makememe — a meme CLI your coding agent can drive

A tiny, zero-dependency meme generator for coding agents and CI. No API key, no signup, stdlib-only — it wraps the free memegen.link API and hands back a public image URL you can embed anywhere with ![meme](url).

Quick start

Give your coding agent a meme button. Two commands, then just ask:

uv tool install makememe          # or: pipx install makememe  /  pip install makememe
meme --install-skill              # installs the bundled Claude Code skill

Restart Claude Code and talk to it normally:

you:   make a "this is fine" meme about prod being down
Claude: → https://api.memegen.link/images/fine/prod_is_down/this_is_fine.png

The skill teaches the agent to pick the template that fits the joke (not just drake), write the caption, and keep any names you mention — then hand back a URL that renders inline in a PR, Slack, or anywhere. (Codex and other agents work out of the box via meme --help / meme --list — no skill needed.)

Prefer to drive it yourself? It's a normal CLI too.

meme drake "manual deploys" "ci/cd"                       # saves a PNG to a temp folder
meme -t fine "prod is down" "this is fine" --print-url    # or just print a shareable URL
meme --list                                               # browse all template ids

No install needed to try it: uvx --from makememe meme drake "a" "b".

Next: meme your CI on every PR with a copy-paste GitHub Action.

Install / upgrade

# install (pick one)
uv tool install makememe          # recommended — isolated, puts `meme` on PATH
pipx install makememe
python3 -m pip install makememe

# install the bundled Claude Code skill, then restart Claude Code
meme --install-skill              # ~/.claude/skills/meme/ (all projects)
meme --install-skill --project    # ./.claude/skills/meme/ (this repo only)

Upgrading:

uv tool upgrade makememe          # pipx: pipx upgrade makememe | pip: pip install -U makememe
meme --install-skill              # ⚠️ re-run this so the skill updates too

⚠️ Upgrading the package does not refresh the skill already copied into ~/.claude/skills/meme/. Re-run meme --install-skill after every upgrade (then restart Claude Code), or the agent keeps using the old skill.

Verify:

meme --version                    # CLI version
meme --list | head                # CLI runs and reaches templates
ls ~/.claude/skills/meme/SKILL.md # skill is installed

Usage

meme <template> "top line" "bottom line" [-o out.png]

Flag	Meaning
-t, --template	template id as a flag (alternative to the positional). Agents should use this so a single permission approval covers every template
-o, --out	output file (default: a unique file in a temp folder, so it never writes into your current directory)
--bg URL	use a custom background image instead of a template
--ext	png (default), jpg, webp, or gif
--style / --font	template style variant / font override
--open	open the finished image in your default viewer
--print-url	print the image URL, don't download
--json	machine-readable output (for scripts/agents)
--list	list available template ids

Examples

meme drake "manual deploys" "ci/cd"
meme same "after I sold" "if I held" "same picture"
meme --bg https://example.com/pic.png "_" "DODGED"
meme regret "SOLD @ 620" "NOW 780 (+26%)" --print-url
meme --list
meme --list --json

Integrations

For sharing (CI, chat, comments) you usually want the public URL, not a local file — --print-url returns a permanent memegen.link URL you can embed anywhere with ![meme](url). No download, no image hosting.

Meme your CI

Drop this in .github/workflows/pr-meme.yml, change the one test line to your command, and every PR gets a success / "this is fine" meme based on whether tests passed. That's the whole setup — no secrets (GITHUB_TOKEN is built in):

name: pr-meme
on: pull_request
permissions:
  pull-requests: write          # to post the comment
jobs:
  meme:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Run tests
        id: tests
        run: echo "replace this with your test command (e.g. pytest, npm test)"
      - name: Comment a meme with the result
        if: always()            # run even when tests fail
        run: |
          pip install --quiet makememe
          if [ "${{ steps.tests.outcome }}" = "success" ]; then
            url=$(meme -t success "tests" "passed" --print-url)
          else
            url=$(meme -t fine "tests failed" "this is fine" --print-url)
          fi
          gh pr comment "${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}" --body "![meme]($url)"
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

(Also saved at examples/pr-meme.yml.)

