mold

Generate images from text on your own GPU. No cloud, no Python, no fuss.

Documentation | Getting Started | Models | API

mold run "a cat riding a motorcycle through neon-lit streets"

That's it. Mold auto-downloads the model on first run and saves the image to your current directory.

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/utensils/mold/main/install.sh | sh

This downloads the latest pre-built binary to ~/.local/bin/mold. On Linux, the installer auto-detects your NVIDIA GPU and picks the right binary (RTX 40-series or RTX 50-series). macOS builds include Metal support. Override with MOLD_CUDA_ARCH=sm120 for Blackwell or MOLD_CUDA_ARCH=sm89 for Ada.

Nix

# Run directly — no install needed (default: Ada/RTX 40-series)
nix run github:utensils/mold -- run "a cat"

# Blackwell / RTX 50-series
nix run github:utensils/mold#mold-sm120 -- run "a cat"

# Or add to your system
nix profile install github:utensils/mold          # Ada (sm_89)
nix profile install github:utensils/mold#mold-sm120  # Blackwell (sm_120)

From source

cargo build --release -p mold-ai --features cuda    # Linux (NVIDIA)
cargo build --release -p mold-ai --features metal   # macOS (Apple Silicon)

Optional features can be added to the same build, for example --features cuda,preview,expand,discord,tui or --features metal,preview,expand,discord,tui if you also want terminal preview, local prompt expansion, the Discord bot, or the interactive TUI.

Manual download

Pre-built binaries are available on the releases page.

Platform	File
macOS Apple Silicon (Metal)	`mold-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz`
Linux x86_64 (Ada, RTX 4090 / 40-series)	`mold-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-cuda-sm89.tar.gz`
Linux x86_64 (Blackwell, RTX 5090 / 50-series)	`mold-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-cuda-sm120.tar.gz`

Usage

# Generate an image
mold run "a sunset over mountains"

# Pick a model
mold run flux-dev:q4 "a turtle in the desert"
mold run sdxl-turbo "espresso in a tiny cup"
mold run dreamshaper-v8 "fantasy castle on a cliff"

# Reproducible results (the logo above was generated this way)
mold run z-image-turbo:bf16 "A minimal modern logo for 'mold' on a solid black background. A stylized casting mold shape formed from smooth gradient lines transitioning from cyan to magenta. The negative space inside the mold reveals a glowing latent grid pattern suggesting AI diffusion. Bold lowercase 'mold' typography below in clean sans-serif. Flat vector style, no photorealism" --seed 1337

# Custom size and steps
mold run "a portrait" --width 768 --height 1024 --steps 30

Piping

Mold is pipe-friendly in both directions. When stdout is not a terminal, raw image bytes go to stdout and status/progress goes to stderr.

# Pipe output to an image viewer
mold run "neon cityscape" | viu -

# Pipe prompt from stdin
echo "a cat riding a motorcycle" | mold run flux-schnell

# Chain with other tools
cat prompt.txt | mold run z-image-turbo --seed 42 | convert - -resize 512x512 thumbnail.png

# Pipe in and out
echo "cyberpunk samurai" | mold run flux-dev:q4 | viu -

Output metadata

PNG output embeds generation metadata by default, including prompt, model, seed, size, steps, and a JSON mold:parameters chunk for downstream tools.

# Disable metadata for one run
mold run "a cat" --no-metadata

# Disable metadata globally via environment
MOLD_EMBED_METADATA=0 mold run "a cat"

Inline preview

Display generated images directly in the terminal after generation (requires building with --features preview). Auto-detects the best terminal protocol: Kitty graphics, iTerm2, Sixel, or Unicode half-block fallback.

