What causes "No images were generated" in n8n-io/n8n?

n8n-io/n8n · error · NodeOperationError

No images were generated

Error message

No images were generated

What it means

Thrown when /image_generation returns success (status_code 0) but response.data.image_urls is missing or empty (defaulted to []). A response-shape inconsistency: success signalled, no images produced.

Source

Thrown at packages/@n8n/nodes-langchain/nodes/vendors/MiniMax/actions/image/generate.operation.ts:150

	if (options.seed !== undefined) {
		body.seed = options.seed;
	}

	const response = (await apiRequest.call(this, 'POST', '/image_generation', {
		body,
	})) as ImageGenerationResponse;

	if (response.base_resp?.status_code !== 0) {
		throw new NodeOperationError(
			this.getNode(),
			`Image generation failed: ${response.base_resp?.status_msg || 'Unknown error'}`,
		);
	}

	const imageUrls = response.data?.image_urls ?? [];
	if (imageUrls.length === 0) {
		throw new NodeOperationError(this.getNode(), 'No images were generated');
	}

	const results: INodeExecutionData[] = [];

	for (let idx = 0; idx < imageUrls.length; idx++) {
		const imageUrl = imageUrls[idx];

		if (downloadImage) {
			const imageResponse = await this.helpers.httpRequest({
				method: 'GET',
				url: imageUrl,
				encoding: 'arraybuffer',
				returnFullResponse: true,
			});

			const contentType = (imageResponse.headers?.['content-type'] as string) || 'image/png';
			const fileContent = Buffer.from(imageResponse.body as ArrayBuffer);
			const ext = contentType.includes('jpeg') || contentType.includes('jpg') ? 'jpg' : 'png';

View on GitHub (pinned to 5ac6606e81)

Solutions

Retry the identical request.
Log the full response body to confirm image_urls is empty vs. located elsewhere.
Adjust the prompt to be more concrete and retry.
Verify the credentials base URL is the official MiniMax endpoint.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// No caller-side input prevents an upstream success-without-images glitch.
// Validate only the request shape against the API contract.
function validateImageGenRequestShape(body: IDataObject): string | null {
  if (typeof body.prompt !== 'string' || body.prompt.length === 0) return 'body.prompt must be a non-empty string';
  if (typeof body.model !== 'string') return 'body.model is required';
  return null;
}

Type guard

function hasImageUrls(r: unknown): r is { data: { image_urls: string[] } } {
  const urls = (r as { data?: { image_urls?: unknown[] } })?.data?.image_urls;
  return Array.isArray(urls) && urls.length > 0;
}

Try / catch

async function imageGenWithRetry(apiRequest: any, body: IDataObject, maxAttempts = 3) {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt < maxAttempts; attempt++) {
    const response = (await apiRequest.call(this, 'POST', '/image_generation', { body })) as ImageGenerationResponse;
    if (response.base_resp?.status_code !== 0) {
      throw new NodeOperationError(this.getNode(), `Image generation failed: ${response.base_resp?.status_msg || 'Unknown error'}`);
    }
    if ((response.data?.image_urls ?? []).length > 0) return response;
    await sleep(1000 * (attempt + 1));
  }
  throw new NodeOperationError(this.getNode(), 'No images were generated');
}

Prevention

Treat success-without-images as transient and retry with backoff.
Log the full response body to detect a real API field rename versus a glitch.
Use the official MiniMax base URL in credentials to avoid response-filtering proxies.
Keep prompts concrete to reduce silent no-output edge cases.

When it happens

Trigger: Transient backend glitch returning success with no image URLs; API revision moving URLs to a different field; safety filter silently dropped all outputs while still reporting success; intermediary proxy stripping the image_urls array.

Common situations: Rare upstream inconsistency; safety filter edge case; non-official base URL filtering the response; prompt that the model declined to render without an explicit error.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of n8n-io/n8n@5ac6606e81 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ddb9e9736e1be743. Report an issue: GitHub.