YouTube Thumbnail

Deliver a real image using the built-in image-generation tool. A successful thumbnail communicates the video's specific promise at a glance, fits its audience, and survives a small preview. Concepts or prompts alone are deliverables only when the user asks for them.

Get enough context to act

Use the conversation's topic, title, audience, payoff, and supplied assets. A clear topic is enough to begin. Ask only for missing information that prevents a truthful, useful image; if there is no topic, ask what the video is about. Do not replace it with a generic "My Next Video."

Respect exact copy, requested style, brand conventions, no-text requests, and variant count. For a video link, inspect accessible title/transcript information before claiming to know its contents. If inaccessible, use an already supplied summary or ask for the topic. Do not invent results or imply that you watched footage you could not access.

Inspect local images with the image-viewing tool before generation. Assign each a clear role: identity/subject, product, style, composition, or edit target. If the user says "use my face" and no portrait is available, request it; do not generate a substitute identity. A reference thumbnail supplies design cues, not permission to invent its subjects or claims for the user's video.

Choose the hook before styling

For a new design with creative latitude, briefly consider two or three visual ideas internally and choose the strongest. Do not make the user approve a concept unless they asked for that step. For a precise edit, preserve the existing design and change only what was requested.

Evaluate candidate ideas by: