Image Generator – AI Featured Image, Thumbnail and Automatic Image Creator for WordPress vs VigIA – AI Visibility, Analytics & Control

Image Generator is the all-in-one AI image generator and automatic featured image plugin for WordPress. Create eye-catching featured images, post thumbnails, hero banners, and social media images in two clicks — directly inside the Gutenberg block editor, or automatically every time you publish a post or page. Stop wasting hours on stock photo sites. Stop publishing posts with broken thumbnail spots. With Image Generator you can: Generate AI images from a custom prompt using OpenAI GPT Image or DALL·E (your own API key) — right inside the block editor. Auto-generate featured images from reusable image templates whenever a post, page, or custom post type is saved without one. Insert AI-generated images straight into Image and Media & Text blocks while you write. Set a Featured Image with a single click from the new AI Featured Image sidebar panel. Whether you run a blog, news site, magazine, portfolio, affiliate site, online store, or membership platform, this plugin gives every post a polished, SEO-friendly featured image — without the manual work. 🚀 Upgrade to Pro | 📄 Plugin Documentation | 💻 Support Two Powerful Ways to Create Images Inside the block editor (on demand): generate an image while you’re writing and drop it straight into an Image block, a Media & Text block, or set it as the post’s Featured Image. Automatic on publish (hands-off): when a post or page has no featured image, the plugin picks one of your saved templates and renders a custom thumbnail using the post title, your brand colors, fonts, and overlay images. Every generated image, whether AI-created or template-rendered — is saved to the WordPress Media Library with proper alt text, so it works with any theme, page builder, CDN, image-optimization plugin, lazy loader, or SEO plugin. Watch video tutorial on how to use the Image Generator plugin Why Featured Images Matter for SEO and Engagement Higher search rankings: Google rewards visually rich content with better placement in search results and Google Discover. Better click-through rates: posts with attractive thumbnails get noticeably more clicks from search results, archive pages, and category listings. More social shares: Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and Pinterest all use the featured image when someone shares your URL. No featured image = no preview = fewer clicks. Pinterest traffic: pin-worthy custom images can drive long-tail referral traffic for years. Brand consistency: reusable templates keep every post on-brand without hiring a designer. Improved Core Web Vitals: properly attached, optimized featured images load predictably and avoid layout shift. Perfect For Bloggers who publish daily and never want to think about featured images again. News sites and magazines that need every article to have a thumbnail. WooCommerce stores that need product placeholder images. Affiliate marketers who want unique hero images for every roundup post. Agencies and freelancers managing multiple client sites. Membership and learning platforms that publish lots of lessons. Anyone who has ever shipped a post with a missing or generic thumbnail. Key Features ✅ AI Image Generation with OpenAI Plug in your OpenAI API key (or define the AIMG_API_KEY constant in wp-config.php) and generate unique images from natural-language prompts “a sunlit forest path in autumn, photorealistic, soft lighting”, without leaving WordPress. ✅ Block Editor (Gutenberg) Integration Adds an “AI Generate” sparkle button to the toolbar of core Image and Media & Text blocks, plus a dedicated AI Featured Image panel in the document sidebar. No setup, no shortcodes, it just shows up. ✅ Two Generation Modes in One Modal A single, unified modal lets editors switch between Templates (fast, on-brand, free) and Custom Prompt (AI-generated, unique). Pick the right tool for each post. ✅ Unlimited Reusable Image Templates Build as many image templates as you want with custom background colors, text colors, dimensions, fonts, and PNG overlays. Each template is rendered server-side using PHP’s GD library, no external dependency. ✅ Automatic Featured Image on Save When a post, page, or custom post type is saved without a featured image, the plugin renders one from a random template using the post title. Hands-off, instant, every time. ✅ Custom Post Type & WooCommerce Support Works with posts, pages, WooCommerce products, and any public custom post type that supports featured images, including LearnDash lessons, BuddyBoss content, Easy Digital Downloads products, and more. ✅ Native WordPress Media Library Every image, AI or template — is sideloaded into the Media Library with attachment ID and alt text. So image optimization plugins (Smush, ShortPixel, Imagify, EWWW), CDNs (Cloudflare, BunnyCDN, KeyCDN), and SEO plugins (Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO) all see it as a regular attachment. ✅ REST API for Headless & Custom Workflows Public endpoints (/wp-json/aimg/v1/generate, /wp-json/aimg/v1/templates) with capability checks (edit_posts, upload_files) and nonce protection, perfect for headless WordPress, decoupled frontends, and bulk automation scripts. ✅ Developer-Friendly Filters Swap the AI endpoint, change the model, customize the request body, and hook into the generation pipeline with aimg_generate_endpoint and aimg_generate_request_body filters. ✅ Translation Ready (i18n) Fully translatable via the bundled .pot file, both PHP and editor JavaScript strings are registered with wp_set_script_translations. Compatible with WPML, Polylang, Loco Translate, and TranslatePress. ✅ Lightweight, Fast, and Secure No bloated dependencies. Uses native WordPress components, the GD library (already part of PHP), and the REST API. API keys can be stored outside the database via the AIMG_API_KEY constant. ✅ No Coding Required Simple admin UI under Image Generator in the WordPress dashboard. Build a template, save your settings, you’re done. How It Works Generate from the Block Editor (On Demand) Open any post or page in the Gutenberg editor. Click the ✨ sparkle icon in the toolbar of an Image or Media & Text block or open the AI Featured Image panel in the document sidebar. Choose a tab in the modal: Templates: pick a saved image template. The title text defaults to the current post title. Custom Prompt: describe the image you want and press Generate (or Ctrl + Enter / ⌘ + Enter). The image is generated, added to the Media Library, and inserted into the block or assigned as the featured image automatically. Auto-Generate Featured Images on Publish Write your post or page as normal. Hit Publish or Update. If you already set a featured image, nothing happens. If you didn’t, the plugin picks a random image template and renders a custom thumbnail from the post title — saved to the Media Library and attached as the post thumbnail. Use Cases Daily Bloggers Publish a post, hit Update, and walk away. Your readers and Google get a polished featured image every time, without you ever opening Canva. News and Magazine Sites Generate consistent on-brand thumbnails for breaking news pieces and category archives, no designer in the loop. WooCommerce Stores Auto-generate placeholder product images for new SKUs while real photos are still being shot. Then replace at your own pace. Affiliate Roundups and Listicles Use Custom Prompt mode to generate unique hero images for “Best Standing Desks 2026” style posts that don’t look like every other affiliate site. Agencies and Multi-Site Networks Configure templates once, set them as defaults across all client sites, and stop fielding “why doesn’t this post have an image?” tickets. Headless and Decoupled Sites Use the REST API endpoints to trigger image generation from a Next.js, Astro, or Gatsby frontend, a CLI script, or a CI pipeline. Image Generator vs. Manual Workflows Without Image Generator | With Image Generator Add a featured image to a new post — Without: find a stock photo, download, upload, set as featured. With Image Generator: publish — done. Generate a unique hero image — Without: open Midjourney/ChatGPT, save, upload, insert. With Image Generator: click ✨ in the toolbar, type a prompt, done. Keep thumbnails on-brand across the site — Without: manual design work, every post. With Image Generator: build a template once, reused forever. Generate placeholders for 50 imported posts — Without: tedious manual upload. With Image Generator: bulk-saving triggers auto-generation. Troubleshooting “No API key configured” notice in the editor: add a key under Image Generator → Settings, or define AIMG_API_KEY in wp-config.php. Thumbnails not displaying on the frontend: make sure your theme calls add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' ) in functions.php. AI generation fails or times out: check that your server can make outbound HTTPS requests, that PHP’s max_execution_time is at least 60 seconds, and that your OpenAI API key has billing enabled. “The model ‘dall-e-3’ does not exist” (or similar) error: your OpenAI account doesn’t have access to the selected model — DALL·E models are legacy and unavailable to newer accounts. Switch the Image Model to GPT Image 1 under Image Generator → Settings. “No templates available” in the editor modal: create at least one template under Image Generator → Image Templates. Image looks wrong / wrong colors: check your template’s background color, text color, and overlay PNG transparency. Cache plugins showing stale images: clear page, object, and CDN caches after generating new images. Compatibility issues: temporarily disable other plugins to identify conflicts and let us know via the support forum. Best Practices ✅ Build 3–5 well-designed templates so the random fallback always looks on-brand. ✅ Use Custom Prompt mode for hero images and standout posts; use Templates for everyday post thumbnails. ✅ Keep prompts specific — “a sunlit forest path in autumn, photorealistic, soft lighting” beats “forest”. ✅ Define AIMG_API_KEY in wp-config.php rather than storing it in the database. ✅ Pair this