AI Music Generation

Corkulous can compose original music with AI — songs, beats, jingles, ambience, and instrumental background tracks — and add each track directly to your board as an audio node.

Availability

AI Music Generation is available in:

• Credits mode: iPhone, iPad, and Mac; no provider setup required.
• Provider Mode: Mac, plus iPhone and iPad on iOS or iPadOS 26 or later; requires ElevenLabs setup.

Provider Mode Requirements (ElevenLabs)

In Provider Mode, music is available only when:

1. You are using Provider Mode.
2. An ElevenLabs API key is configured.
3. The effective music model/provider is set to ElevenLabs.
4. For the Agent and AI Board Generation, the Music tool toggle is enabled.

Provider Mode Music Paths

In Provider Mode, music generation is integrated in three places:

1. Audio picker (direct generation) via Generate Music with AI.
2. Agent tool execution (music is auto-added as audio nodes).
3. AI board generation orchestration with dedicated music workers.

All generated music is normalized and inserted as standard audio items on the board.

Provider Defaults

In Provider Mode, the music provider card’s Defaults section is where you save the default duration, instrumental preference, output format, and related music settings.

The direct music generation view reads those defaults when it opens, but any change you make there is only for the current request unless you return to Provider Settings and save a new default. The Agent and AI board generation use the same saved defaults when the music tool is called without explicit duration or format arguments.

Tool Toggle Requirements

All three paths require the ElevenLabs key and ElevenLabs music model in Provider Mode. The Music tool toggle applies only to some of them:

Music path	ElevenLabs key + music model	Music tool toggle
Audio picker direct generation	Required	Not required
Agent	Required	Required
AI board generation	Required	Required

Generate Music from the Audio Node Menu

1. Open your board and add an audio item.
2. Choose Generate Music with AI.
3. Enter a prompt describing:
   • style or genre
   • mood
   • subject or theme
   • desired length
   • instrumental or vocal preference
4. Generate, preview, and add the track to your board.

In Provider Mode, this menu option appears only when ElevenLabs key/model requirements are met. It does not depend on the Music tool toggle.

Generate Music with the Agent

In Agent, describe the track in plain language. Examples:

• “Create a 30-second lo-fi beat for this board.”
• “Write me a 30-second ditty about Las Vegas.”
• “Generate a 45-second instrumental ambient background track.”
• “Create a swooning country song about this topic.”

Corkulous adds generated music to the board automatically as audio nodes.

In Provider Mode, music from the Agent also requires the Music tool toggle to be enabled.

Generate Music During Board Generation

Music can also be planned and generated while creating boards with AI. Ask for background tracks directly in your prompt. Examples:

• “Create a launch plan board and add a 30-second upbeat intro track.”
• “Generate a study board with a calm ambient soundtrack.”

In Provider Mode, this path also requires ElevenLabs key/model setup and the Music tool toggle. Worker limits for this path are controlled by Workers and Orchestration.

Note: Board generation snapshots the current music defaults when the run starts, so changing settings mid-run affects the next generation, not the one already in progress.

CLI Music Generation (Provider Mode)

CLI board generation has music parity with app orchestration:

• the planner can request music tasks
• dedicated music workers call media_create_music
• generated music is inserted into board JSON as audio items

CLI Gating Rules

Music workers run only when all of the following are true:

1. providerToggles.elevenlabs is enabled.
2. ElevenLabs API key is configured (ELEVENLABS_API_KEY or saved CLI key).
3. Effective music model resolves to ElevenLabs (for example music_v1).
4. workers.maxMusicWorkers > 0.

Configure CLI music with:

corkulous config set providerToggles.elevenlabs true
corkulous config set workers.musicModels.elevenlabs music_v1
corkulous config set workers.maxMusicWorkers 1

workers.maxMusicWorkers range is 0...8; 0 disables music workers.

If music is requested but unavailable, run with --verbose to see the unavailability reason. Generation still completes without music.

Troubleshooting: Music Not Added to Board

If music workers run but no music appears on the board, the most common cause is a failed music tool call (for example, invalid tool arguments) that produced no valid media URL.

AI music providers can also time out, return an error, or return output Corkulous cannot attach to the board. Review generated tracks before relying on them, and retry the request if the first result fails or is not useful.

For diagnostics, check AI logs for entries like:

• toolResult ERROR: media_create_music
• parseMusicAssets skipping error result
• collectAssets total=... without added music assets

Filter logs by subsystem:com.corkedlabs.corkulous category:ai in Console.

Costs

In Credits mode, music is billed by request plus duration:

creditsPerRequest + ceil(durationSeconds / 10) * creditsPer10Seconds

See Credits System for examples and current pricing guidance.

In Provider Mode, music usage is billed directly by your configured provider account (ElevenLabs).

Tips

• Include duration explicitly (for example, 15s, 30s, 60s).
• Include instrumental if you do not want vocals.
• Include style keywords such as “country”, “ambient”, “lo-fi”, “cinematic”, “acoustic”, or “upbeat”.
• If you omit duration, Corkulous uses the saved provider default when available. Otherwise the model chooses a provider-supported fallback length.