# Preview after generation
mold run "a cat" --preview

# Enable preview permanently via environment
export MOLD_PREVIEW=1

In ~/.mold/config.toml (or $MOLD_HOME/config.toml):

embed_metadata = false

Terminal UI (beta)

Launch a full interactive TUI for generating images, browsing models, and previewing results — all without leaving the terminal. The TUI is under active development; core features work well but some are still being built.

mold tui

Features:

Four views — Generate, Gallery, Models, Settings (switch with Esc + 1/2/3/4, arrows, or click)
Live image preview — Kitty, Sixel, iTerm2, or halfblock auto-detected
Gallery grid — thumbnail grid with cached previews, detail view with full metadata, edit/regenerate/delete actions
Auto-start server — background mold serve keeps models hot between generations
Model selector — fuzzy-filtered popup (Ctrl+M or Enter on Model field)
Auto-pull — generates with any model, auto-downloads if not installed
Prompt history — Up/Down arrows or / for fuzzy search, persisted across sessions
Session persistence — all settings saved and restored on next launch
Shell keybindings — Ctrl+A/E/K/U/W in prompt fields
Mouse support — click panels, tabs, parameters, gallery thumbnails; scroll wheel in lists
Real-time progress — stage completion, denoising gauge, download bars
Info panel — model details, system memory, process memory (mmap-aware)

Use mold tui --local to skip the server and run locally. See the full TUI documentation for keybindings and configuration.

Image-to-image

Transform existing images with a text prompt. Source images auto-resize to fit the target model's native resolution (preserving aspect ratio), so you don't need to worry about dimension mismatches or OOM errors.

# Stylize a photo
mold run "oil painting style" --image photo.png

# Control how much changes (0.0 = no change, 1.0 = full denoise)
mold run "watercolor" --image photo.png --strength 0.5

# Pipe an image through
cat photo.png | mold run "sketch style" --image - | viu -

# Override auto-resize with explicit dimensions
mold run "pencil sketch" --image photo.png --width 768 --height 512

Inpainting

Selectively edit parts of an image with a mask (white = repaint, black = keep):

mold run "a red sports car" --image photo.png --mask mask.png

LoRA adapters (FLUX)

Apply LoRA adapter weights to customize model output (BF16 and GGUF quantized):

# LoRA adapter (FLUX BF16 or GGUF)
mold run flux-dev:bf16 "a portrait" --lora style.safetensors --lora-scale 0.8
mold run flux-dev:q4 "a portrait" --lora style.safetensors --lora-scale 0.8

ControlNet (SD1.5)

Guide generation with a control image (edge map, depth map, etc.):

mold pull controlnet-canny-sd15
mold run sd15:fp16 "a futuristic city" --control edges.png --control-model controlnet-canny-sd15

Negative prompts

Guide what the model should avoid generating. Works with CFG-based models (SD1.5, SDXL, SD3, Wuerstchen); ignored by FLUX and other flow-matching models.

# Specify a negative prompt
mold run sd15:fp16 "a portrait" -n "blurry, watermark, ugly, bad anatomy"
mold run sdxl:fp16 "a landscape" --negative-prompt "low quality, jpeg artifacts"

# Override config default with empty unconditional
mold run sd15:fp16 "a cat" --no-negative

Negative prompts can also be set in config.toml as per-model or global defaults:

# Global default for all CFG models
default_negative_prompt = "low quality, worst quality, blurry, watermark"

[models."sd15:fp16"]
# Per-model override (takes precedence over global)
negative_prompt = "worst quality, low quality, bad anatomy, bad hands, extra fingers, blurry"

[models."flux-dev:bf16"]
# LoRA adapter (FLUX BF16 or GGUF quantized)
# lora = "/path/to/adapter.safetensors"
# lora_scale = 0.8

Precedence: CLI --negative-prompt > per-model config > global config > empty string.

Scheduler selection

Choose the noise scheduler for SD1.5/SDXL models:

mold run sd15:fp16 "a cat" --scheduler uni-pc        # Fast convergence
mold run sd15:fp16 "a cat" --scheduler euler-ancestral # Stochastic

Batch generation

Generate multiple images with incrementing seeds:

mold run "a sunset" --batch 4    # Generates 4 images: seed, seed+1, seed+2, seed+3

Prompt expansion

Expand short prompts into richly detailed image generation prompts using a local LLM (Qwen3-1.7B, ~1.8GB). The model auto-downloads on first use and is dropped from memory before diffusion runs.

