julyx10/lap

An offline-first photo manager for large local libraries

What it solves

Lap provides a privacy-focused, local-first alternative to cloud photo services. It allows users to manage large personal media libraries (100k+ files) offline without forced uploads, cloud accounts, or library lock-in, ensuring that photos remain on the user's own disk.

How it works

Lap uses a folder-first workflow, indexing existing directories rather than importing files into a closed database. It leverages a local SQLite database for organization and the ONNX Runtime to run AI models locally on the user's machine. Specifically, it uses CLIP for image-text similarity search and InsightFace for face detection and recognition.

Who it’s for

It is designed for photographers and families who want to organize large collections of photos and videos across macOS, Windows, and Linux while maintaining complete privacy and ownership of their data.

Highlights

  • Private Local AI: Local search via text prompts, visual similarity, and face clustering without sending data to the cloud.
  • Folder-First Workflow: Works directly with existing folders and supports multiple libraries.
  • Broad Format Support: Compatible with over 60 photo, RAW, and video formats.
  • Smart Organization: Includes rule-based Smart Albums, flexible collections, and culling tools with a four-pane comparison viewer.
  • Apple Ecosystem Support: Recognizes and manages Apple Live Photos and their associated sidecar files.

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