# Asynchronous Image Tasks

Asynchronous image tasks let clients submit long-running OpenAI-compatible image requests without keeping one HTTP connection open. This avoids proxy/CDN response timeouts such as Cloudflare 524 while preserving the existing image routing, billing, moderation, concurrency, and failover behavior.

## Endpoints

The authenticated gateway exposes both `/v1` paths and their existing no-prefix aliases:

```text
POST /v1/images/generations/async
POST /v1/images/edits/async
GET  /v1/images/tasks/{task_id}
```

The aliases are `/images/generations/async`, `/images/edits/async`, and `/images/tasks/{task_id}`.

Only OpenAI and Grok groups are supported. Requests use the same JSON or multipart payload as the corresponding synchronous endpoint. Streaming image requests are rejected because a polled task returns one final JSON result.

## Enabling the feature (object storage)

Asynchronous image tasks are **disabled by default** and gated on object storage. When the switch is off — or the S3 credentials are incomplete — the async endpoints return `404` and never create a task or write to Redis. This is deliberate: without offloading, large `b64_json` results (several MB each, e.g. `gpt-image-1`) would accumulate in Redis and exhaust its memory.

Configure an S3-compatible object store (AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Aliyun OSS, MinIO, …) in `config.yaml` (all keys also accept the `IMAGE_STORAGE_*` environment overrides):

```yaml
image_storage:
  enabled: true
  endpoint: "https://<account_id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com"  # AWS 官方可留空
  region: "auto"
  bucket: "my-images"
  access_key_id: "..."
  secret_access_key: "..."
  prefix: "images/"
  force_path_style: false          # MinIO/path-style buckets set true
  public_base_url: ""              # set to return public_base_url/key直链; empty → presigned URL
  presign_expiry_hours: 24         # presigned link TTL when public_base_url is empty
  max_download_bytes: 33554432     # cap when re-hosting an upstream image URL (32MB)
```

When a task completes, each generated image is uploaded to the bucket and the result is rewritten to a compact form: `data[].url` points at the stored object (a permanent `public_base_url/key` link, or a time-limited presigned URL) and `b64_json` is removed. Only this small JSON is stored in Redis. If an upload fails, the task is marked `failed` rather than persisting the raw base64.

To support a different vendor beyond the S3-compatible client, implement the `service.ImageStorage` interface (`Save(ctx, key, contentType, data) (url, error)`) and provide it in place of the S3 implementation.

## Submit a task

```bash
curl -i https://api.example.com/v1/images/generations/async \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer sk-...' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-image-1",
    "prompt": "A lighthouse during a winter storm",
    "size": "1536x1024"
  }'
```

The server stores the initial task in Redis and responds with `202 Accepted`:

```json
{
  "id": "imgtask_0123456789abcdef",
  "task_id": "imgtask_0123456789abcdef",
  "object": "image.generation.task",
  "status": "processing",
  "created_at": 1784092800,
  "expires_at": 1784179200,
  "poll_url": "/v1/images/tasks/imgtask_0123456789abcdef"
}
```

`Location` contains the polling path and `Retry-After: 3` provides the recommended polling interval.

## Poll a task

Use the same API key that submitted the task:

```bash
curl https://api.example.com/v1/images/tasks/imgtask_0123456789abcdef \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer sk-...'
```

While work is in progress:

```json
{
  "id": "imgtask_0123456789abcdef",
  "task_id": "imgtask_0123456789abcdef",
  "object": "image.generation.task",
  "status": "processing",
  "created_at": 1784092800,
  "expires_at": 1784179200
}
```

On success, `result` mirrors the synchronous image API body, except each image has been offloaded to object storage: `data[].url` points at the stored object and `b64_json` is stripped (so both URL and base64 upstream formats end up as compact stored links):

```json
{
  "id": "imgtask_0123456789abcdef",
  "task_id": "imgtask_0123456789abcdef",
  "object": "image.generation.task",
  "status": "completed",
  "http_status": 200,
  "image_url": "https://...",
  "result": {
    "created": 1784092923,
    "data": [{"url": "https://..."}]
  },
  "created_at": 1784092800,
  "completed_at": 1784092923,
  "expires_at": 1784179323
}
```

For URL responses, `image_url` mirrors the first `data[].url` for simple clients. On failure, the task reaches `failed` and exposes the original OpenAI-compatible error object where available:

```json
{
  "id": "imgtask_0123456789abcdef",
  "task_id": "imgtask_0123456789abcdef",
  "object": "image.generation.task",
  "status": "failed",
  "http_status": 502,
  "error": {
    "type": "api_error",
    "message": "Upstream request failed"
  },
  "created_at": 1784092800,
  "completed_at": 1784092923,
  "expires_at": 1784179323
}
```

All submit and poll responses include `Cache-Control: no-store`, preventing a CDN from caching the `processing` state. Tasks and results expire 24 hours after their latest state update. A task executes for at most 30 minutes.

Task ownership is scoped to both user and API key. Unknown task IDs and IDs owned by another key both return `404`, avoiding task-existence disclosure. Polling remains available when the completed generation used the key's remaining balance; normal authentication, disabled-key, user, IP, and group checks still apply.