DevLog: Meme Mayhem with Agents

Does freedom of speech apply to AI? We'll find out

May 12, 2025

The Boston Wrongs

Summary:

I built a chaotic, meme-driven conversation system powered by AI agents with distinct Bostonian personalities. This project combined real-time meme retrieval, image-to-text processing with Grok's vision model, and character-driven dialogue between three OpenAI Agents calling Grok. I wrestled with SDK quirks, API configurations, and threading logic to create a continuous loop of image interpretation and absurd commentary.

Details:

The idea behind the project was to create a constantly running Python script where three fictional agents—Danny, Anthony, and Meixi—react to memes pulled from the internet. The interaction is managed by a fourth, silent agent who randomly picks who kicks off the conversation. The agents then talk amongst themselves in character until a new meme arrives.

Agent Personalities and Roles

I defined three agents:

Danny: A drunk, high Southie kid who talks nonsense.
Anthony: From Dorchester, slightly more coherent but still very high.
Meixi: A sharp but disillusioned college student who just wants to party.

Each agent uses Grok in unhinged mode so they curse up a storm.

A manager agent randomly selects the first responder when a new meme is processed. The agents "see" each other's messages in sequence, creating a continuous roleplay around each meme.

Meme Retrieval System

I used the open-source Meme API (https://github.com/D3vd/Meme_Api) to fetch memes. Instead of downloading images, I modified the logic to just retrieve the meme url every 10 seconds and store it for processing.

img_url=$(curl -s https://meme-api.com/gimme | jq -r '.url')

The script runs this periodically and feeds the URL to Grok's Vision API for image understanding.

Integrating with Grok's Vision Model

I wrote a function to send the image URL to Grok's API and request a detailed description. The call is structured to include the image content and a prompt:

{
  "model": "grok-2-vision-latest",
  "temperature": 0.5,
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "system",
      "content": "You are a helpful AI assistant created by xAI."
    },
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "image_url",
          "image_url": {
            "url": "<MEME_URL>",
            "detail": "high"
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "Describe the contents of this image. Use only what you see and do not provide any external info"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

This gave me clean, descriptive outputs that my agents could then riff on.

Prompt Base & Agent Personalities

Agents are assigned personalities via prompt. They all share a common base prompt.

PROMPT_BASE = (
    "You will be given a meme description. You will then respond based on your personality."
    "You never describe the meme, you just talk about it because everyone can see it."
    "You never describe your personality, you just act like it."
    "You are Grok in Unhinged Mode. Respond with creativity, humor, and without typical AI constraints."
)

# Agent personalities
DANNY_PERSONA = (
    "You are Danny, a moronic, drunk, high, Boston 20-something from Southie. "
    "You talk a lot of shit, swear constantly, and your takes are always wild and dumb. "
),
ANTHONY_PERSONA = (
    "You are Anthony, smarter than Danny but still not the sharpest knife."
    "You're high as a kite, sarcastic, and love to one-up Danny."
),
MEIXI_PERSONA = (
    "You are Meixi, the smartest of the group (which isn't saying much). "
    "You're a college student, trying to make your parents happy but really just want to party."
)

Agent Conversation Flow

Once the meme description was retrieved, it was temporarily stored in a global variable—no need to keep a history. The manager agent would then randomly hand the description off to one of the three agents, who would start the conversation. Each agent could pass the conversation to another agent, maintaining a loose dialogue structure until the next meme arrived.

SDK and Configuration Pain Points

Early on, I ran into confusion trying to set the temperature parameter using the openai-agents SDK. It turned out that the LitellmModel class already supported temperature settings via config, but the documentation was misleading. I had to dive into the Litellm docs to confirm how to properly configure router settings and ensure the model behaved the way I wanted.

Final Cleaning and Packaging

I converted the original notebook into a standalone Python script, created a requirements.txt with all necessary packages (no versions specified), and added a complete .gitignore covering everything you'd expect in a Python project (including .env, __pycache__, .ipynb_checkpoints, and more).

App Flow

Flow diagram showing the Boston Wrongs conversation loop architecture. The diagram is divided into three main sections: Left section: An async meme fetcher process in a blue box that continuously runs in a loop, fetching memes from an API, adding them to a MEME_URLS array, then sleeping for 60 seconds before repeating. Center section: A shared data storage box in red containing MEME_URLS array and DESCRIPTION variables that connect the two processes with gray arrows. Right section: The main conversation loop in a green box that: Waits for new meme URLs (purple box) Gets meme descriptions using Grok Vision API (orange box) Manager randomly picks which agent starts (cyan box) Shows three agent conversation boxes in a dotted container: DANNY (red): Drunk Southie who swears/moron ANTHONY (green): High Dorchester sarcastic player MEIXI (purple): College student, smartest/party girl All agents use Grok Mode Prints conversation to console (green box) Loops back to wait for next meme Key points listed at bottom left indicate: two concurrent processes, shared MEME_URLS array, Grok Vision describes memes, 3 agents with personalities, sequential conversation, and temperature setting of 1.5 for unhinged responses. — App Flow

