ThumbLab

Thumbnail generation service powered by AI. Create YouTube, LinkedIn, and cinematic thumbnails from a reference headshot and text prompt.

Stack

• Backend -- FastAPI, SQLModel (SQLite), OpenAI, ImageKit
• Frontend -- React, TypeScript, Vite, TanStack React Query, React Router

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13+
• Node.js 20+
• OpenAI API key
• ImageKit account (private key, public key, URL endpoint)

Backend

cd backend
cp .env.example .env
# fill in your API keys in .env

python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
uvicorn main:app --port 8000 --reload

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

All-in-one

./start.sh

Open http://localhost:5173 in your browser.

API Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
GET	/api/health	Health check
GET	/api/jobs	List all jobs
POST	/api/jobs	Create a new thumbnail job
GET	/api/jobs/{id}	Get job details with thumbnails
GET	/api/jobs/{id}/thumbnails	List thumbnails for a job

Project Structure

ThumbLab/
  backend/
    main.py              -- FastAPI application and routes
    models.py            -- SQLModel ORM models (Job, Thumbnail)
    database.py          -- SQLite engine and session
    config.py            -- Environment variable loading
    services/
      generator.py       -- Job processing orchestration
      openai_service.py  -- OpenAI image generation
      imagekit_service.py-- ImageKit upload and transformations
  frontend/
    src/
      api/               -- API client and endpoint functions
      components/        -- Reusable UI components
      pages/             -- Route-level page components
      types/             -- TypeScript interfaces

How It Works

1. A user submits a prompt, headshot URL, and desired number of thumbnails.
2. The backend creates a Job and queues background processing.
3. For each thumbnail, the generator calls OpenAI with the headshot and a style-specific prompt.
4. Generated images are uploaded to ImageKit and their URLs are stored on the Thumbnail record.
5. The frontend polls for status updates and displays results.