An MCP server and app to search and browse your photos while preserving your privacy
io.github.ouestcharlie/ouestcharlie-woof MCP Server
An MCP server and app for searching and browsing your photos. It is described as preserving your privacy while enabling photo discovery. The repository is identified by the slug io-github-ouestcharlie-ouestcharlie-woof and has the name io.github.ouestcharlie/ouestcharlie-woof.
🛠️ Key Features
Search and browse personal photos
Privacy-preserving operation (as stated in the description)
🚀 Use Cases
Finding specific photos within a personal collection
Browsing stored photos through an MCP-enabled interface
⚡ Developer Benefits
Integrates photo search/browse capabilities via MCP
Woof — See your Photo Gallery in your AI assistant
Woof is a media management system that keeps your photos exactly where they are — on your own drives — while giving you a beautiful, searchable gallery powered by your AI assistant (Claude Desktop, Goose...).
No cloud subscription. No proprietary lock-in. Your library, your way.
Woof is the MCP App frontend to "Où est Charlie ?" ("Where is Wally?" in French), a full framework to manage you photos (later movies and other media).
What makes it different
Most photo managers lock your library into a cloud service (Google Photos, iCloud) or require a database server that becomes a single point of failure. Woof takes a different approach:
Conversation as your gallery. Woof connects to your AI assistant (Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Goose…) and turns it into a full photo browser. Ask in plain language, get results inline. No separate app to learn.
Privacy by design. Only metadata travels to your AI assistant — your actual photos are served locally by Woof. Your pictures are never uploaded to any AI service unless you explicitly ask.
No database lock-in. Metadata lives as XMP sidecar files right next to your photos, plus lightweight JSON manifests. Move a drive, copy a folder — your entire organization travels with your photos.
Open formats, forever. XMP is an ISO standard. JSON is universal. AVIF is royalty-free. Every tool you already use — Lightroom, darktable, ExifTool — can read your metadata today and long after OuEstCharlie is gone.
Your photos are never touched. Woof reads your library as-is. It never modifies, moves, or deletes your original files. It also honors existing XMP metadata from Lightroom, darktable, or any other tool — rather than overwriting it.
Works with your existing folder structure. Just point Woof at your photos folder. No migration, no reorganization required.
Woof runs as a local MCP server. It connects to your AI desktop client (Claude Desktop, Goose...) and exposes your photo library as a set of tools.
Option A — Bundle install (recommended but Claude Desktop only)
Connect to Claude Desktop
Download the latest ouestcharlie-woof.mcpb from the Releases page and double-click it. Claude Desktop will prompt you to install Woof in one click — no configuration file to edit.
Once Woof is connected to your AI client, ask it to register your photo folder:
"Add a local library to Woof pointing to /Users/yourname/Pictures"
Woof supports any folder on a local drive — including folders synced from iCloud Drive, OneDrive, or Google Drive, as long as the files are locally available.
2. Index your library
Trigger the indexer to scan your photos and build the metadata index:
"Index my local library"
Woof will launch the indexing agent, which will:
Read EXIF/XMP metadata from each photo
Write XMP sidecar files alongside your originals (never modifying the originals)
Generate thumbnails and previews
Build a fast index for querying
Indexing speed is roughly 10 to 100 seconds per 1,000 photos depending on format and hardware.
3. Start browsing
Once indexing is complete, just ask:
"Show me photos in Woof from last July"
"In Woof, show me pictures taken near Paris"
"Search Woof for photos with 'Tour Eiffel' in the description"
"How many photos do I have in Woof?"
The gallery panel will appear inline in your conversation with matching results.
Woof in Claude Desktop
Ouestcharlie Woof photo gallery inside Claude Desktop
Storage
V1 supports local filesystem and cloud_mount libraries on macOS, Linux, and Windows:
filsystem for a standard local hard drive or SSD, including local network drive (e.g. NAS)
clound_mount for a folder synced from iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Google Drive, or Infomaniak kDrive — as long as files are downloaded and locally accessible
Native cloud storage (S3, Azure, GCS, OneDrive API) is planned for V2.
Status
Woof is an early preview targeting a focused V1 scope:
Working (HEIC and RAW dependant on the build options)
Date, dimensions, GPS bounding box, camera make and model, camera settings, tags search
Working
Full-text search on photo description
Working
Sort ascending or descending on any field
Working
Gallery view (Claude Desktop or Goose) as grid or preview
Working
Video support
Planned for V2
Albums and smart filters
Planned for V2
Share pictures with host (Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Goose...)
Planned for V2
Enrichment agents (faces, scene recognition)
Planned for V2
Change detection / automatic re-indexing
Partial (added and removed pictures)
Mobile companion app
Planned for V3
Native cloud libraries (S3, OneDrive, GCS…)
Planned for V3
What this means for you: V1 works well for browsing and searching a local photo library. If you hit a bug or unexpected behavior, please open an issue.
Privacy Policy
Woof is designed with privacy as a core principle.
Data collected: Only photo metadata (EXIF, GPS coordinates, camera make/model, dates, file paths) is read and indexed. No account or personal information is collected.
Data storage: All metadata is stored locally on your own device as XMP sidecar files and JSON manifests alongside your photos. No data is stored on any remote server.
AI assistant: Only metadata and thumbnail images are sent to your AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Goose…) when you perform a search. Your original photo files are never uploaded to any AI service unless you explicitly share them.
Third parties: No metadata or usage data is shared with any third party.
Retention: All data remains under your full control. Deleting the XMP sidecars and .ouestcharlie/ folders from your photo library completely removes all Woof metadata.
