invoke-ai/InvokeAI · error · ExternalProviderRequestError

Seedream response contained no images

Error message

Seedream response contained no images

What it means

Raised when a Seedream generation response contained a valid "data" list but produced no usable images and no per-item error objects were collected — i.e. the list was empty or its entries were silently skipped (non-dict items). It means the provider succeeded at the HTTP level but returned nothing usable.

Source

Thrown at invokeai/app/services/external_generation/providers/seedream.py:146

                error_payload = item["error"]
                item_errors.append(
                    error_payload if isinstance(error_payload, dict) else {"message": str(error_payload)}
                )
                continue
            encoded = item.get("b64_json")
            if not encoded:
                continue
            image = decode_image_base64(encoded)
            generated_images.append(ExternalGeneratedImage(image=image, seed=request.seed))

        if not generated_images:
            if item_errors:
                first = item_errors[0]
                message = first.get("message") if isinstance(first, dict) else None
                raise ExternalProviderRequestError(
                    f"Seedream returned no images. Provider reported: {message or item_errors}"
                )
            raise ExternalProviderRequestError("Seedream response contained no images")

        provider_metadata: dict[str, object] = {"model": model_id}
        if item_errors:
            provider_metadata["partial_failures"] = item_errors
            self._logger.warning(
                "Seedream returned %d image(s) with %d partial failure(s): %s",
                len(generated_images),
                len(item_errors),
                item_errors,
            )

        return ExternalGenerationResult(
            images=generated_images,
            seed_used=request.seed,
            provider_metadata=provider_metadata,
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to 0b6a024f2f)

Solutions

1. Log the raw response body to see whether "data" was empty or held unexpected item shapes
2. Retry the generation request — empty payloads are often transient provider-side issues
3. Update the provider client if the Seedream API changed its item structure so items are no longer plain dicts
4. Contact the provider / check status page if empty responses persist

def has_images(data_items: object) -> bool:
    return isinstance(data_items, list) and any(isinstance(i, dict) for i in data_items)

for attempt in range(3):
    try:
        return provider.generate(request)
    except ExternalProviderRequestError as e:
        if "no images" in str(e) and attempt < 2:
            time.sleep(2 ** attempt)
            continue
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: generate() called when the response "data" array is an empty list, or contains only non-dict entries that are skipped by the `isinstance(item, dict)` guard, with no item errors recorded.

Common situations: Provider intermittently returning empty payloads; unusual model versions that return empty data on soft failures; parsing assumptions broken by an API change that alters item structure (items no longer dicts).

Related errors

• Seedream response payload missing image data
• Seedream returned no images. Provider reported: {message or
• Mode '{request.mode}' requires an init image for {request.mo
• DashScope async response missing task_id: {data}
• DashScope response missing output: {data}

AI-assisted analysis of invoke-ai/InvokeAI@0b6a024f2f (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1d15cc4fee5440f2. Report an issue: GitHub.