skills/media/gif-search/SKILL.md
Search and download GIFs directly via the Tenor API using curl. No extra tools needed.
Useful for finding reaction GIFs, creating visual content, and sending GIFs in chat.
Set your Tenor API key in your environment (add to ~/.hermes/.env):
TENOR_API_KEY=your_key_here
Get a free API key at https://developers.google.com/tenor/guides/quickstart — the Google Cloud Console Tenor API key is free and has generous rate limits.
curl and jq (both standard on macOS/Linux)TENOR_API_KEY environment variable# Search and get GIF URLs
curl -s "https://tenor.googleapis.com/v2/search?q=thumbs+up&limit=5&key=${TENOR_API_KEY}" | jq -r '.results[].media_formats.gif.url'
# Get smaller/preview versions
curl -s "https://tenor.googleapis.com/v2/search?q=nice+work&limit=3&key=${TENOR_API_KEY}" | jq -r '.results[].media_formats.tinygif.url'
# Search and download the top result
URL=$(curl -s "https://tenor.googleapis.com/v2/search?q=celebration&limit=1&key=${TENOR_API_KEY}" | jq -r '.results[0].media_formats.gif.url')
curl -sL "$URL" -o celebration.gif
curl -s "https://tenor.googleapis.com/v2/search?q=cat&limit=3&key=${TENOR_API_KEY}" | jq '.results[] | {title: .title, url: .media_formats.gif.url, preview: .media_formats.tinygif.url, dimensions: .media_formats.gif.dims}'
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
q | Search query (URL-encode spaces as +) |
limit | Max results (1-50, default 20) |
key | API key (from $TENOR_API_KEY env var) |
media_filter | Filter formats: gif, tinygif, mp4, tinymp4, webm |
contentfilter | Safety: off, low, medium, high |
locale | Language: en_US, es, fr, etc. |
Each result has multiple formats under .media_formats:
| Format | Use case |
|---|---|
gif | Full quality GIF |
tinygif | Small preview GIF |
mp4 | Video version (smaller file size) |
tinymp4 | Small preview video |
webm | WebM video |
nanogif | Tiny thumbnail |
+, special chars as %XXtinygif URLs are lighter weight