Image Generation

Image Generation

Step 0 — plan first. Before generating, run the visual-planning skill: clarify the ask, lock the style, pin the message, decide what's IN/OUT, then draft and review the prompt. It's the gate that prevents off-message, off-style, or garbled output.

Use the mcp__media-mcp__generate_image tool to create images via Google Gemini.

STOP — is this actually a diagram or chart?

AI image generation is only for photographs, illustrations, textures, backgrounds, and product mockups — visuals with no structured information to get wrong. It produces ugly, garbled output for anything with boxes, arrows, axes, labels, nodes, or data, because the model fakes text and mangles layout.

Never use generate_image for: architecture diagrams, flowcharts, charts/graphs, infographics with labels, system maps, network/topology diagrams, sequence/state/ER diagrams, dashboards, or any "diagram of X". Those go to the graph-generation skill (D3 / Mermaid / Draw.io), which renders crisp, professional, vendor-icon-accurate output. Infographics in particular: any infographic with real numbers/labels is composed in graph-generation — see visual-planning's references/infographic-design.md, which classifies infographics and only allows generate_image for a purely decorative infographic-style hero with no legible text.

If you're producing visuals for a document/deck/sales asset and deciding what to show yourself, start with the visual-planning skill — it plans the whole set and routes each visual to the right engine.

Do not generate abstract "AI tech slop" to explain a product

A polished render can still be the wrong visual. If a visual's job is to explain something about a product — how it works, its structure, a concept/model, a before→after, a data or access flow — it must be a diagram (graph-generation), never an abstract image. The following genres are banned as explanatory product visuals because they look expensive but convey nothing:

• glowing orbs / swirls / energy cores; glowing network-node spheres, cubes, or lattices
• holographic globes / continent maps with light arcs; circuit-board cities; abstract "data highways"
• shattered glass, floating documents, particle streams; generic navy-blue-with-gold-glow tech abstracts

If your prompt reads like "glowing holographic [concept], dark background, blue and gold, futuristic, abstract", stop — that concept is a diagram (or, for pure tone-setting only, a real photo via image-sourcing).

When to Use

• User asks to "create an image", "generate a picture", "make a visual", "design a graphic"
• User needs thumbnails, illustrations, concept art, mockups, diagrams, or icons
• User provides a reference image and wants variations or modifications
• User describes a scene, character, product, or concept they want visualized

Tip: If the user needs a real photograph (e.g., stock photo of a real place, person, or product), consider using the image-sourcing skill instead, which finds and downloads existing photos from Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay.

Tool Reference

generate_image

Key parameters:

Prompt Writing Guidelines

Be specific and descriptive

Bad: "a dog" Good: "A golden retriever sitting on a wooden porch at sunset, warm orange lighting, shallow depth of field, photorealistic style"

Specify style explicitly

• Photorealistic: "photorealistic, high detail, natural lighting, DSLR quality"
• Illustration: "digital illustration, clean lines, vibrant colors, flat design"
• Sketch: "pencil sketch, hand-drawn, crosshatching, on white paper"
• 3D render: "3D render, octane render, soft shadows, studio lighting"
• Watercolor: "watercolor painting, soft edges, paper texture, muted palette"

Specify composition

• Framing: "close-up", "wide shot", "bird's eye view", "isometric"
• Lighting: "golden hour", "studio lighting", "dramatic shadows", "backlit"
• Background: "white background", "blurred bokeh", "minimalist", "detailed environment"

Common Patterns

Product mockup

Generate an image of a modern mobile app displayed on an iPhone 15,
the app shows a dashboard with charts, placed on a clean white desk
with subtle shadows, photorealistic, studio lighting

UI/UX concept

Generate an image of a minimalist login page design, dark mode,
centered card with email and password fields, gradient purple-blue
background, modern sans-serif typography, UI design mockup style

Architecture / diagrams / charts — DO NOT generate as images

Diagrams and charts are not image-generation tasks. A "cloud architecture diagram" or "microservices chart" generated as an AI image will come out with fake labels, wonky boxes, and no real vendor icons. Use the graph-generation skill instead (Draw.io for architecture with real AWS/Azure/GCP/Cisco/K8s icons, D3 for data charts, Mermaid for flows). This rule has no exceptions.

Icon set

Generate an image of a set of 8 flat design icons for a finance app:
wallet, chart, transfer, settings, notification, card, history, profile.
Consistent style, rounded corners, monochrome blue on white, 2D flat design

With reference image

Use the reference image as a style guide and create a similar
composition but with [different subject/scene/modification]

Aspect Ratio Guide

Output Handling — MEDIA_OUTPUT_DIR

When MEDIA_OUTPUT_DIR is set (recommended): The MCP server saves the generated image to a file and returns only the file path. Always use just this path — do NOT request or embed the raw image data. This is critical because all MCP request/response messages are stored in the conversation history, and large base64 payloads pollute the context window, degrading performance.

When MEDIA_OUTPUT_DIR is not set: The MCP server has no choice but to return the image as base64 data in the response. This works but is suboptimal for conversation history size.

After generation you can:

1. Use in documentation — reference the returned file path in markdown
2. Use as reference — pass the file path back as a reference_image for variations
3. Iterate — refine the prompt based on results and regenerate

Tips

• Enable google_search: true when generating images of real products, landmarks, or factual content
• Use higher resolution ("4k") for final assets, lower ("512") for quick iterations
• When generating multiple related images, describe a consistent style in every prompt to maintain visual coherence