Image MetaHub

Local-first browser, search tool, and metadata hub for AI-generated images and videos.

Join the community on Discord — feature requests, bug reports, metadata parsing help, and early builds.

What is Image MetaHub?

Image MetaHub is a desktop app for browsing large local libraries of AI outputs without uploading anything to the cloud. It scans your folders, extracts metadata from popular generators, caches results for fast reuse, and lets you filter by prompt, model, LoRA, sampler, seed, dimensions, tags, and more.

It started as a local browser for InvokeAI outputs and has since grown into a broader metadata hub for Stable Diffusion ecosystems, ComfyUI workflows, and related tools.

Highlights

• Local-first browsing with no mandatory account, no cloud sync, and no outbound telemetry
• Fast indexing and thumbnail caching for large libraries
• Metadata parsing for Automatic1111, ComfyUI, InvokeAI, SD.Next, Forge, SwarmUI, Fooocus, Draw Things, Midjourney/Niji, Firefly, DreamStudio, DALL-E, and more
• Support for PNG, JPG, JPEG, WEBP, AVIF, GIF, MP4, WEBM, MKV, MOV, and AVI
• Faceted sidebar filters with explicit include/exclude actions for checkpoints, LoRAs, samplers, schedulers, ratings, generation modes, media types, ComfyUI node types.
• Unified Explore surface for drilling into Models, Clusters, and Collections, with the drill-in kept as a combinable filter chip
• Embedded ComfyUI Workspace with a live ComfyUI browser, library thumbnails, workflow metadata, and quick generation actions
• Live step-by-step generation previews in the queue for ComfyUI jobs
• Image lineage detection for img2img, inpaint, and outpaint, including source-image recovery when possible
• Multi-window image viewer with move, resize, docking/collapsible details, and fast cross-reference workflows
• Built-in image editor with adjustments, crop, transform, resize, enhance, annotations, and metadata-preserving export
• Prompt clustering, TF-IDF auto-tags, manual tag management, and deduplication helpers
• Startup verification modes for reopening saved libraries from cache or validating them against disk
• Automatic1111 and ComfyUI integrations with queueing, progress tracking, and optional launcher shortcuts
• Opt-in Civitai lookups for model and LoRA hashes, with results cached locally
• Analytics Explorer and verified metrics support for images generated with the MetaHub Save Node

Free vs Pro

The repository is MPL 2.0 and the core app remains open-source. Some workflow-heavy features are unlocked through the desktop app's offline Pro license or 3-day trial.

Core app includes:

• Local indexing, metadata parsing, search, sort, and filtering
• Tags, favorites, safe mode, and shadow metadata editing
• Auto-watch for generation folders
• Image lineage display and multi-window viewer workflows
• Explore workspace with auto-tags and clustering under free-tier limits
• Built-in image editor
• Deduplication helpers and stack browsing

Pro currently unlocks:

• Automatic1111 generation and parameter copy workflows
• ComfyUI generation, embedded workspace, workflow-native editing, and progress tracking
• Compare View with 2-4 image layouts and metadata diff tools
• Analytics Explorer
• Batch export
• Bulk tagging
• In-app file management (copy/move between indexed folders)
• Unlimited clustering scale

Getting Started

1. Download the latest desktop release from GitHub Releases.
2. Install and launch Image MetaHub.
3. Add one or more folders that contain your generated images or videos.
4. Wait for the first indexing pass to finish.
5. Use search, sidebar facets, tags, and advanced filters to explore the library.

macOS unsigned builds

Current GitHub release builds are not signed with an Apple Developer ID yet. If macOS blocks the app after you download and move it to Applications, remove the quarantine flag from Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Image MetaHub.app"

This is a temporary workaround for unsigned builds until macOS signing and notarization are available.

Browsing and Curation

Image MetaHub is built around fast local curation:

• Search + facets: combine free-text search with include/exclude facets for checkpoints, LoRAs, samplers, schedulers, ComfyUI node types, tags, favorites, ratings, generation modes, media types, and advanced ranges
• Stacking: group identical prompts in the main library view for faster browsing
• Sort + Group By: sort order and grouping live in the persistent grid footer, with grouping by date, name, generation session, checkpoint model, or cluster, plus Jump To navigation
• Manual tags + ratings: keep a persistent manual tag catalog, switch included tags between Any and All, and curate with 1-5 ratings
• Metadata recovery: reparse selected images without running a full folder refresh or clearing cache — a single reparse patches only the affected cache chunk, so it stays fast on large libraries
• Image editor: adjust, crop, rotate, flip, resize, sharpen, blur, annotate, and redact from the viewer, then Save As a metadata-preserving copy or overwrite eligible originals on desktop
• Startup verification: choose whether saved folders reopen from cache, reconcile in the background, or verify strictly before startup completes
• Shadow metadata: edit metadata non-destructively and keep the original payload available for inspection or revert
• Viewer workflows: open multiple image windows, minimize them into the footer, and navigate derived/source images through lineage
• Auto-watch: keep output folders in sync while A1111 or ComfyUI is generating

Explore

Explore is the single discovery workspace that replaced the separate Model View, Smart Library, and Collections screens. It presents your library across three dimensions — Models, Clusters, and Collections — as browsable cards.

