CLI verbs

lateo exposes five verbs, two pairs plus one diagnostic:

verb	what it does
`hide`	embed a covert payload into an image (fragile — dies on re-encode)
`extract`	recover the payload from an image
`mark`	embed a robust ownership imprint (survives JPEG re-encoding)
`verify`	check whether the imprint is still present
`probe`	steganalysis self-check — can the embed be detected / stripped?

Status. The verb surface is wired but the embedding engines are not yet implemented. lateo <verb> today reports “not implemented”.

`hide`

lateo hide image.png -m 'a secret'
# or: lateo hide image.png --message-file msg.txt
# or: lateo hide image.png -m 'secret' --passphrase hunter2   # requires --features encryption

Embeds a fragile payload. The cover image is overwritten in place; pass --out to write elsewhere. The payload is destroyed by any lossy re-encode (JPEG, resize, recompression).

`extract`

lateo extract image.png
# or: lateo extract image.png -o recovered.txt

Recovers the payload hidden by hide. Returns non-zero with a clear error if no payload is present.

`mark`

lateo mark image.png -i owner-id
# or: lateo mark image.png -i owner-id --mode robust   # default: robust
# fragile mode (tamper detection): lateo mark image.png -i owner-id --mode fragile

Embeds an ownership imprint designed to survive JPEG re-encoding at quality ≥ 50. Two modes:

robust (default): survives re-encoding. Use for copyright / provenance.
fragile: dies on any modification. Use for tamper detection.

`verify`

lateo verify image.png
# or: lateo verify image.png --strict   # exit non-zero if imprint missing

Checks whether the imprint embedded by mark is still recoverable. With --strict, exits non-zero on miss — useful for CI / automation.

`probe`

lateo probe image.png
# or: lateo probe image.png --json   # machine-readable output

Runs a steganalysis self-check. Useful for two things:

Before publishing. Did you accidentally embed something sensitive in an image? (Tooling sometimes does this silently.)
During a forensics investigation. Does this image carry an embed, and is the embed removable?

--json emits a structured report for piping into other tools.

Global flags

flag	meaning
`--out PATH`	write result to PATH instead of overwriting in place
`--passphrase S`	derive the key from S instead of a fresh random (requires `--features encryption`)
`--json`	machine-readable output (where applicable)
`--quiet`	suppress progress output