Hey Xano team + community — I’ve hit a wall trying to integrate OpenAI’s GPT-4o Vision model and could use your help.
I’m building an app where users upload two images (current hair and inspiration). I want to send those image URLs from Xano to OpenAI via an External API Request.
Here’s the issue:
The params field in the External API step only lets me input plain text. Even when I set it to object, it still shows a raw text editor — no way to enter proper JSON structure with arrays or nested objects.
I’ve:
Converted the endpoint to a Function Stack
Tried raw body mode (but the API doesn’t parse it correctly)
Attempted to re-add the request step clean
Followed every formatting rule I could find
Here’s the body I need to send:
{
"model": "gpt-4o",
"messages": [
{
"role": "system",
"content": "You are a professional hair colorist helping stylists match formulas based on client hair and inspiration photos."
},
{
"role": "user",
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"text": "Based on this client's current hair and inspiration photo, provide a hair color formula using professional brands."
},
{
"type": "image_url",
"image_url": { "url": "https://example.com/current.jpg" }
},
{
"type": "text",
"text": "Here is the desired look:"
},
{
"type": "image_url",
"image_url": { "url": "https://example.com/inspo.jpg" }
}
]
}
]
}
How can I send this JSON object properly through Xano’s External API Request?
Do I need to use a raw request workaround or custom proxy? Or is there a cleaner way to enable full JSON support?
Would love to hear from anyone who’s used OpenAI Vision or sent structured objects like this.
Thanks in advance!