kling_avatar and kling_lip_sync register under the existing avatar capability and coexist with local SadTalker/Wav2Lip tools. Current avatar pipelines must opt into them explicitly; registry discovery alone does not replace local tools.
• Official Kling audio effects and video effects are documented but intentionally not registered as OpenMontage tools yet, because current pipelines do not have a stable sound-effects or video-effects capability slot for them.

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ElevenLabs — Voice, Music, Sound Effects

Premium voice quality. Best TTS for narration-heavy videos. Also generates music and sound effects.

Tools unlocked: elevenlabs_tts, music_gen Env var: ELEVENLABS_API_KEY

Setup

1. Go to elevenlabs.io and click Sign up
2. Go to Profile (bottom-left) > API Keys, or visit elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys
3. Click Create API Key, name it, copy it
4. Add to .env: ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=xi_your-key-here

Pricing

Plan	Price	Characters/month	Key features
Free	$0	10,000	3 custom voices, API access, attribution required
Starter	$5/mo	30,000	No attribution
Creator	$22/mo	100,000	Professional voice cloning
Pro	$99/mo	500,000	96kbps audio, usage analytics
Scale	$330/mo	2,000,000	Priority support

Free tier: 10,000 characters/month (roughly 2-3 minutes of narration). API access included. Music generation and sound effects also available on free tier with limited credits.

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fish.audio — Expressive TTS + Voice Cloning

High-emotion narration and reusable cloned voices. S2-generation models support inline emotion tags ([laugh], [whispers]) and 80+ languages. Voices created in the fish.audio playground are reused across runs via reference_id.

Tools unlocked: fish_audio_tts Env var: FISH_AUDIO_API_KEY

Setup

1. Sign up at fish.audio
2. Create an API key at fish.audio/go-api/api-keys
3. Add to .env: FISH_AUDIO_API_KEY=your-key-here
4. (Optional) Build or pick a voice model in the fish.audio playground and pass its id as reference_id to reuse a cloned voice

Backend models

model is required — there is no default. Pass one of:

Model	Best for
s2.1-pro	Latest flagship — inline emotion tags, 80+ languages, hero narration
s2.1-pro-free	Promotional free access to s2.1-pro — drafts, samples, validation runs (see caveats below)
s2-pro	First S2 generation — stable high quality with emotion-tag support
s1	Previous flagship, kept for compatibility (no emotion tags)

s2.1-pro-free caveats — promotional, not a durable free tier. Per the fish.audio announcement, free API access runs through August 31, 2026 and is subject to Fair Use limits, carries no SLA or latency guarantee, requests may be retained by fish.audio, and commercial use is restricted. Don't route client work or production narration through it, and don't plan long-term costs at $0 — fish_audio_tts.estimate_cost() falls back to the paid s2.1-pro rate after the promotional window ends.

The legacy speech-1.x tier and s1-mini have been removed from the fish.audio API and are not supported.

Pricing

Billing is per UTF-8 byte of input text (not per character) — CJK text and emoji cost 3-4x an ASCII character of the same visible length. Current list pricing: s1 / s2-pro / s2.1-pro = $15 per 1M bytes; s2.1-pro-free is $0 only during the promotional window (through August 31, 2026 — see caveats above). Verify current pricing in the official pricing guide before large batches.

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Doubao Speech — Mandarin TTS

Strong Mandarin narration. Volcengine Doubao Speech is a good choice for Chinese explainer voiceovers and long-form narration that needs subtitle timing metadata.

Tools unlocked: doubao_tts Env vars: DOUBAO_SPEECH_API_KEY, DOUBAO_SPEECH_VOICE_TYPE

Setup

1. Open the Volcengine Doubao Speech console and enable Speech Synthesis 2.0.
2. Create a new-console API Key.
3. Choose a Speech 2.0 voice type, for example zh_female_vv_uranus_bigtts.
4. Add to .env:

   DOUBAO_SPEECH_API_KEY=your-api-key
   DOUBAO_SPEECH_VOICE_TYPE=zh_female_vv_uranus_bigtts
   

API Notes

OpenMontage uses the new-console API key flow:

X-Api-Key: ${DOUBAO_SPEECH_API_KEY}
X-Api-Resource-Id: seed-tts-2.0

Do not pass a new-console API Key as X-Api-App-Id or X-Api-Access-Key. That mismatch can produce load grant: requested grant not found.

What It Is Best For

• Natural Mandarin narration for Chinese-language explainers
• Async long-form narration via /api/v3/tts/submit and /api/v3/tts/query
• Character-level timing metadata for subtitle alignment
• Calm educational pacing where the video duration can follow the approved voice rhythm

Pacing

Start with speech_rate: 0 for natural Mandarin delivery. If the approved format needs a tighter runtime, compare short samples at speech_rate: 25 or 50 before generating the full narration. Do not force Doubao to match another provider's duration unless the user explicitly wants that tradeoff.

