photo-alchemy

Transform any photo into surrealist AI art. Uses Claude to write a story about your photo, then Gemini generates a reimagined version in one of 35+ visual styles. Deep Apple Photos integration — pick from albums, save back, schedule as an Apple TV screensaver.

Transform any photo into surrealist AI art via a two-step pipeline:

1. Claude writes a surrealist story + image prompt about your photo
2. Gemini generates a brand-new image from that description in a random visual style

Built by Harold Martin. Installable via uvx — no setup required beyond API keys.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.14+
• Anthropic API key (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY)
• Google Gemini API key (GEMINI_API_KEY)

Installation

One-off (no install)

bash

uvx imagemine path/to/photo.jpg

Permanent install

bash

curl -LsSf uvx.sh/imagemine/install.sh | sh

API Key Setup

Keys are resolved in order: SQLite DB → env vars → interactive prompt (saved to DB on first entry).

bash

# Via environment
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=***
export GEMINI_API_KEY=***

# Or via interactive config wizard (saves to ~/.imagemine.db)
imagemine --config

Basic Usage

bash

# Transform a single photo
imagemine photo.jpg

# Pick a random photo from a macOS Photos album
imagemine --input-album "Camera Roll"

# Save output to a specific directory
imagemine photo.jpg --output-dir ~/Desktop/output

# Use a specific visual style instead of random
imagemine photo.jpg --style "Ukiyo-e woodblock print, bold outlines, flat color"

# Tune creativity (default 1.0 for both)
imagemine photo.jpg --desc-temp 1.5 --img-temp 0.8

# Pick style interactively from a numbered table
imagemine photo.jpg --choose-style

# Blend multiple styles (enter comma-separated numbers)
imagemine photo.jpg --choose-style  # then enter: 1,5,12

# JSON output (for scripting)
imagemine photo.jpg --json

# Show recent run history with timing sparklines
imagemine --history

Visual Styles

35+ built-in styles including: Watercolor, 8-Bit Pixel Art, Ukiyo-e Woodblock, Neon Noir, Tarot Card, Vaporwave, Glitch Art, Renaissance Painting, and more.

bash

imagemine --list-styles          # show all styles with usage count
imagemine --add-style            # add a custom style interactively
imagemine --remove-style         # remove styles interactively

Apple Photos Integration

imagemine reads face-detection names from Photos albums and uses them in prompts. Use character mappings to rename people before they reach the AI (e.g. "John" → "Captain America").

bash

# Pick input from album, save generated image back to another album
imagemine --input-album "Camera Roll" --destination-album "AI Art"

# Manage character name mappings
imagemine --add-character-mapping
imagemine --list-character-mappings
imagemine --remove-character-mapping

Apple TV Screensaver (killer feature)

Run photo-alchemy on a schedule to continuously generate new art into a shared Photos album, then set that album as your Apple TV screensaver for a living, ever-changing art display.

Setup

1. Create two macOS Photos albums: one for source photos, one for output (make output a Shared Album so Apple TV can see it)
2. Configure albums:

bash

imagemine --config
# Set INPUT_ALBUM and DESTINATION_ALBUM

3. Schedule via launchd (runs every N minutes):

bash

imagemine --launchd 30
# Writes ~/Library/LaunchAgents/imagemine.plist and prints the launchctl command
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/imagemine.plist

4. On Apple TV: Photos app → Shared Albums → select your output album → Set as Screen Saver

Apple TV Pitfalls

• Output album must be a Shared Album for Apple TV to see it
• New images appear in the screensaver automatically once added to the shared album
• Use --config-path if you want a non-default DB location with launchd

Configuration Reference

Key	Default	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	—	Claude API key
GEMINI_API_KEY	—	Gemini API key
CLAUDE_MODEL	claude-sonnet-4-6	Claude model for story/prompt generation
GEMINI_MODEL	gemini-3-pro-image-preview	Gemini model for image generation
DEFAULT_DESC_TEMP	1.0	Claude sampling temperature
DEFAULT_IMG_TEMP	1.0	Gemini sampling temperature
INPUT_ALBUM	—	macOS Photos album to pick input from
DESTINATION_ALBUM	—	macOS Photos album to save output to
ASPECT_RATIO	4:3	Output image aspect ratio (1:1, 3:4, 4:3, 9:16, 16:9)

Pipeline Steps (what happens under the hood)

1. Resize input to max 1024px (preserving aspect ratio), save to disk
2. Send resized image to Claude via Files API → generates surrealist story + image prompt
3. Pick a random visual style from the style library (or use --style)
4. Pass story + style + resized image to Gemini → generates the new image
5. Save run metadata to ~/.imagemine.db (SQLite)
6. Optionally import generated image into a macOS Photos album

Run History & Database

Every run is recorded in ~/.imagemine.db with input path, generated story, style used, model names, per-step timing (ms), and output path.

bash

imagemine --history              # show recent runs with timing sparklines
imagemine --config-path ~/custom.db  # use a different DB location

Notes

• A new Claude description is generated on every run — no caching of stories
• --fresh picks from least-used styles (good for variety over time)
• --session-svg saves a styled SVG of the terminal session alongside the output image
• macOS only for Photos/launchd features; core image generation works on any platform