SnapAI

Generate high-quality square app icon artwork from the terminal — built for React Native and Expo.

SnapAI is a developer-friendly CLI that talks directly to:

• OpenAI Images (gpt-1.5 → gpt-image-1.5, gpt-1 → gpt-image-1)
• Google Nano Banana (Gemini image models) — selected via --model banana

The workflow is intentionally square-only: always 1024x1024 (1:1) to match iOS/Android icon needs and avoid resizing headaches.

Features ✨

• Fast: generate icons in seconds. No UI. No accounts.
• Latest image models:
  • OpenAI:
    • gpt-1.5 (uses gpt-image-1.5 under the hood)
    • gpt-1 (uses gpt-image-1 under the hood)
  • Google Nano Banana (Gemini):
    • normal: gemini-2.5-flash-image
    • pro: gemini-3-pro-image-preview
• iOS + Android oriented: prompt enhancement tuned for app-icon style outputs.
• Quality controls:
  • OpenAI: --quality auto|high|medium|low (aliases: hd → high, standard → medium)
  • Nano Banana Pro: --quality 1k|2k|4k
• DX-friendly: just a CLI (great for CI/CD too).
• Privacy-first: no telemetry, no tracking. Uses your API keys and sends requests directly to the provider you choose.

Video tutorial 🎥

Watch on YouTube

Read: Introducing Code With Beto Skills

Install 📦

# Recommended (no install)
npx snapai --help

# Or install globally
npm install -g snapai

Important 🔑
You need at least one API key:

• OpenAI (for gpt-1.5 → gpt-image-1.5, gpt-1 → gpt-image-1)
• Google AI Studio (for Google Nano Banana / Gemini via --model banana)

SnapAI is CLI-only and sends requests directly to the provider you select.

Quickstart (first icon) ⚡

npx snapai icon --prompt "minimalist weather app with sun and cloud"

Output defaults to ./assets (timestamped filenames).

Note 📝
Models can still draw the subject with visual padding (an empty border). This is normal.
SnapAI avoids forcing the words "icon" / "logo" by default to reduce padding.
If you want more “icon-y” framing, opt in with --use-icon-words.

Providers & models (what “banana” means) 🧠

SnapAI exposes providers via --model:

| Provider | SnapAI flag | Underlying model | Notes | | --------------------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | | OpenAI (latest) | --model gpt-1.5 | gpt-image-1.5 | Always 1:1 square 1024x1024, background/output controls | | OpenAI (previous) | --model gpt-1 | gpt-image-1 | Same controls as above | | Google Nano Banana (normal) | --model banana | gemini-2.5-flash-image | Always 1 image, square output | | Google Nano Banana 2 | --model banana-2 | gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview | 1 image, thinking config, 1K output | | Google Nano Banana (pro) | --model banana --pro | gemini-3-pro-image-preview | Quality tiers via --quality 1k/2k/4k, multiple via -n |

Tip 💡
If you want multiple variations quickly, use OpenAI (-n) or Banana Pro (--pro -n ...).

Setup 🔐

You can store keys locally (developer machine), or provide them at runtime (CI/CD).

Local config (writes to ~/.snapai/config.json)

snapai config --openai-api-key "sk-your-openai-api-key"
snapai config --google-api-key "your-google-ai-studio-key"

snapai config --show

CI/CD secrets (recommended)

Use environment variables so nothing is written to disk:

export SNAPAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export SNAPAI_GOOGLE_API_KEY="..."

# Also supported:
# export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
# export GEMINI_API_KEY="..."

GitHub Actions example:

- name: Generate app icon
  run: npx snapai icon --prompt "minimalist weather app with sun and cloud" --output ./assets/icons
  env:
    SNAPAI_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.SNAPAI_API_KEY }}

You can also pass keys per command (does not persist):

npx snapai icon --openai-api-key "sk-..." --prompt "modern app artwork"
npx snapai icon --model banana --google-api-key "..." --prompt "modern app artwork"

Usage 🚀

Common (recommended)

# Default (OpenAI)
npx snapai icon --prompt "modern fitness tracker with heart rate monitor"

# Output directory
npx snapai icon --prompt "professional banking app with secure lock" --output ./assets/icons

# Style hint (appended after enhancement)
npx snapai icon --prompt "calculator app" --style minimalism

# Preview the final generated prompt (no image generation)
npx snapai icon --prompt "calculator app" --raw-prompt --prompt-only
npx snapai icon --prompt "calculator app" --prompt-only
npx snapai icon --prompt "calculator app" --style minimalism --prompt-only

OpenAI (gpt-1.5 / gpt-1)

# Multiple variations
npx snapai icon --prompt "app icon concept" --model gpt-1.5 -n 3

# Higher quality
npx snapai icon --prompt "premium app icon" --quality high

# Transparent background + output format
npx snapai icon --prompt "logo mark" --background transparent --output-format png

Google Gemini (gemini-2.5-flash-image / gemini-3-pro-image-preview)

# Normal (1 image)
npx snapai icon --prompt "modern app artwork" --model banana

# Pro (multiple images + quality tiers)
npx snapai icon --prompt "modern app artwork" --model banana --pro --quality 2k -n 3

Nano Banana notes:

• Normal mode always generates 1 image (no -n, no --quality tiers).
• Pro mode supports multiple images (-n) and HD tiers (--quality 1k|2k|4k).
• Output is always square.

Prompt tips (small changes, big impact) 📝

• Describe the product first, then the style:
  • “a finance app, shield + checkmark, modern, clean gradients”
• If you see too much empty border:
  • remove the words "icon" / "logo" (default behavior), or keep them off and be explicit about “fill the frame”
• Use --style for rendering/material hints (examples: minimalism, material, pixel, kawaii, cute, glassy, neon)

Note 📝
If you pass --style, the style system is treated as a hard constraint and will take priority over other wording in your prompt.
Try to avoid prompts that conflict with the chosen style (e.g. --style minimalism + “neon glow”), or the model may produce inconsistent results.

Command reference 📚

snapai icon flags

| Flag | Short | Default | Description | | ------------------ | ----- | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | --prompt | -p | required | Description of the icon to generate | | --output | -o | ./assets | Output directory | | --model | -m | gpt-1.5 | gpt-1.5/gpt-1 (OpenAI) or banana (Google Nano Banana) | | --quality | -q | auto | GPT: auto/high/medium/low (aliases: hd, standard). Banana Pro: 1k/2k/4k | | --background | -b | auto | Background (transparent, opaque, auto) (OpenAI only) | | --output-format | -f | png | Output format (png, jpeg, webp) (OpenAI only) | | --n | -n | 1 | Number of images (max 10). For Banana normal, must be 1. | | --moderation | | auto | Content filtering (low, auto) (OpenAI only) | | --prompt-only | | false | Preview final prompt + config without generating images | | --raw-prompt | -r | false | Send prompt as-is (no SnapAI enhancement/constraints). Style still applies if set | | --style | -s | | Rendering style hint appended after enhancement | | --use-icon-words | -i | false | Include "icon" / "logo" in enhancement (may increase padding) | | --pro | -P | false | Enable Nano Banana Pro (banana only) | | --openai-api-key | -k | | OpenAI API key override (does not persist) | | --google-api-key | -g | | Google API key override (does not persist) |

Examples (real outputs) 🖼️

| Prompt | Result | Command | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | minimalist weather app with sun and cloud | ![Weather Icon](<test-icons/npx snapai icon --prompt "minimalist weather app with sun and cloud" --model gpt-1.5