# Preview what expansion produces
mold expand "a cat"

# Multiple variations
mold expand "cyberpunk city" --variations 5

# Generate with expansion
mold run "a cat" --expand

# Batch + expand: each image gets a unique expanded prompt
mold run "a sunset" --expand --batch 4

# Use an external OpenAI-compatible API instead of local LLM
mold run "a cat" --expand --expand-backend http://localhost:11434/v1

Set MOLD_EXPAND=1 to enable expansion by default. Use --no-expand to override.

Custom expansion prompts

The system prompt templates and per-model-family word limits can be customized in ~/.config/mold/config.toml:

[expand]
enabled = true
model = "qwen3-expand:q8"

# Override the single-expansion system prompt template.
# Available placeholders: {WORD_LIMIT}, {MODEL_NOTES}
# system_prompt = "You are an image prompt writer. Keep under {WORD_LIMIT} words. {MODEL_NOTES}"

# Override the batch-variation system prompt template.
# Available placeholders: {N}, {WORD_LIMIT}, {MODEL_NOTES}
# batch_prompt = "Generate {N} distinct image prompts under {WORD_LIMIT} words each. {MODEL_NOTES}"

# Override per-family word limits and style notes.
# Families: sd15, sdxl, wuerstchen, flux, sd3, z-image, flux2, qwen-image
[expand.families.sd15]
word_limit = 50
style_notes = "SD 1.5 uses CLIP-L (77 tokens). Use comma-separated keyword phrases."

[expand.families.flux]
word_limit = 200
style_notes = "Write rich, descriptive natural language with atmosphere and mood."

Templates can also be set via environment variables: MOLD_EXPAND_SYSTEM_PROMPT, MOLD_EXPAND_BATCH_PROMPT.

Manage models

mold pull flux-schnell:q8    # Download a model
mold list                    # See what you have
mold info                    # Installation overview
mold info flux-dev:q4        # Model details + disk usage
mold rm dreamshaper-v8       # Remove a model

Hugging Face auth

Some model repos on Hugging Face require an authenticated read token. mold checks HF_TOKEN automatically when downloading model files, and falls back to the token saved by huggingface-cli login if present.

# Local pulls / first-run auto-download
export HF_TOKEN=hf_...
mold pull flux-dev:q4

# Remote server pulls: set the token where mold serve is running
HF_TOKEN=hf_... mold serve
MOLD_HOST=http://gpu-server:7680 mold pull flux-dev:q4

If a gated repo still returns 401/403, make sure you have accepted that model's license on Hugging Face and that the token has at least read access.

Remote rendering

Run mold on a beefy GPU server, generate from anywhere:

# On your GPU server
mold serve

# From your laptop
MOLD_HOST=http://gpu-server:7680 mold run "a cat"

Image output

Generated images are saved to ~/.mold/output/ by default. This is required for the TUI gallery to function. Override the location with MOLD_OUTPUT_DIR or output_dir in config.toml:

# Custom output directory
MOLD_OUTPUT_DIR=/srv/mold/output mold serve

# Via config file
# output_dir = "/srv/mold/output"

# Disable saving (TUI gallery will be empty)
# MOLD_OUTPUT_DIR="" mold serve

Images are saved alongside the normal HTTP response using the same naming convention as the CLI (mold-{model}-{timestamp}.{ext}). Save failures log a warning but never fail the request.

Configuration

Mold looks for config.toml inside the base mold directory (~/.mold/ by default). Override the base with MOLD_HOME:

export MOLD_HOME=/data/mold    # config at /data/mold/config.toml, models at /data/mold/models/

Use mold config to view and edit settings from the CLI:

mold config list                          # show all settings
mold config get server_port --raw         # raw value for scripting
mold config set expand.enabled true       # set a value
mold config edit                          # open in $EDITOR

See the configuration guide and CLI reference for full details.

