In the present paper we initiate the study of the Musielak-Orlicz-Brunn-Minkowski theory for convex bodies. In particular, we develop the Musielak-Orlicz-Gauss image problem aiming to characterize the Musielak-Orlicz-Gauss image measure of convex bodies. For a convex body K, its Musielak-Orlicz-Gauss image measure, denoted by C Θ (K, •), involves a triple Θ = (G, Ψ, λ) where G and Ψ are two Musielak-Orlicz functions defined on S n−1 × (0, ∞) and λ is a nonzero finite Lebesgue measure on the unit sphere S n−1 . Such a measure can be produced by a variational formula of V G,λ (K) (the general dual volume of K with respect to λ) under the perturbations of K by the Musielak-Orlicz addition defined via the function Ψ. The Musielak-Orlicz-Gauss image problem contains many intensively studied Minkowski type problems and the recent Gauss image problem as its special cases. Under the condition that G is decreasing on its second variable, the existence of solutions to this problem is established.