recommend-model

Recommend model

Conversational model picker. Use this when the user asks "what should I use for X" or "find me a cheap/good/fast model for X". For deep written research, use model-researcher instead.

Step 1 — Capture preferences

Ask only the questions you don't already know from brief/creative-brief.md:

• Workload: text-to-image, text-to-video, image-to-video, lip-sync, voice/TTS, upscale, interpolate, other.
• Priority: quality / speed / cost (pick one as primary, one as secondary).
• Budget ceiling: per-output cap (e.g. "$0.20 per clip"), or "no cap, just tell me".
• Output specs: resolution, aspect ratio, duration (for video).
• Hard requirements: e.g. needs audio, needs >10s, needs lip-sync, needs photoreal faces, needs commercial license.
• Provider preference: fal / Replicate / WaveSpeed / MiniMax / any (default: any). Only suggest providers whose key is present in ~/.config/ai-video-producer/.env.

Keep this short — one batched message, not five round trips. Infer from the brief where possible.

Step 2 — Query providers

Replicate (use the bundled MCP):

• mcp__plugin_ai-video-producer_replicate__search_models with a query like the workload ("image-to-video", "lipsync", "upscaler").
• For top hits, call mcp__plugin_ai-video-producer_replicate__get_models for pricing/hardware metadata, and list_models_versions if a specific version is needed.
• Pricing on Replicate is usually per-second of GPU time × hardware tier — convert to per-output by multiplying by typical run time stated on the model page.

fal.ai (hosted MCP exists for catalogue, but is thin — prefer web fetch):

• Use WebFetch against https://fal.ai/models?categories=<category> and individual model pages (e.g. https://fal.ai/models/fal-ai/<slug>).
• fal usually quotes per-second-of-output or per-megapixel — use what the page states.
• Execution path is runners/fal_run.mjs — confirm the model id matches the fal-ai/<slug> form the runner expects.

WaveSpeedAI (no MCP — catalog via web):

• WebFetch https://wavespeed.ai/models and individual model pages. Slugs follow wavespeed-ai/<family>/<variant> (e.g. wavespeed-ai/z-image/turbo).
• WaveSpeed is positioned as a fast/cheap inference platform — strong fit when the priority is speed or cost. Pricing is typically per-output, listed on each model page.
• Execution path is runners/wavespeed_run.py.

MiniMax (Hailuo video, T2A speech, music — via the bundled minimax-mcp):

• Tools available: generate_video (Hailuo, including MiniMax-Hailuo-02 with 6s/10s @ 768P/1080P), text_to_image, text_to_audio, voice_clone, voice_design, music_generation.
• No catalogue browse — model selection is by tool, not by id. For video, mention the MiniMax-Hailuo-02 option explicitly when the user is choosing a text-to-video or image-to-video model.
• Always check query_video_generation for async jobs.

Always record the date checked. This space changes weekly.

Step 3 — Rank and report

Produce a compact table:

| Model | Provider | Approx cost/output | Quality | Speed | Notes |

Then a one-paragraph recommendation tied to the user's stated priority — and call out the tradeoff (e.g. "Kling 2.1 is ~3× the price of LTX but holds character identity over 10s; if you need <6s LTX is the better buy").

Cost approximates: state assumptions inline (e.g. "~$0.18 per 5s clip @ 720p, assuming the model's quoted 30s GPU time on A100"). Don't pretend to precision the providers don't give you.

Step 4 — Persist (optional)

If the user accepts a recommendation, offer to:

• Append it to brief/tools-and-models.md (the canonical project-level model registry).
• Save the full shortlist to research/recommendations-<workload>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md for later reference.

Don't write either file without confirmation.

Discipline

• Don't recommend a model that requires a provider the project isn't already wired up to (no fal key configured? flag it). Same for WAVESPEED_API_KEY and MINIMAX_API_KEY.
• Per-second-of-output ≠ per-second-of-generation. Always check which the provider quotes.
• If the Replicate MCP returns a model with no public pricing (private/custom), say so — don't fabricate a number.
• For MiniMax, region matters: Global vs Mainland keys/hosts must match. If the user reports "Invalid API key", suspect a region mismatch first.
• If both providers host the same underlying model (e.g. Flux), compare proxy markups and pick the cheaper unless the more expensive one offers something concrete (faster cold start, higher rate limits).
• NSFW / commercial-use caveats: surface them, don't bury them.