[Bug]: OpenAI Image Tools fall back to gpt-image-1, which OpenAI shuts down on October 23, 2026 #16893

What happened?

When IMAGE_GEN_OAI_MODEL is not set, the OpenAI Image Tools use gpt-image-1:

OpenAI's deprecations page lists gpt-image-1 for shutdown on October 23, 2026, with gpt-image-2.5-sunburst or gpt-image-2.5-flare as substitutes:
https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/deprecations

After that date, image generation and editing through these tools will fail for anyone on the default (api.openai.com; Azure deployments follow Azure's own schedule). .env.example also suggests gpt-image-1 and gpt-image-1.5; OpenAI lists gpt-image-1.5 for shutdown on December 1, 2026.

Related: the built-in DALL-E 3 tool hardcodes model: 'dall-e-3' (DALLE3.js#L161), which OpenAI shut down on May 12, 2026.

Version Information

dev at 5d26de6 (code inspection; not environment specific).

Steps to Reproduce

1. Enable the OpenAI Image Tools with an api.openai.com key and leave IMAGE_GEN_OAI_MODEL unset.
2. After October 23, 2026, ask an agent to generate an image.
3. The request goes out with model: "gpt-image-1" and fails.

What browsers are you seeing the problem on?

Not browser specific.

Relevant log output

None yet; the shutdown date is October 23, 2026.

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

Found with apiwatch (https://apiwatch.reignventures.co), which tracks vendor model retirements. Dates are from the vendor page linked above.