GitHub Image Upload

Upload images to the GitHub repository LingyiChen-AI/images via GitHub Contents API, organized by project and date, and return a jsDelivr CDN URL (no CORS issues, fast globally).

Configuration

• Repository: LingyiChen-AI/images
• Token: Read from environment variable GITHUB_TOKEN
• Image path pattern: {project}/images/YYYY/MM/filename (based on current date)
  • {project} is the current project directory name (e.g., k8s-admin)
• CDN URL pattern: https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/LingyiChen-AI/images/{project}/images/YYYY/MM/filename

Workflow

1. Validate the token exists — check that GITHUB_TOKEN is set in the environment. If not, tell the user to set it: export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token
2. Identify the image file(s) — the user will provide file path(s). Verify each file exists and is a valid image (png, jpg, jpeg, gif, webp, svg, ico, bmp).
3. Determine project name — use the current working directory's folder name as the project prefix. For example, if working in ~/codes/myself/k8s-admin, the project name is k8s-admin.
4. Upload via GitHub API — for each image, write the JSON payload to a temp file to avoid shell argument length limits, then upload:

DATE_PATH=$(date +"%Y/%m")
PROJECT="$(basename "$PWD")"
FILENAME=$(basename "$IMAGE_PATH")
REMOTE_PATH="${PROJECT}/images/${DATE_PATH}/${FILENAME}"

# Write JSON payload to temp file
TMPFILE=$(mktemp)
python3 -c "
import json, base64
with open('${IMAGE_PATH}', 'rb') as f:
    content = base64.b64encode(f.read()).decode()
payload = {'message': 'upload: ${FILENAME}', 'content': content}
with open('${TMPFILE}', 'w') as out:
    json.dump(payload, out)
"

# Upload via API
curl -s -w "\n%{http_code}" -X PUT \
  "https://api.github.com/repos/LingyiChen-AI/images/contents/${REMOTE_PATH}" \
  -H "Authorization: token ${GITHUB_TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @"$TMPFILE"

rm -f "$TMPFILE"

5. Handle the response:
   • On success (HTTP 201), construct the jsDelivr CDN URL and present it to the user
   • If the file already exists (HTTP 422 "sha" missing), append a timestamp to the filename (e.g., image_1711872000.png) and retry
   • On auth failure (HTTP 401/403), tell the user to check their GITHUB_TOKEN permissions (needs Contents read/write)
6. Return the CDN URL to the user in plain text:

Upload successful!
CDN URL: https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/LingyiChen-AI/images/k8s-admin/images/2026/03/screenshot.png

Batch Upload

When uploading multiple images, process them sequentially (GitHub API doesn't handle parallel writes to the same repo well). Show progress for each file.

Important Notes

• Always write JSON payload to a temp file rather than passing base64 inline — avoids shell argument length limits.
• Always clean up temp files after upload.
• jsDelivr CDN has no CORS restrictions and works globally, making it ideal for embedding in articles, blogs, and external sites.
• jsDelivr caches aggressively. If the user needs to update an image, they should use a different filename rather than overwriting.