--- title: "Generate an image from your AI tool" description: Ask your AI tool for a picture, have the platform save it in an application's storage, and download it, with no backend code and no provider key. slug: /guides/generate-an-image-from-your-ai-tool order: 44 visibility: public redirects_from: [] --- # Generate an image from your AI tool Prompt: > Draw a logo for my recipe app and save it where I can get at it. Also works: - "Make me a cover picture for the landing page." - "Draw three icons for the menu." Use this page when you want one picture now, made by your AI tool in the conversation. If your deployed application should make pictures for its users, read [Generate an image with AI](/cloud/guides/generate-an-image-under-the-allowance/) instead. ## What you need - A Turn Zero account with an application. The application needs no code deployed, because the picture is only saved in its storage. Your AI tool can create one with `create_application`, which uses your account's one Free application if it's still free. - An AI tool signed in as you, or an account-wide token ([Connect your AI coding tool](/cloud/getting-started/connect-your-tool/)). A token bounded to one application or by a grant can't call this, and neither can a device sign-in or an application's platform credential. - No provider account and no provider key. ## Before your AI starts **For the AI tool:** Check the following before starting. - The application's identifier, from `list_applications`. - The month's use, from `read_account` on your own sign-in: `image_generation` gives `used`, `cap`, and `resets_at`. A token minted for a job does not receive that member. An authorized computer's token does. ## Steps ### 1. Generate the image Your AI tool calls `generate_image` with `application` and `prompt`. A prompt holds at most 8,000 characters. The prompt goes to the model's provider, and the platform keeps only a digest of it. Two inputs are optional: - `resolution` is `1K`, the default, or `2K`. The platform uses one model, and you don't choose it. - `environment` is `development` or `production`, the partition that receives the file. Absent, the file goes to the environment the application's deploys go to. An AI tool that can't run a shell command also passes `inline: true`. ### 2. Get the file When a picture is saved, the result gives its `address` and its `name`, which the platform chose. It normally includes two download commands, `commands.curl` and `commands.powershell`. Your AI tool runs the one for its shell. Each sends a read-only grant that works until `expires_at`, five minutes after the call. Treat a command as you would a password while it works. If the grant cannot be created, the picture stays saved and counted. The result includes no download commands, and its `detail` says how else to read the file. The address alone downloads nothing, because the file is private, so a browser can't open it. There is no link to share. With `inline: true` over MCP, a saved picture also appears in the result if it is at most 256 KiB. A larger picture stays in the application's storage. Use a download command, where one is included, to fetch it; an AI tool with no shell needs another tool that can run one. ### 3. Keep or delete it The file stays in the area `images-` until you delete it, as any stored file. It counts in that application's stored data. A repeat call never replaces an earlier picture. [Store files](/cloud/guides/store-files/) says how to read and delete stored files. ### 4. Know what counts During the introductory period, each account has 20 images per UTC month. Generating these pictures has no charge and uses none of an application's AI allowance. An admitted call counts even if it produces no saved picture: - A provider's block, which answers `blocked: true` with the reason and writes no file. - `image_generation_failed`, including a call that passes 45 seconds, because the provider may have charged. A repeat spends another image. A provider refusal before any picture normally gives the image back. If that fails, the call stays counted, and the refusal's `detail` says so. ## Expected result The answer shows `used` one higher, and the downloaded file opens as a picture of about the size you asked for. ## Refusals See the [refusals reference](/cloud/reference/refusals/) for other platform errors. | Refusal | Status | Cause | Remedy | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `application_required` | 400 | The call named no application, or the account holds none. | Pass an identifier from `list_applications`, or call `create_application` first. | | `environment_not_created` | 409 | The application doesn't have the environment the call named. | Name production, or call `create_environment` first. | | `usage_over_quota` | 429 | The application is over its plan's stored data, so nothing was saved or counted. | Delete stored files and wait for the next daily check, or call `set_plan` for a larger plan. | | `image_cap_reached` | 429 | The account has generated its images this UTC month. Nothing was sent or counted. | Wait for the instant `resets_at` gives, then repeat the request. | | `image_generation_busy` | 429 | The platform is holding as many image calls as it allows at once. Nothing was counted. | Repeat the request after a few seconds. | | `image_generation_failed` | 502 | The call failed or passed 45 seconds, no image was saved, and it stays counted. | Repeat it where the month's use allows. Where it keeps happening, quote the reference with `submit_feedback`. | | `image_generation_unavailable` | 503 | The platform has no key for image generation or cannot make images right now. Its key could not be read, it has no current model price, the provider refused before any picture, or the platform's monthly limit was reached. | Repeat the request later. | ## Related - [Generate an image with AI](/cloud/guides/generate-an-image-under-the-allowance/): pictures your deployed application makes, on its AI allowance. - [Store files](/cloud/guides/store-files/): where the file lands, and how to read and delete stored files. - [Plan and usage](/cloud/guides/plan-and-usage/): each plan's stored data.