[verified] feat: prefer MiniMax for image generation

[cp990207]

Summary

• add MiniMax image generation path with env/config discovery
• prefer MiniMax when configured and fall back to the existing FAL pipeline otherwise
• increase auxiliary OpenAI client timeout for slower provider calls
• sync WhatsApp bridge lockfile with the pinned Baileys commit
• add focused regression coverage for MiniMax image generation and auxiliary timeout behavior

Validation

• python -m pytest tests/agent/test_auxiliary_client.py -q -k "explicit_minimax"
• python -m pytest tests/tools/test_managed_media_gateways.py -q

Notes

• fork/main compares cleanly against upstream main with only this one commit in the PR

[alt-glitch]

Related to #10389 (also adds MiniMax image generation) and #10749 (feature request). Please coordinate to avoid duplicate work.

[teknium1]

Thanks for the MiniMax image-generation work.

This automated hermes-sweeper review is closing the PR under the standing third-party provider-integration policy: vendor image backends should use the established provider-plugin surface rather than add direct provider routing to the core image tool.

• Current main has one image_generate surface that dispatches the selected image_gen.provider through the registry (tools/image_generation_tool.py:1274-1401).
• The provider contract and published extension path are ImageGenProvider plus ~/.hermes/plugins/image_gen/<name>/ or a pip plugin (agent/image_gen_provider.py:5-12; website/docs/developer-guide/image-gen-provider-plugin.md:17-25).
• This PR instead embeds MiniMax credential discovery and direct HTTP routing in the legacy FAL implementation, including automatic MiniMax preference when credentials exist (3741e382b2ea, tools/image_generation_tool.py in the PR diff).
• The existing discussion is useful: member feedback linked Adding Minimax support for image generation #10389 and [Feature]: Support for MiniMax-cn TTS and Image Generation. #10749, and related PR feat(image-gen): add MiniMax image-01 backend plugin #25451 already follows the provider-plugin architecture.

The implementation effort is useful. Please continue it as a standalone MiniMax image-generation plugin repository using ImageGenProvider, then share it in #plugins-skills-and-skins.

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Automated hermes-sweeper review; closed as not planned under in-tree-provider-integration. This is a maintenance-boundary decision, not a judgment of the contribution's quality.

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Closed as not-planned per standing maintainer policy (in-tree-provider-integration). This is a design-direction decision, not a code-quality judgment — see the Contribution Rubric in AGENTS.md for what the project is looking for. If you believe this policy was misapplied to your change, comment here and a maintainer will take a look.