fal.ai Recipes
Runtime: All endpoint calls run via the genmedia CLI. See the
genmediaskill for command syntax; rungenmedia initonce if not yet installed.
A recipe is a use-case-driven pipeline. It tells you the inputs to collect, the genmedia calls to chain, and the quality bar to verify before returning.
Recipes use genmedia for execution and fal-models-catalog for endpoint defaults. They differ from fal-workflow:
- fal-workflow = how to build a pipeline (JSON authoring or CLI orchestration patterns), generic
- fal-recipes = how to produce a specific kind of content, opinionated by use case
Available recipes
| Reference | Use for |
|---|---|
| cinematography.md | Cinematic stills and video, shot language, lighting, lens, color grade |
| character-design.md | Original characters with consistent identity across shots |
| commercial.md | Product photography, ads, e-commerce batches, hero shots |
| storytelling.md | Multi-shot narratives, short films, ads, brand films, social stories |
| character-lipsync.md | Talking head / lip-sync video (TTS → animated portrait) |
| image-restoration.md | Smart-dispatch restoration, deblur, denoise, dehaze, fix faces, document restore |
| virtual-tryon.md | Apply a garment onto a person photo (with optional cleanup chain) |
| video-with-audio.md | Add narration / SFX / music to a silent video |
| product-shot.md | Hero product photography from a packshot reference |
| realism.md | Photoreal stills (candid, editorial, documentary, archival, food, nature, architectural) with an anti-AI-look checklist |
How to choose a recipe
- Match the user's intent to a use case in the table above.
- If multiple recipes apply (e.g., "commercial featuring a consistent character"), load both and run the dominant one, usually the more specific one (
character-designfirst, then commercial framing). - If no recipe matches but the task is multi-step, fall back to
fal-workflowMode B (CLI orchestration) and design the pipeline from scratch. - If the task is a single endpoint call, skip recipes, go directly to the right
fal-models-catalogreference.
Universal recipe structure
Every reference follows the same skeleton so the agent knows where to look:
- Inputs to collect: only what changes the pipeline.
- Genmedia workflow: endpoint discovery, schema inspection, upload, run, status, download.
- Prompt build order: domain-specific structure (e.g., SCLCAM for cinema, anchor + variable for character).
- Patterns / examples: concrete prompt templates and finished examples.
- Quality bar: explicit checks before returning.
Cross-references
- For endpoint defaults: fal-models-catalog
- For prompt-craft per model family: fal-prompting
- For pipeline patterns (fan-out, sequential, frame-bridging, etc.): fal-workflow Mode B
- For utility endpoints (resize, composite, audio merge, subtitle, etc.): fal-workflow/references/utility-endpoints.md
Information lives in one place. If a recipe needs an endpoint listed in the catalog, it links to the catalog instead of duplicating the list.