plugin with an image optimization plugin (Smush, ShortPixel, Imagify) so generated images load fast. ✅ Set a recognizable brand color and font in your templates so visitors associate the look with your site. Third-Party Assets and Licenses Roboto Font Author: Christian Robertson License: Apache License 2.0 License URI: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto The Roboto font is bundled under the Apache License 2.0. Full license text available at the URI above. AI Image Generation Prompt-based image generation calls a third-party API (OpenAI by default). You are responsible for the API key, usage costs, and compliance with the provider’s terms of service. No prompts or images are sent to any external service unless you explicitly trigger generation from a custom prompt. Template-based generation never leaves your server. Privacy Template-based generation runs entirely on your server. No data is sent to third parties. AI prompt-based generation sends the prompt you type to OpenAI (or your configured endpoint). The plugin does not transmit post content, user data, or visitor information. The plugin does not set cookies, track users, or load any external scripts on the frontend. Support and Feedback Have questions, need help, or want to suggest a feature? We’d love to hear from you! – Plugin Support Forum: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/artificial-image-generator – Plugin Homepage: https://beautifulplugins.com/plugins/image-generator-pro/ License This plugin is released under the GPLv2 or later. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html for details. Thank you for using Image Generator! We’re dedicated to helping you create visually stunning, SEO-optimized posts and pages with ease — powered by AI when you want it, and reliable image templates when you don’t.

VigIA (Spanish for “lookout” or “watchman”, incorporating “IA” – Spanish for “AI”) is a complete AI visibility toolkit for WordPress. Monitor 60+ AI crawlers, control access to your content, and optimize how AI systems discover and understand your site. What does VigIA do? Scores your AI visibility with a 100-point analyzer covering 20 checks across 5 categories Tracks AI crawlers visiting your site (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and 60+ others) Provides detailed analytics with advanced filters, server-side pagination, and exportable reports with metadata banner Blocks unwanted crawlers via PHP (403 response) Manages robots.txt rules for AI crawlers with compliance monitoring Sends email alerts about crawler activity (daily, weekly, or monthly) Generates llms.txt files to help AI systems understand your site Serves markdown endpoints for posts, pages, taxonomy archives (categories, tags, WooCommerce product categories, custom taxonomies) and WooCommerce products with schema-like data Generates JSON-LD structured data with Site Identity and AI Discovery signals Exposes abilities for AI agents and automation tools (WordPress 6.9+) Key Features AI Visibility Analyzer * 100-point scoring system with letter grades (A+ to F) * 20 individual checks across 5 categories * Access & AI Discovery (37 pts): robots.txt, AI bot directives, Content Signals, llms.txt, sitemap, RSS feed * Structured Data & Semantic Context (25 pts): JSON-LD schemas, Open Graph, Twitter Cards, meta description, canonical URL * Content Structure & Readability (20 pts): heading hierarchy, semantic HTML5, image alt text, content/HTML ratio * AI Interaction & Distribution (8 pts): markdown delivery, AI share buttons * Access Performance (10 pts): TTFB measurement * Smart recommendations with direct links to VigIA features and plugin suggestions * Analyze any page on your site with URL autocomplete selector * Results cached for 24 hours with manual re-analyze option Analytics Dashboard * Total visits, unique crawlers, and pages crawled statistics * Timeline chart with daily breakdown * Category distribution (AI Training, AI Search, AI Assistant, Data Scraper) * Top crawlers and most crawled pages tables with paginated navigation * Share Buttons & AI-powered Summaries integration: see share button clicks per page * Recent activity log with content type and HTTP status columns (color coded by status family) * Advanced filters: multi-select crawler picker, content type, HTTP status code, and configurable date range * Server-side pagination with four-button pager (first, previous, next, last) — operates over the full database, not just the latest 500 rows * Period comparison functionality * CSV export with a metadata banner (site name, site URL, export type, date range, export timestamp, applied filters) * “Export filtered CSV” button that downloads exactly what the active filters return, with vigia-filtered-YYYY-MM-DD.csv filename * Content type detection distinguishes Home, Post, Page, Product, custom CPTs, Category archive, Tag archive, Date/Author archive, Feed, Sitemap, REST API, File, Admin / login attempts (/wp-admin, /wp-login.php), WordPress system (admin-ajax, xmlrpc, wp-cron, wp-comments-post), 404 Not found, and