• Scope drill-in: opening a card scopes the Library grid to it and shows the scope as a dedicated chip in Active Filters, so it stays combinable with every other filter instead of trapping you in a separate screen
• Prompt clustering: a background worker groups related images by prompt similarity
• TF-IDF auto-tags: generate useful tags from prompts, models, LoRAs, and workflow metadata
• Stack browsing: open a stack, paginate inside it, and keep navigation context in the image viewer
• Deduplication helper: rank likely keep/archive candidates and estimate space savings
• Back button: return from a drill-in scope straight to the matching Explore dimension
• Free-tier limits: the open-source app includes Explore workflows, while Pro removes clustering scale limits

Library-wide operations (automation rules, auto-tagging the library, analytics) live in the Library Tools menu in the library toolbar.

Classic Mode

If you prefer the previous navigation, Settings → Appearance → Classic Mode restores the old Model View / Smart Library / Collections / Node View labels as shortcuts that deep-link into Explore.

ComfyUI Nodes Filter

The standalone Node View has been retired in favor of a multi-select ComfyUI Nodes filter in the sidebar's Generation Parameters, for libraries with embedded ComfyUI workflows:

• Search exact node-type names across the current scope
• Multi-select node filters with OR matching
• See per-node result counts before applying a filter
• Combine node filters with every other filter and the active scope, without leaving the library grid

Metadata Support

Image MetaHub reads metadata from:

• Stable Diffusion / Automatic1111 images
• ComfyUI workflows and prompt graphs
• InvokeAI
• SD.Next
• Forge
• Fooocus
• SwarmUI
• Draw Things
• Midjourney / Niji Journey
• Adobe Firefly
• DreamStudio
• DALL-E
• Other tools that embed generation parameters into PNG/JPEG/WebP/AVIF metadata or sidecar payloads

Supported media types:

• Images: PNG, JPG, JPEG, WEBP, AVIF, GIF
• Video: MP4, WEBM, MKV, MOV, AVI
• Audio: MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, OGA, M4A, AAC, OPUS, AIFF, AIF, WMA

For video and audio metadata, Image MetaHub uses container metadata plus ffprobe when available to extract duration, codec, frame count, resolution, sample rate, channels, and bit rate. Audio files can be indexed even when a codec is not playable by Chromium/Electron on the current system.

AVIF metadata

Image MetaHub reads ComfyUI prompt and workflow documents from standard AVIF XMP items, including files produced by the proposed ComfyUI AVIF saver and frontend loader. It also reads the older EXIF convention used by existing ComfyUI AVIF files.

New Image MetaHub AVIF exports are intentionally compact: the full prompt and workflow graphs stay in their established ComfyUI XMP fields rather than being copied again. The Image MetaHub namespace stores app-specific fields (tags, notes, attribution, analytics, lineage, source generator) alongside the extracted parameter snapshot (model, seed, steps, cfg, sampler, scheduler, negative prompt) the Save Node records — those structured fields are kept because re-deriving them from arbitrary custom-node graphs is unreliable. When a legacy nested prompt conflicts with a standalone XMP prompt, the standalone document wins and the viewer shows a metadata-conflict badge.

Civitai links (opt-in)

Model and LoRA hashes in the Image Modal are clickable and open the matching Civitai page. The lookup only happens when you click — a single request to Civitai's public API, cached locally so each hash is looked up at most once. It works with A1111, Forge, SD.Next, and Fooocus images, plus ComfyUI images saved with the MetaHub Save Node, and can be disabled entirely under Settings → Privacy. Indexing and browsing stay fully offline either way.

MetaHub Save Node

For ComfyUI, the best experience comes from the companion ImageMetaHub Save Node on the ComfyUI Registry.

With the Save Node, Image MetaHub can ingest:

• Full workflow and prompt payloads
• Tags and notes saved by the workflow
• GPU and timing analytics
• Explicit lineage metadata for derived images

For older ComfyUI images without the node, Image MetaHub still attempts best-effort parsing from embedded workflow data.

Image Lineage and Viewer

The image viewer is no longer just a single modal. In the current app it supports:

• Multiple open image windows at the same time
• Move, resize, minimize, maximize, and focus management
• Docked or collapsed detail panels
• Lineage display for transformations like img2img, inpaint, and outpaint, including generation-type and denoise context when available
• Source-image recovery from explicit references or inferred metadata when possible
• Derived-image previews to navigate transformation chains

Automatic1111 Integration (Pro)

With Pro enabled, Image MetaHub can talk directly to a running Automatic1111 instance.

Main workflows:

• Copy to A1111: format metadata into A1111's three-line parameter block for the blue-arrow import flow
• Generate with A1111: send normalized metadata directly to the API for quick regeneration
• Model and LoRA selection: browse available models/LoRAs and override prompt parameters before generation
• Queue-aware progress: generations feed the shared queue and progress surfaces

Basic setup:

1. Start A1111 with --api.
2. If needed, allow the app origin with --cors-allow-origins=http://localhost:5173.
3. Configure the server URL in Image MetaHub settings.

