Tigris Image Optimization

Resize, crop, and optimize images stored in Tigris. Generate thumbnails on upload, serve responsive images, and leverage Tigris's global CDN for fast delivery.

Strategy Overview

Approach	When to Use	Pros	Cons
Process on upload	Thumbnails, fixed sizes	Fast serving, predictable	Storage cost per variant
Process on request	Many size variations	Flexible, less storage	Latency on first request
Client-side resize	Before upload	Saves bandwidth, fast upload	Less control over quality

Recommended: Process on upload for known sizes (avatar, thumbnail, cover). Use public buckets for CDN delivery — Tigris serves public files from the nearest global edge automatically.

Upload-Time Processing (General Pattern)

Generate variants when a file is uploaded, store each variant as a separate object:

avatars/user-123.jpg          # original
avatars/user-123-thumb.jpg    # 100x100
avatars/user-123-medium.jpg   # 400x400
avatars/user-123-large.jpg    # 800x800

Use access: "public" for images that need fast, CDN-backed delivery.

Framework Guides

Read the resource file for your framework:

Next.js — Read ./resources/nextjs.md for next/image config and Sharp processing
Remix — Read ./resources/remix.md for Sharp in action functions and responsive srcset
Express — Read ./resources/express.md for Sharp middleware with Multer
Rails — Read ./resources/rails.md for Active Storage variants
Django — Read ./resources/django.md for django-imagekit and Pillow processing
Laravel — Read ./resources/laravel.md for Intervention Image

CDN Delivery

Tigris public buckets serve files from the nearest global edge — no separate CDN setup needed.

Cache headers for images:

await put("images/hero.jpg", buffer, {
  access: "public",
  contentType: "image/jpeg",
});

For immutable content-hashed filenames (e.g., hero-abc123.jpg), use long cache times. For mutable paths, use shorter TTLs or ETags.

Critical Rules

Always: Use access: "public" for images served to users (enables CDN) | Generate thumbnails at upload time for known sizes | Use WebP/AVIF for smaller file sizes | Set explicit contentType

Never: Process images on every request without caching | Store only originals if you always serve thumbnails | Resize in the browser after downloading full-size images

Related Skills

tigris-file-uploads — Full upload patterns per framework
tigris-egress-optimizer — Reduce bandwidth costs from image serving

Official Documentation

Tigris SDK: https://www.tigrisdata.com/docs/sdks/tigris/
Sharp: https://sharp.pixelplumbing.com/

tigris-image-optimization