| name | pexels-media |
| description | Source ảnh/video royalty-free từ Pexels API — search, curated, popular, collections, multi-resolution download + sidecar metadata (.meta.json) bắt buộc. Dùng khi user cần 'tìm ảnh', 'stock photo', 'stock video', 'hero image', 'placeholder image', 'background image', 'ảnh miễn phí', 'free photo', 'royalty-free', 'ảnh nền', 'product photography', 'tải ảnh từ Pexels', hoặc cần visual asset cho design, presentation, blog, social media. Hỗ trợ filter theo orientation, size, color, duration. Tự động tạo file metadata attribution cho mỗi file tải về. |
Pexels Media Sourcing
Source high-quality, royalty-free images and videos from Pexels for design work, placeholders, or content creation.
Prerequisites
This skill requires the PEXELS_API_KEY environment variable to be set.
echo $PEXELS_API_KEY
If not set, obtain a free API key from https://www.pexels.com/api/
API Base URLs
- Photos:
https://api.pexels.com/v1/
- Videos:
https://api.pexels.com/videos/
Authentication
All requests require the Authorization header:
curl -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" "https://api.pexels.com/v1/search?query=nature"
Photo Endpoints
Search Photos
curl -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/v1/search?query=QUERY&orientation=ORIENTATION&size=SIZE&color=COLOR&locale=LOCALE&page=PAGE&per_page=PER_PAGE"
| Parameter | Required | Values |
|---|
query | Yes | Search term |
orientation | No | landscape, portrait, square |
size | No | large (24MP), medium (12MP), small (4MP) |
color | No | red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, violet, pink, brown, black, gray, white, or hex code |
locale | No | en-US, pt-BR, es-ES, de-DE, fr-FR, ja-JP, zh-CN, ko-KR, etc. |
page | No | Page number (default: 1) |
per_page | No | Results per page (default: 15, max: 80) |
Curated Photos
Trending photos curated by the Pexels team (updated hourly):
curl -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/v1/curated?page=1&per_page=15"
Get Photo by ID
curl -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/v1/photos/PHOTO_ID"
Video Endpoints
Search Videos
curl -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/videos/search?query=QUERY&orientation=ORIENTATION&size=SIZE&min_width=MIN_WIDTH&min_height=MIN_HEIGHT&min_duration=MIN_DURATION&max_duration=MAX_DURATION&page=PAGE&per_page=PER_PAGE"
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
min_width | Minimum width in pixels |
min_height | Minimum height in pixels |
min_duration | Minimum duration in seconds |
max_duration | Maximum duration in seconds |
Popular Videos
curl -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/videos/popular?min_width=1920&min_duration=10&max_duration=60&page=1&per_page=15"
Get Video by ID
curl -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/videos/videos/VIDEO_ID"
Collections
Featured Collections
curl -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/v1/collections/featured?page=1&per_page=15"
Collection Media
curl -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/v1/collections/COLLECTION_ID?type=TYPE&page=1&per_page=15"
Type parameter: photos, videos, or omit for both.
Photo Sizes Available
| Key | Description |
|---|
original | Original size uploaded by photographer |
large2x | Width 940px, height doubled |
large | Width 940px |
medium | Height 350px |
small | Height 130px |
portrait | Width 800px, height 1200px |
landscape | Width 1200px, height 627px |
tiny | Width 280px, height 200px |
Video Files Available
| Quality | Typical Resolution |
|---|
hd | 1280x720 |
sd | 640x360 |
hls | Adaptive streaming |
| Various | Full HD, 4K when available |
MANDATORY: Sidecar Metadata Files
For EVERY downloaded file, create a sidecar metadata file. This ensures proper attribution tracking and reuse.
Naming Convention
For mountain-sunset.jpg, create mountain-sunset.jpg.meta.json.
