README

altpilot: alt text on autopilot

AI-powered alt text generation built into Craft CMS. Generate faster, review in context, and scale accessibility across large image libraries with full control.
_{Made possible by}

_{The team behind the magic}
_{Simon Wesp} _{Thomas Bendl} _{Erich Bendl}

Features ✨

Dedicated UI for reviewing and managing generated alt text
Inline frontend editing workflow
Compatible with static page caching (Blitz, Varnish, CDN, etc.)
Automatic SPA support (Barba.js, Swup, Turbo, htmx, etc.)
Native Craft CMS integration for assets and action menus
CLI commands for batch generation and maintenance
Dynamic OpenAI rate-limit throttling for safer large runs
Alt text status tracking across assets/sites
Automatic generation for newly uploaded images

Requirements 📋

Craft CMS 5.0.0+
PHP 8.2+
Valid OpenAI API key with access to a vision-capable model
Reliable Craft queue runner for production (CRON or daemon-based)

altpilot uses Craft's queue system for generation jobs. For production, avoid relying only on browser-triggered queue execution.
Craft queue docs: https://craftcms.com/docs/5.x/system/queue.html#queue-runners

Installation 📦

Install from the Craft Plugin Store or via Composer.

Plugin Store

Install altpilot from the Craft Plugin Store

Composer

# from your Craft project root
composer require szenario/craft-altpilot && php craft plugin/install altpilot

Quickstart 🚀

Open Settings -> Plugins -> altpilot.
Add your OpenAI API key.
Select the asset volumes altpilot should process.
Run an initial generation pass:

php craft altpilot/missing

Make sure your queue runner is active:

php craft queue/run --verbose

Configuration 🛠️

altpilot settings are available in the Craft control panel:

OpenAI API Key: API key used for generation requests
Volumes: limits processing to selected asset volumes
Inline Frontend Editing: toggles frontend overlay
Prompt: base prompt sent with each image
Prompt Role: optional role/context
Prompt Focus: optional domain-specific focus
OpenAI Model: model used for alt text generation (recommended: gpt-5-nano)

Model Recommendation and Cost

We recommend gpt-5-nano as the default model for most projects because it currently offers the best price/performance for alt text generation.

In our experience, generating 1,000 alt texts with gpt-5-nano costs less $0.7 USD.

Pricing is an estimate, not a guarantee. Actual cost depends on your prompt length, image complexity, response length, and OpenAI pricing changes over time.

Console Commands

altpilot includes CLI commands for batch operations:

# show available commands
php craft altpilot

# generate for one asset (optionally scoped by site)
php craft altpilot/asset <assetId> [--siteId=<id>]

# generate only missing alt text in configured volumes
php craft altpilot/missing [--siteId=<id>]

# regenerate all alt text (overwrites existing)
php craft altpilot/all [--siteId=<id>]

# regenerate all but optionally skip assets with manually set alt text
php craft altpilot/all [--siteId=<id>] --exclude-manual

# show status counts and queue overview
php craft altpilot/stats

Queue and Performance Notes

For stable production behavior:

Run queue workers via CRON or a daemon process
Monitor queue health during large generation batches
Keep PHP execution limits realistic for external API calls (120s+ is safer than very low defaults)

Support

Issues: https://github.com/szenario-fordesigners/altpilot/issues
Source: https://github.com/szenario-fordesigners/altpilot
Developer: https://www.szenario-design.com/

szenario / craft-altpilot

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