Pricing

Doubao Speech 2.0 is billed by character package or usage in Volcengine. OpenMontage estimates cost from text length and prefers provider-returned usage metadata when available.

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Tencent Hunyuan Cloud — Video Generation

Tencent Hunyuan (腾讯混元) cloud video generation via TokenHub API. Generates videos from text or images using Tencent's Hunyuan models through the Tencent TokenHub API — an OpenAI-compatible gateway (tokenhub.tencentmaas.com) with simple Bearer-token authentication. No TC3-HMAC-SHA256 signing required.

Tools unlocked: hunyuan_cloud_video Env var: TENCENT_TOKENHUB_API_KEY

Setup

1. Go to the Tencent Cloud TokenHub console.
2. Create an application or navigate to the API Key section.
3. Generate an API key and copy its value.
4. Add to .env:

   TENCENT_TOKENHUB_API_KEY=your-tokenhub-api-key
   

What It's Best For

• Chinese-friendly prompt understanding — Hunyuan models natively understand Chinese prompts better than most Western APIs
• Simple auth — Bearer token, no complex signing (just an HTTP Authorization header)
• Direct Tencent Cloud quota — uses your own Tencent Cloud credits, not a third-party gateway mark-up
• Both T2V and I2V — one API key unlocks text-to-video and image-to-video

API Notes

TokenHub uses a submit-then-poll pattern:

# Submit a generation task
POST https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1/api/video/submit
Authorization: Bearer ${TENCENT_TOKENHUB_API_KEY}

# Poll for results
POST https://tokenhub.tencentmaas.com/v1/api/video/query
Authorization: Bearer ${TENCENT_TOKENHUB_API_KEY}

Model	Type	Pricing
hy-video-1.5	Text-to-video	1.5 credits (~$0.25)
yt-video-2.0	Image-to-video	2–5 credits (~$0.33–0.83)

Resolution options: 720p (default) or 1080p.

A watermark (logo_add) is added by default. Set logo_add: 0 to disable it (requires console approval from Tencent).

Schema constraints:

• Prompt: max 200 UTF-8 characters
• Image: max 10MB, 50–5000 px per side, aspect ratio 1:4 to 4:1
• Formats: jpg, png, jpeg, webp, bmp, tiff

Fallback Tools

If hunyuan_cloud_video returns an error, the agent may retry with: jimeng_video, kling_official_video, minimax_video

Pricing

Tencent TokenHub uses a credit-based pricing system (1 credit = 1.2 RMB ≈ $0.167 USD):

Model	Resolution	Credits	Estimated USD
HY-Video-1.5	any	1.5	~$0.25
YT-Video-2.0	480p	2	~$0.33
YT-Video-2.0	720p / 1080p	5	~$0.83

Free tier: Tencent occasionally offers new-user credits for TokenHub. Check the TokenHub console for current promotions.

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Azure AI Speech — Speech-to-Text

Cloud transcription. Azure AI Speech Fast Transcription turns local audio into text with word-level timestamps, speaker diarization, and multi-language identification — no GPU required. Optional: the local faster-whisper transcriber remains the default offline STT path. When AZURE_SPEECH_KEY is set, the agent prefers azure_stt for cloud transcription.

Tools unlocked: azure_stt Env vars: AZURE_SPEECH_KEY, AZURE_SPEECH_REGION (or AZURE_SPEECH_ENDPOINT)

Setup

1. In the Azure portal, create a Speech resource (Azure AI services → Speech service).
2. Open the resource's Keys and Endpoint page.
3. Copy KEY 1 and the Location/Region (e.g. eastus).
4. Add to .env:

   AZURE_SPEECH_KEY=your-speech-resource-key
   AZURE_SPEECH_REGION=eastus
   # AZURE_SPEECH_ENDPOINT=https://<custom>...  # optional, overrides region
   

API Notes

OpenMontage uses the Fast Transcription REST endpoint, which accepts a local audio file directly (multipart upload) and returns a synchronous result — no Azure Blob storage, SAS URLs, or async job polling:

POST https://{region}.api.cognitive.microsoft.com/speechtotext/transcriptions:transcribe?api-version=2024-11-15
Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: ${AZURE_SPEECH_KEY}

For files longer than ~2 hours or bulk jobs, use Azure Batch Transcription instead (not wired into OpenMontage).

What It Is Best For

• Cloud transcription with word-level timestamps and no local GPU
• Multi-language auto-detection across a candidate locale set
• Speaker diarization without a HuggingFace token
• Subtitle timing metadata that flows straight into subtitle_gen

Pricing

Azure AI Speech Standard (S0) bills speech-to-text by audio-hour (roughly $1.00/audio-hour at time of writing; a free F0 tier includes a limited monthly allowance). OpenMontage estimates cost from the transcribed audio duration. See Azure AI Speech pricing for current rates.

