direct-img.link/README.md

🔗 direct-img.link

Live images in markdown, powered by search.

Give your AI a system instruction to embed images using direct-img.link and they just work — no uploads, no APIs, no tokens.

Usage

![orange cat](https://direct-img.link/orange+cat)
![sunset at beach](https://direct-img.link/sunset+at+beach)
![current us president](https://direct-img.link/current+us+president)

That's it. The image is searched, cached, and served.

URL Format

Use + to separate words, like Google:

https://direct-img.link/orange+cat
https://direct-img.link/new+york+city

Query	URL
orange cat	/orange+cat
spider-man	/spider-man
u.s. president	/u.s.+president
90's fashion	/90%27s+fashion

Picking a Result

Add ?i= to serve a later search result instead of the first, e.g. when the first image isn't the one you want:

https://direct-img.link/orange+cat?i=2

• i is 1–40, default 1. Higher values serve max-i.webp, which lists each site's range, and other invalid values serve bad.webp
• Leading zeros are ignored (?i=02 = ?i=2)
• Only images that download count, so broken links and deleted photos are skipped and every i is a different image. ?i=2 is the 2nd working image
• Higher i values take a little longer the first time, since the working images before it are downloaded to count them
• If there aren't i working images, an AI image is served instead (except on free., which serves bad.webp)
• Each query is searched on either Brave (100 results) or Firecrawl (10 results), always the same one. On a Firecrawl query, i above 10 serves an AI image without searching
• Each i is cached separately. A search's results are kept for 1 hour, so other i values of the same query within that hour don't search again and don't count toward the limit. One that was already counted downloads only its own image

Query Normalization

All queries are normalized before caching and searching:

Rule	Example	Result
+ and %20 are treated as spaces	orange+cat, orange%20cat	orange cat
Lowercased	Orange+Cat	orange cat
Trimmed	+orange+cat+	orange cat
Multiple spaces collapsed	orange++cat	orange cat
Trailing slashes stripped	orange+cat/	orange cat
Control characters removed	orange\x00cat	orangecat
Slashes & Dots rejected	info.php, wp-admin/	bad.webp served
Max length: 200 characters	—	400 error if exceeded

Characters that work fine

• Letters, numbers, spaces — standard queries
• Hyphens (spider-man), apostrophes (90's) — passed through
• Unicode (café, 日本) — supported via URL encoding

Slashes and Dots must be encoded

Literal slashes (/) and dots (.) in the URL path are rejected to prevent bot abuse (e.g. info.php or wp-admin/ probes). If your query genuinely contains these characters, you must encode them:

Query	URL
AC/DC	/AC%2FDC ✅
node.js	/node%2Ejs ✅
info.php	/info.php ❌ (rejected)
AC/DC	/AC/DC ❌ (rejected)

Things to know

• Query parameters (?...) other than i (and src on free. and ai.direct-img.link) serve bad.webp — /orange+cat?size=large ❌
• Fragments (#...) are never sent to the server by browsers
• Double-encoded values are decoded once — %2520 becomes %20 (literal), not a space
• Two queries that normalize to the same string share the same cached image
• Nothing found? If neither Brave nor Firecrawl finds anything, bad.webp is served (remembered for 24h). If a search finds fewer than i working images, an AI image of the query is served for the missing ones, and cached like any other image. bad.webp is served if the AI image fails too, or on free.
• Out of searches? Each query is searched on Brave or Firecrawl, and on the other if that one refuses (e.g. it's out of credits) or finds nothing. If both refuse, donate.webp is served and nothing is cached, so the query works again once either is back

Free Images

Need images you can publish? free.direct-img.link only serves images marked free of restrictions (public domain or CC0), so no credit is needed. Same URL format, plus an optional src:

![orange cat](https://free.direct-img.link/orange+cat)
![orange cat](https://free.direct-img.link/orange+cat?i=2)
![orange cat](https://free.direct-img.link/orange+cat?src=wikimedia&i=2)

Param	Values	Default
src	openverse, wikimedia (case-insensitive)	Openverse's results, then Wikimedia's
i	1–20 — works the same as on the main site	1

• Both are optional and can be used alone or together, in any order (?i=2&src=wikimedia = ?src=wikimedia&i=2)
• i above 20 serves max-i.webp, which lists each site's range. Other invalid values serve bad.webp
• Only free images are served: if there's no image (or fewer than i working ones), bad.webp is served (remembered for 24h) instead of an AI image. With a src, only that source's images are searched
• Each src + i + query combination is cached separately. Like the main site, other i values within an hour of a search reuse its results and don't count as searches
• Search engines may crawl free. (its robots.txt allows everything), so free images embedded in your pages can show up in image search and link previews. The main site and ai. allow only the homepage

Sources:

• Openverse — searched with license=cc0,pdm, JPG/PNG/GIF/WebP only. Made using the Openverse API, but not endorsed or certified by Openverse.
• Wikimedia Commons — searched with filetype:bitmap haslicense:unrestricted (Commons' own "no restrictions" filter). Served at up to 1920px wide.

