kode generate — LLM-Powered Structured Code Patches

kode generate sends a task prompt to an LLM and returns structured JSON hunks. Use —apply to also verify and apply the patches to your codebase.

kode generate is the core generation command. It takes a task description, builds a prompt from it (optionally augmented with a context packet from kode plan), sends it to your configured LLM, and returns structured JSON hunks — each one a targeted replacement scoped to a specific symbol or anchor in a single file. By default the output goes to stdout so you can inspect, store, or pipe it. Add --apply and Kode will also verify the hunks and write passing ones to disk.

Synopsis

kode generate <prompt>

What it does

1. Reads the model and API endpoint from .kode/kode.json (or environment variables).
2. Optionally loads a context packet from --context-file to enrich the prompt with relevant code symbols.
3. Sends the prompt to the LLM and receives a structured response.
4. Parses the response into an array of StructuredHunk objects.
5. Without --apply: prints the hunk array as indented JSON to stdout and exits.
6. With --apply: passes the hunks through kode verify’s pipeline and writes passing hunks to disk, then prints an execution summary to stdout.

Flags

--model · string

Override the LLM model for this run. Accepts provider/model format. When omitted, Kode reads the model from .kode/kode.json (model field), then falls back to the KODE_LLM_MODEL environment variable, and finally gpt-4o.

kode generate --model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6 "refactor auth"

--context-file · string

Path to a context packet JSON file produced by kode plan --packet. The packet is injected into the LLM prompt as structured context, improving patch quality and reducing hallucinated file paths.

kode generate --context-file ctx.json "add rate limiting"

--apply · boolean · default: "false"

Verify and apply hunks to disk after generation. Kode runs each hunk through the 6-gate pipeline and writes patches that pass all gates. Equivalent to running kode run.

kode generate --apply "add input validation"

--project-dir · string · default: "cwd"

Project root directory. Kode resolves all file paths relative to this directory. Defaults to the current working directory.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
KODE_LLM_API_KEY	API key for the LLM provider (required)
OPENAI_API_KEY	Fallback API key when KODE_LLM_API_KEY is not set
KODE_LLM_ENDPOINT	Custom API base URL (default: https://api.openai.com/v1)
KODE_LLM_MODEL	Default model (default: gpt-4o)

Examples

Generate only

# Generate hunks and print JSON to stdout (nothing is written to disk)
kode generate "add rate limiting to the API handler" > patches.json

JSON hunk format

When run without --apply, kode generate prints a JSON array to stdout:

[
  {
    "id": "hunk-1",
    "file_path": "internal/api/handler.go",
    "action": "MODIFY",
    "target_symbol": "CreateUser",
    "anchor_text": "func CreateUser(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {",
    "new_text": "func CreateUser(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {\n\tif r.Body == nil {\n\t\thttp.Error(w, \"empty body\", http.StatusBadRequest)\n\t\treturn\n\t}",
    "explanation": "Guard against nil request body"
  },
  {
    "id": "hunk-2",
    "file_path": "internal/api/handler_test.go",
    "action": "INSERT",
    "anchor_text": "",
    "new_text": "func TestCreateUser_NilBody(t *testing.T) {\n\t// ...\n}",
    "explanation": "Add test for nil body case"
  }
]

Save this output and verify it independently by wrapping the array in a hunks envelope:

kode generate "add null check" > hunks.json
# Wrap in the verify input envelope
echo "{\"hunks\": $(cat hunks.json), \"original_files\": {}}" > patches.json
kode verify --input patches.json

Relationship to other commands

kode generate --apply and kode run are identical. Use kode generate (without --apply) when you want to inspect or version-control the raw hunks before applying them.

Command	Generates	Verifies	Applies	Runs tests
kode generate	✓	—	—	—
kode generate --apply	✓	✓	✓	—
kode run	✓	✓	✓	—
kode loop	✓	✓	✓	✓

Inspect the JSON output of kode generate before committing by piping it into kode verify --input. This gives you a dry-run view of exactly which gates each hunk passes or fails before anything touches disk.