Other Crawler Blocking * Block crawlers via PHP with 403 Forbidden response * Quick block dropdown in analytics dashboard * Manage blocks from Extras page * Works on any server (Apache, Nginx, LiteSpeed, etc.) Robots.txt Management * Add Disallow rules for AI crawlers * Visual preview of your robots.txt * Compliance monitoring: see which crawlers ignore your rules * One-click blocking for non-compliant crawlers * Works with both physical and virtual robots.txt Email Alerts * Daily, weekly, or monthly reports * Three detail levels: Minimal, Normal, Complete * Non-compliant crawler warnings * Activity comparison with previous period Markdown for Agents * Serve posts, pages and any public post type as optimized markdown for AI agents * Serve taxonomy archive pages (categories, tags, WooCommerce product categories, custom taxonomies) as markdown — disabled by default, opt in per taxonomy * Dedicated .md URL endpoints (e.g., /your-post.md, /category/news.md, /product-category/electronics.md) * Accept: text/markdown content negotiation on posts and taxonomy archive pages * Discoverability via Link HTTP headers and HTML tags * YAML frontmatter for posts: title, date, modified, author, image, categories, tags, post type, lang * YAML frontmatter for taxonomy terms: title, description, url, type, taxonomy, parent, count, image (term meta), lang * WooCommerce product frontmatter adds schema-like fields: sku, product_type, price, regular_price, sale_price, currency, availability, stock_quantity, rating, rating_count, review_count * Taxonomy term body includes the term description (rendered through the_content), the list of direct child terms in hierarchical taxonomies, and an excerpt of the latest posts/products assigned to the term * Product listings inside product_cat archives include an inline summary with formatted price, “was X” on sale items, star rating and out-of-stock flag * Respects blocking rules (blocked crawlers get 403) and LLMs.txt exclusion filters * Per-term noindex detection from Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO and SEOPress * Analytics integration: tracks markdown requests per crawler * X-Markdown-Tokens response header * Filters: vigia_markdown_post_eligible, vigia_markdown_term_eligible, vigia_markdown_term_posts_limit * Follows the Cloudflare Markdown for Agents standard LLMs.txt Generator * Select content by post type with one click * Filter by taxonomies (categories, tags, custom) * Manual include/exclude with AJAX search * Exclude by URL patterns (wildcards supported) * SEO plugin integration (auto-exclude noindex content) * Auto-regeneration (daily, weekly, monthly) * Robots.txt integration (add llms.txt and llms-full.txt references) * Generate llms.txt and llms-full.txt files * Full content or excerpt mode * Compatible with Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress, The SEO Framework, and Native SEO NoIndexer JSON-LD Structured Data * Generate WebSite and Organization/Person schema for site identity * AI Discovery: ReadAction pointers to llms.txt, llms-full.txt, and Markdown for Agents endpoints * Social profiles and sameAs links for brand identity across the web * SearchAction for Google sitelinks search box * Media library integration for logo selection * SEO plugin conflict detection (Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, SEOPress, The SEO Framework) * Choose output page (front page or any published page) * Live JSON-LD preview with real-time updates * Smart integration with LLMs.txt and Markdown for Agents features Supported AI Crawlers VigIA monitors 60+ AI crawlers including: OpenAI: GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, OAI-AdsBot, ChatGPT-User Anthropic: ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, Claude-User, Claude-Code Google: Google-Extended, GoogleOther, Gemini-Deep-Research, Google-NotebookLM Perplexity: PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User Meta: Meta-ExternalAgent, FacebookBot, Meta-WebIndexer Amazon: Amazonbot, Amzn-SearchBot, bedrockbot Mistral: MistralAI-User, MistralAI-Index Microsoft: BingBot ByteDance: Bytespider Apple: Applebot-Extended And many more… Privacy Focused VigIA stores visitor data locally in your WordPress database. No data is sent to external servers. Abilities API VigIA is one of the first WordPress plugins to implement the Abilities API introduced in WordPress 6.9. This API allows AI agents, automation tools, and external systems to discover and interact with VigIA’s functionality in a standardized, secure way. What are Abilities? Abilities are self-contained units of functionality that VigIA exposes through WordPress’s central registry. Each ability has defined inputs, outputs, and permissions, making it easy for automation tools to understand and use them. Available Abilities VigIA registers the following abilities: Analytics vigia/get-crawler-stats – Get statistics about AI crawler visits (total visits, unique crawlers, pages crawled) vigia/get-top-crawlers – Get a ranked list of most active AI crawlers vigia/get-top-pages – Get the most crawled pages