Meme your release

Celebrate a tag with a meme in the release notes or a Slack announcement — just feed it the version:

ver=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)
url=$(meme -t success "shipped" "$ver" --print-url)
# drop $url into your GitHub Release body, changelog, or a Slack post

Or just ask your agent: "create a meme about this release" — it reads the version/changelog and picks a fitting template.

Slack/Discord: post a --print-url URL to a channel; it auto-unfurls into a preview.

url=$(meme -t success "build" "passed" --print-url)   # -> public URL, embed it anywhere

Text that starts with -

If a caption line begins with - (e.g. "-26%"), put -- before your lines so it isn't parsed as a flag:

meme regret --json -- "-26%" "WHY"

(Put flags like --json/-o before the --.)

For agents (Claude Code / Codex / scripts)

The tool is designed to be parsed:

• Plain mode prints only the output path to stdout (status goes to stderr), so path=$(meme drake "a" "b") just works.

• --json mode prints a single JSON object:

  { "path": "/tmp/makememe/meme-ab12cd.png", "bytes": 12345, "url": "https://api.memegen.link/..." }

  --list --json returns the template catalog as JSON; --print-url --json returns {"url": "..."}; failures return {"error": "...", "url": "..."} with a non-zero exit code.

Typical agent flow:

meme --list --json                       # discover template ids
meme drake "old way" "new way" --json    # generate, capture the path

Claude Code skill

The package bundles a Claude Code skill. After installing, run one command to make Claude Code auto-discover the tool:

meme --install-skill              # installs into ~/.claude/skills/meme/ (all projects)
meme --install-skill --project    # or into ./.claude/skills/meme/ (this repo only)

Restart Claude Code, then just talk to it. You don't name templates or flags — the skill picks the template that fits the joke, writes the caption, and keeps any names you mention. Things you can say:

You say…	What Claude does
"make a 'this is fine' meme about prod being down"	fine template → returns a shareable URL
"drake meme: manual deploys vs CI/CD"	drake (reject A / prefer B)
"a meme about choosing between fixing the bug and shipping the feature"	picks ds (two-buttons dilemma) on its own
"meme about my plan to refactor that keeps breaking tests"	picks gru (plan backfires)
"make a meme ragging on Raj for force-pushing to main"	keeps the name Raj in the caption
"a 'change my mind' meme that tabs beat spaces"	cmm one-liner
"meme that staging and prod are the same picture"	same template
"make me a success-kid meme for fixing the flaky test, and save it as a png"	success → downloads a file with --open
"drop a meme on this PR based on whether CI passed"	wires up --print-url + gh pr comment
"create a meme about this release"	reads the version/changelog → picks a fitting template

It's conversational — "funnier", "use the two-buttons template instead", or "now make the bottom line shorter" all work as follow-ups.

(Other agents like Codex don't use this skill format — they discover everything through meme --help and meme --list, which already works out of the box.)

Robustness

The CLI is built to fail gracefully, never with a raw traceback:

• Network errors, dead hosts, bad template ids (404), oversized text (414), and non-image backgrounds (415) all exit non-zero with a one-line message — and no partial/garbage file is written.
• Ctrl-C exits cleanly (code 130); piping into head etc. won't spew a BrokenPipeError.
• Arbitrary text — emoji, CJK, % # & / ? " \, tabs, control chars, 10k-char lines — is escaped safely.

Run the test suite (stdlib only, no network needed):

python -m unittest discover -s tests

How it works

It builds a memegen.link URL from your template + text (handling all the fiddly path-segment escaping — spaces, _, -, ?, /, %, etc.), downloads the image, and saves it. That's the whole trick.

License

MIT