get group avatar?

[boldra]

I found I can PUT group avatars, but I can't see how to get them.

I tried
GET /v1/groups/{number}/{groupid}/base64_avatar
GET /v1/groups/{number}/{groupid}/avatar

although neither are documented.
I see them in the filesystem ~/.local/share/signal-api/avatars/group-*

It seems so strange that put would be supported and not get, that surely I'm just hitting the wrong URL..?

[bbernhard]

The reason for that is, that the REST API is based on signal-cli and the commands it exposes and as far as I've seen that functionality is not available there. Of course, the REST API can be extended to return the avatars directly from the filesystem. But I first need to check whether those avatars are always downloaded automatically.

[boldra]

The functionality is listed in the signal-cli man page but I can't get it to work - it keeps telling me the groupID is null.

roto@44ee85aed1fa:/# signal-cli -vv --config /home/.local/share/signal-cli/ getAvatar --group-id "8Gi4Zjhtp+validgroupidremovedhereformyprivacyBIrIozQmw="
2025-06-02T18:59:45.943Z [main] DEBUG org.asamk.signal.util.IOUtils - XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set, falling back to temp dir
2025-06-02T18:59:45.969Z [main] DEBUG org.asamk.signal.App - Starting signal-cli 0.13.13
2025-06-02T18:59:47.176Z [main] TRACE org.asamk.signal.manager.Manager - Expected exception when checking libsignal-client: Failed to deserialize zkgroup::api::groups::uuid_ciphertext::UuidCiphertext
2025-06-02T18:59:47.500Z [main] TRACE org.asamk.signal.App - Loading account file for +4915154688890
2025-06-02T18:59:47.509Z [main] TRACE o.a.s.manager.storage.SignalAccount - Opening account file
2025-06-02T18:59:47.513Z [main] TRACE o.a.s.manager.storage.SignalAccount - Loading account file 401647
2025-06-02T18:59:47.641Z [main] INFO  com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource - HikariPool-1 - Starting...
2025-06-02T18:59:47.818Z [main] INFO  com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.HikariPool - HikariPool-1 - Added connection org.sqlite.jdbc4.JDBC4Connection@79da1ec0
2025-06-02T18:59:47.821Z [main] INFO  com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource - HikariPool-1 - Start completed.
2025-06-02T18:59:47.831Z [main] TRACE o.a.s.m.storage.AccountDatabase - Current database version: 27 Program database version: 27
2025-06-02T18:59:48.032Z [main] TRACE o.a.s.m.s.keyValue.KeyValueStore - Got entry for key last-receive-timestamp from db
2025-06-02T18:59:48.042Z [main] TRACE o.a.s.m.s.keyValue.KeyValueStore - Got entry for key last-receive-timestamp from cache
2025-06-02T18:59:48.427Z [main] TRACE o.a.s.m.s.keyValue.KeyValueStore - Got entry for key unrestricted-unidentified-access from default value
2025-06-02T18:59:48.432Z [main] TRACE o.a.s.m.s.keyValue.KeyValueStore - Got entry for key config-phone-number-unlisted from db
2025-06-02T18:59:50.229Z [main] TRACE o.a.s.m.s.keyValue.KeyValueStore - Got entry for key last-recipients-refresh from db
2025-06-02T18:59:50.238Z [main] INFO  com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource - HikariPool-1 - Shutdown initiated...
2025-06-02T18:59:50.242Z [main] INFO  com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource - HikariPool-1 - Shutdown completed.
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "org.asamk.signal.manager.api.GroupId.toBase64()" because "groupId" is null
        at org.asamk.signal.manager.storage.AvatarStore.getGroupAvatarFile(AvatarStore.java:77)
        at org.asamk.signal.manager.storage.AvatarStore.retrieveGroupAvatar(AvatarStore.java:32)
        at org.asamk.signal.manager.internal.ManagerImpl.retrieveGroupAvatar(ManagerImpl.java:1555)
        at org.asamk.signal.commands.GetAvatarCommand.handleCommand(GetAvatarCommand.java:57)
        at org.asamk.signal.commands.CommandHandler.handleLocalCommand(CommandHandler.java:37)
        at org.asamk.signal.App.handleLocalCommand(App.java:281)
        at org.asamk.signal.App.handleCommand(App.java:182)
        at org.asamk.signal.App.init(App.java:147)
        at org.asamk.signal.Main.main(Main.java:56)

This is using the "internal" groupID as returned by signal-cli listGroup

If you would kindly confirm it doesn't work for you either (you've got more experience using the cli) I don't mind opening it as an issue on the signal-cli page. Thanks!

[bbernhard]

Aah, thanks, missed the getAvatar command. I'll add that one to the REST API interface.

If you would kindly confirm it doesn't work for you either (you've got more experience using the cli) I don't mind opening it as an issue on the signal-cli page. Thanks!

It only works for me in json-rpc mode. In normaland ǹative` mode I get the same error.

[boldra]

Fantastic! Thank you so much!