conductor-oss/conductor · error · UnsupportedOperationException

Image generation not supported by Cohere

Error message

Image generation not supported by Cohere

What it means

CohereAI.getImageModel() throws unconditionally because Cohere is a text-generation and embedding provider with no image-generation API. The AIModel contract is satisfied by throwing UnsupportedOperationException with a provider-specific message. This is a permanent limitation, not a future feature.

Source

Thrown at ai/src/main/java/org/conductoross/conductor/ai/providers/cohere/CohereAI.java:105

        return CohereChatOptions.builder()
                .model(input.getModel())
                .temperature(input.getTemperature())
                .topP(input.getTopP())
                .maxTokens(input.getMaxTokens())
                .stopSequences(input.getStopWords())
                .frequencyPenalty(input.getFrequencyPenalty())
                .presencePenalty(input.getPresencePenalty())
                .build();
    }

    @Override
    public ChatModel getChatModel() {
        return this.chatModel;
    }

    @Override
    public ImageModel getImageModel() {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Image generation not supported by Cohere");
    }

    // Initialization helpers

    private CohereApi createCohereApi(OkHttpClient httpClient) {
        OkHttpClient effective =
                (config.getTimeout() != null)
                        ? httpClient.newBuilder().readTimeout(config.getTimeout()).build()
                        : httpClient;
        var factory =
                new org.springframework.http.client.OkHttp3ClientHttpRequestFactory(effective);
        CohereApi.Builder builder =
                CohereApi.builder()
                        .apiKey(config.getApiKey())
                        .restClientBuilder(RestClient.builder().requestFactory(factory));

        if (config.getBaseURL() != null && !config.getBaseURL().isEmpty()) {
            builder.baseUrl(config.getBaseURL());

View on GitHub (pinned to cf7c3e4a8a)

Solutions

  1. Route image generation to a provider with an ImageModel implementation: 'openai', 'azure_openai', 'vertex_ai'/'google_gemini', or 'stabilityai'.
  2. Add a capability check (provider name whitelist) before calling getImageModel().
  3. If building a generic task runner, catch UnsupportedOperationException and return a clear user-facing error.

Example fix

// before
String provider = "cohere";
ImageModel img = registry.get(provider).getImageModel(); // throws

// after — guard by provider capability
private static final Set<String> IMAGE_PROVIDERS =
    Set.of("openai", "azure_openai", "vertex_ai", "google_gemini", "stabilityai");
if (!IMAGE_PROVIDERS.contains(provider)) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException(
        "Provider " + provider + " does not support image generation");
}
ImageModel img = registry.get(provider).getImageModel();
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Validate Cohere supports the requested capability
private static final Set<String> IMAGE_CAPABLE =
    Set.of("openai", "azure_openai", "vertex_ai", "google_gemini", "stabilityai");

void validateCohereImageCapability(String provider) {
    if ("cohere".equals(provider)) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "Cohere does not support image generation. "
            + "Use: " + IMAGE_CAPABLE);
    }
}

Type guard

static boolean supportsImageGeneration(AIModel model) {
    try {
        model.getImageModel();
        return true;
    } catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {
        return false;
    }
}

Try / catch

try {
    return cohereAI.getImageModel();
} catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException(
        "Cohere is a text/embedding provider — no image generation.", e);
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling getImageModel() on a Cohere provider instance — a GenerateImage task or image-generation code path routed to provider 'cohere'.

Common situations: Routing an image generation workflow to the Cohere provider. A capability-agnostic dispatcher that calls getImageModel() on all registered providers.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of conductor-oss/conductor@cf7c3e4a8a (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/914ba363e106a4b5. Report an issue: GitHub.