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Azure AI Speech — Text-to-Speech

Cloud neural narration. Azure neural TTS delivers high-quality multilingual voices with SSML prosody control and express-as styles — same Speech resource as azure_stt, so one key/region unlocks both directions. Optional: the local piper_tts remains the default offline TTS path. When AZURE_SPEECH_KEY is set, the agent may prefer azure_tts for cloud narration.

Tools unlocked: azure_tts Env vars: AZURE_SPEECH_KEY, AZURE_SPEECH_REGION (or AZURE_TTS_ENDPOINT)

Setup

Identical to the STT setup above — the same Speech resource key and region work for both. If you already configured azure_stt, azure_tts is available now.

AZURE_SPEECH_KEY=your-speech-resource-key
AZURE_SPEECH_REGION=eastus
# AZURE_TTS_ENDPOINT=https://<region>.tts.speech.microsoft.com  # optional, overrides region

Note: the TTS host (<region>.tts.speech.microsoft.com) differs from the STT endpoint, so the optional override var is AZURE_TTS_ENDPOINT, not AZURE_SPEECH_ENDPOINT.

API Notes

OpenMontage uses the synchronous REST v1 endpoint with an SSML body — no token exchange, Blob storage, or job polling:

POST https://{region}.tts.speech.microsoft.com/cognitiveservices/v1
Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: ${AZURE_SPEECH_KEY}
Content-Type: application/ssml+xml
X-Microsoft-OutputFormat: audio-48khz-192kbitrate-mono-mp3

Voice shortlist aliases: andrew (default — warm, confident), brandon (deeper), ava (bright female), guy (authoritative), jenny (friendly). Any Azure voice short name is accepted verbatim. See the azure-text-to-speech skill for SSML rate/pitch/style guidance.

What It Is Best For

• High-quality neural narration on existing Azure credentials
• Calm, confident explainer / founder-register delivery
• Multilingual narration via the Multilingual voice family
• Deterministic re-renders (fixed voice + SSML → identical audio)

Not for: fully offline production (use piper_tts) or voice cloning (use elevenlabs_tts).

Pricing

Azure neural TTS Standard (S0) bills roughly $16 per 1M characters (a free F0 tier includes a limited monthly allowance). A 150-word narration segment costs about $0.015. OpenMontage estimates cost from character count. See Azure AI Speech pricing for current rates.

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Google — TTS + Imagen + Music + Video (Shared Key)

One key, five tools. Google Cloud TTS has 700+ voices in 50+ languages — the strongest localization option. google_imagen supports both Imagen 4 and Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, including projects without Imagen catalog access. Google Lyria generates high-quality background music. Gemini Omni Flash supports conversational video editing, and direct Veo generation covers premium short video clips.

Tools unlocked: google_tts, google_imagen, google_music, gemini_omni_video, veo_video Env var: GOOGLE_API_KEY (or GEMINI_API_KEY — either works; GEMINI_API_KEY takes precedence)

Setup

1. Go to Google AI Studio and sign in
2. Navigate to aistudio.google.com/apikey
3. Click Create API Key, select a Google Cloud project
4. Copy the key
5. Add to .env: GOOGLE_API_KEY=AIza... (or GEMINI_API_KEY=AIza...)

For TTS specifically, you also need to enable the Text-to-Speech API:

1. Visit console.cloud.google.com/apis/library/texttospeech.googleapis.com
2. Click Enable
3. Make sure your API key's restrictions allow the Text-to-Speech API

For Imagen, Lyria Music, Gemini Omni video, and direct Veo video, enable the Generative Language API:

1. Visit console.cloud.google.com/apis/library/generativelanguage.googleapis.com
2. Click Enable

Google TTS Pricing

Voice Type	Free tier	Paid (per 1M chars)	Notes
Standard	1M chars/month	$4.00	Basic quality, fast
WaveNet	1M chars/month	$16.00	Natural-sounding
Neural2	1M chars/month	$16.00	Best quality
Studio	—	$24.00	Professional studio voices
Chirp	—	$4.00	Conversational style

The free tiers apply independently — you get 1M Standard AND 1M WaveNet AND 1M Neural2 characters per month free. That's roughly 250+ minutes of narration per month at zero cost.

Google Imagen Pricing

Model	Price per image
Imagen 4 Fast	$0.02
Imagen 4 Standard	$0.04
Imagen 4 Ultra	$0.06
Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (gemini-2.5-flash-image)	$0.039

Free tier for Imagen: None. Paid tier only.

To select the Gemini backend through the governed image_selector, pass preferred_provider: "google_imagen" and model_name: "gemini-2.5-flash-image". The selector maps its neutral model_name field to the provider's model input.

