Generate missing alt text
The AI Alt Text screen lists Images Without Alt Text by default. Switch the filter to All Images or Has Alt Text to see the others. The numbers at the top show your total images, how many are missing alt text, and how far along you are.
Generate alt text for one image
- Go to Dirigible → AI Alt Text.
- Fill in API Configuration (key and Model) if you haven't yet this session.
- Find the image.
- Click Generate Alt Text. The description appears on the card but isn't saved yet.
- Edit the wording if you want.
- Click Save Alt Text.
The description is saved to the image's Alternative Text field. You can change it later in Media → Library.
Generate alt text for all images
Generate All Alt Text writes a description for every image missing one and saves each one right away. Click Refresh List to update the count.
There's no approval step. To read descriptions before they go live, generate and save one image at a time. Or generate them all, then check your most important images (homepage photos, logos, products) in the Media Library.
When the AI can't describe an image
Now and then the AI answers with an error message instead of a description, such as "Please provide the image you would like me to describe." Dirigible AI never saves that as alt text. The card says what happened and stays empty, so you can click Generate Alt Text again or pick another Model. Generate All Alt Text skips that image and carries on.
If automatic alt text is on, Dirigible AI also tries the image again later by itself. After three failed tries it stops and marks the image Skipped, on its card here and in Media → Library. Write that image's alt text yourself, or try Generate Alt Text with another model.
Error messages saved by earlier versions
Older versions could save an AI error message as an image's Media Library alt text. After this update, Dirigible AI finds those in the background, clears them, and tries the image again. It only clears Media Library alt text that reads like an AI error message (for example, text that starts "Please provide the image…" or "I'm unable to see…"). Real descriptions are never touched, and the old text is kept so it can be put back if needed.
This only changes the Media Library. If an Image block already copied the error message into a page or post, that text stays until you edit the block: select the image, then replace or clear Alternative Text in the block settings.
If such text turns up later, the card and the Media Library note that it looks like an AI error message. Replace it, or clear it and click Generate Alt Text.
Tips
- Leave the filter on Missing Alt Text so you only work on images that need it.
- For advice on phrasing, see Writing alt text for images.