Read Image

Read Image

Analyze image content using a vision model via OpenAI-compatible API. Supports local files and URLs.

When to Use

• User asks "what's in this image/screenshot?"
• User provides an image path or URL and wants it described or analyzed
• Need to extract text (OCR), identify UI elements, read diagrams/charts
• User asks to compare or understand visual content

Usage

Run read_image.py via Bash:

# Local file
python3 ~/.claude/skills/read-image/read_image.py /path/to/image.png "Describe this image"

# URL
python3 ~/.claude/skills/read-image/read_image.py "https://example.com/photo.jpg" "What text is in this image?"

Arguments:

1. image_source (required): Local file path or http(s):// URL
2. prompt (optional): Instruction for the model. Default: "Describe this image in detail."

Output: JSON with success, content (model response), source_type ("local"/"url"), was_resized, usage.

Environment Variables

• ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL — API base URL (must end with /v1)
• ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN — API key

Dependencies

• openai (required): pip3 install openai
• Pillow (optional but recommended): pip3 install Pillow — enables automatic image resizing for large files

Image Processing

• Large images are automatically resized (max 2048px, max 3MB) via Pillow
• Only proportional scaling and JPEG quality compression — never crops
• URL images are downloaded to memory only, no temp files created
• Without Pillow, images are sent as-is

Common Prompts