Gemini Omni Video Pricing

Model	Price	Notes
gemini-omni-flash-preview	~$0.10 per second of video	Billed as 5,792 output tokens/sec of 720p video at $17.50/1M tokens

Generates 3–10 second clips at 720p/24fps with synthesized audio, plus stateful conversational editing (edit_video via previous_interaction_id). Paid tier only — no free tier. A typical 8-second clip costs ~$0.80; each edit turn generates a new clip and bills again.

Google Music (Lyria) Pricing

Model	Price per generation request
lyria-3-pro-preview	$0.08 (flat rate, up to 184s duration)

Free tier for Music: None. Paid tier only.

New account bonus: Google Cloud offers $300 in free credits for new accounts (90-day trial), applicable to TTS, Imagen, Music, Gemini Omni video, and direct Veo video.

Google TTS Voice Types

Google TTS offers 700+ voices across 50+ languages. Voice names follow the pattern {language}-{type}-{letter}:

Type	Example	Quality	Cost
Chirp 3 HD	en-US-Chirp3-HD-Orus	Best (2024, most natural)	Mid — default
Standard	en-US-Standard-A	Good	Cheapest
WaveNet	en-US-WaveNet-D	Very good	Mid
Neural2	en-US-Neural2-D	Excellent	Mid
Studio	en-US-Studio-O	Professional	Highest
Journey	en-US-Journey-D	Conversational (long-form)	Mid

Recommended voices: en-US-Chirp3-HD-Orus (male, rich/cinematic), en-US-Chirp3-HD-Aoede (female, warm). These are Google's newest tier — most natural-sounding, uses the v1beta1 endpoint automatically.

Languages include: English (US, UK, AU, IN), Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese), Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, and 30+ more.

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OpenAI — TTS + Image Generation

Solid all-rounder. GPT Image 2 handles complex multi-element compositions and in-image text well. TTS is fast and affordable.

Tools unlocked: openai_tts, openai_image Env var: OPENAI_API_KEY

Setup

1. Go to platform.openai.com/signup and create an account
2. Add a payment method at platform.openai.com/account/billing
3. Navigate to platform.openai.com/api-keys
4. Click Create new secret key, name it, copy it
5. Add to .env: OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

TTS Pricing

Model	Price per 1M characters
tts-1	$15.00
tts-1-hd	$30.00
gpt-4o-mini-tts	$12.00

Image Pricing

Model	Size	Quality	Price per image
GPT Image 2	1024x1024	low	$0.006
GPT Image 2	1024x1024	medium	$0.053
GPT Image 2	1024x1024	high	$0.211
GPT Image 2	1024x1536 / 1536x1024	low	$0.005
GPT Image 2	1024x1536 / 1536x1024	medium	$0.041
GPT Image 2	1024x1536 / 1536x1024	high	$0.165

Note: DALL-E 2/3 were shut down by OpenAI on 2026-05-12, and the gpt-image-1 family (gpt-image-1-mini, gpt-image-1.5) retires 2026-12-01 — gpt-image-2 is OpenAI's recommended replacement (deprecations).

Free tier: None. Requires prepaid billing. Previously offered $5 in free credits for new accounts (discontinued for most signups).

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Runway — Native and Third-Party Video Models

Multi-model production API. OpenMontage supports current Runway-native models plus documented third-party Seedance 2.5, Gemini Omni Flash, and MiniMax H3/Hailuo 3.0 routes.

Tools unlocked: runway_video Env var: RUNWAY_API_KEY

Setup

1. Go to dev.runwayml.com and create a developer account
2. Subscribe to a paid plan (Standard or above — API requires subscription)
3. Generate an API key from the developer portal
4. Add to .env: RUNWAY_API_KEY=key_...

Pricing

Plan	Price	Credits/month	Video capacity
Free	$0	125 one-time	~5 seconds Gen-4
Standard	$12/mo	625	~25 seconds Gen-4
Pro	$28/mo	2,250	~90 seconds Gen-4
Unlimited	$76/mo	Unlimited (Explore Mode)	Unlimited Gen-4 Turbo

API pricing (Runway credits are $0.01 each):

Model	Price per second
Gen-4 Turbo	~$0.05
Gen-4.5	~$0.12
Seedance 2.5	~$0.20 at 480p / ~$0.30 at 720p
Gemini Omni Flash	~$0.10 generation / ~$0.11 video editing
MiniMax H3 (hailuo3)	~$0.10 at 768P / ~$0.15 at 2K

Seedance 2.5 supports text, image, and video inputs, 4–30 second outputs, and up to 30 image, 10 video, and 10 audio references. Gemini Omni Flash supports 3–10 second text/image generation plus video editing with up to five image references. Hailuo 3.0 is Runway's MiniMax H3 route and supports 5–15 second outputs at 768P or 2K. The adapter maps each model to its exact request field names instead of sending a generic payload.

Gen-3 Alpha Turbo and Gen-4 Aleph were removed from the Runway API on 2026-07-30 and are not offered by the tool.

Free tier: 125 one-time credits (no monthly renewal). Enough for about 5 seconds of Gen-4 video. API access requires a paid subscription.

