gthumb-mcp

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes a gThumb image library to AI agents: catalogs, tags, star ratings, comments, thumbnails and search.

It works directly with gThumb's own data — no database, no duplication:

gThumb picks up everything this server writes on its next refresh — and vice versa.

Requirements

• Linux with gThumb 3.12 (other 3.x versions likely work)

• Python 3.12+ and uv

• exiftool — sudo apt install libimage-exiftool-perl (everything except the metadata tools works without it)

Related MCP server: Apple Photos MCP

Install

uv sync

Run

uv run gthumb-mcp        # MCP stdio server

Register with an MCP client

opencode (~/.config/opencode/opencode.json):

{
  "mcp": {
    "gthumb": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": [
        "uv", "--directory", "/absolute/path/to/gthumb-mcp", "run", "gthumb-mcp"
      ],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gthumb": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "/absolute/path/to/gthumb-mcp", "run", "gthumb-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

Catalogs

Tags

Image metadata (embedded XMP, same fields gThumb writes)

Search & view

Convenience

Example session

User: Show me my catalogs, then the images tagged Beach.

{"tool": "list_catalogs"}
→ [{"name": "Favorites", "type": "catalog", "file_count": 42}, …]

{"tool": "find_images_by_tag", "arguments": {"tag": "Beach"}}
→ {"source": "snapshot", "count": 118, "files": ["/home/user/Pictures/2024-07/beach_001.jpg", …]}

User: Rate the first one 5 stars.

{"tool": "set_rating", "arguments": {"path": "/home/user/Pictures/2024-07/beach_001.jpg", "rating": 5}}
→ {"path": "/home/user/Pictures/2024-07/beach_001.jpg", "rating": 5}

How it works

• Catalogs are parsed and rewritten as XML in exactly gThumb's format. All writes are atomic (temp file + os.replace), so a crash can't corrupt gThumb's files.

• Tags on images are read/written as embedded XMP via exiftool, matching what gThumb 3.12 stores in its default store metadata in files mode:

  gThumb field	XMP field
  Title	XMP-dc:Title
  Description / comment	XMP-dc:Description
  Tags	XMP-dc:Subject (list)
  Rating	XMP-xmp:Rating (integer 0–5)
  Location	XMP-iptcCore:Location

  Note the exiftool list semantics used here: plain = assignments replace the whole tag list, += appends, and an empty list with replace=true clears it.

• Thumbnails follow the freedesktop thumbnailer spec: the cache key is the MD5 of the image's file:// URI, and generated thumbnails carry the spec's Thumb::URI / Thumb::MTime annotations. gThumb shares this cache, so thumbnails are generated at most once, no matter who requests them.

• find_images_by_tag reads gThumb's cached per-tag snapshot by default (fast, updated whenever gThumb runs a tag search). Pass a directory to instead scan the embedded XMP of files live — slower, but reflects the current file contents.

• If gThumb is running while catalogs change externally, refresh/reopen its library view to see the updates.

Configuration

These redirects are mainly useful for testing; no gThumb installation is touched by the test suite.

Development

uv sync
uv run pytest        # 13 tests; exiftool-dependent tests skip if exiftool is missing

Project layout:

src/gthumb_mcp/
├── server.py        # FastMCP-style server: 19 tools, stdio transport
├── paths.py         # gThumb data locations (env-overridable)
├── catalogs.py      # .catalog / .search XML parsing and atomic writing
├── tags.py          # tags.xml and per-tag search snapshots
├── metadata.py      # exiftool wrapper for embedded XMP
├── thumbnails.py    # freedesktop thumbnail cache
└── util.py          # file:// URI conversion, atomic writes

License

MIT