OpenRouter Image Generation & Editing

Generate new images or edit existing ones using OpenRouter image-capable models via the Chat Completions API.

Usage

Run the script using absolute path (do NOT cd to the skill directory first):

Generate new image:

# Ensure outbound directory exists first
mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/media/outbound

uv run ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/openrouter-image-generation/scripts/generate_image.py 
  --prompt "your image description" 
  --filename "~/.openclaw/media/outbound/output-name.png" 
  --model google/gemini-2.5-flash-image 
  [--aspect-ratio 16:9] 
  [--image-size 2K]

Edit existing image (image-to-image):

# Ensure outbound directory exists first
mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/media/outbound

uv run ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/openrouter-image-generation/scripts/generate_image.py 
  --prompt "editing instructions" 
  --filename "~/.openclaw/media/outbound/output-name.png" 
  --input-image "path/to/input.png" 
  --model google/gemini-2.5-flash-image

Important: Default OpenClaw delivery path is ~/.openclaw/media/outbound/. Save generated images there so other OpenClaw flows can pick them up easily.

API Key

The script checks for API key in this order: 1. --api-key argument 2. OPENROUTER_API_KEY environment variable

Optional OpenRouter attribution headers: - --site-url or OPENROUTER_SITE_URL - --app-name or OPENROUTER_APP_NAME

Model + Image Config

--model <openrouter-model-id> is required (no script default)
Example model: google/gemini-2.5-flash-image
Use --aspect-ratio for image_config.aspect_ratio (for example 1:1, 16:9)
Use --image-size for image_config.image_size (1K, 2K, 4K)
Use --image-config-json '{"key":"value"}' for advanced/provider-specific extras (merged into image_config)

Note: OpenRouter docs show aspect_ratio and image_size as the common image config fields for image generation. Additional keys may exist for specific providers/models (for example Sourceful features). If a request fails, remove unsupported options or switch models.

Note: The script always sends modalities: ["image", "text"]. Image-only models (some FLUX variants) may reject this — if you get an unexpected error with a non-Gemini model, this may be the cause. No workaround is currently exposed via CLI args.

Default Workflow (draft -> iterate -> final)

Goal: iterate quickly before spending time on higher-quality settings.

Draft: smaller size / faster model
--image-size 1K
Iterate: adjust prompt in small diffs and keep a new filename each run
Final: larger size or higher quality if the selected model supports it
Example: --image-size 4K --aspect-ratio 16:9

Preflight + Common Failures

Preflight:
command -v uv
test -n "$OPENROUTER_API_KEY" (or pass --api-key)
test -d ~/.openclaw/media/outbound || mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/media/outbound
If editing: test -f "path/to/input.png"
Common failures:
Error: No API key provided. -> set OPENROUTER_API_KEY or pass --api-key
Error loading input image: -> bad path or unreadable file
HTTP 400 with model/image config error -> unsupported model or invalid image_config.aspect_ratio / image_config.image_size
HTTP 401/403 -> invalid key, no model access, or quota/credits issue
No image found in response -> model may not support image output or request format rejected

Filename Generation

Generate filenames with the pattern: ~/.openclaw/media/outbound/yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm-ss-name.png

Examples: - ~/.openclaw/media/outbound/2026-02-26-14-23-05-product-shot.png - ~/.openclaw/media/outbound/2026-02-26-14-25-30-sky-edit.png

Prompt Handling

For generation: pass the user's description as-is unless it is too vague to be actionable.
For editing: make the requested change explicit and preserve everything else.

Prompt template for precise edits: - Change ONLY: <change>. Keep identical: subject, composition/crop, pose, lighting, color palette, background, text, and overall style. Do not add new objects.

Output

Save the first returned image to ~/.openclaw/media/outbound/output-name.png by default (pass that full path in --filename)
Supports OpenRouter's base64 data URL image responses (message.images[0].image_url.url)
Prints the saved file path
Do not read the image back unless the user asks

Examples