- Go to aistudio.google.com/apikey
- Sign in with your Google account
- Click "Create API key"
- Copy the key. You'll need it during installation
Free tier limits:
- Check current limits in Google AI Studio before batch work
The installer configures this automatically. If you need to set it up manually,
add to ~/.claude/settings.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"nanobanana-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@ycse/nanobanana-mcp@1.1.1"],
"env": {
"GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}Scripted setup helper:
claude-seo run --extension banana setup_mcp.py --key YOUR_KEYRun the validation script:
claude-seo run --extension banana validate_setup.pyOr check manually:
ls ~/.claude/skills/seo-image-gen/SKILL.md:skill file existsls ~/.claude/agents/seo-image-gen.md:agent file existsgrep nanobanana ~/.claude/settings.json:MCP configured
- Restart Claude Code after installing the extension
- Verify your API key is valid at aistudio.google.com
- Check
~/.claude/settings.jsonhas the nanobanana-mcp entry
- Check current free-tier limits in Google AI Studio
- Wait 60 seconds and retry
- For batch operations, add delays between requests
- The safety filter flagged your prompt (often a false positive)
- Claude will suggest rephrased alternatives automatically
- Common triggers: certain color descriptions, implied scenarios
- See
references/prompt-engineering.mdSafety Rephrase section
- Requires Node.js 20+
- Update via nvm:
nvm install 20 && nvm use 20 - Or download from nodejs.org
- Default output directory:
~/Documents/nanobanana_generated/ - Check the path returned by Claude after generation
- Verify disk space is available
For post-processing (WebP conversion, cropping, background removal):
# Ubuntu/Pop!_OS
sudo apt install imagemagick
# Verify
magick --versionIf magick (v7) is not available, the scripts fall back to convert (v6).