ExifShell

A minimal, high-speed macOS application for inspecting and editing image metadata using ExifTool as its backend.

Philosophy

• Speed over completeness
• Clarity over flexibility
• Batch power, single-file precision
• WYSIWYG editing — no mental translation from terminal syntax

Features

• Drag & drop images or folders
• View and edit DateTimeOriginal metadata in a sortable table with clickable headers
• View and edit Description metadata — written to Description, ImageDescription & Caption-Abstract on save
• View read-only metadata: CreateDate, ModifyDate, ImageDescription, Caption-Abstract, Subject, Camera Make, Camera Model
• Multi-select with ⌘+click — edit or remove multiple files at once
• Bulk edit bar — when 2+ files are selected, toolbars appear to set DateTimeOriginal or Description on all of them
• Bulk copy CreateDate / ModifyDate — copy each selected file's own source date into its own DateTimeOriginal
• Bulk offset edit — apply a relative + / - offset in Hours, Days, or Months to selected DateTimeOriginal values
• Files are marked dirty on edit — orange text in the table signals unsaved changes
• Files are appended immediately on import and metadata loads in batches of 80 with a determinate progress indicator
• Diff review — preview panel shows grey (current) → green (proposed) before you save
• Single Save button — saves all dirty files in efficient batch writes per unique value for each field
• Sanitise All — normalises DateTimeOriginal format, propagates it to CreateDate/ModifyDate, clears offset fields, and copies Description to ImageDescription/Caption-Abstract
• Delete/Backspace — remove selected files from the working list
• Thumbnail preview of selected image
• Save confirmation with before/after values (clears on navigation)
• Keyboard shortcuts: ⌘S (save all), ⌘K (clear all files), ⌫ Delete (remove selected)

How to Run

From Terminal (Recommended)

# Clone or cd into the project directory, then:
swift run

The app window will appear. This compiles and launches in one step.

From Xcode

You can open Package.swift directly in Xcode and press ▶︎.

Note: If fields appear empty when running from Xcode, Xcode does not inherit your shell PATH. The app now resolves the exiftool binary automatically by checking common install paths (/opt/homebrew/bin, /usr/local/bin, etc.), so this should no longer be an issue.

Requirements

• macOS 14+ (Sonoma)
• ExifTool installed and available on $PATH:

  brew install exiftool

Usage Flow

1. Launch app → Empty drop zone appears
2. Drop images or folders → Files appear immediately while metadata loads in batches of 80 with determinate progress
3. Click a file to preview → Thumbnail + editable fields + read-only metadata shown
4. Edit the date or description in-place → File marked "• modified" (dirty)
5. Select multiple files (⌘+click) → Bulk edit bars appear for mass updates including absolute DateTimeOriginal writes and relative offset adjustments
6. Press ⌘S → Save all dirty files
   Press ⌘K → Clear all files and return to drop zone
   Press ⌫ Delete → Remove selected files from the list
7. Press "Sanitise All" to normalise dates, clear offsets, and sync descriptions

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌘S	Save all dirty files
⌘K	Clear all files (back to drop zone)
⌘+click	Toggle multi-select in file list
⌫ Delete	Remove selected files from list
Return (in bulk edit field)	Apply bulk edit value

Editable Fields

Field	Saved To
Date/Time Original	EXIF:DateTimeOriginal
Description	Description, ImageDescription, Caption-Abstract

Read-Only Display Fields (Preview Panel)

• Create Date
• Modify Date
• File Modification Date/Time
• Image Description
• Caption Abstract
• Subject
• Keywords
• Last Keyword XMP
• Camera Make
• Camera Model

Sanitise Pipeline

The "Sanitise All" button runs this ExifTool command on all loaded files:

exiftool -overwrite_original \
  '-DateTimeOriginal<${DateTimeOriginal;DateFmt("%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S")}' \
  '-CreateDate<DateTimeOriginal' \
  '-ModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal' \
  -OffsetTime= \
  -OffsetTimeOriginal= \
  -OffsetTimeDigitized= \
  '-ImageDescription<Description' \
  '-Caption-Abstract<Description'

This normalises the date format, propagates DateTimeOriginal to other date fields, clears any timezone offsets, and syncs the Description to all description-related tags.

Dirty State

ExifShell uses an intentional "edit → mark dirty → apply" pattern:

• Editing a file's date or description marks it as dirty (orange "• modified" indicator).
• Nothing is written to disk until you explicitly apply.
• The Save button shows the dirty count (e.g. "Save Changes (3 dirty)").
• The Save button is disabled when there's nothing to save.
• On successful write, the file is marked clean and the original baseline resets.

This prevents accidental overwrites and enables efficient batch writes by grouping files with identical values into a single ExifTool process call.

Performance

Batch ExifTool Reads

When you drop files, the app processes all files in a single ExifTool invocation reading 16 metadata tags at once (including Camera Make/Model), rather than spawning one process per file. For 100+ files this is ~50–100× faster than the naive approach.

ExifTool Path Resolution

The app locates exiftool at startup by checking common install paths:

1. /opt/homebrew/bin/exiftool (Apple Silicon Homebrew)
2. /usr/local/bin/exiftool (Intel Homebrew)
3. /usr/bin/exiftool (rare)
4. /opt/local/bin/exiftool (MacPorts)
5. Falls back to which exiftool

This ensures it works from Terminal, Xcode, or a bundled .app and surfaces a user-friendly status message when ExifTool is missing.

Architecture

See Documentation/ARCHITECTURE.md for full details.

Project Structure

Sources/
├── ExifShellApp.swift                  # App entry point
├── ContentView.swift                   # Root view + bulk edit bars + keyboard shortcuts
├── Models/ImageFile.swift              # Data model (with dirty state tracking, 18+ metadata fields)
├── ViewModels/FileListViewModel.swift  # State, logic, batch apply, bulk edit, sanitise
├── Services/
│   ├── ExifToolService.swift           # ExifTool wrapper (process runners, types)
│   ├── ExifToolService+Extensions.swift # Media type helpers, error parsing
│   ├── ExifToolService+ReadWrite.swift # Read/write/sanitise implementations
│   └── ExifToolService+Rename.swift    # Rename pipeline
└── Views/
    ├── DropZoneView.swift              # Drag-and-drop
    ├── FileTableView.swift             # Metadata table with camera/date/desc columns
    └── PreviewPanel.swift              # Thumbnail + diff + read-only metadata + actions
Documentation/
├── ARCHITECTURE.md                     # Architecture overview
├── AGENTS.md                           # AI-friendly edit context
└── BRIEF.md                            # Project vision & roadmap

License

MIT