on your site Blocking vigia/get-blocked-items – List all blocked crawlers and IP addresses vigia/block-crawler – Block a crawler by User-Agent pattern vigia/unblock-crawler – Remove an existing block Robots.txt vigia/get-robots-rules – Get current AI crawler rules in robots.txt vigia/add-robots-disallow – Add a Disallow directive for a crawler vigia/remove-robots-rule – Remove a robots.txt rule Use Cases Automated monitoring: AI agents can query crawler statistics and alert you to anomalies Reactive blocking: Automation tools can block crawlers that repeatedly ignore robots.txt External dashboards: Aggregate data from multiple WordPress sites with VigIA installed WP-CLI integration: Future command-line access through the Abilities API n8n / Make workflows: Build custom automation flows using VigIA’s abilities Requirements The Abilities API ships with WordPress 6.9 and later. On older WordPress versions, VigIA works normally but abilities and MCP are not available. MCP Server (Model Context Protocol) VigIA exposes its 9 abilities as native MCP tools to any MCP-compatible client (Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Codex CLI, Antigravity, Continue, Cline, Zed and similar) using the official WordPress MCP Adapter. The adapter ships bundled with the plugin, so the MCP endpoint is active right after installation — no Composer step or terminal access required. Requirements WordPress 6.9 or later (provides the Abilities API) Quick connect (recommended) Open VigIA > Extras > MCP and click “Generate password and connection commands”. The plugin creates a dedicated Application Password named VigIA MCP and renders ready-to-paste commands for Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop and a generic block (URL + Authorization header) for any other MCP client. The plain password is shown only once. If you lose it, revoke the entry from the same panel and generate a new one. Endpoint https://your-site.example/wp-json/vigia/v1/mcp The endpoint uses HTTP Basic auth with the WordPress Application Password. The user must have the manage_options capability. Connecting Claude Code Quick Connect builds the full command for you. The shape is: claude mcp add --transport http vigia https://your-site.example/wp-json/vigia/v1/mcp --header "Authorization: Basic BASE64_OF_USER_AND_APP_PASSWORD" Claude Code merges the new entry into its config file automatically — no risk of breaking other servers. Connecting Cursor Save the JSON block from Quick Connect as ~/.cursor/mcp.json. You can also reach this file from inside Cursor at Settings → Cursor Settings → MCP. If the file already exists with other content, see the FAQ. Claude Desktop and other clients Claude Desktop does not speak HTTP MCP, so it needs a small bridge and a config file of its own. Any other client (Codex CLI, Continue, Cline, Antigravity, Zed, or your own) takes the two raw values Quick Connect exposes: the server URL and the Authorization header. Both cases are covered in the FAQ, together with how to merge VigIA into a config file that already exists without losing what is in it. Read-only mode If you only want your AI to consult VigIA (not change anything), enable “Read-only mode” in the MCP tab. While on, write actions (block, unblock, robots changes) return a permission denied error. Read actions (statistics, top crawlers, blocked items, robots rules) keep working. The toggle stores a vigia_mcp_read_only option that hooks into the vigia_can_write_via_abilities filter. Developers can still force read-only from a mu-plugin: add_filter( 'vigia_can_write_via_abilities', '__return_false' ); The mu-plugin filter at the default priority takes precedence over the toggle. Who can reach the endpoint The endpoint requires the capability to manage options, the same one every tool behind it already asked for. The vigia_mcp_transport_capability filter can lower that bar; each tool keeps its own permission check. After connecting Restart your MCP client after adding the server so it picks up the new tools. Then try a few prompts to confirm everything is wired up: “Show me VigIA crawler stats for the last 7 days.” “List the top 5 most crawled pages on this site.” “Add a robots.txt Disallow rule for TestBot and then list the current AI crawler rules.” The third example exercises a read + write + read round-trip, which is the most complete sanity check. Support Need private support or custom development? Do you need one-on-one help, priority troubleshooting, or a custom feature, integration, or tweak built specifically for your site? I offer private support and custom development. Just contact me and tell me what you need. Need help or have suggestions? Official website WordPress support forum YouTube channel Documentation and tutorials Love the plugin? Please leave us a 5-star review and help spread the word! About AyudaWP We are specialists in WordPress security, SEO, AI and performance optimization plugins. We create tools that solve real problems for WordPress site owners while maintaining the highest coding standards and accessibility requirements.