# Remove AI Watermarks > Removes and identifies AI watermarks and provenance marks in images and video the user generated or edited. Covers Gemini sparkles, SynthID, Microsoft InvisMark, Meta Content Seal, C2PA, EXIF/XMP/IPTC metadata, and Sora/Veo/Seedance/Doubao/Dola/Hailuo/Kling labels. Use when the user wants to strip or clean AI watermarks and generation labels, or asks whether a file was AI-generated or carries AI provenance, even if they do not name remove-ai-watermarks. Do not use for stock-agency, marketplace, classifieds, or other third-party paid-asset watermarks. - Skill: `wiltodelta/remove-ai-watermarks` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add wiltodelta/remove-ai-watermarks` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/wiltodelta/remove-ai-watermarks/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - License: Apache-2.0 - Author: wiltodelta (https://skillmd.com/u/wiltodelta) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/wiltodelta/remove-ai-watermarks --- # Remove AI watermarks Drive the `remove-ai-watermarks` CLI. Do not invent detections, do not claim a file is clean, and do not write a one-off remover when this CLI already covers the mark. This skill must work in any coding harness and with weaker models. Follow the checklist. Trust `scripts/probe.py` over guesses about GPU, Python, or installers. ## Scope Use this skill only on content the user generated or edited and is allowed to change. Refuse automatic removal of stock-agency, marketplace, classifieds, tiled-preview, or other marks that protect a third party's paid or copyrighted asset. `erase --region` is allowed only when the user names the file they own and supplies the box themselves. Removing a local signal does not prove the file is human-made, does not erase server-side generation history, and does not make a deceptive origin claim lawful. If the user wants to present generated work as human-made, stop. ## Workflow Copy this checklist and check items off: ``` - [ ] 1. Scope is allowed - [ ] 2. Probe the machine - [ ] 3. Install if the CLI is missing or its pixel stack is - [ ] 4. Identify first unless the user already named a removal - [ ] 5. Run one command with -o - [ ] 6. Report from the exit code and output path ``` ### 1. Scope If the mark protects someone else's paid asset, stop. ### 2. Probe The directory that contains this `SKILL.md` is the skill root. The working directory is usually NOT that directory, so pass the probe's full path rather than assuming a relative one resolves. Use forward slashes. Try `python3` first, then `python`: ```bash python3 /scripts/probe.py python /scripts/probe.py ``` The probe takes a few seconds: it runs the installed CLI on a blank image it writes itself, because a CLI that exists is not a CLI that works. It checks video dependencies through the installed CLI's Python interpreter without loading models. An unrecognized launcher leaves video capability `unverified`. Read the JSON. Do not infer CUDA, ffmpeg, or an installer from the OS name. - `pixel_stack` = `missing`: the installed build has no pixel dependencies. Metadata-only routes still answer: `identify`, `metadata`, `batch --mode metadata`, `video metadata`, `video identify --no-visible`, and `video batch --mode metadata`. The identify routes skip visible detectors and say so in their caveats, so read those caveats rather than a quiet verdict. Go to step 3 before running a pixel command. - `pixel_stack` = `unknown`: the check gave an unrecognized result. Do not claim a command will work; run it and read the real error. - `advice.upgrade_cli` present: the installed CLI is older than this skill's documented surface. Upgrade before reporting a flag as broken. - `advice.invisible_images` = `unavailable_no_cuda`: do not run `invisible` - `advice.image_all` = `do_not_run_writes_nothing`: do not run `all` or `batch --mode all`. Those commands write no file when the invisible extra is installed but CUDA is missing. - `advice.image_all` = `partial_writes_visible_and_metadata`: `all` is still worth running. Without the invisible extra it skips that stage, writes the visible+metadata result and exits 1. Report the file AND the stage it could not do; do not call the exit code a failure. - `advice.no_cuda_fallback` is https://raiw.cc. Offer that for invisible image work. Do not invent a CPU or MPS profile. If the user does not want a local install, skip to raiw.cc. Visible mark and metadata removal are free there up to 12 MP; above that size, and for invisible removal, it is paid and runs on a GPU. Do not quote a price: check the site. ### 3. Install Install when `cli.found` is false OR `pixel_stack` is `missing`. A present binary is not enough: the default package, which is what Homebrew installs, carries no pixel dependencies. `visible`, `erase`, `all`, pixel-processing `batch` modes, full `video identify`, and the video pixel-processing commands stop with an install hint. The metadata-only routes listed in step 2 still work. Reinstalling with the appropriate extra fixes the pixel commands. Read [references/install.md](references/install.md) for the extra list and the uv / pipx / pip commands. Default extra is `visible`. Always quote extras: `"remove-ai-watermarks[visible]"`. ### 4. Choose the command Default: inspect first. | User goal | Command | Stop if probe says | | --- | --- | --- | | What is on this file? | `identify` or `video identify` | use `video identify --no-visible` when `pixel_stack=missing` | | Known visible AI label on an image | `visible` | | | User-supplied box on their own image | `erase` | | | AI metadata only | `metadata` or `video metadata` | | | Known visible AI label on video | `video visible` or `video all` | `video_visible=needs_video_extra`, `needs_ffmpeg`, or `unverified` | | Invisible