stillport

Stillport gives AI agents a CLI and an MCP server for Apple Photos, Google Photos Picker, and local Google Takeout archives. Search with the native Photos engine, inspect metadata, and export the photos an agent needs to see.

Built with TypeScript and Bun. Standalone releases require neither Node nor Bun. No hosted intermediary, telemetry, or AI API key.

What you can ask Claude

Once Stillport is connected (setup below), you ask in plain language and Claude calls Stillport's tools on your computer:

• "Find my photos of dogs at the beach in Apple Photos and show me the three best ones." Claude runs Apple's native Photos search and reads JPEG previews.

• "Which photos did I take in July 2026? Export the favorites into a new folder." Claude lists by date and favorites, then copies the files into a private folder.

• "Search my Google Takeout folder for the harbor photo and make a gallery of the results." Claude searches filenames, captions and folders in your extracted archive and builds an offline HTML gallery.

Stillport reads and exports. It does not edit or delete anything in your library. A full example session shows real tool output.

Related MCP server: iOS MCP Server

Use with Claude

Apple Photos and Takeout first, Google optional:

1. Install Stillport (below) and run stillport doctor.

2. On a Mac, ask Claude to search your photos; allow Automation for Photos when macOS asks. Otherwise run stillport takeout import '/path/to/Google Photos' on an extracted Takeout folder.

3. Connect Claude with one of the two commands or configs below.

4. Add Google later: it needs your own OAuth client and a selection in Google's Picker (guide).

Claude Code (all your projects):

claude mcp add stillport --scope user -- "$(command -v stillport)" mcp

Then run claude mcp list and confirm stillport is connected.

Claude Desktop edits claude_desktop_config.json:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stillport": {
      "command": "/Users/you/.local/bin/stillport",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

On Windows use the installed path, with doubled backslashes, for example "command": "C:\\Users\\you\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Stillport\\stillport.exe". Restart Claude Desktop after saving. Claude only reaches photos through tools running on your computer; a Claude chat without a local connection cannot see your library.

Install in Codex

Add the repository marketplace and install the Stillport skill:

codex plugin marketplace add baney75/stillport --ref v0.2.0
codex plugin add stillport@stillport-marketplace

Start a new chat and ask Stillport to set up the CLI and test the included public photo fixture. The plugin contains the skill, installer, setup guide, and fixture; it needs a local macOS, Windows or Linux shell. Apple Photos requires a Mac and Automation permission. Google requires your own OAuth Desktop client and selection in Picker. The CLI installation below supplies the executable the skill uses.

The plugin uses local shell commands. Its stdio MCP integration is documented below. A cloud or mobile chat without a suitable local execution environment cannot reach your computer's photo library. See plugin packaging for ZIP builds and the universal-directory submission workflow.

Install

macOS and Linux, Apple Silicon/ARM64 or Intel/x64:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/baney75/stillport/main/install.sh | sh

Installs into ~/.local/bin. If needed, add export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" to your shell profile, then restart your shell. The installer verifies the release’s SHA-256 checksum and checks the binary before replacing an existing installation. It keeps the previous executable as stillport.previous.

Prefer to inspect first? Read the installer, download it, and run sh install.sh. Override the destination with STILLPORT_INSTALL_DIR; pin a release with STILLPORT_VERSION=vX.Y.Z. Manual downloads include SHA256SUMS.

stillport --version
stillport doctor
stillport capabilities
stillport update --check
stillport update

The updater verifies checksums, validates the new version, and replaces the binary atomically. It does not change your credentials or photo index. Checksums verify release integrity; they are not independent publisher signatures. The initial macOS binaries are not Developer ID notarized.

If an update fails before replacement, the installed binary stays in place. After a successful update, the prior executable is stillport.previous. To roll back without losing the newer file:

cp ~/.local/bin/stillport ~/.local/bin/stillport.failed
cp ~/.local/bin/stillport.previous ~/.local/bin/stillport
stillport --version

Windows

Download and inspect install.ps1, then run it from PowerShell:

Invoke-WebRequest https://raw.githubusercontent.com/baney75/stillport/v0.2.0/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\install.ps1 -Version v0.2.0

The installer chooses x64 or ARM64, verifies the release checksum and version, installs into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Stillport, and adds that directory to your user PATH. Open a new terminal and run stillport doctor. It needs no administrator rights. Use -InstallDir 'D:\My tools\Stillport' for another location or -NoPath to leave PATH unchanged. See Windows setup and recovery.

