Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm · critical · Error

No OpenRouter image generation API key was set.

Error message

No OpenRouter image generation API key was set.

What it means

Thrown synchronously in the OpenRouterImageGenerator constructor before building the OpenAI client pointed at openrouter.ai/api/v1. IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY is required because OpenRouter authenticates every request with a bearer token. This is distinct from the chat/embedding OpenRouter key so image access can be provisioned separately.

Source

Thrown at server/utils/ImageGenerators/openRouter/index.js:11

const { BaseImageGenerator } = require("../base");

class OpenRouterImageGenerator extends BaseImageGenerator {
  _extractImageBuffer(dataUrl) {
    if (!dataUrl) throw new Error("OpenRouter returned no image data.");
    return Buffer.from(dataUrl.split(",").pop(), "base64");
  }

  constructor() {
    if (!process.env.IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY)
      throw new Error("No OpenRouter image generation API key was set.");
    if (!process.env.IMAGE_GEN_MODEL_PREF)
      throw new Error("No OpenRouter image generation model was set.");
    const { OpenAI: OpenAIApi } = require("openai");
    super({
      client: new OpenAIApi({
        baseURL: "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
        apiKey: process.env.IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY,
        defaultHeaders: {
          "HTTP-Referer": "https://anythingllm.com",
          "X-Title": "AnythingLLM",
        },
      }),
      model: process.env.IMAGE_GEN_MODEL_PREF,
      className: "OpenRouterImageGenerator",
    });
  }

  // OpenRouter does not expose /images/generations. Its image models return

View on GitHub (pinned to 526360e320)

Solutions

1. Set IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY to a valid OpenRouter key in .env.
2. Note this differs from OPENROUTER_API_KEY — set the dedicated image-generation key variable.
3. Restart the server after setting the variable.
4. Confirm the key has credits/access for image models on OpenRouter.

Example fix

# before
IMAGE_GEN_PROVIDER=openrouter
# (no image key)

# after
IMAGE_GEN_PROVIDER=openrouter
IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

function hasOpenRouterImageKey() {
  return typeof process.env.IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY === 'string'
    && process.env.IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY.trim().length > 0;
}
if (!hasOpenRouterImageKey()) {
  throw new Error('Set IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY before using OpenRouter image generation.');
}

function isOpenRouterImageKeySet() {
  return !!process.env.IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY && process.env.IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY.trim().length > 0;
}

try {
  generator = new OpenRouterImageGenerator();
} catch (e) {
  if (/No OpenRouter image generation API key/.test(e.message)) {
    throw new Error('Configure IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY (separate from OPENROUTER_API_KEY) and restart.');
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Instantiating new OpenRouterImageGenerator() when process.env.IMAGE_GEN_OPENROUTER_API_KEY is unset or empty.

Common situations: Selecting OpenRouter as the image provider without an API key; confusing this with OPENROUTER_API_KEY (the chat/embedding key) and leaving the image variable blank; key not set in the container env.

Related errors

• No OpenAI image generation API key was set.
• No OpenRouter image generation model was set.
• No Voyage AI API key was set.
• No Lemonade image generation base path was set.
• No Lemonade image generation model was set.

AI-assisted analysis of Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm@526360e320 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9418376d202b23e5. Report an issue: GitHub.