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Higgsfield — Multi-Model Video Orchestrator

Multi-model video platform. Routes to Kling 3.0, Veo 3.1, Sora 2, WAN 2.5, and proprietary Soul Cinema through a single API. Includes Soul ID for character consistency across clips.

Tools unlocked: higgsfield_video Env vars: HIGGSFIELD_API_KEY + HIGGSFIELD_API_SECRET (or combined HIGGSFIELD_KEY=key:secret)

Setup

1. Go to cloud.higgsfield.ai and create an account
2. Subscribe to a plan (Starter or above for API access)
3. Navigate to API Keys section at cloud.higgsfield.ai/api-keys
4. Generate an API key and secret
5. Add to .env:

   HIGGSFIELD_API_KEY=your-api-key
   HIGGSFIELD_API_SECRET=your-api-secret
   

Pricing

Plan	Price	Notes
Free	$0	Limited credits
Starter	$15/mo	Basic allocation
Plus	$34/mo	Mid-tier, ~33-56 Kling 3.0 clips
Ultra	$84/mo	High volume

Per-generation costs (approximate, via credits):

Model	Cost per clip
Kling 3.0	~$0.10 (cheapest)
WAN 2.5	~$0.10
Soul Cinema	~$0.15
Veo 3.1	~$0.50
Sora 2	~$0.50

Free tier: Limited credits on signup. No monthly renewal on free plan.

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HeyGen — Avatar Video Gateway

Multi-model video gateway. Access VEO, Sora, Runway, Kling, and Seedance through a single API.

Tools unlocked: heygen_video Env var: HEYGEN_API_KEY

Setup

1. Go to app.heygen.com/register and create an account
2. Navigate to the API section in settings
3. Generate your API key
4. Add API balance (prepaid, separate from web plan credits)
5. Add to .env: HEYGEN_API_KEY=your-key-here

Pricing

Service	Price
Avatar video (Engine III)	$0.017/sec
Avatar video (Engine IV)	$0.10/sec
Prompt to Video	$0.033/sec
Video Translation (Speed)	$0.05/sec
Video Translation (Precision)	$0.10/sec

Web plans:

Plan	Price	Notes
Free	$0	1 credit (demo)
Creator	$24/mo	Limited credits
Business	$72/mo	API access, more credits

Free tier: 1 credit on web platform. API is pay-as-you-go with prepaid balance.

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Suno — AI Music Generation

Full songs with vocals and lyrics. Any genre, up to 8 minutes. Instrumentals or vocal tracks.

Tools unlocked: suno_music Env var: SUNO_API_KEY

Setup

1. Go to suno.com and create a Suno account
2. For API access, go to sunoapi.org and create an account
3. Navigate to the dashboard and copy your API key
4. Add credits (1 credit = $0.005 USD)
5. Add to .env: SUNO_API_KEY=your-key-here

Pricing

Suno platform:

Plan	Price	Credits	Notes
Free	$0	50/day	~10 songs/day, non-commercial only
Pro	$10/mo	2,500/mo	Commercial license
Premier	$30/mo	10,000/mo	Commercial license

API (via sunoapi.org): Pay-as-you-go, 1 credit = $0.005. Each generation produces 2 tracks.

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Pexels — Free Stock Media

Completely free. No cost, no attribution required, commercial use allowed.

Tools unlocked: pexels_image, pexels_video Env var: PEXELS_API_KEY

Setup

1. Go to pexels.com/join and create a free account
2. Navigate to pexels.com/api
3. Click Your API Key or request API access
4. Copy your key from the dashboard
5. Add to .env: PEXELS_API_KEY=your-key-here

Pricing

Completely free. No paid tiers. No attribution required. Commercial use allowed.

• 200 requests/hour
• 20,000 requests/month
• Photo and video search + download

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Pixabay — Free Stock Media

Completely free. 5M+ royalty-free images and videos.

Tools unlocked: pixabay_image, pixabay_video Env var: PIXABAY_API_KEY

Setup

1. Go to pixabay.com/accounts/register and create a free account
2. Navigate to pixabay.com/api/docs
3. Your API key is displayed at the top of the docs page (after login)
4. Copy the key
5. Add to .env: PIXABAY_API_KEY=your-key-here

Pricing

Completely free. No paid tiers. No attribution required. Commercial use allowed.

• ~100 requests/minute
• 5,000 requests/hour
• Photo and video search + download
• Standard API limited to 1280px images (full resolution requires editorial API)

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Local Providers (Free, No API Key)

These providers run entirely on your machine. No network, no API key, no cost. Some require a GPU.

Remotion — Programmatic Video Composition

React-based video rendering. Turns still images into animated video with spring physics, animated text cards, stat cards, charts, and transitions. This is the key fallback when no video generation providers are configured — the agent generates images and Remotion animates them into professional-looking video.

