ouestcharlie-woof

Name: ouestcharlie-woof
Author: ouestcharlie

Local

github.com/ouestcharlieSearch8Updated 5d ago

Repository

About ouestcharlie-woof

ouestcharlie-woof is an MCP App for browsing and searching local photo and video libraries through an AI assistant. It keeps originals on local drives and stores metadata in XMP sidecars and JSON manifests.

Key features

01Local photo and video indexing
02Gallery grid and preview views
03Search by tags, dates, and camera details
04Hierarchical tags shared with photo tools
05Change detection and re-indexing

Use cases

01Browse a local photo library from an AI assistant
02Find images by date, location, or camera
03Search and review video files

MCP support

Woof provides a gallery frontend and search capabilities through MCP App support in compatible AI assistants. It sends metadata to the assistant for searches, while thumbnails and previews are served locally by Woof.

Configuration

Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.

mcp.json · Universal config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ouestcharlie-ouestcharlie-woof": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "ouestcharlie-woof"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Run commanduvx ouestcharlie-woof

Local servers need a runtime on your machine (e.g. Node.js 18+). Config file locations differ by client; see your client’s docs.

Packages

pypiouestcharlie-woof0.13.2stdio

Tools

No tool list yet

Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.

Details

From the project README

Woof

Woof — See your Photo Gallery in your AI assistant

mcp-name: io.github.ouestcharlie/ouestcharlie-woof

Woof is the photo and video gallery companion to your your AI assistant (Claude Desktop, Goose, VS Code / GitHub Copilot...). It complements those powerful tools with a searchable gallery. Your photos and videos remain exactly where they are — on your own drives (local or mounted).

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 AI native framework to manage your photos and videos.

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, Goose, VS Code / GitHub Copilot…) 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.

More about OuEstCharlie and Woof on the OuEstCharlie Blog

Installation and first steps

See OuEstCharlie Woof install and first steps

Status

Woof is an early preview. It works well today for browsing and searching a local photo library.

Current features

Feature	Notes
Compatible with Claude Desktop, Goose, VS Code	Any desktop application with MCP App support
Available on Macos, Windows, Linux	Python packages are built and released in Pypi
Local filesystem indexing	Files must be locally synced
Photos (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC, RAW)	HEIC and RAW depend on the build options
Video support (MOV, MP4)
Gallery view as grid or preview	Photo details on preview
Image thumbnails and previews	Optimized for display
Search description, tags, rating, date, partition	full text search on description
Hierarchical tags (`Places\|Europe\|France`), shared with darktable and Lightroom	search a whole branch or a tag at any level; darktable's own tags are left out
Search photo features (date, dimensions, GPS bounding box)
Search video features (duration, dimensions, GPS bounding box)
Search camera features (make, model, aperture, lens)
Sort ascending or descending on any field
Change detection / automatic re-indexing	Partial — added and removed pictures, and sidecars edited by other tools (darktable, digiKam…); indexing is not yet triggered automatically

Planned features

Feature
Albums and smart filters
Share pictures with host (Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Goose…)
Enrichment agents (faces, scene recognition)
Mobile companion app
Native cloud libraries (S3, OneDrive, GCS…)

If you hit a bug or unexpected behavior, please open an issue.

Woof in VSCode

Ouestcharlie Woof photo gallery inside VSCode, an alternative to Claude CoWork for techies

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 is sent to your AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Goose…) when you perform a search. Thumbnails and previews remain in the MCP App gallery widgets: they are served by Woof from your machine (loopback only) and never pass through the assistant. 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.

For privacy questions, please open an issue.

Support

Bug reports and feature requests: GitHub Issues

Developers' corner

For developer and architecture documentation, see README_DEV.md.

### Contributing

See the Contributing section in OuEstCharlie

License

MIT license

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