Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?
Cursor IDE
Describe the Bug
Hi,
Image generation from the Agent (GenerateImage tool) consistently fails with:
Failed to generate image, error: Request failed with status code 401
What I’m doing
Asking the agent to generate PNG assets (e.g. course intro / YouTube thumbnails, 16:9, simple prompts).
The agent calls GenerateImage; every attempt returns 401 immediately (no image file is created).
Environment
Cursor IDE (macOS)
Agent mode with shell access
Same failure on multiple retries over different sessions (not a one-off network blip).
What I’ve checked
Other tools (terminal, file read/write, web) work normally.
I haven’t found a clear setting in Cursor for “image generation API” or a dedicated key for this feature.
Questions
Is GenerateImage tied to a specific Cursor subscription / model entitlement, or a separate API key?
Where should image generation be enabled or authenticated (Settings → …)?
Is 401 expected when billing/plan limits are hit, or only when auth is missing?
Expected: Agent can generate images from text prompts (as documented for the tool).
Actual: Hard 401 on every request.
If anyone from the team sees this: happy to share exact prompt, timestamp, and Cursor version if that helps reproduce.
Thanks!
Steps to Reproduce
Asking the agent to generate PNG assets (e.g. course intro / YouTube thumbnails, 16:9, simple prompts).
The agent calls GenerateImage; every attempt returns 401 immediately (no image file is created).
Operating System
MacOS
Version Information
Version: 3.6.31 (Universal)
VS Code Extension API: 1.105.1
Commit: 81fcf2931d7687b4ff3f3017858d0c6dee7e2a60
Date: 2026-05-31T17:46:29.630Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.220
OS: Darwin arm64 25.5.0
Does this stop you from using Cursor
No - Cursor works, but with this issue