ComfyUI Integration (Pro)

With Pro enabled, Image MetaHub can generate through ComfyUI using either the original embedded workflow or a safe metadata rebuild.

The ComfyUI Workspace adds a full working area around a running local ComfyUI instance: an embedded browser, selected-image context, library thumbnails, directory scoping, workflow/raw metadata tabs, copy/generate actions, and direct routes from the grid, table, toolbar, and image viewer. In the browser build, the same entry points open ComfyUI externally instead of embedding it.

Current flow:

1. Open an image with compatible metadata.
2. Click Generate with ComfyUI.
3. Choose Original workflow or Simple rebuild.
4. Adjust prompt, negative prompt, seed, steps, CFG, dimensions, model overrides, LoRAs, and source image policy when relevant.
5. Optionally use the visual workflow editor or advanced JSON editor.
6. Queue the workflow to ComfyUI and follow progress in real time over WebSocket.

What exists today:

• Workflow-native mode for executable embedded prompt graphs
• Simple rebuild mode for metadata-only images
• Visual workflow inspector/editor with pan/zoom and per-node field editing
• Embedded ComfyUI Workspace for staying inside Image MetaHub while browsing source images and working in ComfyUI
• Model-family aware overrides for checkpoints, UNETs, VAEs, CLIP loaders, and LoRAs when supported
• Transform-aware source image policies for img2img/inpaint-style workflows
• Shared queue with retry, cancel, cleanup actions, and optional detection of ComfyUI jobs started outside Image MetaHub
• Live generation preview in the queue, updating step-by-step during generation for jobs started from MetaHub and from the embedded ComfyUI UI, with a resizable preview box that remembers its height
• Run current workflow straight from the queue, queueing whatever workflow is loaded in the embedded ComfyUI workspace
• Metadata-rich outputs when used with the MetaHub Save Node and Timer node

Setup:

1. Run ComfyUI locally, usually on http://127.0.0.1:8188.
2. Install the MetaHub Save Node.
3. Configure the ComfyUI URL in settings.
4. Optionally save a local launch command so the desktop header can start or reopen ComfyUI for you.
5. Test the connection from the app and start generating.

Compare View (Pro)

Image MetaHub currently supports comparing up to 4 images with:

• Side-by-side mode with optional synchronized zoom/pan
• Side Strip and 2x2 Grid layouts for 3-4 image sets
• Slider, hover, flicker, difference map, loupe, and edge modes for two-image comparisons
• Metadata comparison in standard or diff view, with all panels expanding, collapsing, and scrolling in sync
• Quick swap and keyboard shortcuts

Analytics (Pro)

The Analytics Explorer summarizes library usage and generation performance:

• Overview, Resources, Time, Performance, and Curation views
• Scope switching between the current filtered results and the full library
• Cohort comparisons for generators, models, LoRAs, samplers, GPU devices, ratings, and more
• One-click promotion of analytics insights into live filters
• Average speed, VRAM, and generation time for MetaHub Save Node images
• Performance charts grouped over time or by GPU

Development

This repository contains the desktop app source code.

Stack:

• React 18 + TypeScript
• Electron
• Zustand
• Vite
• Tailwind CSS
• Vitest

Common commands:

npm install
npm run dev
npm run dev:app
npm run build
npm run electron-dist
npm run test
npm run lint

CLI helpers:

npm run cli:parse -- path/to/file.png --pretty --raw
npm run cli:index -- path/to/folder --out index.jsonl --recursive

For release work, see RELEASE-GUIDE.md and RELEASE-AUTOMATION.md.

Troubleshooting

On macOS, if audio or video playback crashes the Electron Helper, quit Image MetaHub first, then launch it from Terminal with the opt-in media safe mode:

IMH_MEDIA_SAFE_MODE=1 /Applications/Image\ MetaHub.app/Contents/MacOS/Image\ MetaHub

To confirm the flag was applied, process-events.log should include mediaSafeModeEnabled: true in the app-startup entry. This disables hardware acceleration plus accelerated video decode/compositing switches for that launch only. The lower-level IMH_DISABLE_GPU=1 flag is also available when you want to test GPU acceleration separately.

Privacy

Image MetaHub is designed to stay local:

• Your files, cache, tags, and metadata stay on your machine.
• There is no required account system.
• Pro licenses are validated offline.
• Network activity is limited to things that explicitly need it, such as:
  • auto-update checks
  • local A1111 / ComfyUI APIs
  • Civitai hash lookups you explicitly click (can be disabled in Settings → Privacy)
  • links you choose to open

Credits

Image MetaHub is built and maintained by Lucas (LuqP2) with community feedback and contributions.

Links

• Website: https://www.imagemetahub.com?src=readme
• Discord: https://discord.gg/2MXWxjKyJ5
• Pro license: https://www.imagemetahub.com/pro?src=readme
• Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/lucaspierri
• ComfyUI Save Node: https://github.com/LuqP2/ImageMetaHub-ComfyUI-Save