Key environment variables (highest precedence, override config file):

Variable	Default	Description
`MOLD_HOME`	`~/.mold`	Base directory for config, cache, and default model storage
`MOLD_DEFAULT_MODEL`	`flux2-klein`	Default model (smart fallback to only downloaded model)
`MOLD_HOST`	`http://localhost:7680`	Remote server URL
`MOLD_MODELS_DIR`	`$MOLD_HOME/models`	Model storage directory
`MOLD_OUTPUT_DIR`	`~/.mold/output`	Image output directory (set empty to disable)
`MOLD_LOG`	`warn` / `info`	Log level
`MOLD_PORT`	`7680`	Server port
`MOLD_EAGER`	—	Set `1` to keep all model components loaded simultaneously
`MOLD_OFFLOAD`	—	Set `1` to force CPU↔GPU block streaming (reduces VRAM, slower)
`MOLD_EMBED_METADATA`	`1`	Set `0` to disable PNG metadata
`MOLD_PREVIEW`	—	Set `1` to display generated images inline in the terminal
`MOLD_T5_VARIANT`	`auto`	T5 encoder: auto/fp16/q8/q6/q5/q4/q3
`MOLD_QWEN3_VARIANT`	`auto`	Qwen3 encoder: auto/bf16/q8/q6/iq4/q3
`MOLD_SCHEDULER`	—	Noise scheduler for SD1.5/SDXL: ddim/euler-ancestral/uni-pc
`MOLD_CORS_ORIGIN`	—	Restrict CORS to specific origin
`MOLD_TEXT_TOKENIZER_PATH`	—	Override generic text tokenizer path (Qwen/Z-Image families)
`MOLD_DECODER_PATH`	—	Override decoder weights path (Wuerstchen)
`MOLD_EXPAND`	—	Set `1` to enable LLM prompt expansion by default
`MOLD_EXPAND_BACKEND`	`local`	Expansion backend: `local` or OpenAI-compatible API URL
`MOLD_EXPAND_MODEL`	`qwen3-expand:q8`	LLM model for local expansion
`MOLD_EXPAND_TEMPERATURE`	`0.7`	Sampling temperature for expansion LLM
`MOLD_EXPAND_THINKING`	—	Set `1` to enable thinking mode in expansion LLM
`MOLD_EXPAND_SYSTEM_PROMPT`	—	Custom single-expansion system prompt template
`MOLD_EXPAND_BATCH_PROMPT`	—	Custom batch-variation system prompt template

See CLAUDE.md for the full list.

Models

FLUX (best quality)

Model	Steps	Size	Good for
`flux-schnell:q8`	4	12GB	Fast, general purpose
`flux-schnell:q6`	4	9.8GB	Best quality/size trade-off
`flux-schnell:bf16`	4	23.8GB	Fast, full precision (needs >24GB VRAM)
`flux-schnell:q4`	4	7.5GB	Same but lighter
`flux-dev:q8`	25	12GB	Full quality
`flux-dev:q6`	25	9.9GB	Best quality/size trade-off
`flux-dev:bf16`	25	23.8GB	Full quality, full precision (needs >24GB VRAM)
`flux-dev:q4`	25	7GB	Full quality, less VRAM
`flux-krea:q8`	25	12.7GB	Aesthetic photography
`flux-krea:q6`	25	9.8GB	Aesthetic photography
`flux-krea:q4`	25	7.5GB	Aesthetic photography, lighter
`flux-krea:fp8`	25	11.9GB	Aesthetic photography, FP8
`jibmix-flux:fp8`	25	11.9GB	Photorealistic fine-tune
`jibmix-flux:q4`	25	6.9GB	Photorealistic fine-tune
`jibmix-flux:q5`	25	8.4GB	Photorealistic fine-tune
`jibmix-flux:q3`	25	5.4GB	Photorealistic, smallest footprint
`ultrareal-v4:q8`	25	12.6GB	Photorealistic (latest)
`ultrareal-v4:q5`	25	8.0GB	Photorealistic
`ultrareal-v4:q4`	25	6.7GB	Photorealistic, lighter
`ultrareal-v3:q8`	25	12.7GB	Photorealistic
`ultrareal-v3:q6`	25	9.8GB	Photorealistic
`ultrareal-v3:q4`	25	7.5GB	Photorealistic, lighter
`ultrareal-v2:bf16`	25	23.8GB	Photorealistic, full precision
`iniverse-mix:fp8`	25	11.9GB	Realistic SFW/NSFW mix

SDXL (fast + flexible)

