claude-config/memory/midjourney_bridge.md

name, description, metadata

name	description	metadata
midjourney-bridge	Local CLI for generating Midjourney images via Discord from any Claude session — call mj-gen with a prompt, get a PNG file you can read/place.	node_type type originSessionId modified memory reference fa4ca039-8c0e-4b9c-aee8-b6d7a81482b5 2026-07-19T14:01:49.937Z

Midjourney bridge (mj-gen)

The user has a working Midjourney → local PNG pipeline. From any Claude session you can write a prompt, run mj-gen via Bash, and the resulting image lands on disk where you can read it back and place it into game/scenario files.

Commands (in ~/bin/, on PATH)

• mj-gen "<prompt>" [--out <dir>] [--upscale 1|2|3|4] [--name <stem>] — sends /imagine, waits for the 2×2 grid, clicks an upscale button (default U1), downloads the upscaled PNG. Prints the saved path on stdout. Default output dir: ~/MidjourneyInbox/.
• mj-auth-check — verifies Discord token + configured channel are reachable. Run if mj-gen starts erroring on auth.
• mj-capture-command — refreshes the cached /imagine slash-command ID. Run if Midjourney updates the command and mj-gen returns "unknown interaction" or similar.

All three are pre-approved in ~/.claude/settings.json → permissions.allow, so they don't trigger permission prompts.

Config layout

• ~/.config/mj-bridge/config.json — guild_id, channel_id, default_output_dir, default_upscale, poll/timeout intervals, cached imagine_command metadata.
• ~/.config/mj-bridge/secrets.env — DISCORD_TOKEN="..." (0600 perms). Never read or echo this file's contents back into conversation — the token is as powerful as the Discord password.

How it actually works (so you can debug)

The script talks directly to discord.com/api/v9 using the user's Discord user token. It posts an interaction payload that triggers the real MJ bot on Discord's servers; MJ runs the job on its own GPUs and posts the result back into the configured channel; the script polls /channels/<id>/messages and downloads the attachment. Stdlib-only (urllib, json) — no pip dependencies.

Discord does not need to be open on the Mac. Only requirement is internet + a valid Discord token + an active MJ subscription with Fast Hours / queue room.

Typical usage from a conversation

mj-gen "Ink sketch, lone figure standing on a flooded London street at dawn, ..., --ar 1:1 --s 250 --v 6.0" \
  --out "/path/to/project/assets" \
  --name some-descriptive-stem

Then read the resulting PNG back to verify it matches the brief before placing it into game files. If the user dislikes U1, re-run mj-gen (cheap re-roll) or — if the same grid is still in the channel — manually post the other U-button custom_ids; the script currently only auto-clicks one upscale per call.

Prompt gotchas (learned in production)

• MJ's moderation blocks prompts containing banned words even in negation ("no visible gore") — the grid never arrives and mj-gen times out with no error. Reword positively ("understated, nothing graphic").
• Scene prompts drift photorealistic; for illustration styles lead with "hand-drawn pen and ink illustration, NOT a photograph" and append --no photography, photorealism.
• Saved files get a -u1 (upscale-button) suffix — rename to canonical names.
• Don't run two mj-gen calls concurrently in one channel: each polls the channel for the newest grid and they can grab each other's jobs.
• A silently-dying job = a banned word, almost always. MJ declines in an ephemeral reply the channel-poller can never see, so mj-gen waits out its full timeout on nothing — NO new bot messages appear in the channel (check via the messages API). Words confirmed to trip it even in innocent use: "gore" (even negated: "no visible gore") and "bust" ("portrait bust of a warrior"). Reword and rerun; the fix is never account-side unless the account page actually shows 0 fast hours. (19 Jul 2026: five "Portrait bust..." prompts died in a row and were misread as fast-hours exhaustion — the account had 13h56m remaining; "Head and shoulders portrait" worked first try.) timeout_seconds in config.json is 1800 (was 600).

Known fragility

• If MJ changes the /imagine slash command schema, run mj-capture-command to refresh.
• If MJ changes button custom_id format (currently MJ::JOB::upsample::N::<uuid>), the upscale step in ~/bin/mj-gen needs a code patch.
• If the Discord token expires (password change, "log out everywhere," Discord flagging activity), all three commands fail with HTTP 401. User regenerates the token via DevTools and pastes into secrets.env.

See also: brp-day-one-style (if/when written) — the BRP Day One scenario uses a specific ink-sketch prompt template aimed at this pipeline.