---
title: CLI reference
sidebarTitle: CLI
description: Run one-off generation tasks and launch the HTTP server from the command line.
---

The `sglang` CLI provides two main subcommands for diffusion inference:

- **`sglang generate`** -- run a one-off generation without a persistent server
- **`sglang serve`** -- launch the OpenAI-compatible HTTP server

## Prerequisites

A working SGLang Diffusion installation with the `sglang` CLI available in your `$PATH`. See the [installation guide](../installation) for setup instructions.

## Generate

Run a one-off generation task without launching a persistent server. Pass both server arguments and sampling parameters after the `generate` subcommand:

```bash
SERVER_ARGS=(
  --model-path Wan-AI/Wan2.2-T2V-A14B-Diffusers
  --text-encoder-cpu-offload
  --pin-cpu-memory
  --num-gpus 4
  --ulysses-degree=2
  --ring-degree=2
)

SAMPLING_ARGS=(
  --prompt "A curious raccoon"
  --save-output
  --output-path outputs
  --output-file-name "A curious raccoon.mp4"
)

sglang generate "${SERVER_ARGS[@]}" "${SAMPLING_ARGS[@]}"
```

You can also enable Cache-DiT acceleration via an environment variable:

```bash
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_ENABLED=true sglang generate "${SERVER_ARGS[@]}" "${SAMPLING_ARGS[@]}"
```

<Note>
HTTP server-related arguments are ignored in `generate` mode. The process shuts down automatically once generation completes.
</Note>

## Serve

Launch the SGLang Diffusion HTTP server and interact through the OpenAI-compatible API.

```bash
SERVER_ARGS=(
  --model-path Wan-AI/Wan2.1-T2V-1.3B-Diffusers
  --text-encoder-cpu-offload
  --pin-cpu-memory
  --num-gpus 4
  --ulysses-degree=2
  --ring-degree=2
)

sglang serve "${SERVER_ARGS[@]}"
```

- `--model-path` -- which model to load (e.g. `Wan-AI/Wan2.1-T2V-1.3B-Diffusers`)
- `--port` -- HTTP port to listen on (default: `30010`)

For full API usage including image/video generation and LoRA management, see the [OpenAI API documentation](./openai-api).

---

## Supported arguments

### Server arguments

<Accordion title="Server arguments reference">

| Argument | Description |
|:--|:--|
| `--model-path MODEL_PATH` | Path to the model or HuggingFace model ID |
| `--lora-path LORA_PATH` | Path to a LoRA adapter (local or HuggingFace ID). If omitted, LoRA is not applied |
| `--lora-nickname NAME` | Nickname for the LoRA adapter (default: `default`) |
| `--num-gpus NUM` | Number of GPUs to use |
| `--tp-size SIZE` | Tensor parallelism size (encoder only; keep at most 1 when text encoder offload is enabled) |
| `--sp-degree SIZE` | Sequence parallelism size (typically should match the number of GPUs) |
| `--ulysses-degree SIZE` | DeepSpeed-Ulysses-style SP degree in USP |
| `--ring-degree SIZE` | Ring attention-style SP degree in USP |
| `--attention-backend BACKEND` | Attention backend. Native pipelines: `fa`, `torch_sdpa`, `sage_attn`, etc. Diffusers pipelines: `flash`, `_flash_3_hub`, `sage`, `xformers` |
| `--attention-backend-config CONFIG` | Config for the attention backend. Accepts a JSON string, a JSON/YAML file path, or `key=value` pairs |
| `--cache-dit-config PATH` | Path to a Cache-DiT YAML/JSON config (diffusers backend only) |
| `--dit-precision DTYPE` | Precision for the DiT model (`fp32`, `fp16`, `bf16`) |
| `--text-encoder-cpu-offload` | Offload text encoders to CPU |
| `--pin-cpu-memory` | Pin CPU memory for faster transfers |

</Accordion>

### Sampling parameters

<Accordion title="Generation parameters">

| Argument | Description |
|:--|:--|
| `--prompt PROMPT` | Text description for the image or video to generate |
| `--negative-prompt PROMPT` | Negative prompt to guide generation away from certain concepts |
| `--num-inference-steps STEPS` | Number of denoising steps |
| `--seed SEED` | Random seed for reproducible generation |

