blog-hero-image

name	blog-hero-image
description	Suggest or generate hero-image concepts for a blog post. Use when Codex needs to create, generate, or propose header/hero image prompts for a blog post draft, published post, or post idea, especially for this Jekyll blog's Minimal Mistakes header image workflow.

Blog Hero Image

Use this workflow to suggest or generate hero-image directions for a blog post.

Inputs

• Use the post draft, published post, title, excerpt, or notes the user provides.
• If the user provides a file path, read the file before suggesting prompts.
• If the post has front matter, use the title, excerpt, tags, and existing header.overlay_image as context.
• Read STYLE.md if available and keep the image concepts aligned with the author's direct, practical tone.

Modes

Prompt-Only Mode

Use this mode when the user asks for ideas, concepts, options, or prompts.

Suggest exactly 5 hero-image generation prompts.

For each prompt:

• Make it specific to the post's thesis, not a generic abstract technology image.
• Prefer concrete editorial metaphors, real-world scenes, diagrams, workspaces, systems, or visual contrasts.
• Avoid glib, joke-like, cute, or meme-style concepts.
• Avoid text-heavy images unless the user explicitly asks for typography.
• Avoid dark, blurred, generic stock-photo aesthetics.
• Include enough visual detail for a high-quality generated bitmap image.
• Make the prompt suitable for a wide blog header crop.

Also suggest a header filename in this repository's style:

header:
  overlay_image: /images/header-title-slug.png

Use /images/... for Jekyll front matter and /blog/images/... only when writing Markdown image references inside post content.

Generate Mode

Use this mode when the user asks to generate, create, make, or produce the hero image, or when they choose one of the suggested prompts.

• Use the imagegen skill and the built-in image generation tool by default.
• If the user selects a prompt, generate from that prompt. If the user asks to generate without choosing, pick the strongest prompt for the post's thesis and proceed.
• Generate a wide blog header image suitable for Minimal Mistakes hero cropping.
• Save the final selected bitmap under images/ using the repository style header-title-slug.png.
• Do not overwrite an existing image unless the user explicitly asks for replacement. If the target exists, create a versioned sibling such as header-title-slug-v2.png.
• If the user provided a draft or post file path, update its front matter to reference the generated image:

header:
  overlay_image: /images/header-title-slug.png

• Preserve existing header.overlay_color and header.overlay_filter values.
• Validate that the generated file exists in images/ and is a plausible wide bitmap before finishing.

Final Response

In prompt-only mode, return the 5 prompts and the suggested header.overlay_image path. Keep the response concise.

In generate mode, return the saved image path, the updated header.overlay_image path, the draft or post file updated if any, and the final generation prompt used.