Jina image search

Jina AI Image Search & Web Scraping

<objective> Find high-quality images from the web using Jina AI's search (s.jina.ai) and reader (r.jina.ai) APIs. Stateless one-shot tool — search, scrape, return URLs. Useful for presentations, web design, visual art, and documents. </objective>

<execution_context>

• 🟢 Auto-execute: search, scrape, parse, return URLs
• Stateless — no history file, no recovery
• Auth: Bearer token read from the JINA_API_KEY environment variable </execution_context>

Overview

Jina AI provides two endpoints:

• s.jina.ai - Search the web and return structured results
• r.jina.ai - Scrape any URL and convert to GitHub-flavored markdown with embedded images

Authentication

This skill reads your Jina key from the JINA_API_KEY environment variable. Get a free key at https://jina.ai (no credit card; a new email address gets a fresh free token grant). Then set it in your shell profile:

export JINA_API_KEY="your-key"

Send it as a Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer $JINA_API_KEY

Free no-key fallback (verified 2026-06)

If the key returns 402 (InsufficientBalanceError = balance exhausted), or to avoid spending it:

• Reader r.jina.ai works WITHOUT a key — drop the Authorization header (free, per-IP rate-limited). Use it to scrape/read a page; its clean-markdown output often beats Claude Code's built-in WebFetch, so prefer it (or use both).
• Search s.jina.ai REQUIRES a key (keyless = 401). When the key is dead, do the search half with Claude Code's built-in WebSearch tool (no key, no cost), then scrape the chosen URLs with keyless r.jina.ai.
• The 402 is tied to the key's balance, not your IP, so keyless Reader works even when the key is broke.

Recovery order: (1) reads → keyless Reader; (2) search → built-in WebSearch, or mint a fresh free key at https://jina.ai and update JINA_API_KEY; (3) pay to top up only as a last resort.

Image Search Workflow

Step 1: Search for Images

Use s.jina.ai to search image sites:

curl "https://s.jina.ai/?q=unsplash+mountains+landscape" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JINA_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Respond-With: no-content" \
  -H "X-With-Favicons: true"

Returns JSON with URLs to image pages on Unsplash, Pexels, etc.

Step 2: Scrape Image URLs

Use r.jina.ai to extract actual image URLs from the pages:

curl "https://r.jina.ai/https://unsplash.com/s/photos/mountains" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JINA_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Engine: browser" \
  -H "X-With-Generated-Alt: true" \
  -H "X-With-Images-Summary: true" \
  -H "X-With-Links-Summary: true"

Returns markdown with embedded image URLs like:

[![Image 1: Mountain landscape](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-ID?w=800)](https://unsplash.com/photos/ID)

Step 3: Extract and Use Images

Parse the markdown output to extract direct image URLs (images.unsplash.com, etc.) for use in:

• Presentations (pptx)
• Web pages (HTML/React)
• Documents (docx)
• Visual designs (canvas)

Common Image Sources

Source	Search Query	License
Unsplash	unsplash+KEYWORD	Free, no attribution required
Pexels	pexels+KEYWORD	Free, no attribution required
Pixabay	pixabay+KEYWORD	Free, attribution appreciated

API Headers Reference

s.jina.ai (Search)

Header	Value	Purpose
X-Respond-With	no-content	Return metadata only, not full content
X-With-Favicons	true	Include site favicons

r.jina.ai (Reader)

Header	Value	Purpose
X-Engine	browser	Use browser rendering for JS-heavy pages
X-With-Generated-Alt	true	Generate alt text for images
X-With-Images-Summary	true	Include summary of all images
X-With-Links-Summary	true	Include summary of all links

Quick Reference Scripts

For scripted image searches, see:

• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/search-images.sh - Search and scrape images
• references/api-details.md - Full API documentation

Integration Examples

For Presentations (pptx)

curl "https://s.jina.ai/?q=unsplash+business+meeting+office" ...

For Web Design

curl "https://s.jina.ai/?q=unsplash+abstract+gradient+background" ...

For Visual Art

curl "https://s.jina.ai/?q=unsplash+marble+texture+minimal" ...