Model	Steps	Size	Good for
`sdxl-turbo:fp16`	4	5.1GB	Ultra-fast, 1-4 steps
`dreamshaper-xl:fp16`	8	5.1GB	Fantasy, concept art
`juggernaut-xl:fp16`	30	5.1GB	Photorealism, cinematic
`realvis-xl:fp16`	25	5.1GB	Photorealism, versatile
`playground-v2.5:fp16`	25	5.1GB	Artistic, aesthetic
`sdxl-base:fp16`	25	5.1GB	Official base model
`pony-v6:fp16`	25	5.1GB	Anime, art, stylized
`cyberrealistic-pony:fp16`	25	5.1GB	Photorealistic Pony fine-tune

SD 1.5 (lightweight)

Model	Steps	Size	Good for
`sd15:fp16`	25	1.7GB	Base model, huge ecosystem
`dreamshaper-v8:fp16`	25	1.7GB	Best all-around SD1.5
`realistic-vision-v5:fp16`	25	1.7GB	Photorealistic

SD 3.5

Model	Steps	Size	Good for
`sd3.5-large:q8`	28	8.5GB	8.1B params, high quality
`sd3.5-large:q4`	28	5.0GB	Same, smaller footprint
`sd3.5-large-turbo:q8`	4	8.5GB	Fast 4-step
`sd3.5-medium:q8`	28	2.7GB	2.5B params, efficient

Z-Image

Model	Steps	Size	Good for
`z-image-turbo:q8`	9	6.6GB	Fast 9-step generation
`z-image-turbo:q6`	9	5.3GB	Best quality/size trade-off
`z-image-turbo:q4`	9	3.8GB	Lighter, still good
`z-image-turbo:bf16`	9	12.2GB	Full precision

Qwen-Image

Model	Steps	Size	Good for
`qwen-image:bf16`	50	44+GB	Full precision, maximum quality
`qwen-image:q8`	50	21.8GB	Qwen-Image-2512, best quality
`qwen-image:q6`	50	16.8GB	Best quality/size trade-off
`qwen-image:q4`	50	12.3GB	Smallest practical footprint

Wuerstchen v2

Model	Steps	Size	Notes
`wuerstchen-v2:fp16`	60	5.6GB	3-stage cascade with 42x latent compression, includes default negative prompt

Flux.2 Klein (fast + lightweight)

Model	Steps	Size	Good for
`flux2-klein:q8`	4	4.3GB	Fast 4B model, good quality at low VRAM
`flux2-klein:q6`	4	3.4GB	Better quality/size trade-off
`flux2-klein:q4`	4	2.6GB	Smallest FLUX variant
`flux2-klein:bf16`	4	7.8GB	Full precision 4B

Flux.2 Klein-9B (alpha, non-commercial, distilled)

Model	Steps	Size	Good for
`flux2-klein-9b:q8`	4	10GB	Fast 9B, higher quality than 4B
`flux2-klein-9b:q6`	4	7.9GB	Better quality/size trade-off
`flux2-klein-9b:q4`	4	5.9GB	Smallest 9B variant
`flux2-klein-9b:bf16`	4	18GB	Full precision 9B, gated (2 shards, ~29GB VRAM)

Bare names resolve by trying :q8 → :fp16 → :bf16 → :fp8 in order. So mold run flux-schnell "a cat" just works.

Server API

When running mold serve, you get a REST API:

# Generate an image
curl -X POST http://localhost:7680/api/generate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"prompt": "a glowing robot"}' \
  -o robot.png

# Check status
curl http://localhost:7680/api/status

# List models
curl http://localhost:7680/api/models

# Interactive docs
open http://localhost:7680/api/docs

Shell completions

source <(mold completions bash)    # bash
source <(mold completions zsh)     # zsh
mold completions fish | source     # fish

Discord Bot

Mold includes a built-in Discord bot that connects to mold serve, allowing users to generate images via slash commands.