</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Image/video configuration">

| Argument | Description |
|:--|:--|
| `--height HEIGHT` | Height of the generated output |
| `--width WIDTH` | Width of the generated output |
| `--num-frames NUM` | Number of frames to generate (video only) |
| `--fps FPS` | Frames per second for the saved output (video only) |

</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Output options">

| Argument | Description |
|:--|:--|
| `--save-output` | Save the image or video to disk |
| `--output-path PATH` | Directory to save the generated output |
| `--output-file-name NAME` | File name for the saved output |
| `--return-frames` | Return the raw frames instead of saving |

</Accordion>

### Frame interpolation (video only)

Frame interpolation is a post-processing step that synthesizes new frames between each pair of consecutive generated frames, producing smoother motion without re-running the diffusion model.

The `--frame-interpolation-exp` flag controls how many rounds of interpolation to apply: each round inserts one new frame into every gap between adjacent frames, so the output frame count follows the formula:

$$
\text{output frames} = (N - 1) \times 2^{\text{exp}} + 1
$$

For example, 5 original frames with `exp=1` -> 4 gaps x 1 new frame + 5 originals = **9 frames**; with `exp=2` -> **17 frames**.

| Argument | Description |
|:--|:--|
| `--enable-frame-interpolation` | Enable frame interpolation. Model weights are downloaded automatically on first use |
| `--frame-interpolation-exp EXP` | Interpolation exponent -- `1` = 2x temporal resolution, `2` = 4x, etc. (default: `1`) |
| `--frame-interpolation-scale SCALE` | RIFE inference scale; use `0.5` for high-resolution inputs to save memory (default: `1.0`) |
| `--frame-interpolation-model-path PATH` | Local directory or HuggingFace repo ID containing RIFE `flownet.pkl` weights (default: `elfgum/RIFE-4.22.lite`, downloaded automatically) |

**Example** -- generate a 5-frame video and interpolate to 9 frames ($(5 - 1) \times 2^1 + 1 = 9$):

```bash
sglang generate \
  --model-path Wan-AI/Wan2.2-T2V-A14B-Diffusers \
  --prompt "A dog running through a park" \
  --num-frames 5 \
  --enable-frame-interpolation \
  --frame-interpolation-exp 1 \
  --save-output
```

---

## Configuration files

Instead of passing every parameter on the command line, you can use a JSON or YAML config file. Command-line arguments take precedence over config values.

```bash
sglang generate --config config.json
```

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="JSON">
    ```json config.json
    {
      "model_path": "FastVideo/FastHunyuan-diffusers",
      "prompt": "A beautiful woman in a red dress walking down a street",
      "output_path": "outputs/",
      "num_gpus": 2,
      "sp_size": 2,
      "tp_size": 1,
      "num_frames": 45,
      "height": 720,
      "width": 1280,
      "num_inference_steps": 6,
      "seed": 1024,
      "fps": 24,
      "precision": "bf16",
      "vae_precision": "fp16",
      "vae_tiling": true,
      "vae_sp": true,
      "vae_config": {
        "load_encoder": false,
        "load_decoder": true,
        "tile_sample_min_height": 256,
        "tile_sample_min_width": 256
      },
      "text_encoder_precisions": ["fp16", "fp16"],
      "mask_strategy_file_path": null,
      "enable_torch_compile": false
    }
    ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="YAML">
    ```yaml config.yaml
    model_path: "FastVideo/FastHunyuan-diffusers"
    prompt: "A beautiful woman in a red dress walking down a street"
    output_path: "outputs/"
    num_gpus: 2
    sp_size: 2
    tp_size: 1
    num_frames: 45
    height: 720
    width: 1280
    num_inference_steps: 6
    seed: 1024
    fps: 24
    precision: "bf16"
    vae_precision: "fp16"
    vae_tiling: true
    vae_sp: true
    vae_config:
      load_encoder: false
      load_decoder: true
      tile_sample_min_height: 256
      tile_sample_min_width: 256
    text_encoder_precisions:
      - "fp16"
      - "fp16"
    mask_strategy_file_path: null
    enable_torch_compile: false
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

To see all available options:

```bash
sglang generate --help
```

---

## Component path overrides

You can override any pipeline component (e.g. `vae`, `transformer`, `text_encoder`) by specifying a custom checkpoint path with `--<component>-path`, where `<component>` matches the key in the model's `model_index.json`.