Licenses come from each source's metadata and can be wrong. Check the original before publishing anything important.

AI Images

ai.direct-img.link generates an image of anything instead of searching, so it never comes up empty. Same URL format, plus an optional src:

![frog wizard](https://ai.direct-img.link/frog+wizard)
![frog wizard](https://ai.direct-img.link/frog+wizard?i=2)
![frog wizard](https://ai.direct-img.link/frog+wizard?src=auroraimg-6m&i=2)

Param	Values	Default
src	auroraimg-6m (case-insensitive)	auroraimg-6m
i	1–1000 — each is a different image of the same query	1

• The same query, src and i always give the same image
• i above 1000 serves max-i.webp, which lists each site's range. Other invalid values serve bad.webp
• Images come from AuroraIMG-6M, a tiny 6.8M-parameter model running on our own server. They're 512px, soft and painterly: the right colors, setting and mood, but often not the exact object, and faces come out distorted
• The same model makes the fallback images for an ?i= past a search's working images

For AI System Prompts

Add this to your system instructions:

When writing markdown, embed relevant images/gifs using direct-img.link — a free image search proxy that returns images directly from a URL. But keep it entertaining, for example use it to show reaction faces, girl, or fun, not technical.
Example structure:
![Cat Gif](https://direct-img.link/cat+gif)
Use images to complement your responses, powered by Brave.

Rate Limits

Limits change over time, so they aren't listed here. Check the Rate Limits section on direct-img.link for the current limits.

• New searches (cache misses) are limited per IP per day, then limit.webp is served. direct-img.link, free.direct-img.link and ai.direct-img.link have separate counters, all reset at midnight UTC
• Cache hits are unlimited (within the burst limit)
• Other ?i= values of a query searched in the last hour reuse its results, so they don't count (except on ai., where each i is a new image)
• If Brave or Firecrawl is out of credits, searches use the other; if both are, donate.webp is served (not cached)
• Searches that find nothing count toward the limit, and are remembered for 24h (bad.webp). So is a fallback AI image that fails
• A Cloudflare WAF burst limit applies to all requests (HTTP 429). Its counters are approximate (not shared perfectly across Cloudflare servers), so bursts may slip slightly past it

Caching

• Images are cached for 90 days, including AI images
• After expiry, the next request triggers a fresh search
• A search's list of results is kept for 1 hour (in SurrealDB), so the query's other ?i= values don't search again
• Images are stored in their original format as fetched from source (AI images are WebP)
• The R2 lifecycle rule that deletes objects after 90 days is what expires them, since the code never deletes images

Support

Free community service. Donations help cover API and infrastructure costs.

GitHub Sponsors: github.com/sponsors/multipleof4

BTC: bc1q3d975cd57205dx6mz05s2g27xujxsc3q0nlv59

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Self-Hosting

1. Brave Search API Key

1. Go to brave.com/search/api
2. Click Get Started
3. Create a Brave account or sign in
4. Subscribe — you get $5 in free monthly credits (covers 1,000 queries/month)
5. Go to your API dashboard
6. Copy your API key (starts with BSA...)
7. Optional: set a monthly spending limit there so you never pay past the credit. Once it's reached, its searches fall back to Firecrawl

2. Firecrawl API Key

1. Sign up at firecrawl.dev (no card needed)
2. The free plan gives 1,000 credits a month, which is 500 searches at 2 credits per 10 results. Once they run out, Firecrawl refuses (HTTP 402) and its searches fall back to Brave
3. Copy your API key (starts with fc-)

A third of queries go to Firecrawl first and the rest to Brave (FIRECRAWL_SHARE), so both run out at about the same time.

3. Openverse API Credentials (Optional)

Free images work without credentials, but anonymous Openverse requests are limited to 200/day. Register once to get higher limits:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"<unique app name>","description":"<what you use it for>","email":"<your email>"}' https://api.openverse.org/v1/auth_tokens/register/

1. Save the returned client_id and client_secret — they can't be retrieved later
2. Click the verification link Openverse emails you (until then, anonymous limits apply)
3. Add them as the OPENVERSE_CLIENT_ID and OPENVERSE_CLIENT_SECRET secrets below

The worker exchanges them for an access token (valid ~12h) and caches it in KV, fetching a new one automatically when it expires.

