From 2f42de39e0962ce50aed8d337a5ec44f4e616e2f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Miguel Angel Simon Sierra <miguel.sierra@heygen.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2026 16:17:09 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] fix(cli): remove-background --json streams progress lines on
 stderr

---
 .../remove-background.progress.test.ts        | 72 +++++++++++++++++++
 .../cli/src/commands/remove-background.ts     | 16 +++++
 2 files changed, 88 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 packages/cli/src/commands/remove-background.progress.test.ts

diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/remove-background.progress.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/remove-background.progress.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c51f420184
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/remove-background.progress.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+import { afterEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import type { RemoveBackgroundProgress } from "../api/removeBackground.js";
+
+const events: RemoveBackgroundProgress[] = [
+  { kind: "info", message: "Loading the model" },
+  { kind: "metadata", width: 1076, height: 1928, fps: 24, frameCount: 100 },
+  ...Array.from(
+    { length: 100 },
+    (_, i): RemoveBackgroundProgress => ({
+      kind: "frame",
+      index: i + 1,
+      total: 100,
+      avgMsPerFrame: 900,
+    }),
+  ),
+];
+
+vi.mock("../api/removeBackground.js", async (importOriginal) => ({
+  ...(await importOriginal<typeof import("../api/removeBackground.js")>()),
+  removeBackground: vi.fn(
+    async (options: { onProgress?: (e: RemoveBackgroundProgress) => void }) => {
+      for (const event of events) options.onProgress?.(event);
+      return {
+        outputPath: "/out/cut.webm",
+        framesProcessed: 100,
+        durationSeconds: 18,
+        avgMsPerFrame: 900,
+        provider: "CPU",
+        format: "webm",
+      };
+    },
+  ),
+}));
+
+async function runJson(): Promise<{ stdout: string[]; stderr: string[] }> {
+  const stdout: string[] = [];
+  const stderr: string[] = [];
+  vi.spyOn(console, "log").mockImplementation((...a) => void stdout.push(a.join(" ")));
+  vi.spyOn(console, "error").mockImplementation((...a) => void stderr.push(a.join(" ")));
+  const command = (await import("./remove-background.js")).default as unknown as {
+    run: (context: { args: Record<string, unknown> }) => Promise<void>;
+  };
+  await command.run({
+    args: { input: "in.mp4", output: "out.webm", device: "auto", quality: "best", json: true },
+  });
+  return { stdout, stderr };
+}
+
+afterEach(() => vi.restoreAllMocks());
+
+describe("remove-background --json", () => {
+  it("keeps stdout to the one result line and streams progress lines on stderr", async () => {
+    const { stdout, stderr } = await runJson();
+    expect(stdout).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(JSON.parse(stdout[0]!)).toMatchObject({ ok: true, outputPath: "/out/cut.webm" });
+    const progress = stderr.map((line) => JSON.parse(line) as Record<string, unknown>);
+    expect(progress.length).toBeGreaterThan(2);
+    expect(progress.every((line) => line["type"] === "progress")).toBe(true);
+    expect(progress.some((line) => line["kind"] === "metadata" && line["width"] === 1076)).toBe(
+      true,
+    );
+    const frames = progress.filter((line) => line["kind"] === "frame");
+    expect(frames.at(-1)).toMatchObject({ index: 100, total: 100, avgMsPerFrame: 900 });
+  });
+
+  it("does not write a line for every frame", async () => {
+    const { stderr } = await runJson();
+    const frames = stderr.filter((line) => JSON.parse(line).kind === "frame");
+    expect(frames.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    expect(frames.length).toBeLessThan(30);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/remove-background.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/remove-background.ts
index 82cac9812f..55fa98c6ed 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/remove-background.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/remove-background.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ import { DEFAULT_QUALITY, QUALITIES, isQuality } from "../background-removal/pip
 import type { Example } from "./_examples.js";
 import { RemoveBackgroundError, removeBackground } from "../api/removeBackground.js";
 import { failureMessage, jsonFailure } from "../utils/jsonError.js";
+import { diag } from "../ui/diagnostics.js";
+import type { RemoveBackgroundProgress } from "../api/removeBackground.js";
 
 export const examples: Example[] = [
   [
@@ -133,6 +135,7 @@ export default defineCommand({
         device: args.device,
         quality: args.quality,
         onProgress: (event) => {
+          if (args.json) return streamProgress(event);
           if (event.kind === "info") {
             spin?.message(event.message);
           } else if (event.kind === "metadata") {
@@ -188,6 +191,19 @@ export default defineCommand({
   },
 });
 
+/** Frame lines in `--json`: about one per 5% of the clip, or every 25 frames when the length is unknown. */
+const UNKNOWN_TOTAL_STEP = 25;
+
+/** `--json` keeps stdout to the one result line, so progress goes to stderr as one JSON object per line. */
+function streamProgress(event: RemoveBackgroundProgress): void {
+  if (event.kind === "frame") {
+    const step = event.total ? Math.ceil(event.total / 20) : UNKNOWN_TOTAL_STEP;
+    const last = event.total > 0 && event.index === event.total;
+    if (event.index !== 1 && !last && event.index % step !== 0) return;
+  }
+  diag.notice(JSON.stringify({ type: "progress", ...event }));
+}
+
 /** The pipeline's own error, which the command reported before the API wrapped it. */
 function pipelineError(err: unknown): unknown {
   return err instanceof RemoveBackgroundError ? err.cause : err;