Codex Image2 Fallback

When using baoyu-image-gen with --provider openai --model gpt-image-2, the CLI can fail with:

OPENAI_API_KEY is required. Codex/ChatGPT desktop login does not automatically grant OpenAI Images API access to this script.

This is expected. The openai provider uses the public OpenAI Images API and needs OPENAI_API_KEY. Codex / ChatGPT image2 entitlement is a separate runtime-native path.

Practical fallback pattern

1. Try baoyu-image-gen when provider credentials are available.
2. If it fails only because OPENAI_API_KEY is missing, do not leave the user waiting.
3. Prefer a Codex/native raster backend in this order:

• Codex runtime native imagegen skill/tool, if available.
• baoyu-image-gen --provider codex-cli (preferred — wraps the bundled scripts/codex-imagegen/main.ts; the underlying repo-level package lives at packages/baoyu-codex-imagegen/src/main.ts for standalone callers), if codex CLI is installed/logged in.
• Hermes native image_generate, if available.

1. Be transparent about reference-image behavior:

• If the fallback backend accepts references, pass the reference images.
• If it does not, derive a concise identity-preserving prompt from the references and state that it is a text-description fallback, not strict reference-image editing.

1. Return the generated media path or structured backend error promptly.

User-facing wording

Use concise wording such as:

The OpenAI API path needs OPENAI_API_KEY; Codex login is a separate image2 backend. I used the available Codex/native image backend instead. Reference images were [passed directly / reconstructed from visual traits].

Avoid implying that baoyu-image-gen --provider openai can use Codex OAuth without a dedicated provider implementation.