CLI Reference¶

Reference for the three user-facing binaries: skewer-cli, skewer-render, and loom.

skewer-cli¶

The skewer-cli submits rendering jobs to the coordinator, checks their status, and cancels them.

submit¶

./orchestration/cmd/cli/skewer-cli submit [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Description
`-s, --scene`	URI of the scene file (local or `gs://`) [Required]
`-f, --frames`	Number of frames to render
`-S, --samples`	Maximum samples per pixel (overrides JSON)
`-W, --width`	Image width (overrides JSON)
`-H, --height`	Image height (overrides JSON)
`--deep`	Enable deep EXR output
`-o, --output`	Output directory for renders

Basic Usage:

./orchestration/cmd/cli/skewer-cli submit \
  --scene data/scenes/panda-####.json \
  --frames 4 \
  --output data/renders/my_job/

With Overrides:

./orchestration/cmd/cli/skewer-cli submit \
  --scene data/scenes/panda-####.json \
  --frames 4 \
  --samples 256 \
  --width 1920 \
  --height 1080 \
  --deep \
  --output data/renders/my_job/

Frame Sequences: Use #### in the filename to render sequences (e.g., panda-0001.json, panda-0002.json).

status¶

./orchestration/cmd/cli/skewer-cli status --job <JOB_ID>

Example Output:

[CLI] Coordinator not reachable. Attempting to port-forward...
[CLI]: Port-forward successful.
Job Status: JOB_STATUS_RUNNING
Progress: 25.0%

cancel¶

./orchestration/cmd/cli/skewer-cli cancel --job <JOB_ID>

Drops all pending tasks and prevents further processing.

skewer-render¶

The skewer-render binary runs the C++ ray tracer locally for rendering scenes defined in JSON.

./build/relwithdebinfo/skewer/skewer-render <scene.json> [num_threads] [options]

Arguments:

Argument	Description
`scene.json`	Path to a JSON scene configuration file [Required]
`num_threads`	Override the number of render threads (optional)

Options:

Flag	Description
`--frame N`	Render only animated layers at frame index N
`--frames A..B`	Render animated layers for the inclusive frame range [A, B]
`--statics-only`	Render only non-animated layers (one output per layer)
`--help, -h`	Show this help message

Examples:

# Render all static layers
./build/relwithdebinfo/skewer/skewer-render scenes/my_scene.json

# Render with 8 threads
./build/relwithdebinfo/skewer/skewer-render scenes/my_scene.json 8

# Render only frame 42 of animated layers
./build/relwithdebinfo/skewer/skewer-render scenes/my_scene.json --frame 42

# Render frames 0 through 99
./build/relwithdebinfo/skewer/skewer-render scenes/my_scene.json --frames 0..99

Output filenames are derived from each layer filename (e.g. layer_character.json produces layer_character.png and layer_character.exr). Configure output directory and image settings in the scene JSON.

loom¶

The loom binary composites multiple deep EXR layers into a single flattened image.

./build/relwithdebinfo/loom/loom [options] <input1.exr> [input2.exr ...] <output_prefix>

Options:

Flag	Description
`--deep-output`	Write merged deep EXR (default: off)
`--flat-output`	Write flattened EXR (default: on)
`--no-flat-output`	Don't write flattened EXR
`--png-output`	Write PNG preview (default: on)
`--no-png-output`	Don't write PNG preview
`--verbose, -v`	Detailed logging
`--merge-threshold N`	Depth epsilon for merging samples (default: 0.001)
`--help, -h`	Show this help message

Outputs:

File	Description
`<prefix>_merged.exr`	Deep EXR with all layers combined (if `--deep-output`)
`<prefix>_flat.exr`	Standard single-layer EXR
`<prefix>.png`	Preview image

Example:

./build/relwithdebinfo/loom/loom --deep-output --verbose \
  renders/layer1/frame-0001.exr \
  renders/layer2/frame-0001.exr \
  composited/frame-0001

CMake Presets¶

The project defines these configure presets in CMakePresets.json. Use them with cmake --preset <name>:

Preset	Description
`debug`	Debug build with symbols, no optimizations
`release`	Optimized release build (`-O3`)
`release-milan`	Release with native optimizations for AMD EPYC Milan (GCP N2D)
`release-portable`	Release build for bundled cross-platform binary archives
`relwithdebinfo`	Default — Release build with debug symbols
`ci`	CI-optimized build (no native optimizations)
`asan`	Debug build with AddressSanitizer + UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer

Build with a preset:

cmake --preset relwithdebinfo
cmake --build --preset relwithdebinfo --parallel 4 # build with up to four threads

Test with a preset:

ctest --preset relwithdebinfo