Windows updates return pending: true and a status-file path. A helper waits for the running executable to exit, verifies the staged checksum again, and replaces it. Read the status file to confirm applied; the response includes the rollback executable's path. Apple Photos remains available only on a Mac.

Choose a provider

Apple Photos: native search

stillport search "dogs at the beach" --source apple --limit 10
stillport search "July 2026" --source apple
stillport list --source apple --after 2026-07-01 --before 2026-08-01
stillport list --source apple --favorite
stillport albums --source apple
stillport selection
stillport get 'PHOTO_ID' --source apple
stillport preview 'PHOTO_ID' --source apple --out ./previews
stillport export 'PHOTO_ID' --source apple --original --out ./photos
stillport reveal 'PHOTO_ID'

Queries go directly to Apple Photos’ search scripting command. This uses the search index maintained by Photos; results depend on macOS, Photos, language, and indexing progress. People, places, subjects, and text may be available through that engine. Stillport does not invent a separate semantic index or guarantee a specific match. Date, favorites, and album filters can narrow results.

Requires a Mac with Photos and its scripting search command. On first access, macOS may ask you to allow your terminal or agent host to control Photos. Grant that in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation. This is access to the currently open library, including items synced through iCloud. Stillport never reads or modifies Photos’ private database. It exposes no library editing or deletion commands. Its Automation permission is broader than the operations it exposes.

preview makes JPEG still images up to 1600 pixels, so an image-reading tool can inspect previews exported from HEIC and supported RAW formats. export --original asks Photos for original files, which may include more than one file per item and may need an iCloud download. Without --original, Photos exports its rendered representation. Hidden, Recently Deleted, smart album access, and original availability are not guaranteed.

Google Photos: search and choose

Google removed general access to users’ existing libraries from the Library API in 2025. The supported route is the Photos Picker API: a person uses Google Photos’ native search and chooses what the agent can access. Stillport does not scrape a signed-in browser or ask for Google passwords.

One-time setup requires your own Google Cloud OAuth Desktop app client with the Photos Picker API enabled. Setup guide.

stillport auth google --client-json ./desktop-client.json
stillport google pick --open
# Open the returned pickerUri, search in Google Photos, select photos, finish.
stillport google session 'SESSION_ID'
stillport google items 'SESSION_ID'
stillport preview 'PHOTO_ID' --source google --session 'SESSION_ID' --out ./previews
stillport export 'PHOTO_ID' --source google --session 'SESSION_ID' --out ./photos
stillport google close 'SESSION_ID'

Agents should pass the Picker URL to the user and honor the session’s pollingConfig. There is no unattended native Google library search. Sessions expire, and only selected items are accessible. Google’s image downloads omit location metadata; its video download is a high-quality transcode. Downloads are capped at 1 GiB per item. Credentials use the OS credential store; --profile NAME separates Google authorizations. See the setup guide for headless tokens and revocation.

Google Takeout: local archive search

stillport takeout import '/path/to/extracted/Takeout/Google Photos'
stillport search 'beach' --source takeout
stillport albums --source takeout
stillport get 'PHOTO_ID' --source takeout
stillport preview 'PHOTO_ID' --source takeout --out ./previews
stillport export 'PHOTO_ID' --source takeout --out ./photos

Imports metadata from extracted media and JSON sidecars, including supplemental metadata files. Search covers filenames, captions, and folder names. It cannot reproduce Google’s private people, object, or OCR index. The archive stays where it is; Stillport keeps a private SQLite index. Re-import the same directory to update it and remove stale entries. Separate archive copies are separate items; there is no content-based deduplication.