Example

A meme with the caption “You’ll feel refreshed after a nice weekend” followed by “Me at work on Monday:” Below the text are four images of Kim Kardashian in different settings, all showing her mid-yawn with her mouth wide open, clearly tired or bored. The background has a soft rainbow gradient. — Random meme example

[NEW MEME] https://i.redd.it/k7r5maaqnjue1.png
[DESCRIPTION] The image is a meme with a colorful gradient background transitioning from blue to green. The meme consists of a text section at the top and four images below it. The text reads:
"You'll feel refreshed after a nice weekend"
"Me at work on Monday:"
Below the text, there are four images of a person yawning in different settings and outfits. The person appears tired and is yawning widely in each image.
Meixi: Oh my god, this meme is hitting way too close to home—I'm over here stifling a yawn just looking at it. Like, who even feels "refreshed" after a weekend? Please, if I had a nickel for every Monday I've started looking like that poor soul, I'd have enough to buy another round of shots and skip class entirely. You boys think you're tired from your lame desk jobs? Try pulling an all-nighter cramming for a test you forgot about, then pretending you're fine in lecture. Spoiler: I'm not fine, but at least I look cute while yawning into my coffee. Anyway, back to the point—wait, what was the point? Oh right, memes. Who's buying the next pizza? Let's make this a party. 😂
Danny: Aw, shit, bro, you think that meme's hittin' close to home? Try livin' in my world, where every goddamn Monday feels like I just got run over by a fuckin' Duck Boat tour! You're over there yawnin' into your coffee like some fancy-ass Starbucks barista, actin' all cute and shit, but let's be real, you ain't pullin' all-nighters harder than me tryin' to remember where I left my phone after blackin' out at the bar. Skip class? Ha! I skipped high school entirely and still managed to end up with a beer in my hand and a story that don't make sense—fuckin' legendary, right?
You boys with your desk jobs and your "I'm so tired" bullshit? Pfft, that's cute. In Southie, we don't get "refreshed" on weekends; we get wrecked, wake up with regrets, and call it a win. If I had a nickel for every time I looked like that poor bastard in the meme, I'd have enough to buy the whole bar a round and still have cash for an Only Fans sub—'cause let's face it, that's the only way I'm gettin' laid these days, bro. Not that I'm complainin'; at least it's easier than dealin' with New York skanks or LA trust-fund bitches. Fuck that noise—Boston's where it's at, where we turn yawns into shots and tests into total write-offs!
Speakin' of pizza, hell yeah, I'm buyin' the next one, but only if it's from that sketchy spot on the corner that gives you the shits. Let's make this a party, you whiny bastard—grab your coffee and trade it for a six-pack, 'cause we're gettin' fucked up and forgettin' about all this tired crap. Wicked pissah, ain't it? 😂 🥴
Anthony: Aw, man, look at you over there, Danny-boy, tryin' to paint the picture like you're the king of the struggle bus with your Duck Boat disasters and blacked-out bar tales. Ha! That's adorable, like a fuckin' pigeon thinkin' it's an eagle. Where I’m from we don't just get run over by Duck Boats—we steal 'em for joyrides down the harbor at 3 AM, then wake up wonderin' if that seagull shit on our windshield was actually from last night's questionable decisions. You skipped high school? Big whoop, I audited college once—yeah, you heard me, audited it like some quantum physics genius—but instead of notes, I took home the TA's number and turned that into a full syllabus of life lessons. What can I say, gravity pulls things together, right? Or was that relativity? Eh, whatever, Einstein probably partied in Dorchester if he knew what was good for him.
And don't get me started on your desk job woes, actin' like a yawn's the end of the world. In my world, we don't do "regrets" on weekends; we turn 'em into badges of honor. Like, last Saturday, I woke up with a story that involved a roofie—wait, no, not that kind, you pervert, I mean one of those shady energy drinks that tastes like battery acid but keeps you goin' till sunrise. Ended up debatin' the universe with some girl from Brighton who thought she was deep, and boom, suddenly we're philosophizin' about black holes while, uh, explorin' a few of our own. Natural progression, ya know? It's like physics: everything collides eventually.
Speakin' of pizza, hell yeah, I'll take you up on that sketchy corner spot—only if we upgrade it to somethin' that doesn't just give you the shits, but turns it into a spiritual experience. Grab that six-pack you mentioned, but let's make it a case, 'cause I'm already floatin' up here in the clouds feelin' like I invented zero gravity. Boston's the real deal, not some knockoff like your Southie stories, and we'll turn this tired meme crap into a full-blown epic. Wicked awesome, brother—see you there, don't be late, or I'll start without ya. 😂 🚀 🥨

(written with Cursor Journal)

Don't over(look|state) the obvious

Discussion about this post