# Run server + bot in one process
MOLD_DISCORD_TOKEN="your-token" mold serve --discord

# Or run the bot separately (connects to a remote server)
MOLD_HOST=http://gpu-host:7680 MOLD_DISCORD_TOKEN="your-token" mold discord

Setup

Create a Discord application at the Developer Portal
Create a bot user and copy the token
Invite with: https://discord.com/api/oauth2/authorize?client_id=YOUR_APP_ID&permissions=51200&scope=bot (Send Messages, Attach Files, Embed Links)
No privileged intents are needed (slash commands only)

Slash Commands

Command	Description
`/generate <prompt> [model] [width] [height] [steps] [guidance] [seed]`	Generate an image
`/expand <prompt> [model_family] [variations]`	Expand a short prompt into detailed generation prompts
`/models`	List available models with download/loaded status
`/status`	Show server health, GPU info, uptime

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
`MOLD_DISCORD_TOKEN`	—	Discord bot token (required; falls back to `DISCORD_TOKEN`)
`MOLD_HOST`	`http://localhost:7680`	mold server URL
`MOLD_DISCORD_COOLDOWN`	`10`	Per-user cooldown in seconds

services.mold.discord = {
  enable = true;
  tokenFile = config.age.secrets.discord-token.path; # EnvironmentFile: MOLD_DISCORD_TOKEN=...
  moldHost = "http://localhost:7680";
  cooldownSeconds = 10;
};

Docker / RunPod

Run mold on any NVIDIA GPU host with Docker, including cloud GPU providers like RunPod.

# Build the image (default: Ada/RTX 4090, sm_89)
docker build -t mold-server .

# Build for a different GPU architecture
docker build --build-arg CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=90 -t mold-server-h100 .   # Hopper
docker build --build-arg CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=80 -t mold-server-a100 .   # Ampere
docker build --build-arg CUDA_COMPUTE_CAP=120 -t mold-server-b200 .  # Blackwell

# Run locally
docker run --gpus all -p 7680:7680 mold-server

# With a local models directory
docker run --gpus all -p 7680:7680 -v ~/.mold:/workspace/.mold mold-server

Push your image to a registry:

docker tag mold-server your-registry/mold-server
docker push your-registry/mold-server

Create a RunPod Pod template:
- Container image: your-registry/mold-server
- HTTP port: 7680
- Attach a network volume for persistent model storage

Generate from anywhere:

MOLD_HOST=https://<pod-id>-7680.proxy.runpod.net mold run "a cat"

The entrypoint auto-detects RunPod network volumes at /workspace and stores models at /workspace/.mold/models. Models persist across pod restarts.

Environment variables for customization: MOLD_PORT, MOLD_LOG, MOLD_DEFAULT_MODEL, MOLD_MODELS_DIR.

Requirements

NVIDIA GPU with CUDA or Apple Silicon with Metal
Models auto-download on first use (~2-30GB depending on model)

AI Agent Skill

Mold ships with an AI agent skill that teaches AI assistants how to use the CLI for image generation. This lets agents generate images on your behalf using natural language.

Claude Code

The skill is automatically available when working in the mold repo. To use it in other projects, copy the skill directory:

# Copy to your project (project-scoped)
cp -r path/to/mold/.claude/skills/mold .claude/skills/

# Or install globally (available in all projects)
cp -r path/to/mold/.claude/skills/mold ~/.claude/skills/

Then use it via /mold a cat on a skateboard or let Claude invoke it automatically when you ask to generate images.

OpenClaw

Copy the skill to your OpenClaw workspace:

cp -r path/to/mold/.claude/skills/mold ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/

Or install directly from the repo:

git clone --depth 1 --filter=blob:none --sparse https://github.com/utensils/mold.git /tmp/mold-skill
cd /tmp/mold-skill && git sparse-checkout set .claude/skills/mold
cp -r .claude/skills/mold ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/
rm -rf /tmp/mold-skill

The skill format is compatible with both Claude Code and OpenClaw (both use SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter).

How it works

Mold is a single Rust binary built on candle — a pure Rust ML framework. No Python runtime, no libtorch, no ONNX. Just your GPU doing math.

mold run "a cat"
  │
  ├─ Server running? → send request over HTTP
  │
  └─ No server? → load model locally on GPU
       ├─ Encode prompt (T5/CLIP text encoders)
       ├─ Denoise latent (transformer/UNet)
       ├─ Decode pixels (VAE)
       └─ Save PNG

mold-ai-core 0.4.0