Generate images on any chat turn
Asking Chief for an image now works every time, including on turns that previously came back saying image generation was unavailable.
You ask Chief for an image, it works, then you ask again a few messages later and get told image generation is not available. Nothing about your request changed, so the failure looked random.
Image requests that used to fail
Some chat turns came back with "Image generation is not available - OpenAI API key not configured", even though the same request had worked moments earlier. Whether you hit it depended on which part of Chief happened to answer that turn, which you had no way of seeing or influencing.
Every turn generates images now
Ask for an image at any point in a conversation and Chief produces one. The error message is gone, and repeating a request no longer changes the outcome.
If you had given up on image requests inside longer chats, they are worth another try.