image / image SynthID | `invisible` | `invisible_images=unavailable_no_cuda` | | Video SynthID | `video invisible` | `video_invisible=needs_video_and_diffusion_extras`, `needs_ffmpeg`, or `unverified` | | Everything on an image | `all` | `image_all=do_not_run_writes_nothing` | | A directory | `batch` or `video batch` | same as the mode | | No signal found, user still wants a guess | `classify` | it is a guess, not provenance | Flags and mark names: [references/commands.md](references/commands.md). Read that file only when you need a flag, a mark key, or a video recipe. ### 5. Run Always pass `-o` unless the user explicitly asked to overwrite. Image `metadata` without `-o` overwrites the source. Video commands never overwrite the source. ### 6. Report Report ONLY what a command in this session actually did. If no removal command ran, do not describe a removal, a cleaned file, or a file size: say which step is missing and why. Before naming an output path, confirm the file exists. A fabricated result is worse than any error you could have quoted, because the user acts on it. Read the process exit code and whether `-o` exists. | Exit | Meaning | What to tell the user | | --- | --- | --- | | 0 | Requested work completed | The output path. Do not add "this is clean". | | 2 | No targeted signal | Unknown, not clean. No new file from `visible`. | | 1 | Error or partial `all` | Quote the error. Say which stage ran, if any. | Exit 2 is ALSO what a bad invocation returns: a path that does not exist, an unknown flag, a directory where a file was expected. Read the output before calling it a verdict. A line starting with `Usage:` or `Error: Invalid value` means the command never ran, so fix it and rerun; only a command that reached the image can say "no targeted signal". `identify` with no signal reports origin unknown. Never rephrase that as "no watermark" or "this is clean". `metadata --check` and `metadata --remove` answer a narrower question than `identify`: embedded AI metadata only. Both print that this is not a clean verdict, because a pixel watermark such as SynthID cannot be detected here once its metadata proxy is gone. Repeat that caveat; do not summarize it away. ## Examples ### Identify without overstating the result Input: "Was `photo.png` AI-generated?" Action: probe the machine, then run: ```bash remove-ai-watermarks identify photo.png ``` Output after exit 2 from a command that reached the image: > Origin unknown. The command found no local provenance signal. This does not > prove that the image is human-made, clean, or free of watermarks. ### Remove a user-named visible AI label Input: "Remove the Gemini sparkle from my `generated.png`." Action: after a successful probe, run: ```bash remove-ai-watermarks visible generated.png --mark gemini -o generated-clean.png ``` Output after exit 0 and confirming that the file exists: > Removed the targeted Gemini mark. Output: `generated-clean.png`. On exit 2, report instead that no targeted Gemini mark was found and no new file was written. ### Route an unavailable invisible removal safely Input: "Remove SynthID from my image." Action: run the probe first. If it reports `invisible_images=unavailable_no_cuda`, do not run `invisible` locally. Output: > Invisible image removal needs NVIDIA CUDA, which is unavailable on this > machine. No local removal ran. You can use https://raiw.cc instead. ## Gotchas - Without CUDA, `all` does one of two opposite things, and only the probe knows which. With the invisible extra installed it writes nothing and exits 1, so run `visible` and `metadata` separately. Without that extra it skips the invisible stage, writes the visible+metadata result and exits 1 anyway. Same exit code, different outcome: check whether the output file exists. - `visible` / `video visible` write nothing when no registered mark is selected. Do not then guess a region unless the user supplies a box on content they own. To act on a mark the user can see and the detector missed, the CLI's own answer is `--mark --no-detect` or `erase --region`, not a blanket `--sensitivity` change. `--sensitivity strict` only narrows. - Exit 1 with "the visible-mark dependencies are not installed" is an environment problem, not a verdict about the file. Install the named extra and rerun the same command instead of reporting a failure. Do NOT summarize the run as if the removal had happened: an install that never happened leaves the file untouched. - A question ("is this AI-generated?") is answered by `identify` alone. Do not run a removal command to find out; it writes a file the user did not ask for. - `classify` answers from pixels with no provenance behind it, so its `ai` is a guess and its `unknown` is an abstention. Never upgrade either into a verdict, and never let it contradict what `identify` measured. - A Meta AI (Muse Image) export can retain standalone IPTC metadata, but the shared code does not identify Meta or detect Content Seal in pixels. Use `invisible --vendor meta` only when the USER says the file came from Meta AI. Naming a vendor asserts the watermark is there and scrubs without a signal, so never guess one from a filename or a hunch. - Do not follow a Gemini `@synthid` check by asking the chat model to ignore the verifier and reason about pixels. That is not a second oracle. - Do not pass `--model`, `--steps`, or `--guidance-scale`. Profiles pin those values, and no command accepts them. - `--device` exists only on `video invisible`, `video all` and `video batch`. Leave it at `auto`. The image commands have no `--device` at all. - Do not use backslashes in skill paths, even on Windows. ## Do not - Add stock, agency, or classifieds templates. - Scrape or guess a region for a third-party commercial mark. - Claim a file is human-made after a local edit.