### Example: FLUX.2-dev with Tiny AutoEncoder

Replace the default VAE with a distilled tiny autoencoder for ~3x faster decoding:

```bash
sglang serve \
  --model-path=black-forest-labs/FLUX.2-dev \
  --vae-path=fal/FLUX.2-Tiny-AutoEncoder
```

You can also use a local path:

```bash
sglang serve \
  --model-path=black-forest-labs/FLUX.2-dev \
  --vae-path=~/.cache/huggingface/hub/models--fal--FLUX.2-Tiny-AutoEncoder/snapshots/.../vae
```

<Warning>
The component key must match the one in the model's `model_index.json` (e.g. `vae`).
The path must be either a HuggingFace repo ID or point to a complete component folder containing `config.json` and safetensors files.
</Warning>

---

## Diffusers backend

SGLang Diffusion supports a diffusers backend that runs any diffusers-compatible model through SGLang's infrastructure using vanilla diffusers pipelines. This is useful for models without native SGLang implementations or models with custom pipeline classes.

### Backend arguments

| Argument | Values | Description |
|:--|:--|:--|
| `--backend` | `auto` (default), `sglang`, `diffusers` | `auto`: prefer native SGLang, fallback to diffusers. `sglang`: force native (fails if unavailable). `diffusers`: force vanilla diffusers pipeline |
| `--diffusers-attention-backend` | `flash`, `_flash_3_hub`, `sage`, `xformers`, `native` | Attention backend for diffusers pipelines |
| `--trust-remote-code` | flag | Required for models with custom pipeline classes |
| `--vae-tiling` | flag | Enable VAE tiling for large image support (decodes tile-by-tile) |
| `--vae-slicing` | flag | Enable VAE slicing for lower memory usage (decodes slice-by-slice) |
| `--dit-precision` | `fp16`, `bf16`, `fp32` | Precision for the diffusion transformer |
| `--vae-precision` | `fp16`, `bf16`, `fp32` | Precision for the VAE |

### Example: running Ovis-Image-7B

[Ovis-Image-7B](https://huggingface.co/AIDC-AI/Ovis-Image-7B) is a 7B text-to-image model optimized for high-quality text rendering.

```bash
sglang generate \
  --model-path AIDC-AI/Ovis-Image-7B \
  --backend diffusers \
  --trust-remote-code \
  --diffusers-attention-backend flash \
  --prompt "A serene Japanese garden with cherry blossoms" \
  --height 1024 \
  --width 1024 \
  --num-inference-steps 30 \
  --save-output \
  --output-path outputs \
  --output-file-name ovis_garden.png
```

### Extra diffusers arguments

For pipeline-specific parameters not exposed via CLI, use `diffusers_kwargs` in a config file:

```json config.json
{
  "model_path": "AIDC-AI/Ovis-Image-7B",
  "backend": "diffusers",
  "prompt": "A beautiful landscape",
  "diffusers_kwargs": {
    "cross_attention_kwargs": {"scale": 0.5}
  }
}
```

```bash
sglang generate --config config.json
```

### Cache-DiT acceleration

Users on the diffusers backend can leverage Cache-DiT acceleration by loading custom cache configs from a YAML file. See the [Cache-DiT documentation](../cache-dit) for details.

---

## Cloud storage support

The server supports automatically uploading generated artifacts to S3-compatible cloud storage (AWS S3, MinIO, Alibaba Cloud OSS, Tencent Cloud COS).

The workflow is: **Generate -> Upload -> Delete local file**. The API response returns the public URL of the uploaded object.

1. **Install boto3**

```bash
pip install boto3
```

2. **Set environment variables**

```bash
export SGLANG_CLOUD_STORAGE_TYPE=s3
export SGLANG_S3_BUCKET_NAME=my-bucket
export SGLANG_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-access-key
export SGLANG_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret-key

# Optional: custom endpoint for MinIO/OSS/COS
export SGLANG_S3_ENDPOINT_URL=https://minio.example.com
```

3. **Launch the server**

```bash
sglang serve --model-path MODEL_PATH
```

See the [environment variables reference](../environment-variables) for all storage-related variables.