Tool: video_compose (with operation="render" — auto-routes to Remotion when needed) Runtime: CPU (Node.js required) Env var: None

Setup

# Included in make setup, or install manually:
cd remotion-composer && npm install && cd ..

Requires Node.js 18+ and npx. The remotion-composer/ project is included in the repo.

What Remotion Renders

Component	What it produces
TextCard	Animated title/body text with spring physics entrance
StatCard	Animated statistics with count-up animations
ProgressBar	Animated progress indicators
CalloutBox	Highlighted callout panels with icon animations
ComparisonCard	Side-by-side comparison layouts
BarChart / LineChart / PieChart	Animated data visualizations
KPIGrid	Multi-metric dashboard cards
Image scenes	Still images with spring-animated motion (replaces Ken Burns)

When Does Remotion Activate?

The video_compose tool's render operation auto-detects when Remotion is needed:

• Cuts contain still images (.png, .jpg, etc.)
• Cuts have type set to text_card, stat_card, chart, etc.
• Cuts specify animation or transition_in/transition_out

If Remotion is not installed, compositions fall back to FFmpeg Ken Burns pan-and-zoom — functional but less engaging.

Cost: Free. Always local.

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HyperFrames - HTML/CSS/GSAP Video Composition

GSAP-native local rendering. HyperFrames is the preferred runtime for motion-graphics-heavy HTML compositions and the character-animation pipeline's rigged SVG character acting.

Tool: hyperframes_compose directly, or video_compose with edit_decisions.render_runtime="hyperframes" Runtime: CPU (Node.js >= 22, FFmpeg, and npx required) Env var: None

Setup

node --version
ffmpeg -version
npx --yes hyperframes doctor

The CLI is consumed as npx hyperframes. Do not use npx @hyperframes/cli; that package name is not the OpenMontage runtime path.

What HyperFrames Renders

Use case	What it produces
Kinetic typography	HTML/CSS text animation driven by GSAP timelines
Product / launch videos	Structured HTML scenes, registry blocks, and transitions
Website-to-video	Browser-captured site compositions with HyperFrames validation
Character animation	SVG character rigs, pose/action timelines, and GSAP acting beats rendered to renders/final.mp4

HyperFrames workspaces live under projects/<project-name>/hyperframes/. Final videos still follow the normal OpenMontage convention: projects/<project-name>/renders/final.mp4.

Cost: Free. Always local.

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Piper TTS — Offline Text-to-Speech

Completely free, fully offline TTS. No network required. Good quality for drafts and budget-constrained projects.

Tool: piper_tts Runtime: CPU (no GPU needed) Env var: None

Setup

# Install via pip
pip install piper-tts

# Or download the binary from GitHub
# https://github.com/rhasspy/piper/releases

# Download a voice model (first run downloads automatically)
piper --download-dir ~/.piper/models --model en_US-lessac-medium

Available voices: ~30 English voices plus voices for German, French, Spanish, Italian, and other languages. Lower variety than cloud providers but completely free and offline.

Quality: Good for drafts, internal videos, and budget projects. For client-facing narration, use ElevenLabs or Google TTS.

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ComfyUI Video — Local Workflows and Hosted Partner Nodes

Tool: comfyui_video

Optional env vars: COMFYUI_SERVER_URL (default http://localhost:8188) and COMFYUI_VIDEO_SERVER_URL (video-specific override).

The bundled WAN 2.2 workflows and caller-supplied local workflows execute on the ComfyUI machine. MiniMax H3 is available as an official open-weight local workflow; pass the official workflow exported in API format using workflow_json or workflow_path, plus its output_node.

The MiniMax H3 local stack includes the pruned INT8 diffusion model, Qwen3-VL text encoder, video VAE, and audio VAE. OpenMontage exposes the official download URLs and destination folders in tool metadata rather than silently downloading large weights.

The same tool also supports these ComfyUI Partner Nodes:

model_family	Node	Execution	Approximate cost
gemini_omni_flash	GeminiVideoOmni	Hosted Partner Node	~$0.146/sec
seedance_2.5	ByteDance2TextToVideoNode	Hosted Partner Node	~$0.148/sec 480p; ~$0.333/sec 720p
minimax_h3_api	MinimaxHailuo03TextToVideoNode	Hosted Partner Node	~$0.129/sec 768P; ~$0.186/sec 2K
minimax_h3_local	official MiniMax H3 graph	Local GPU	No API charge

Partner Nodes are not offline: they require current ComfyUI, network access, a logged-in Comfy account, and prepaid credits. Prices are estimates converted from Comfy credits (211 credits = $1); actual metered usage is authoritative.

Official references: Partner Node overview, pricing, and MiniMax H3 local tutorial.

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Local Video Generation (GPU Required)

Free AI video generation. Requires an NVIDIA GPU with sufficient VRAM.