On macOS, preview asks sips for a correctly oriented JPEG with a maximum edge of 1600 pixels. On Windows, the system decoder makes an EXIF-oriented JPEG bounded to 1600 pixels for JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF and BMP. WebP and AVIF are copied unchanged. On Linux, it copies JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, or AVIF stills into a new private folder without resizing; HEIC, RAW, and TIFF previews need macOS or an external viewer. export always copies the indexed file unchanged. Neither command edits the archive.

Browse one result page as an offline gallery:

stillport gallery --source takeout --query "harbor" --limit 40 --out ./galleries

Open the returned indexHtml locally, or add --open to open it from the CLI. The gallery shows local still previews, titles, dates, captions and opaque IDs; its search field filters the current page. Each image is limited to 20 MiB, and the gallery keeps at most 200 MiB of previews. nextCursor retrieves the next page. Video and unavailable previews remain visible as placeholders. It loads no remote assets and includes no original source paths. Galleries contain personal metadata and remain on disk until you remove them.

If an archive moves, run stillport takeout archives to see unavailable indexed folders. stillport takeout forget ARCHIVE_ID removes that archive's index entries only. Import its new folder to restore retrieval. This never deletes source media.

To exercise the full Takeout path without using a personal library, clone the repository and run its synthetic public harbor fixture:

./examples/takeout-demo/run.sh ./stillport-demo-output

The script prints the real import, search, and preview results, leaves the source fixture unchanged, and deletes its temporary index.

Built for agents

• JSON by default, including errors. --human pretty-prints; --json is explicit JSON mode.

• stillport schema describes commands and options. stillport capabilities explains each provider’s limits.

• Bounded pages, opaque IDs, and nextCursor. Reuse the same query and filters with --cursor.

• --after includes its timestamp; --before excludes it. Date-only values mean midnight UTC.

• Each export creates a new private folder and returns its real paths. No overwrites or automatic uploads.

• MCP clients can cancel an active request; Stillport returns a structured CANCELLED result and removes partial staging folders.

• Exit codes: 0 success, 1 failure, 2 input, 3 permission/platform, 4 not found, 5 temporary provider failure.

• Help and version are plain text. OAuth progress goes to stderr; stdout contains the final JSON result.

{
  "ok": true,
  "apiVersion": "1",
  "data": {
    "items": [],
    "nextCursor": null,
    "searchEngine": "apple-photos-native"
  }
}

The example is illustrative. A returned page may include other documented metadata.

MCP

Use the absolute path printed by command -v stillport in your MCP client’s config. Claude Desktop and clients using the mcpServers format:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stillport": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/stillport",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The stdio server exposes provider discovery, search, listing, albums, selection, metadata, previews, exports, offline galleries, archive recovery, and Google Picker sessions. Authenticate Google once using the CLI before starting the server. Use args: ["mcp", "--profile", "personal"] for a named profile. MCP does not expose credential management, self-update, or archive import.

Prefer shell tools? Read the portable agent skill, or run stillport agent skill to retrieve its contents as JSON. The agent can then use its own image-reading tool on an exported preview.

Development

git clone https://github.com/baney75/stillport.git
cd stillport
bun install --frozen-lockfile --ignore-scripts
bun run check
bun run dev -- capabilities
bun run build
bun run package:plugin
# Cross-compile all six release binaries:
bun scripts/build.ts --all

Bun 1.4.2+; CI and releases use 1.4.2. Older Bun versions stop with "Stillport needs Bun >= 1.4.2" (on 1.3.x the Takeout index fails with database is locked). Runtime code has no npm dependencies. TypeScript and Bun types are development dependencies. CI tests macOS, Linux, Windows x64 and Windows ARM64, including native executable checks. Tagging vX.Y.Z builds all release binaries, the plugin ZIP, and their checksums, provided the tag matches package.json and plugin.json.

For source installs, update with git pull --ff-only && bun install --frozen-lockfile --ignore-scripts. stillport update manages standalone binaries.

Project

Verification and limits · Google setup · Product review brief · Security · Contributing · Brand and product page · MIT license

Stillport is an independent project, not affiliated with Apple or Google. Platform names identify the services it connects to.

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