lakreet-swarm is an unofficial CLI that renders many videos from one EffectCraft template and a data file. This guide covers installation, verifying the EffectCraft CLI is detected, and running the built-in environment check.

Before you start

• Node.js 20 or later installed
• EffectCraft desktop app installed (version 0.8.0 tested)
• A terminal (PowerShell, cmd, or bash)

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EffectCraft and lakreet-swarm are separate projects. lakreet-swarm is unofficial and not affiliated with the EffectCraft developers.

Steps

1. Install lakreet-swarm

Global install (recommended)

npm install -g lakreet-swarm

Run with npx (no install)

npx lakreet-swarm --help

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Global install puts lakreet-swarm on your PATH. With npx you prefix every command with npx lakreet-swarm.

2. Verify the CLI works

lakreet-swarm --version

Expected output:

0.2.0

3. Run the environment doctor

The doctor command checks Node, EffectCraft CLI, disk space, and folder writability.

lakreet-swarm doctor

Expected output (paths and versions may differ):

[PASS] Node.js 24.13.0 — >= 20
[PASS] effectcraft-cli — C:\Program Files\EffectCraft\effectcraft-cli.exe
[PASS] EffectCraft version — 0.8.0
[PASS] output folder "out" — writable
[PASS] free disk — 96.8 GB

All checks passed.

4. (Optional) Create a starter data file

The init command generates a CSV with the correct columns for a template.

lakreet-swarm init --template path/to/template.ectemplate

Expected output:

Wrote starter.csv (1 row(s), delimiter ",").

The file starter.csv contains one example row with the template's control names as headers.

Result

You now have lakreet-swarm installed and verified. The doctor command confirms:

• Node.js meets the minimum version
• effectcraft-cli is found on PATH or in the default EffectCraft install location
• EffectCraft version is compatible (0.8.0 tested)
• The default output folder out/ is writable
• Sufficient free disk space

If something goes wrong

Symptom	Cause	Fix
lakreet-swarm not found after global install	npm global bin not on PATH	Add npm prefix -g to PATH, or use npx lakreet-swarm
[FAIL] effectcraft-cli not found	EffectCraft not installed or CLI not on PATH	Install EffectCraft, or set --cli path explicitly
[FAIL] EffectCraft version mismatch	EffectCraft version newer/older than tested	Check compatibility or re-run npm run smoke
[FAIL] output folder not writable	Permissions on current directory	Run from a folder you own, or set --out to a writable path
[FAIL] free disk low	Disk full	Free up space or set --out to a drive with space

Next steps

• Prepare a CSV — create a valid data file for your first batch
• Validate first — run check to catch problems before rendering
• First batch tutorial — render 5 videos in 10 minutes end-to-end