Tools: wan_video, hunyuan_video, cogvideo_video, ltx_video_local Runtime: Local GPU (CUDA required) Env vars: VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_ENABLED=true, VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_MODEL=<model>

Setup

# 1. Install the GPU stack
make install-gpu
# Or manually:
pip install diffusers transformers accelerate torch pillow requests

# 2. Enable local generation in .env
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_ENABLED=true

# 3. Choose a model based on your GPU VRAM
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_MODEL=wan2.1-1.3b      # 6GB+ VRAM (entry-level)
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_MODEL=wan2.1-14b       # 24GB+ VRAM (best local quality)
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_MODEL=hunyuan-1.5      # 12GB+ VRAM
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_MODEL=ltx2-local       # 8GB+ VRAM (fastest)
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_MODEL=cogvideo-5b      # 10GB+ VRAM
VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_MODEL=cogvideo-2b      # 6GB+ VRAM (lightest)

Model Comparison

Model	VRAM	Quality	Speed	Best for
WAN 2.1 (1.3B)	6GB	Good	Fast	Entry-level GPU, quick iteration
WAN 2.1 (14B)	24GB	Excellent	Slow	Best quality-to-VRAM ratio
Hunyuan 1.5	12GB	Very good	Medium	Mid-range GPUs
LTX-2	8GB	Good	Fastest	Quick drafts, lowest latency
CogVideo (5B)	10GB	Good	Medium	Balanced option
CogVideo (2B)	6GB	Fair	Fast	Low-VRAM experimentation

All local models support: Image-to-video, text-to-video, offline generation, seeded reproducibility.

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Local Diffusion — Offline Image Generation (GPU Required)

Free Stable Diffusion image generation. No API cost, fully offline.

Tool: local_diffusion Runtime: Local GPU (CUDA required) Env var: None (enable by installing dependencies)

Setup

pip install diffusers transformers accelerate torch

First run downloads the model (~4GB). Subsequent runs use the cached model.

VRAM requirement: 4GB+ (8GB recommended for 1024x1024 images)

Supports: Negative prompts, seeds, custom sizes. Quality is lower than FLUX or GPT Image 2 but completely free and offline.

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LTX-2 on Modal — Self-Hosted Cloud GPU

Run LTX-2 on Modal's cloud GPUs. Your own endpoint, your own scale. More consistent than local GPU, cheaper than commercial APIs.

Tool: ltx_video_modal Runtime: Cloud (self-hosted) Env var: MODAL_LTX2_ENDPOINT_URL

Setup

1. Create a Modal account
2. Deploy the LTX-2 endpoint (see Modal docs)
3. Set the endpoint URL in .env: MODAL_LTX2_ENDPOINT_URL=https://your-modal-endpoint

Modal pricing: ~$0.99/hour for A100 GPU time. Cost per video depends on generation time.

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Other Local Tools (Always Available)

These tools require only FFmpeg or Python packages — no GPU, no API key.

Tool	Install	What it does
FFmpeg tools (video_compose, video_stitch, video_trimmer, audio_mixer, audio_enhance, color_grade, face_enhance, frame_sampler, scene_detect)	brew install ffmpeg / sudo apt install ffmpeg / winget install FFmpeg	Video editing, audio processing, color grading, analysis
Transcriber	pip install faster-whisper	Speech-to-text with word-level timestamps
Background Remove	pip install rembg (CPU) or pip install rembg[gpu]	Remove image/video backgrounds
Upscale	pip install realesrgan (requires PyTorch + CUDA)	Real-ESRGAN image/video upscaling
Face Restore	pip install gfpgan (requires PyTorch)	CodeFormer/GFPGAN face restoration
Code Snippet	pip install Pygments Pillow	Syntax-highlighted code images
Diagram Gen	npm install -g @mermaid-js/mermaid-cli	Mermaid diagram rendering
Math Animate	pip install manim	ManimCE mathematical animations
Subtitle Gen	No install needed	SRT/VTT subtitle file generation
Video Understand	pip install transformers torch	CLIP/BLIP-2 visual analysis
Talking Head	Clone SadTalker	Avatar animation from photo + audio
Lip Sync	Clone Wav2Lip	Audio-driven lip synchronization

