Bria — AI Image Generation, Editing & Background Removal

Commercially safe, royalty-free image generation and editing through 20+ API endpoints. Generate from text, edit with natural language, remove backgrounds, create product shots, and build automated image pipelines.

For additional endpoint details beyond what is documented here, see the Bria API reference for agents.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user wants to:

• Generate images — "create an image of...", "make me a banner", "generate a hero image", "I need a product photo"
• Edit images — "change the background", "make it look like winter", "add a vase to the table", "remove the person"
• Remove/replace backgrounds — "make the background transparent", "cut out the product", "replace with a studio background"
• Product photography — "create a lifestyle shot", "place this product in a kitchen scene", "e-commerce packshot"
• Enhance/transform — "upscale this image", "make it higher resolution", "restyle as oil painting", "change the lighting"
• Batch/pipeline — "generate 10 product images", "process all these images", "remove backgrounds in bulk"

This skill handles the full spectrum of AI image operations. If the user mentions images, photos, visuals, or any visual content creation — use this skill.

What You Can Build

• E-commerce product catalog — Generate product photos, remove backgrounds for transparent PNGs, place products in lifestyle scenes (kitchen, office, outdoor), create packshots with consistent style
• Landing page visuals — Generate hero images, abstract tech backgrounds, team photos, and section illustrations — all matching your brand aesthetic
• Social media content — Instagram posts (1:1), Stories/Reels (9:16), LinkedIn banners (16:9), ad creatives — batch-generate variants for A/B testing
• Marketing campaign assets — Seasonal transformations (summer→winter), restyle product shots for different markets, create localized visuals at scale
• Photo restoration pipeline — Restore old damaged photos, colorize black & white images, upscale low-res photos to 4x, enhance quality automatically
• Brand asset toolkit — Remove backgrounds from logos, blend artwork onto products (t-shirts, mugs), create consistent product photography across your entire catalog
• AI-powered design workflows — Chain operations: generate→edit→remove background→place in scene→upscale — all automated through API pipelines

Setup — Authentication

Before making any API call, you need a valid Bria access token.

Step 1: Check for existing credentials

if [ -f ~/.bria/credentials ]; then
  BRIA_ACCESS_TOKEN=$(grep '^access_token=' "$HOME/.bria/credentials" | cut -d= -f2-)
  BRIA_API_KEY=$(grep '^api_token=' "$HOME/.bria/credentials" | cut -d= -f2-)
fi
if [ -z "$BRIA_ACCESS_TOKEN" ]; then
  echo "NO_CREDENTIALS"
elif [ -n "$BRIA_API_KEY" ]; then
  echo "READY"
else
  echo "CREDENTIALS_FOUND"
fi

If the output is READY, skip straight to making API calls — no introspection needed. If the output is CREDENTIALS_FOUND, skip to Step 3. If the output is NO_CREDENTIALS, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Authenticate via device authorization

Start the device authorization flow:

2a. Request a device code:

DEVICE_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST "https://engine.prod.bria-api.com/v2/auth/device/authorize" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json")
echo "$DEVICE_RESPONSE"

Parse the response fields:

• device_code — used to poll for the token (keep this, don't show to user)
• user_code — the code the user must enter (e.g. BRIA-XXXX)
• interval — seconds between poll attempts

2b. Show the user a single sign-in link. Tell them exactly this — nothing more:

Connect your Bria account: Click here to sign in Your code is {user_code} — it's already filled in.

Do NOT show two links. Do NOT show the raw URL separately. Do NOT use verification_uri from the API response. Keep it to one clickable link.

2c. Poll for the token. After showing the user the code, immediately start polling. Try up to 60 times with the given interval (default 5 seconds):

for i in $(seq 1 60); do
  TOKEN_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST "https://engine.prod.bria-api.com/v2/auth/token" \
    -d "grant_type=urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:device_code" \
    -d "device_code=$DEVICE_CODE")
  ACCESS_TOKEN=$(printf '%s' "$TOKEN_RESPONSE" | sed -n 's/.*"access_token" *: *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
  if [ -n "$ACCESS_TOKEN" ]; then
    BRIA_ACCESS_TOKEN="$ACCESS_TOKEN"
    REFRESH_TOKEN=$(printf '%s' "$TOKEN_RESPONSE" | sed -n 's/.*"refresh_token" *: *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
    mkdir -p ~/.bria
    printf 'access_token=%s\
refresh_token=%s\
' "$BRIA_ACCESS_TOKEN" "$REFRESH_TOKEN" > "$HOME/.bria/credentials"
    echo "AUTHENTICATED"
    break
  fi
  sleep 5
done

If the output contains AUTHENTICATED, proceed to Step 3. Otherwise the code expired — start over from Step 2a.

Do not proceed with any API call until authentication is confirmed.

