R2 Upload Skill

Upload a file to Cloudflare R2 and return its permanent public URL.

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Step 0 — First-time setup (only when something fails)

Skip this step entirely if the user has used r2-upload before without issues — go straight to Step 2. upload.py already reports clear errors on its own.

Run the environment checker only when:

• This is the user's first time using the skill, or
• An upload just failed with an unfamiliar error

python3 ~/.claude/skills/r2-upload/scripts/check_env.py

The script outputs JSON and exits with code 0 (all OK) or 1 (issues found). Read the fix field of each failing item and work through them in order:

1. python_version fails → Python is too old or missing
2. boto3 fails → run pip3 install boto3 (Note: upload.py already detects this and prints the install command itself — you may not need check_env.py for this one)
3. Any R2_* env var fails → walk the user through setting it up (see below)

After applying fixes, re-run the checker to confirm before proceeding.

If check_env.py itself fails to run (Python not found)

Python 3 is not available on this system. Please install it:
- macOS:   brew install python3  OR download from https://python.org
- Ubuntu:  sudo apt install python3
- Windows: download from https://python.org
After installation, restart your terminal and try again.

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Step 1 — First-time setup guide

Only needed when env var checks fail. Walk the user through this:

1a. Create a Cloudflare R2 bucket (if not already done)

1. Go to Cloudflare Dashboard → R2
2. Click Create bucket, choose a name (e.g. my-assets)
3. In bucket Settings → Public Access, enable public access
4. Copy the pub-xxx.r2.dev URL shown — this is R2_PUBLIC_URL

1b. Create an R2 API token

1. Go to Cloudflare Dashboard → R2 → Manage API tokens
2. Click Create API token
3. Set permissions: Object Read & Write on your specific bucket
4. Save the generated Access Key ID (R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID) and Secret Access Key (R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY)
5. Your Account ID appears in the URL: dash.cloudflare.com/<account_id>/

1c. Set environment variables

Ask the user to add these five lines to their shell profile (~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc):

export R2_ACCOUNT_ID="<your-cloudflare-account-id>"
export R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID="<your-r2-token-key-id>"
export R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="<your-r2-token-secret>"
export R2_BUCKET_NAME="<your-bucket-name>"
export R2_PUBLIC_URL="https://pub-xxx.r2.dev"

Then reload the shell:

source ~/.zshrc   # or source ~/.bashrc

After reloading, re-run the checker to confirm.

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Step 2 — Running the upload

Auto-prefix by file type

When --prefix is not specified, the script automatically picks a prefix based on the detected MIME type:

File category	Auto prefix
Images (image/*)	images
Videos (video/*)	videos
Audio (audio/*)	audios
Everything else	files

You can always override this with --prefix for finer-grained organisation (e.g. --prefix images/covers).

From a local file (preferred)

python3 ~/.claude/skills/r2-upload/scripts/upload.py \
  --file /path/to/image.png \
  [--prefix images/covers] \
  [--name my-image] \
  [--bucket my-other-bucket]

From a base64 / data-URL string

# Short strings — inline is fine
python3 ~/.claude/skills/r2-upload/scripts/upload.py \
  --base64 "data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgo..."

# Long strings — always use --base64-file to avoid shell ARG_MAX limits
printf '%s' "<base64-data>" > /tmp/r2_b64.txt
python3 ~/.claude/skills/r2-upload/scripts/upload.py \
  --base64-file /tmp/r2_b64.txt
rm -f /tmp/r2_b64.txt

From a remote URL (fetch + re-upload)

python3 ~/.claude/skills/r2-upload/scripts/upload.py \
  --url "https://example.com/photo.jpg"

All options

Flag	Description
--file	Path to a local file
--base64	Base64 string or data URL (data:image/png;base64,…)
--base64-file	Path to a file containing base64 data (recommended for large payloads)
--url	Remote image URL to fetch and re-upload
--prefix	Path prefix inside the bucket, e.g. images/covers
--name	Custom filename without extension (auto-generated if omitted)
--content-type	Override auto-detected MIME type
--bucket	Override default bucket (R2_BUCKET_NAME env var)
--cache-control	Cache-Control header (default: public, max-age=31536000, immutable)
--content-disposition	Content-Disposition header, e.g. attachment; filename=doc.pdf
--timeout	Network timeout in seconds (default: 60)

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Step 3 — Output

On success, the script prints one JSON line to stdout:

{
  "url": "https://pub-xxx.r2.dev/images/covers/my-image-a1b2c3d.png",
  "key": "images/covers/my-image-a1b2c3d.png",
  "size": 204800,
  "contentType": "image/png",
  "uploadedAt": 1710835200000
}

Capture the URL in a shell variable:

RESULT=$(python3 ~/.claude/skills/r2-upload/scripts/upload.py --file /tmp/out.png)
URL=$(echo "$RESULT" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['url'])")
echo "Uploaded: $URL"

On error, the script writes to stderr and exits with a non-zero code. Surface the full error message to the user.

Presenting the URL to the user

Always display the final URL inside a code block so it can be copied in full without line-break truncation:

`https://pub-xxx.r2.dev/images/my-image-a1b2c3d.png`

Never paste the URL as plain inline text — long URLs wrap in the terminal and are easy to copy incompletely.

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Integration pattern for other skills

When another skill generates a file and wants a hosted URL, the prefix is chosen automatically based on file type (images → images/, videos → videos/, etc.), so you rarely need to pass --prefix explicitly.

# 1. Upload — prefix is auto-selected from MIME type
OUTPUT=$(python3 ~/.claude/skills/r2-upload/scripts/upload.py \
  --file /tmp/skill_output.png)

# 2. Extract URL
URL=$(echo "$OUTPUT" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['url'])")
echo "Hosted at: $URL"

If the upload fails, run check_env.py to diagnose the issue.

Pass --prefix only when you need a specific sub-path (e.g. --prefix images/covers).

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Troubleshooting upload errors

Error message	Likely cause	Fix
Missing required environment variable	Env var not set	Re-run check_env.py and follow its fix instructions
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'boto3'	boto3 not installed	pip3 install boto3
Upload failed: InvalidAccessKeyId	Wrong key ID	Check R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID in Cloudflare R2 → Manage API tokens
Upload failed: SignatureDoesNotMatch	Wrong secret	Regenerate API token and update R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
Upload failed: NoSuchBucket	Bucket doesn't exist	Create the bucket in Cloudflare Dashboard first
Failed to fetch URL (HTTP 403)	Remote URL is access-controlled	Download manually, use --file instead
Remote file is too large	File exceeds 500 MB limit	Download the file manually and use --file instead
File is too large	Local file exceeds 500 MB limit	Split or compress the file before uploading
Decoded data is too large	base64 payload exceeds 500 MB after decoding	Use a smaller file or compress first
Invalid base64 data	Corrupted or truncated base64 string	Re-generate the base64 data and try again
File not found	Path passed to --file or --base64-file does not exist	Check the file path and try again
URL returns 403 after upload	Bucket not public	Enable "Public access" in R2 bucket → Settings