4. Cloudflare Resources

Create in your Cloudflare dashboard:

Resource	Name	Purpose
R2 Bucket	direct-img-store	Stores cached images
KV Namespace	DIRECT_IMG_CACHE	Openverse and SurrealDB access tokens

5. Worker Bindings

Set in wrangler.jsonc (put your KV namespace's ID there):

Type	Variable	Resource
R2 Bucket	R2_IMAGES	direct-img-store
KV Namespace	DIRECT_IMG_CACHE	DIRECT_IMG_CACHE

6. Secrets

Worker secrets (npx wrangler secret put <NAME>; GOATCOUNTER_URL is a plain var in wrangler.jsonc):

Variable	Description	Required
BRAVE_API_KEY	Brave Search API key	Yes
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY	Firecrawl API key	Yes
OPENVERSE_CLIENT_ID	Openverse app client ID (free images)	Optional
OPENVERSE_CLIENT_SECRET	Openverse app client secret (free images)	Optional
SURREAL_URL	SurrealDB URL (e.g. https://db.site.com)	Yes
SURREAL_USER	SurrealDB username	Yes
SURREAL_PASS	SurrealDB password	Yes
NTFY_URL	ntfy.sh topic URL for alerts	Optional
NTFY_TOKEN	ntfy token that can write to the NTFY_URL topic, if the topic is protected	Optional
GOATCOUNTER_URL	GoatCounter site URL for image hit analytics (e.g. https://direct-img.goatcounter.com)	Optional
GOATCOUNTER_TOKEN	GoatCounter API token with "Record pageviews" permission	Optional
AURORA_API_KEY	Key for the AuroraIMG-6M API (AI images, and the fallback for an ?i= past a search's working images). Without it, ai. and those ?i= serve bad.webp	Optional

7. WAF Rules

Security → WAF → Rate limiting rules:

1. Rate Limit — 20 req/10s per IP → Block 10s, skipping known bots (and not cf.client.bot) so search engines can crawl

8. Deploy

Fork this repo and add these GitHub Actions secrets (Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions):

Secret	Description
CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN	API token with Account: Workers Scripts Edit, Workers R2 Storage Read, Account Analytics Read, and Zone (your domain): Workers Routes Edit, Analytics Read, Zone Read
CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID	Your Cloudflare account ID
NTFY_URL, NTFY_TOKEN	Where each deploy's report goes (optional)

.github/workflows/deploy.yml deploys on every push to main and daily just after 00:00 UTC (also runnable by hand from the Actions tab). Each run promotes popular images first (see Static Images) and ends with an ntfy message: how many images are static, how many Worker requests the account used yesterday out of the free 100,000, and what to do when something needs attention (failed deploy, requests near the limit, static slots or size budget full, analytics unreadable).

9. Domains and Rules

Change the three routes in wrangler.jsonc to your domain, free.<your-domain> and ai.<your-domain> (each needs a proxied DNS record; with nothing behind it, use AAAA 100::). Any hostname starting with free. serves free images, and any starting with ai. serves AI images; everything else serves regular search.

Then add the rules that let static images work (needs a token with Zone: Transform Rules Edit and Zone WAF Edit):

CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN=... node scripts/rules.js <your-domain> free.<your-domain> ai.<your-domain>

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Infrastructure Details

R2: direct-img-store

Key: <sha256-of-cache-key> — for a plain query with no i, that's the SHA-256 of the normalized query. Free images use free/<sha256-of-cache-key>, AI images ai/<sha256-of-cache-key>. Derived from the request, no lookup needed. Stored with original content type from source.

Every request looks up its key here first, and a cached image is served from that one lookup: its content type and upload time (which sets the remaining Cache-Control max-age) are stored with it.

Cache key	For
normalized query (lowercase, trimmed, max 200 chars)	main site, i = 1
WEB:<i>:<query> (e.g. WEB:2:orange cat)	main site, i > 1
FREE:<src or auto>:<i>:<query> (e.g. FREE:wikimedia:2:orange cat)	free images
AI:<src>:<i>:<query> (e.g. AI:auroraimg-6m:2:frog wizard)	AI images

An AI image served for an ?i= past a search's working images is stored under the search's own key, like any other image. A search that finds nothing, one whose AI image fails too, or a free. search with too few images (which gets no AI image) stores an empty object with err custom metadata instead, which serves bad.webp for 24h. After that the query is searched again.

Add an object lifecycle rule in R2 → direct-img-store → Settings that applies to all prefixes and deletes uploaded objects after 90 days. It's required: nothing else expires cached images.

Static Images

Every request runs the Worker, which counts toward the free plan's 100,000 requests a day, except requests for files in public/: those are free, unlimited and keep working past the limit. So before each deploy, scripts/promote.js copies the most viewed images (any ?i= and ?src=) from R2 into public/:

• Views come from the last 7 days of Cloudflare's zone analytics, which count static files too, so a promoted image that stops being viewed drops out. Analytics has no query string, so each query's views are split across its ?i= and ?src= by a WAF custom rule (scripts/rules.js) that logs every image request with its query string. The job reads up to 1,000 logged requests per hour, enough to estimate the split on a busy day. These show up as Skip events in Security → Events
• The top 19,900 with at least MIN_VIEWS (20) are promoted, up to MAX_BYTES (4 GB) in total. The free plan allows 20,000 static files per deploy
• Only JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP are promoted, and only queries of up to 8 words (see below). Static files get their type from their extension, which these have none of, so public/_headers declares them all image/jpeg, and browsers detect these four formats from the bytes anyway
• Images are cached between runs (Actions cache), so only newly promoted ones download from R2
• An image is dropped once it's 90 days old, the same as the R2 lifecycle rule, so a popular query (e.g. current us president) is still searched again instead of staying static forever. It's promoted again the next day if it's still popular

Static files ignore query strings and are shared by all three hostnames, so URL Rewrite Rules (scripts/rules.js) turn each image request into its static file's path first: under its hostname, named after its ?i= and ?src=. The visitor's URL doesn't change:

Request	Looked up as
direct-img.link/orange+cat	/direct-img.link/orange%2Bcat/i- (lowercased, + encoded like the file's name)
direct-img.link/Orange+Cat?i=2	/direct-img.link/orange%2Bcat/i2-
free.direct-img.link/orange+cat?src=wikimedia&i=2	/free.direct-img.link/orange%2Bcat/i2-wikimedia (either param order)

A promoted file there serves it; otherwise the Worker gets the request, restores the path and handles it as before. Requests with other params, a literal + (%2B) or a trailing slash aren't rewritten and always go to the Worker. ?i=1 and a bare query are separate files (i1- and i-), each promoted on its own views.

The static file server redirects a name with +, = or & to its encoded form, which would change the visitor's URL, so the rules encode + as %2B and build the name from the param values. A rule's condition sees the original path, and the free plan has no regex_replace and allows one wildcard_replace per rule, so there's one rule per number of +s (0–7, 8 of the plan's 10). Queries of 9+ words are never promoted.

KV: DIRECT_IMG_CACHE

Only holds access tokens:

Key	Value	TTL
OPENVERSE_TOKEN	Openverse access token	Token lifetime minus 10 min
SURREAL_TOKEN	SurrealDB access token, sent instead of the password, which SurrealDB takes ~50ms to check on every request	Token lifetime minus 10 min

Database: SurrealDB (Rate Limiting, Search Locks + Result Lists)

Using atomic database transactions over HTTP to track per-IP/per-day search frequencies securely and rapidly.

The same transaction also claims a per-query lock (lock:<sha256-of-cache-key>, expires after 45s), so when several requests miss the cache for the same query at once (on any Cloudflare server), only one searches. The others wait for it to finish, then serve the image it stored in R2, and aren't counted toward the daily limit. The lock is deleted as soon as the result is stored.

Each search also saves its result URLs as results:<sha256 of site, src and query> for 1 hour, with the indexes of the images that worked so far (pos) and the first URL not yet tried (next). The transaction returns that record when it exists, and then doesn't count the request. A ?i= already in pos downloads only its own image, and a new one carries on from next, extending the record. Expired records are deleted by the same occasional cleanup as old rate counters.

Note: This implementation is tested and verified for SurrealDB v2.6.5.

After deploying, visit https://<your-domain>/_setup once. It creates the direct_img namespace, rate_limit database, rate table, an updated_at index (used by the cleanup query), the lock table and the results table. It's idempotent, so visiting again is harmless, and it returns {"ok":true} on success.

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Stack

• Cloudflare Workers — hosting, with popular images as static assets
• Cloudflare R2 — image storage
• Cloudflare KV — API access tokens
• SurrealDB (v2.6.5) — atomic rate limiting, search locks + cached result lists
• Cloudflare WAF — layer 7 mitigation
• Brave Image Search API + Firecrawl Search API — image sourcing, each the other's fallback
• Openverse API + Wikimedia Commons API — free image sourcing
• AuroraIMG-6M on Dokploy — AI images and the fallback for an ?i= past a search's working images

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direct-img.link — because ![](https://direct-img.link/thing) should just work.