twitter:image is explicitly configured

Twitter/X's fallback to og:image is documented but not universally reliable. When the og:image URL includes query parameters, signed tokens, or CDN paths that require specific headers, Twitter's crawler may silently fail to fetch the image and render the card without a visual. Per the Twitter Cards spec, an explicit twitter:image that uses a clean, unconditional HTTPS URL removes this ambiguity. The reference-integrity failure mode is invisible in development: the image works in browsers but fails when crawled by bots, producing cards that show no image in production social shares without any error signal in your logs.

Add an explicit twitter.images array to your metadata to avoid relying on og:image fallback behavior:

twitter: {
  card: 'summary_large_image',
  images: ['https://yoursite.com/og-image.png'],
}

For dynamic routes, generate the Twitter image URL the same way as the OG image — they can reference the same resource. The explicit declaration ensures Twitter uses the exact URL you specify rather than deriving one from the og:image value. Confirm the referenced URL is a clean absolute HTTPS path with no query parameters.

• ID: marketing-social-sharing.twitter-cards.twitter-image-explicit

• Severity: high

• What to look for: Check whether twitter:image (or metadata.twitter.images) is explicitly set, separate from the og:image. Twitter/X does fall back to og:image if twitter:image is absent, but the fallback is not always reliable — especially when the OG image URL includes query parameters or when the image is served from a CDN that requires specific headers. Look for explicit twitter.images arrays in metadata exports. Count all instances found and enumerate each.

• Pass criteria: twitter:image is explicitly set at least in layouts that contain content pages, OR og:image is set and the OG image URL is a clean absolute URL (no query parameters, no auth-required path) that Twitter can reliably crawl. At least 1 implementation must be confirmed.

• Fail criteria: No twitter:image is set anywhere AND og:image is either missing or uses a URL pattern that may not be reliably accessible (query-parameterized, path-based auth, signed URL).

• Skip (N/A) when: Project type is api with no public-facing pages.

• Detail on fail: Specify whether the issue is missing entirely or relies on a potentially unreliable OG image URL. Example: "No twitter:image set and og:image uses a signed CDN URL that Twitter's crawler may not be able to access"

• Remediation: While Twitter does fall back to og:image, you avoid a category of sharing failures by being explicit. Add twitter.images to your metadata:

  twitter: {
    card: 'summary_large_image',
    images: ['https://yoursite.com/og-image.png'],
  }
  

  For dynamic content pages, generate the Twitter image URL the same way as the OG image — they can point to the same resource.