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Provider-to-Tool Mapping

Provider	Env Var	Tools Unlocked	Cost
Pexels	PEXELS_API_KEY	pexels_image, pexels_video	Free
Pixabay	PIXABAY_API_KEY	pixabay_image, pixabay_video	Free
Piper	— (install only)	piper_tts	Free
Azure AI Speech	AZURE_SPEECH_KEY + AZURE_SPEECH_REGION	azure_stt, azure_tts	Free tier + paid
Google	GOOGLE_API_KEY (or GEMINI_API_KEY)	google_tts, google_imagen, google_music, gemini_omni_video, veo_video	Free tier (TTS) + paid
ElevenLabs	ELEVENLABS_API_KEY	elevenlabs_tts, music_gen	Free tier + paid
fish.audio	FISH_AUDIO_API_KEY	fish_audio_tts	Free tier (s2.1-pro-free) + paid
fal.ai	FAL_KEY	flux_image, recraft_image, kling_video, veo_video, seedance_video, gemini_omni_fal, minimax_fal_video	Pay-as-you-go
Atlas Cloud	ATLASCLOUD_API_KEY	atlas_image, atlas_video	Pay-as-you-go
Kling Official	KLING_API_KEY	kling_official_video, kling_official_image, kling_tts, kling_avatar, kling_lip_sync	Pay-as-you-go
Volcengine Ark	ARK_API_KEY	seedance_ark	Pay-as-you-go
MiniMax direct	MINIMAX_API_KEY	minimax_image, minimax_video	Pay-as-you-go
OpenAI	OPENAI_API_KEY	openai_tts, openai_image	Paid only
xAI	XAI_API_KEY	grok_image, grok_video	Paid only
Runway	RUNWAY_API_KEY	runway_video	Free trial + paid
Higgsfield	HIGGSFIELD_API_KEY + HIGGSFIELD_API_SECRET	higgsfield_video	Subscription ($15-84/mo)
HeyGen	HEYGEN_API_KEY	heygen_video	Pay-as-you-go
Suno	SUNO_API_KEY	suno_music	Pay-as-you-go
Tencent Hunyuan	TENCENT_TOKENHUB_API_KEY	hunyuan_cloud_video	Pay-as-you-go (~$0.25–0.83/gen)
Local GPU	VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_ENABLED	wan_video, hunyuan_video, cogvideo_video, ltx_video_local	Free (GPU required)
Local Diffusion	— (install only)	local_diffusion	Free (GPU required)
Modal	MODAL_LTX2_ENDPOINT_URL	ltx_video_modal	Self-hosted cloud
ComfyUI	optional server URL overrides	comfyui_video	Local GPU, or paid Partner Node credits

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Capability Coverage

How many providers cover each capability:

Capability	Cloud Providers	Local Providers	Free Options
Image Generation	FLUX, Kling Official, Grok, Google Imagen, GPT Image 2, Recraft	Local Diffusion	Pexels, Pixabay (stock)
Video Generation	Grok, Kling Official, fal.ai, Seedance via Volcengine Ark, Runway, Veo, Gemini Omni, Higgsfield, MiniMax, HeyGen, Tencent Hunyuan, ComfyUI Partner Nodes	WAN, Hunyuan, CogVideo, LTX, ComfyUI WAN, ComfyUI MiniMax H3	Pexels, Pixabay (stock)
Text-to-Speech	Azure AI Speech, ElevenLabs, fish.audio, Google TTS, Kling Official, OpenAI	Piper	Piper, Google free tier, ElevenLabs free tier, Azure free tier, fish.audio s2.1-pro-free
Music Generation	ElevenLabs, Suno, Google Lyria	—	ElevenLabs free tier
Post-Production	—	FFmpeg (compose, stitch, trim, mix, enhance, grade)	All free
Analysis	—	WhisperX, Scene Detect, Frame Sampler, CLIP/BLIP-2	All free
Enhancement	—	Upscale, BG Remove, Face Enhance, Face Restore	All free
Avatar	Kling Official	SadTalker, Wav2Lip	Local tools are free

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FAQ

Q: What's the absolute minimum I need to produce a video? A: FFmpeg + Node.js (both free, local). FFmpeg handles video assembly, audio mixing, and subtitles. With Node.js, Remotion renders still images into animated video — so even without any video generation API, the agent generates images and Remotion turns them into professional-looking video with spring animations, text cards, and transitions. Add Piper TTS for free narration and Pexels/Pixabay for free stock footage.

Q: I don't have any video generation providers. Can I still make videos? A: Yes. The agent generates still images (via any image provider — even free stock from Pexels/Pixabay) and Remotion composes them into animated video with spring physics transitions, text cards, stat cards, and charts. This is the default path for explainer and animation pipelines when no video gen is configured.

Q: What's one low-friction way to get AI-generated images and video? A: fal.ai (FAL_KEY) is one pay-as-you-go option with broad single-key coverage. It unlocks FLUX images plus multiple video providers. No subscription — pay only for what you generate.

Q: I have a GPU. What can I run locally for free? A: Set VIDEO_GEN_LOCAL_ENABLED=true and install diffusers. You get WAN 2.1, Hunyuan, CogVideo, and LTX video generation plus Stable Diffusion image generation — all free, all offline.

Q: Which TTS provider should I use? A: For quality → ElevenLabs. For localization (50+ languages) → Google TTS. For budget → Google free tier (1M chars/month). For offline → Piper.

Q: Do I need all these providers? A: No. Start with what you have. The selector pattern auto-routes to whatever's available. Missing a provider? The system falls through to the next one automatically.