Photo Sidecar Content
{
"source": "pexels",
"type": "photo",
"id": 12345,
"url": "https://www.pexels.com/photo/12345/",
"download_url": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/12345/pexels-photo-12345.jpeg",
"downloaded_size": "large",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1080,
"photographer": "John Doe",
"photographer_url": "https://www.pexels.com/@johndoe",
"photographer_id": 67890,
"avg_color": "#7E5835",
"alt": "Brown mountain during sunset",
"license": "Pexels License - Free for personal and commercial use",
"attribution": "Photo by John Doe on Pexels",
"attribution_html": "<a href=\"https://www.pexels.com/photo/12345/\">Photo</a> by <a href=\"https://www.pexels.com/@johndoe\">John Doe</a> on <a href=\"https://www.pexels.com\">Pexels</a>",
"downloaded_at": "2025-12-02T14:30:00Z",
"api_response": {}
}
Video Sidecar Content
{
"source": "pexels",
"type": "video",
"id": 12345,
"url": "https://www.pexels.com/video/12345/",
"download_url": "https://videos.pexels.com/video-files/12345/...",
"downloaded_quality": "hd",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1080,
"duration": 30,
"user": {
"id": 67890,
"name": "John Doe",
"url": "https://www.pexels.com/@johndoe"
},
"video_files": [],
"video_pictures": [],
"license": "Pexels License - Free for personal and commercial use",
"attribution": "Video by John Doe on Pexels",
"downloaded_at": "2025-12-02T14:30:00Z",
"api_response": {}
}
Download Workflow
1. Search and Select
RESPONSE=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/v1/search?query=office+workspace&orientation=landscape&per_page=5")
echo "$RESPONSE" | jq '.photos[] | {id, photographer, alt, url: .src.large}'
2. Download with Sidecar
PHOTO_ID=12345
PHOTO_DATA=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/v1/photos/$PHOTO_ID")
DOWNLOAD_URL=$(echo "$PHOTO_DATA" | jq -r '.src.large')
FILENAME="pexels-$PHOTO_ID-large.jpg"
curl -L -o "$FILENAME" "$DOWNLOAD_URL"
echo "$PHOTO_DATA" | jq '{
source: "pexels",
type: "photo",
id: .id,
url: .url,
download_url: .src.large,
downloaded_size: "large",
width: .width,
height: .height,
photographer: .photographer,
photographer_url: .photographer_url,
photographer_id: .photographer_id,
avg_color: .avg_color,
alt: .alt,
license: "Pexels License - Free for personal and commercial use",
attribution: ("Photo by " + .photographer + " on Pexels"),
downloaded_at: (now | todate),
api_response: .
}' > "$FILENAME.meta.json"
3. Download Video with Sidecar
VIDEO_ID=12345
VIDEO_DATA=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/videos/videos/$VIDEO_ID")
DOWNLOAD_URL=$(echo "$VIDEO_DATA" | jq -r '.video_files[] | select(.quality=="hd") | .link' | head -1)
FILENAME="pexels-$VIDEO_ID-hd.mp4"
curl -L -o "$FILENAME" "$DOWNLOAD_URL"
echo "$VIDEO_DATA" | jq '{
source: "pexels",
type: "video",
id: .id,
url: .url,
download_url: (.video_files[] | select(.quality=="hd") | .link),
downloaded_quality: "hd",
width: .width,
height: .height,
duration: .duration,
user: .user,
video_files: .video_files,
video_pictures: .video_pictures,
license: "Pexels License - Free for personal and commercial use",
attribution: ("Video by " + .user.name + " on Pexels"),
downloaded_at: (now | todate),
api_response: .
}' > "$FILENAME.meta.json"
Rate Limits
- 200 requests/hour, 20,000 requests/month
- Check response headers:
X-Ratelimit-Limit, X-Ratelimit-Remaining, X-Ratelimit-Reset
Attribution
While not legally required by the Pexels license, attribution is encouraged:
- Minimal: "Photo by [Photographer] on Pexels"
- With link: "Photo by Photographer on Pexels"
- HTML: Use the
attribution_html from the sidecar file
Example Use Cases
Placeholder Images for UI Design
curl -s -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/v1/search?query=minimal+abstract&orientation=square&size=small&per_page=5"
Hero Background Video
curl -s -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/videos/search?query=nature+aerial&orientation=landscape&min_width=1920&min_duration=5&max_duration=15"
Product Photography Backgrounds
curl -s -H "Authorization: $PEXELS_API_KEY" \
"https://api.pexels.com/v1/search?query=white+background+texture&color=white&size=large"
Checklist
When using this skill:
