Spring AI Image

Since Camel 4.19

Only producer is supported

The Spring AI Image component generates images from text prompts using any image model supported by Spring AI, including OpenAI DALL-E, Stability AI, and local models via Ollama.

Maven users will need to add the following dependency to their pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.camel</groupId>
    <artifactId>camel-spring-ai-image</artifactId>
    <version>x.x.x</version>
</dependency>

URI format

spring-ai-image:imageId[?options]

Where imageId can be any string to uniquely identify the endpoint.

Configuring Options

Camel components are configured on two separate levels:

  • component level

  • endpoint level

Configuring Component Options

At the component level, you set general and shared configurations that are, then, inherited by the endpoints. It is the highest configuration level.

For example, a component may have security settings, credentials for authentication, urls for network connection and so forth.

Some components only have a few options, and others may have many. Because components typically have pre-configured defaults that are commonly used, then you may often only need to configure a few options on a component; or none at all.

You can configure components using:

  • the Component DSL.

  • in a configuration file (application.properties, *.yaml files, etc).

  • directly in the Java code.

Configuring Endpoint Options

You usually spend more time setting up endpoints because they have many options. These options help you customize what you want the endpoint to do. The options are also categorized into whether the endpoint is used as a consumer (from), as a producer (to), or both.

Configuring endpoints is most often done directly in the endpoint URI as path and query parameters. You can also use the Endpoint DSL and DataFormat DSL as a type safe way of configuring endpoints and data formats in Java.

A good practice when configuring options is to use Property Placeholders.

Property placeholders provide a few benefits:

  • They help prevent using hardcoded urls, port numbers, sensitive information, and other settings.

  • They allow externalizing the configuration from the code.

  • They help the code to become more flexible and reusable.

The following two sections list all the options, firstly for the component followed by the endpoint.

Component Options

The Spring AI Image component supports 10 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

configuration (producer)

The configuration.

SpringAiImageConfiguration

height (producer)

Image height in pixels.

Integer

imageModel (producer)

Autowired Required The ImageModel to use for generating images.

ImageModel

lazyStartProducer (producer)

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

boolean

model (producer)

The model to use for image generation.

String

n (producer)

Number of images to generate.

Integer

responseFormat (producer)

Response format: url or b64_json.

String

style (producer)

Image style (e.g., vivid, natural).

String

width (producer)

Image width in pixels.

Integer

autowiredEnabled (advanced)

Whether autowiring is enabled. This is used for automatic autowiring options (the option must be marked as autowired) by looking up in the registry to find if there is a single instance of matching type, which then gets configured on the component. This can be used for automatic configuring JDBC data sources, JMS connection factories, AWS Clients, etc.

true

boolean

Endpoint Options

The Spring AI Image endpoint is configured using URI syntax:

spring-ai-image:imageId

With the following path and query parameters:

Path Parameters (1 parameters)

Name Description Default Type

imageId (producer)

Required The id.

String

Query Parameters (8 parameters)

Name Description Default Type

height (producer)

Image height in pixels.

Integer

imageModel (producer)

Autowired Required The ImageModel to use for generating images.

ImageModel

model (producer)

The model to use for image generation.

String

n (producer)

Number of images to generate.

Integer

responseFormat (producer)

Response format: url or b64_json.

String

style (producer)

Image style (e.g., vivid, natural).

String

width (producer)

Image width in pixels.

Integer

lazyStartProducer (producer (advanced))

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

boolean

Message Headers

The Spring AI Image component supports 9 message header(s), which is/are listed below:

Name Description Default Type

CamelSpringAiImageN (producer)

Constant: N

Number of images to generate.

Integer

CamelSpringAiImageWidth (producer)

Constant: WIDTH

Image width in pixels.

Integer

CamelSpringAiImageHeight (producer)

Constant: HEIGHT

Image height in pixels.

Integer

CamelSpringAiImageModel (producer)

Constant: MODEL

The model to use for image generation.

String

CamelSpringAiImageResponseFormat (producer)

Constant: RESPONSE_FORMAT

Response format: url or b64_json.

String

CamelSpringAiImageStyle (producer)

Constant: STYLE

Image style (e.g., vivid, natural).

String

CamelSpringAiImageResponseMetadata (producer)

Constant: RESPONSE_METADATA

The image response metadata.

ImageResponseMetadata

CamelSpringAiImageGeneration (producer)

Constant: IMAGE_GENERATION

The ImageGeneration object for single image results.

ImageGeneration

CamelSpringAiImageGenerations (producer)

Constant: IMAGE_GENERATIONS

List of ImageGeneration objects for multiple image results.

List

Usage

Configuring the ImageModel

The component requires a Spring AI ImageModel bean. When using Spring Boot with a Spring AI starter (e.g., spring-ai-starter-model-openai), the ImageModel bean is auto-configured.

Basic Image Generation

Send a text prompt as the message body to generate an image:

from("direct:generate")
    .setBody(constant("A camel walking through the desert at sunset"))
    .to("spring-ai-image:gen?imageModel=#imageModel")
    .log("Generated image: ${body.getClass().getSimpleName()}")
    .process(exchange -> {
        Image image = exchange.getIn().getBody(Image.class);
        String base64Data = image.getB64Json();  // Base64-encoded image bytes
        String imageUrl = image.getUrl();         // URL (provider-dependent)
        log.info("Image base64 length: {}, URL: {}",
            base64Data != null ? base64Data.length() : "N/A", imageUrl);
    });

The response body is a org.springframework.ai.image.Image object containing either base64-encoded image data (b64Json) or a URL (url), depending on the provider and responseFormat setting.

The component includes built-in type converters that automatically convert Image objects to byte[] (by decoding the base64 data), InputStream, or String. This means downstream components like file: can consume the image directly without any intermediate processing.

Image Options

Control image generation parameters via endpoint configuration or headers. Headers override endpoint configuration at runtime.

Via Endpoint Configuration

from("direct:generate")
    .to("spring-ai-image:gen?imageModel=#imageModel"
        + "&model=dall-e-3"
        + "&width=512&height=512"
        + "&responseFormat=b64_json"
        + "&style=vivid");

Via Headers

Exchange exchange = template.request("direct:generate", e -> {
    e.getIn().setBody("A red apple on a white table");
    e.getIn().setHeader(SpringAiImageHeaders.WIDTH, 256);
    e.getIn().setHeader(SpringAiImageHeaders.HEIGHT, 256);
    e.getIn().setHeader(SpringAiImageHeaders.MODEL, "dall-e-3");
    e.getIn().setHeader(SpringAiImageHeaders.RESPONSE_FORMAT, "b64_json");
});

Saving Images to Files

The component includes a built-in TypeConverter that automatically converts Image objects to byte[]. This means you can pipe generated images directly to the file: component without any intermediate processing:

// Generate and save — no processor needed
from("direct:generate")
    .to("spring-ai-image:gen?imageModel=#imageModel&width=512&height=512")
    .to("file:output?fileName=generated.png");

The Image → byte[] conversion decodes the base64 data automatically.

Using with Ollama (Local Image Generation)

Ollama supports image generation models via its OpenAI-compatible API. Configure the Spring AI OpenAI ImageModel to point at Ollama:

// Ollama returns application/x-ndjson — register a converter that handles it
MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter ndjsonConverter = new MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter();
ndjsonConverter.setSupportedMediaTypes(
    List.of(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON, MediaType.valueOf("application/x-ndjson")));

RestClient.Builder restClientBuilder = RestClient.builder()
    .messageConverters(converters -> converters.addFirst(ndjsonConverter));

OpenAiImageApi imageApi = OpenAiImageApi.builder()
    .baseUrl("http://localhost:11434")
    .apiKey("unused")
    .restClientBuilder(restClientBuilder)
    .build();

OpenAiImageOptions defaultOptions = OpenAiImageOptions.builder()
    .model("x/flux2-klein:4b")
    .build();

ImageModel imageModel = new OpenAiImageModel(imageApi, defaultOptions,
    RetryUtils.DEFAULT_RETRY_TEMPLATE);

Then use the Camel endpoint to control resolution:

from("direct:generate")
    .to("spring-ai-image:gen?imageModel=#imageModel&width=512&height=512")
    .to("file:output?fileName=camel-image.png");

Multiple Image Generation

Set the n parameter to generate multiple images. When n > 1, the body contains a List<Image> instead of a single Image:

from("direct:batch")
    .to("spring-ai-image:gen?imageModel=#imageModel&n=3");

// Usage:
List<Image> images = template.requestBody("direct:batch",
    "A camel in different art styles", List.class);

Type Converters

The component registers automatic type converters for Image objects:

From To Behavior

Image

byte[]

Decodes base64 data

Image

InputStream

Wraps decoded bytes in ByteArrayInputStream

Image

String

Returns base64 string or URL

See Also

Spring Boot Auto-Configuration

When using spring-ai-image with Spring Boot make sure to use the following Maven dependency to have support for auto configuration:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.camel.springboot</groupId>
  <artifactId>camel-spring-ai-image-starter</artifactId>
  <version>x.x.x</version>
  <!-- use the same version as your Camel core version -->
</dependency>

The component supports 11 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

camel.component.spring-ai-image.autowired-enabled

Whether autowiring is enabled. This is used for automatic autowiring options (the option must be marked as autowired) by looking up in the registry to find if there is a single instance of matching type, which then gets configured on the component. This can be used for automatic configuring JDBC data sources, JMS connection factories, AWS Clients, etc.

true

Boolean

camel.component.spring-ai-image.configuration

The configuration. The option is a org.apache.camel.component.springai.image.SpringAiImageConfiguration type.

SpringAiImageConfiguration

camel.component.spring-ai-image.enabled

Whether to enable auto configuration of the spring-ai-image component. This is enabled by default.

Boolean

camel.component.spring-ai-image.height

Image height in pixels.

Integer

camel.component.spring-ai-image.image-model

The ImageModel to use for generating images. The option is a org.springframework.ai.image.ImageModel type.

ImageModel

camel.component.spring-ai-image.lazy-start-producer

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

Boolean

camel.component.spring-ai-image.model

The model to use for image generation.

String

camel.component.spring-ai-image.n

Number of images to generate.

Integer

camel.component.spring-ai-image.response-format

Response format: url or b64_json.

String

camel.component.spring-ai-image.style

Image style (e.g., vivid, natural).

String

camel.component.spring-ai-image.width

Image width in pixels.

Integer
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