dicebear

name

dicebear

description

DiceBear avatar generation and Gravatar API integration. Use when generating procedural avatars from seeds/emails, self-hosting DiceBear HTTP API on Docker/Kubernetes, replacing Gravatar with DiceBear, fetching Gravatar profiles by email hash (SHA256), uploading avatars via Gravatar OAuth2, configuring DiceBear styles (avataaars, pixel-art, identicon, initials, bottts, lorelei, etc.), or building avatar URL patterns with fallback defaults.

DiceBear & Gravatar Avatars

Procedural avatar generation with DiceBear and Gravatar profile/avatar API integration. Primary use case: self-hosted DiceBear as a Gravatar replacement.

DiceBear HTTP API

Public API: https://api.dicebear.com/9.x/<style>/<format> Self-hosted: See dicebear-self-hosting.md

Quick Reference

# SVG avatar with seed
https://api.dicebear.com/9.x/identicon/svg?seed=[e-mail]

# PNG at specific size
https://api.dicebear.com/9.x/avataaars/png?seed=John&size=128

# With style options
https://api.dicebear.com/9.x/pixel-art/svg?seed=Felix&hair=short01,short02&backgroundColor=b6e3f4

# Get style schema (all available options)
https://api.dicebear.com/9.x/pixel-art/schema.json

Formats: svg (recommended, 50 req/s), png, jpg, webp, avif (10 req/s, max 256px), json (metadata)

See dicebear-http-api.md for core options and parameters. See dicebear-styles.md for all 31 available styles.

Gravatar API

REST API: https://api.gravatar.com/v3 Avatar URLs: https://gravatar.com/avatar/<SHA256_HASH>

Quick Reference

# Generate Gravatar hash
import hashlib
email_hash = hashlib.sha256(email.strip().lower().encode()).hexdigest()

# Avatar URL with fallback
avatar_url = f"https://gravatar.com/avatar/{email_hash}?d=identicon&s=200"

# Profile lookup (requires API key)
GET https://api.gravatar.com/v3/profiles/{email_hash}
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Built-in defaults: identicon, mp (mystery person), monsterid, wavatar, retro, robohash, blank, 404, initials, color

See gravatar-rest-api.md for REST endpoints and auth. See gravatar-avatar-urls.md for URL-based avatar params.

Gravatar Replacement with DiceBear

To replace Gravatar with self-hosted DiceBear:

1. Deploy DiceBear API — Docker container on port 3000
2. Use email as seed — https://dicebear.local/9.x/identicon/svg?seed=[e-mail]
3. Choose a style — identicon, initials, pixel-art, avataaars are common replacements
4. Map Gravatar defaults to DiceBear styles:

Gravatar d=	DiceBear Style
identicon	identicon
initials	initials
retro	pixel-art
monsterid	bottts or fun-emoji
robohash	bottts
mp	avataaars-neutral or lorelei-neutral

Deterministic Avatars

Both systems generate consistent avatars from identifiers:

• DiceBear: ?seed=<any_string> — same seed always produces same avatar
• Gravatar: SHA256 hash of lowercase trimmed email — same email always produces same avatar

For DiceBear, use the email address (or email hash) as the seed for Gravatar-compatible behavior.