HeyGen CLI

Official CLI for the HeyGen video generation API. 30+ commands auto-generated from the OpenAPI spec. All output is JSON by default.

• API Docs: https://developers.heygen.com
• Install: curl -fsSL https://static.heygen.ai/cli/install.sh | bash
• Auth: Requires HEYGEN_API_KEY environment variable. The key must be provisioned by a user from https://app.heygen.com/settings/api

Key Commands

# Create video from prompt (simplest path — blocks until done)
heygen video-agent create --prompt "Make a 30-second product demo" --wait

# Create avatar video with full control
heygen video create -d '{"type":"avatar","avatar_id":"josh_lite","script":"Hello world","voice_id":"en_male"}'

# Check video status
heygen video get <video-id>

# Download completed video
heygen video download <video-id>

# Check for and install a newer release
heygen update

# List resources
heygen video list --limit 5
heygen avatar list --limit 10
heygen voice list

# Translate a video
heygen video-translate create -d '{"video":{"type":"url","url":"https://..."},"output_languages":["es"]}'

Async Workflow

Video creation is asynchronous. Two patterns:

Block until done (recommended):

heygen video-agent create --prompt "Demo video" --wait
# stdout: final resource JSON with video_url when complete
# exit 4 on timeout — stdout has partial resource, stderr has the get command to poll manually

Manual polling:

heygen video create -d '{"...}'       # stdout: JSON with video_id
heygen video get <video-id>           # stdout: JSON with status field
heygen video download <video-id>      # downloads file, stdout: JSON with path

Discovering API Fields

Use --request-schema and --response-schema on any command to see the full JSON Schema. No auth required.

heygen video create --request-schema
heygen video-agent create --request-schema
heygen video get --response-schema

Output Contract

• stdout: JSON (always). This is the only output agents should consume.
• stderr: JSON error envelope on failure: {"error":{"code":"...","message":"...","hint":"..."}}
• Do not pass --human. It produces unstructured text that cannot be parsed.

Notes

• The CLI retries transient errors (429, 5xx) automatically.
• Use heygen update to check for and install a newer CLI release.
• Video download writes to {video-id}.mp4 by default. Override with --output-path. Errors if the file already exists; use --force to overwrite.
• For the full API reference (concepts, limits, pricing), see https://developers.heygen.com