Unsplash Photo Search

Search and fetch high-quality photos from Unsplash with automatic attribution.

Quick Start

# Search for photos
./scripts/search.sh "sunset beach"

# Get random photos
./scripts/random.sh "nature" 3

# Track download (when user downloads)
./scripts/track.sh PHOTO_ID

Setup (Interactive)

IMPORTANT: If the script returns UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY not set, handle it interactively:

1. Ask the user: "I need an Unsplash API key to search for photos. You can get a free key at https://unsplash.com/developers - do you have one?"

2. Wait for the user to provide their key

3. Save the key to .env in the project root:

   echo "UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY=<user_provided_key>" >> .env
   

4. Re-run the original search/random command

The skill automatically loads .env from the project root on each run.

Operations

1. Search Photos

Find photos by keyword with optional filters.

./scripts/search.sh QUERY [PAGE] [PER_PAGE] [ORDER_BY] [ORIENTATION] [COLOR]

Parameters:

• QUERY (required): Search keyword(s)
• PAGE (optional, default: 1): Page number for pagination
• PER_PAGE (optional, default: 10): Results per page (1-30)
• ORDER_BY (optional, default: "relevant"): Sort order ("relevant" or "latest")
• ORIENTATION (optional): Filter by orientation ("landscape", "portrait", "squarish")
• COLOR (optional): Filter by color ("black_and_white", "black", "white", "yellow", "orange", "red", "purple", "magenta", "green", "teal", "blue")

Examples:

# Basic search
./scripts/search.sh "mountain landscape"

# Search with filters
./scripts/search.sh "sunset" 1 5 latest landscape

# Search by color
./scripts/search.sh "flower" 1 10 relevant portrait red

2. Random Photos

Get random photos with optional filtering.

./scripts/random.sh [QUERY] [COUNT] [ORIENTATION]

Parameters:

• QUERY (optional): Topic/keyword to filter random photos
• COUNT (optional, default: 1): Number of photos (1-30)
• ORIENTATION (optional): Filter by orientation ("landscape", "portrait", "squarish")

Examples:

# Single random photo
./scripts/random.sh

# Random photos by topic
./scripts/random.sh "architecture" 5

# Random landscape photos
./scripts/random.sh "nature" 3 landscape

3. Track Download

Track when a user downloads a photo (required by Unsplash API guidelines).

./scripts/track.sh PHOTO_ID

When to call:

• When user actually downloads/saves the image file
• NOT when just viewing or displaying the photo
• Helps photographers get credit for downloads

Example:

./scripts/track.sh "abc123xyz"

Output Format

All operations return JSON with complete photo information:

{
  "id": "abc123xyz",
  "description": "A beautiful sunset over mountains",
  "alt_description": "orange sunset behind mountain range",
  "urls": {
    "raw": "https://...",
    "full": "https://...",
    "regular": "https://...",
    "small": "https://...",
    "thumb": "https://..."
  },
  "width": 6000,
  "height": 4000,
  "color": "#f3a460",
  "blur_hash": "L8H2#8-;00~q4n",
  "photographer_name": "Jane Smith",
  "photographer_username": "janesmith",
  "photographer_url": "https://unsplash.com/@janesmith?utm_source=claude_skill&utm_medium=referral",
  "photo_url": "https://unsplash.com/photos/abc123xyz?utm_source=claude_skill&utm_medium=referral",
  "attribution_text": "Photo by Jane Smith on Unsplash",
  "attribution_html": "Photo by <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/@janesmith?utm_source=claude_skill&utm_medium=referral\">Jane Smith</a> on <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=claude_skill&utm_medium=referral\">Unsplash</a>"
}

Image URLs

The urls object contains different sizes:

• raw: Original unprocessed image
• full: Full resolution (max width/height: 5472px)
• regular: Web display size (1080px wide)
• small: Thumbnail (400px wide)
• thumb: Small thumbnail (200px wide)

Recommended: Use urls.regular for most web content (best quality/size balance).

Attribution Requirements

CRITICAL: Unsplash requires attribution for all image usage.

Always Include Attribution

When presenting photos to users, you MUST include one of:

1. attribution_text (for plain text contexts):

   Photo by Jane Smith on Unsplash
   

2. attribution_html (for HTML/web contexts):

   Photo by <a href="...">Jane Smith</a> on <a href="...">Unsplash</a>
   

Placement Guidelines

• Place attribution near the image (below or in caption)
• Make it visible and readable
• Don't remove or hide the attribution
• Attribution is required by Unsplash API terms

Why Attribution Matters

• Gives credit to photographers
• Required by Unsplash API terms of service
• Violating attribution can result in API access suspension

Common Workflows

Blog Post Hero Image

# Search for relevant image
./scripts/search.sh "technology workspace" 1 3 latest landscape

# Present options to user with attribution
# User selects one
# Display image with attribution_html in blog post

Gallery of Random Images

# Get variety of images
./scripts/random.sh "travel" 10

# Display all images with their attributions

Specific Color Palette

# Search for images matching brand colors
./scripts/search.sh "abstract" 1 5 latest "" blue

Error Handling

Missing API Key:

ERROR: UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY not set

→ See "Setup (Interactive)" section above. Ask user for key, save to .env, and retry.

Rate Limit Exceeded:

ERROR: Rate limit exceeded (50/hour in demo mode)

Wait an hour or use production credentials with higher limits.

Invalid API Key:

ERROR: Invalid API key

Check that your API key is correct.

No Results:

[]

Empty array returned if no photos match search criteria.

Dependencies

Required tools (standard on macOS/Linux):

• bash - Shell interpreter
• curl - HTTP client
• jq - JSON processor

Install jq if missing:

# macOS
brew install jq

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install jq

Rate Limits

• Demo mode: 50 requests/hour
• Production mode: 5,000 requests/hour

Production mode requires:

1. Creating an Unsplash app
2. Getting app approval from Unsplash
3. Using your production access key

Best Practices

1. Use specific search terms - More specific queries yield better results
2. Filter by orientation - Match your layout needs (landscape/portrait)
3. Always include attribution - Required by API terms
4. Use regular size for web - Best quality/performance balance
5. Track actual downloads - Only call track.sh when user downloads
6. Cache results - Don't re-search for the same keywords
7. Respect rate limits - Monitor usage in demo mode

More Examples

See detailed usage patterns in: examples/usage-examples.md

Troubleshooting

Scripts not executable:

chmod +x scripts/*.sh

jq not found:

brew install jq  # macOS

API errors:

• Check internet connection
• Verify API key is set correctly
• Check rate limit hasn't been exceeded
• Ensure photo_id is valid (for track.sh)

Links

• Unsplash API Documentation: https://unsplash.com/documentation
• Get API Key: https://unsplash.com/developers
• Unsplash Guidelines: https://help.unsplash.com/en/articles/2511245-unsplash-api-guidelines