Pinterest search returns image URLs; it does not render a mood board
search_pinterest is a lookup that returns reference URLs. Generating the board from adjectives is a different job, and it wastes credits.
Describe the vibe. Get real reference images back. That is the job. Search Pinterest for inspiration is one named agent capability. search_pinterest takes a query (and an optional limit) and returns image URLs. It does not generate a collage, does not restyle your product onto a pin, and does not stamp a slideshow. Using it as a generate — "search Pinterest and make that" in one breath — either skips the URLs and rolls a still from adjectives, or chains a generate you did not inspect. Both waste credits on a look you could have pointed at.
The output being URLs is the product. URLs can go into a generation as references, or into a slideshow, without a download-and-reupload detour. A rendered "mood board" PNG cannot.
What the search actually returns
Give the agent a query — an aesthetic, a product category, a design style. It searches Pinterest and returns matching image URLs. Required field: query. Cost: a lookup step that does not use generation credits.
You are not trying to find the image. You are trying to find two or three that agree with each other about a treatment: light, palette, crop, props. Requery when the first page is noise. That loop is still this job. It is still not a generate.
Once the URLs are in the conversation, the briefing shape changes. Attach the references and describe only the delta — your bottle, your type, your crop. Do not re-describe the Pinterest look in a paragraph the model will half-hear.
What this job is not
A slideshow. Generate a slideshow from a prompt is instructed end-to-end and told not to chain search_pinterest. If you need slides from a theme you do not have pictures for, that is the prompt-slideshow job. If you need slides from pins you just found, turn photos into a slideshow takes those URLs. Searching Pinterest as the slideshow is a lookup asked to be a planner.
An image generate. Generate an image from text invents pixels. Search finds pixels that already exist. Stacking adjectives until the generate "looks like Pinterest" is two lossy conversions: picture to words, words to picture. The lookup skips both. Generating first "to have something to search against" is a credit spend with no query.
Stock B-roll. Search stock UGC B-roll clips is video, reaction, marketplace. Pinterest here is stills. A talking-head overlay does not come back from search_pinterest.
A brand kit. Saving a look for later is set my brand kit or save generations to a project once you have your stills. Pins are references, not assets you own. Do not treat a search result as a cleared product shot.
Search, pick, then name the generate
The waste is skipping the pick. People search, glance, and immediately generate "in that aesthetic." The generate never saw the URLs. You paid for a sentence. You could have paid for a reference-conditioned still.
Order:
- Query. Look. Requery until two or three pins agree.
- Decide the build job: image generate with those URLs as references, image edit of your product against them, or a slideshow from the URLs.
- Run that named job. One. Not a pipeline of "search plus six samples plus a carousel plus a reel" unless you actually wanted a pipeline and budgeted it.
Lookup is free of generation credits. That is not a reason to skip it, and it is not a reason to chain five generates "because research was cheap." Research that you ignore is how cheap lookups still precede expensive misses.
FAQ
Does search_pinterest generate images in a Pinterest style?
No. It returns image URLs from Pinterest. Styling a new still is generate an image from text or an edit, and those jobs should see the URLs, not a recap of the query.
Can I ask it to make a slideshow from the pins in the same call?
Not as this capability. This job is the lookup. Arranging URLs is turn photos into a slideshow. Prompt-planned slides are a different slideshow tool that should not be chained with this search.
Why not screenshot a board and attach that?
A screenshot is one flattened image, usually with UI chrome, usually at board resolution. The tool returns addressable image URLs. Those are what reference fields and slideshow image_urls actually want. A screenshot is a worse input you then have to crop.
Is this the same as searching my own library?
No. Find something I made before searches your generations. Pinterest search is other people's published pins, used as references. Mixing them is how you brief a model on a pin you thought was last week's product shot.