Multimodal Support

SWE-agent supports multimodal AI models that can process both text and images. This enables the agent to work with visual context from GitHub issues, such as screenshots, diagrams, and UI mockups.

Overview

The multimodal implementation automatically:

• Detects multimodal instances from SWE-bench Multimodal datasets
• Downloads images from GitHub issue URLs
• Converts to base64 markdown format for AI model consumption
• Handles errors gracefully with fallback to text-only processing

Supported Image Categories

Currently, SWE-agent processes images from the problem_statement category, which includes:

• Screenshots showing bugs or issues
• UI mockups and design specifications
• Diagrams explaining the problem
• Error screenshots and visual evidence

!!! note "Design Choice" Only problem_statement images are processed to provide essential visual context for understanding the task, while preserving agent autonomy in determining solution approaches. Images from patch and test_patch categories may contain solution hints and are not processed.

Configuration

Basic Multimodal Setup

Use the pre-configured multimodal setup:

sweagent run-batch \
    --config config/default_mm_with_images.yaml \
    --instances.type swe_bench \
    --instances.subset multimodal \
    --instances.split dev

Disabling Image Processing

You can disable image processing globally:

# config/your_config.yaml
agent:
  templates:
    disable_image_processing: true

Or for specific instances:

from sweagent.agent.problem_statement import SWEBenchMultimodalProblemStatement

problem_statement = SWEBenchMultimodalProblemStatement(
    text="Fix the rendering issue",
    issue_images=["https://example.com/screenshot.png"],
    disable_image_processing=True  # Skip image processing
)

Supported Models

Multimodal support works with any vision-capable models, including:

• Claude Sonnet 4
• o3 and o4-mini
• Gemini 2.5 models

Example model configuration:

# model_configs/claude-sonnet-4-20250514_mm.yaml
model:
  name: claude-sonnet-4-20250514
  # Vision capabilities automatically detected

Image Processing Details

Supported Formats

• PNG, JPEG, WebP images
• Maximum size: 10MB per image

Example Usage

Automatic Detection

When loading SWE-bench instances, multimodal support is automatic:

{
    "instance_id": "example__repo-123",
    "problem_statement": "Fix the chart rendering bug...",
    "image_assets": {
        "problem_statement": ["http://example.com/chart.png"]
    }
}

Direct Usage

from sweagent.agent.problem_statement import SWEBenchMultimodalProblemStatement

problem_statement = SWEBenchMultimodalProblemStatement(
    text="Fix the rendering issue shown in the screenshots",
    issue_images=[
        "https://example.com/before.png",
        "https://example.com/after.png"
    ]
)

# This downloads images and converts them to base64 markdown
processed_text = problem_statement.get_problem_statement()

Configuration Options

In order to enable multimodal processing, you need to update the following configuration options:

History Processing

Enable image parsing in your configuration:

agent:
  history_processors:
    - type: image_parsing  # Parse base64 encoded images in observations

Tool Bundles

Include image and browser tools for visual tasks:

agent:
  tools:
    bundles:
      - path: tools/image_tools  # includes open_image tool to let models open image files
      - path: tools/web_browser  # includes 17 browser automation tools (click_mouse, open_site, etc.)

The web_browser bundle provides tools for:

• Opening websites (open_site)
• Taking screenshots (screenshot_site)
• Interacting with web pages (click_mouse, type_text, scroll_on_page)
• Executing JavaScript (execute_script_on_page)
• And more - see the configuration guide for the full list

Templates Configuration

We've enabled multimodal processing when --instances.type=swe-bench --instances.subset=multimodal are set.

To disable this behavior, you must set --templates.disable_image_processing=true.