Step 3: Verify billing status and resolve API key

Introspect the bearer token to check billing status and obtain the real API key for Bria API calls:

INTROSPECT=$(curl -s -X POST "https://engine.prod.bria-api.com/v2/auth/token/introspect" \
  -d "token=$BRIA_ACCESS_TOKEN")
BILLING_STATUS=$(printf '%s' "$INTROSPECT" | sed -n 's/.*"billing_status" *: *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
if [ "$BILLING_STATUS" = "blocked" ]; then
  BILLING_MSG=$(printf '%s' "$INTROSPECT" | sed -n 's/.*"billing_message" *: *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
  echo "BILLING_ERROR: $BILLING_MSG"
fi
ACTIVE=$(printf '%s' "$INTROSPECT" | sed -n 's/.*"active" *: *\([^,}]*\).*/\1/p' | tr -d ' ')
if [ "$ACTIVE" = "false" ]; then
  # Clear stale tokens so re-auth starts fresh (credentials file is re-created in Step 2c)
  printf '' > "$HOME/.bria/credentials"
  echo "TOKEN_EXPIRED"
fi
BRIA_API_KEY=$(printf '%s' "$INTROSPECT" | sed -n 's/.*"api_token" *: *"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
if [ -n "$BRIA_API_KEY" ]; then
  grep -v '^api_token=' "$HOME/.bria/credentials" > "$HOME/.bria/credentials.tmp" 2>/dev/null || true
  printf 'api_token=%s\
' "$BRIA_API_KEY" >> "$HOME/.bria/credentials.tmp"
  mv "$HOME/.bria/credentials.tmp" "$HOME/.bria/credentials"
fi

Interpret the output:

• If it prints BILLING_ERROR: ... — relay the message to the user exactly as shown and stop. Do not make any API calls.
• If it prints TOKEN_EXPIRED — the session is no longer valid. Tell the user their session expired and restart from Step 2.
• Otherwise, BRIA_API_KEY now contains the real API key and is cached for future calls. Proceed to the next section.

Core Capabilities

How to Call Any Endpoint

Use bria_call for all API calls. It handles URL passthrough, local file base64 encoding, JSON construction, API call, and async polling in a single function call. The API key is auto-loaded from ~/.bria/credentials.

source ~/.agents/skills/bria-ai/references/code-examples/bria_client.sh

# Generate (no image input — pass empty string)
RESULT=$(bria_call /v2/image/generate "" '"prompt": "your description", "aspect_ratio": "16:9", "sync": true')

# Remove background
RESULT=$(bria_call /v2/image/edit/remove_background "/path/to/local/image.png")

# Replace background
RESULT=$(bria_call /v2/image/edit/replace_background "https://example.com/img.jpg" '"prompt": "sunset beach"')

# Edit image (uses images array — pass --key images)
RESULT=$(bria_call /v2/image/edit "/path/to/image.png" --key images '"instruction": "make it look warmer"')

# Upscale
RESULT=$(bria_call /v2/image/edit/increase_resolution "https://example.com/img.jpg" '"scale": 4')

# Lifestyle shot
RESULT=$(bria_call /v1/product/lifestyle_shot_by_text "/path/to/product.png" '"prompt": "modern kitchen countertop"')

echo "$RESULT"

Calling convention: bria_call \x3Cendpoint> \x3Cimage_or_empty> [--key \x3Cjson_key>] [extra JSON fields...]

• Pass a URL, local file path, or "" (empty) for endpoints without image input
• Use --key images when the endpoint expects an images array instead of image
• Extra JSON fields are appended as key-value pairs: '"key": "value"'
• Returns the result image URL on success, or prints an error to stderr

Generation options: Aspect ratios 1:1, 16:9, 4:3, 9:16, 3:4. Resolution 1MP (default) or 4MP (more detail, +30s). Pass "sync": true for single images.

Advanced: For precise control over generation, use the vgl skill for structured VGL JSON prompts instead of natural language.

See API Endpoints Reference for full parameter documentation on all 20+ endpoints.

Prompt Engineering Tips

• Style: "professional product photography" vs "casual snapshot", "flat design illustration" vs "3D rendered"
• Lighting: "soft natural light", "studio lighting", "dramatic shadows"
• Background: "white studio", "gradient", "blurred office", "transparent"
• Composition: "centered", "rule of thirds", "negative space on left for text"
• Quality keywords: "high quality", "professional", "commercial grade", "4K", "sharp focus"
• Negative prompts: "blurry, low quality, pixelated", "text, watermark, logo"

Recipes by Use Case

Hero banner (16:9): "Modern tech startup workspace with developers collaborating, bright natural lighting, clean minimal aesthetic" — include "clean background" or "minimal" for text overlay space

Product photo (1:1): "Professional product photo of [item] on white studio background, soft shadows, commercial photography lighting" — then remove background for transparent PNG

Presentation visual (16:9): "Abstract visualization of data analytics, blue and purple gradient, modern corporate style, clean composition with space for text" — common themes: "abstract technology", "business collaboration", "minimalist geometric patterns"

Instagram post (1:1): "Lifestyle photo of coffee and laptop on wooden desk, morning light, cozy atmosphere"

Story/Reel (9:16): "Vertical product showcase of smartphone, floating in gradient background, tech aesthetic"

Additional Resources

• API Endpoints Reference — Complete endpoint documentation with request/response formats for all 20+ endpoints
• Shell Client (bria_client.sh) — Single-function helper: bria_call handles auth, base64, JSON, polling
• Full API docs for agents (llms.txt) — Agent-ready Bria API reference; use when this skill's summary is not enough

Related Skills

• vgl — Write structured VGL JSON prompts for precise, deterministic control over FIBO image generation
• image-utils — Classic image manipulation (resize, crop, composite, watermarks) for post-processing