---
title: vision - Image Understanding
description: Analyze image content (recognition, description, OCR, etc.)
---

Analyze local images or image URLs using Vision API. Supports content description, text extraction (OCR), object recognition, and more.

## Model Selection

The vision tool uses a multi-level auto-selection strategy with automatic fallback — no manual configuration required:

1. **Main model** — uses the currently configured main model for image recognition (must be a multimodal model)
2. **Other configured models** — auto-discovers other multimodal models with configured API keys as alternatives

If the current provider fails, the tool automatically tries the next one until it succeeds or all fail.

### Supported Models

| Provider | Vision Model | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| OpenAI / Compatible | Main model | All OpenAI-protocol-compatible multimodal models |
| Qwen (DashScope) | Main model | e.g. qwen3.6-plus, etc. |
| Claude | Main model | Anthropic native image format |
| Gemini | Main model | inlineData format |
| Doubao | Main model | doubao-seed-2-0 series natively supported |
| Kimi (Moonshot) | Main model | kimi-k2.6, kimi-k2.5 natively supported |
| ERNIE | Main model | Defaults to the multimodal main model (e.g. `ernie-5.1`); falls back to `ernie-4.5-turbo-vl` when the main model is not multimodal |
| ZhipuAI | glm-5v-turbo | Always uses the dedicated vision model |
| MiniMax | MiniMax-Text-01 | Always uses the dedicated vision model |

<Note>
  ZhipuAI and MiniMax text models do not support image understanding, so their dedicated vision models are always used automatically.
</Note>

> When `use_linkai=true`, LinkAI's multimodal model is used by default.

## Custom Configuration

To specify the model used by Vision, configure it in `config.json`, for example:

```json
{
    "tools": {
        "vision": {
            "model": "gpt-4.1"
        }
    }
}
```

The specified model is **used first**, and the tool automatically routes to the corresponding provider based on the model name; on failure, it falls back to other configured providers.

In most cases no configuration is needed — the tool works automatically as long as the main model supports multimodal input or any vision-capable API key is configured.

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `image` | string | Yes | Local file path or HTTP(S) image URL |
| `question` | string | Yes | Question to ask about the image |

Supported image formats: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp



## Use Cases

- Describe image content
- Extract text from images (OCR)
- Identify objects, colors, scenes
- Analyze screenshots and scanned documents

<Note>
  Images larger than 1MB are automatically compressed before upload. All images (including remote URLs) are converted to base64 for transmission to ensure compatibility with all model backends.
</Note>