# Support configurable Gravatar-compatible avatar backends
**URL:** https://community.zammad.org/t/support-configurable-gravatar-compatible-avatar-backends/19910
**Category:** Feature requests
**Created:** [March 26, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://community.zammad.org/t/support-configurable-gravatar-compatible-avatar-backends/19910 "2026-03-26T22:13:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@freinold](https://community.zammad.org/u/freinold)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://community.zammad.org/t/support-configurable-gravatar-compatible-avatar-backends/19910/1 "2026-03-26T22:13:06Z")
## Support configurable Gravatar-compatible avatar backends (e.g., ad2image, custom URLs, initials fallback)
#### 1) What is your original issue/pain point you want to solve?
Currently, Zammad only supports its built-in image service or manual uploads for user/organization avatars. Many organizations would like to use internal, privacy-preserving avatar sources that are compatible with the [Gravatar API](https://docs.gravatar.com/sdk/images/), such as [ad2image](https://github.com/it-at-m/ad2image/), but Zammad does not provide a way to configure a generic Gravatar-compatible avatar endpoint.
#### 2) Which are one or two concrete situations where this problem hurts the most?
- Organizations with privacy requirements cannot use public Gravatar or the Zammad image service, but have their own AD/Exchange/LDAP-backed avatar services that provide Gravatar-compatible endpoints (e.g., ad2image).
- Mixed environments where some users do not have avatars in external/global services but can be displayed via internal systems.
#### 3) Why is it not solvable with the Zammad standard?
- Zammad does not allow configuring a generic, arbitrary Gravatar-compatible URL for avatar lookups. The code currently expects a very specific API and hardcodes the base URL.
- There is no setting to customize the API path or append the email hash to a custom URL.
#### 4) What is your expectation/what do you want to achieve?
- Add support for a configurable Gravatar-compatible avatar backend:
- Admins can configure the whole URL path (prefix), with Zammad appending only the hash of the normalized mail address.
- Allow configuration of default query parameters (such as fallback mode: `d=initials`).
- Use initials as a visual fallback if no image is found (fallback can be via avatar service or rendered client-side/server-side by Zammad).
- Document how to use the feature for open-source solutions like ad2image.
#### More Useful Information
- Example of a compatible API: `https://ad2image.example.com/gravatar/?d=initials&s=200`
- See: [ad2image GitHub repository](https://github.com/it-at-m/ad2image/)
- Supports direct Active Directory integration and drop-in replacement for Gravatar
- Gravatar API documentation: [Avatars – Gravatar For Developers](https://docs.gravatar.com/sdk/images/)
- This flexibility allows organizations to use a variety of internal, external, or cloud-hosted avatar providers now and in the future.
#### Anything else which you think is useful to understand your use case:
- Enhances privacy and compliance for regulated organizations
- Provides feature parity with other products that can leverage Gravatar-compatible internal avatar solutions