How do you add images to a Janitor AI first message?
Use markdown image syntax in the Initial Message field: . The link must be a direct file URL ending in .png, .jpg, .gif, or .webp — not an album page. Host it on Imgur, Catbox, or Postimages first. Janitor renders the image; it never stores your file.
Why — the first-principles explanation
There is no upload button in the first-message field, and understanding why tells you everything about how to make this work. Janitor never receives your image. What you paste is a link, and the link is an instruction to your reader's browser saying "go fetch this file from imgur.com and display it here." Janitor stores that one line of text. The picture itself lives on someone else's server, forever, and gets fetched fresh every time anyone opens the chat.
That single fact explains every broken image you've ever seen on a character card. If the host deletes the file, every user sees a broken box. If the host blocks hotlinking — refusing to serve images to pages on other domains, which costs them bandwidth for nothing — same broken box. If you paste an album page like `imgur.com/a/xxxx` instead of the direct file, the browser gets a web page where it expected a picture, and doesn't know what to do with it. The rule that follows: the URL must end in the actual file extension — .png, .jpg, .gif, or .webp. Right-click the image, choose "Copy image address," and you'll get the real one. Copying from the address bar usually gets you the page, not the file.
The second mechanism is one almost nobody mentions, and it costs people real quality. The model sees your image URL as text. It cannot see the picture — it has no eyes here. What it gets in its context is the literal characters ``, and it must spend tokens on that gibberish out of the same limited memory budget as your actual story. Worse, remember that the model copies patterns: show it an image link in the greeting and it may cheerfully invent its own fake image links later, producing broken boxes mid-roleplay. So keep it to one or two images, and always write the scene in words too — the words are what the model actually roleplays from.
One caveat on official support: Janitor's markdown guide documents bold, italics, lists, blockquotes, dividers, and code, but does not document image embedding. The character bio field is documented as supporting HTML formatting — colored text, sizes, hyperlinks — which is why `<img>` tags tend to work there. Image embeds in messages are community practice riding on the markdown renderer rather than a promised feature, so treat them as something that can change or break. And keep them clean: bot images must follow Janitor's guidelines, and NSFW images are prohibited on character cards.
An example that makes it click
A picture in your first message is not a photo glued into a scrapbook. It's a sticky note that says "the photo is in the third drawer of the filing cabinet down the hall — go get it."
Every single reader who opens your chat runs down the hall to that cabinet. So if you tape your sticky note pointing at a friend's filing cabinet and she moves apartments, throws the photo out, or puts a lock on the drawer because too many strangers keep showing up — everyone gets an empty hand. That's the broken-image box. The note is still there. The photo isn't.
And the note has to say the drawer, not the building. "It's in the building down the hall" is an album link: technically true, completely useless to someone holding a picture frame.
How to do it
- Upload your image to a host that allows hotlinking — Imgur, Catbox, or Postimages are the usual choices. Avoid Google Drive, Discord, and Dropbox links: they either expire, block hotlinking, or serve a viewer page instead of the file.
- Get the direct file URL. Right-click the uploaded image and choose "Copy image address." It must end in .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .webp. If it looks like imgur.com/a/xxxx or ends in nothing, that's an album or page link and it will not render.
- Open your bot in the character editor and find the Initial Message field (the required first message users see when opening a chat).
- Paste the markdown on its own line:  — the text in the square brackets is alt text, the URL goes in the parentheses, and there is no space between the ] and the (.
- Write the scene in words too, right below the image. The model can't see the picture, so the words are what it will actually roleplay from.
- Save, then open a fresh chat with the bot and check that the image renders rather than showing as a raw link or a broken box.
- Keep it to one or two images. Every URL burns tokens out of the same memory budget as your story, and the model may copy the pattern and invent broken image links of its own later.
- Keep it SFW: NSFW images are prohibited on character cards, and published content is subject to Janitor's content rules and moderation.
- If it breaks later, the cause is almost always one of three things: the host blocked hotlinking, you used a page or album URL instead of the direct file, or the file was deleted.
Key facts
- The markdown image syntax is , with no space between the closing bracket and the opening parenthesis.
- The URL must point at the file itself and end in an image extension (.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp); album or page URLs such as imgur.com/a/xxxx will not render.
- Janitor does not host your image — only the link is stored, and the file is fetched from the third-party host every time a user opens the chat, so deletion or hotlink-blocking on that host breaks it for everyone.
- Janitor's official markdown guide documents italics (*text*), bold (**text**), bold italics (***text***), bulleted lists, dividers, blockquotes (> text), inline code, and code blocks — image embedding is not documented, making it community practice rather than a promised feature (as of 2026-07).
- Janitor's character bio field officially supports HTML formatting including colored and highlighted text, different text sizes, and hyperlinks.
- The language model receives the image URL as literal text and cannot see the picture; the URL consumes tokens from the same context budget as the story, and NSFW images are prohibited on bot cards.
▶ The 60-second explainer (script)
To put an image in a Janitor AI first message, you paste one line of markdown: exclamation mark, square brackets with alt text, then the image URL in parentheses. That's it. But there's no upload button, and knowing why saves you every broken image you're about to create. Janitor never receives your picture. It stores a link — an instruction telling each reader's browser to go fetch that file from imgur, or wherever, every time they open the chat. The photo lives on someone else's server. Forever. So: upload to a host that allows hotlinking, like Imgur, Catbox, or Postimages. Then get the direct file URL — right-click the image, Copy image address. It has to end in .png, .jpg, .gif, or .webp. If it looks like imgur.com/a/something, that's an album page, and the browser will get a web page where it expected a picture. Broken box. Avoid Google Drive and Discord links too — they expire or block hotlinking. Paste the markdown into the Initial Message field on its own line, save, and open a fresh chat to check it renders. Now the part almost nobody mentions. The model sees your image URL as text. It has no eyes here — it just gets the literal characters, and it spends tokens on them out of the same memory budget as your story. Worse, models copy patterns: show it an image link and it may invent its own fake ones later. So keep it to one or two, always describe the scene in words underneath, and keep it SFW — NSFW images aren't allowed on character cards.
What authoritative sources say
People also ask
Why is my image showing as a broken box?
Almost always one of three causes: you used an album or page URL instead of the direct file link, the host blocks hotlinking, or the file was deleted. Right-click the image and use "Copy image address" to get the real URL.
Can I upload an image directly to the first message?
No. There's no upload field for message images — Janitor stores only a link. You must host the file elsewhere and paste the direct URL.
Which image hosts work best?
Imgur, Catbox, and Postimages are the common choices because they serve direct file links and allow hotlinking. Google Drive, Dropbox, and Discord links tend to expire or serve a viewer page instead of the file.
Can the AI see the image I embedded?
No. The model receives the URL as plain text and cannot view the picture. Always describe the scene in words too — that's what it actually roleplays from.
Can I use HTML instead of markdown?
The character bio field officially supports HTML formatting, so tags work there. Image embedding in messages isn't documented in Janitor's official markdown guide at all, so treat it as community practice that could change.