Your Lightroom Classic catalog, queryable from the terminal — streaks, daily picks, and shot lists with zero exports and zero writes.
Reads the .lrcat SQLite catalog Lightroom already maintains, strictly read-only. Built for daily photo practices: pick-of-day resolves the one image a publish pipeline needs, streaks and project track consistency, and photos turns any criteria into a JSON shot list.
Authentication
No authentication. The CLI opens the catalog file in SQLite read-only immutable mode and refuses all writes. Point it at a different catalog with --catalog or LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_CATALOG.
Quick Start
# Confirm the catalog is found and readable before anything else
lightroom-classic-pp-cli doctor --dry-run
# First real read: what is actually in this catalog
lightroom-classic-pp-cli stats --by camera
# The daily-practice headline: streaks and missed days
lightroom-classic-pp-cli streaks --since 2026-01-01
# One image per day, path resolved, ready for a build script
lightroom-classic-pp-cli pick-of-day --date 2026-07-12 --json
# Criteria search as a JSON shot list
lightroom-classic-pp-cli photos --rating ">=4" --since 2026-06-01 --json
Unique Features
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Daily practice
-
streaks — See your current and longest daily-shooting streaks and every missed day in a range.
Reach for this when asked about daily practice consistency or missed days.
lightroom-classic-pp-cli streaks --since 2026-01-01 --json
-
pick-of-day — Get exactly one image per day — flag beats rating beats recency — with its file path resolved for publishing.
Use this when a build pipeline needs the day's photo, not a list of candidates.
lightroom-classic-pp-cli pick-of-day --date 2026-07-12 --json
-
on-this-day — Everything shot on this calendar date across all years, grouped by year.
Use for month/day browse pages and anniversary lookbacks; find only does date ranges.
lightroom-classic-pp-cli on-this-day --month 7 --day 19 --json
-
project — Progress report for a fixed-length photo project: day N of target, missed days, projected finish.
Use when tracking a bounded series backed by a collection.
lightroom-classic-pp-cli project --collection "100 Faces" --target 100 --json
Catalog intelligence
-
stats — Histograms of your shooting by focal length, hour, weekday, month, camera, lens, or ISO.
Use for gear and habit questions; returns buckets, not image rows.
lightroom-classic-pp-cli stats --by lens --since 2025-01-01
-
doctor — Health sweep: masters missing on disk, images without capture time, orphan keywords, empty collections.
Run before backups or migrations to find catalog rot.
lightroom-classic-pp-cli doctor --json
-
funnel — Conversion rates from shot to picked to rated to developed to collected, optionally per year.
Use for selectivity and culling-discipline questions.
lightroom-classic-pp-cli funnel --by year --json
-
backlog — Keepers you flagged or rated but never developed.
Use to surface workflow debt before publishing deadlines.
lightroom-classic-pp-cli backlog --picked-only --json
Recipes
Today's pick for the photo-a-day site
lightroom-classic-pp-cli pick-of-day --date "$(date +%F)" --json
Returns the single best image for today with its absolute path, ready for a publish script.
Which days this month have no photos
lightroom-classic-pp-cli streaks --since "$(date +%Y-%m-01)" --json --select gaps
Narrow the streak report to just the missing dates.
Shot list of recent keepers
lightroom-classic-pp-cli photos --rating ">=4" --since 2026-06-01 --json --select id,capture_time,path,camera
Uses --select to keep the JSON small for agent consumption.
Gear reality check
lightroom-classic-pp-cli stats --by lens
Counts by lens with first/last-seen dates — what glass actually gets used.
Pre-backup health sweep
lightroom-classic-pp-cli doctor --json
Finds masters missing on disk and other catalog rot before it bites.
Usage
Run lightroom-classic-pp-cli --help for the full command reference and flag list.
Paths & environment variables
This CLI separates local files into four path kinds:
| Kind | Contents |
|---|
config | User-editable settings such as config.toml and saved profiles |
data | Durable local data such as data.db |
state | Runtime state such as persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log |
cache | Regenerable HTTP/cache files |
Each kind resolves independently. The ladder is:
- Per-kind env var:
LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_CONFIG_DIR, LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_DATA_DIR, LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_STATE_DIR, or LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_CACHE_DIR
--home <dir> for this invocationLIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_HOME for a flat relocated root- XDG env vars:
XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME
- Platform defaults matching existing installs
For containers and agent sandboxes, prefer a single relocated root:
export LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_HOME=/srv/lightroom-classic
lightroom-classic-pp-cli doctor
Under LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_HOME=/srv/lightroom-classic, the four dirs resolve to /srv/lightroom-classic/config, /srv/lightroom-classic/data, /srv/lightroom-classic/state, and /srv/lightroom-classic/cache.
MCP servers do not receive CLI flags from the host. Put relocation in the host env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"lightroom-classic": {
"command": "lightroom-classic-pp-mcp",
"env": {
"LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_HOME": "/srv/lightroom-classic"
}
}
}
}
Precedence matters in fleets: an ambient per-kind variable such as LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_DATA_DIR overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_HOME or the per-kind variables for durable fleet relocation; treat --home as the weaker per-invocation lever.
Relocation is one-way. Unsetting LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_HOME does not move files back to platform defaults, and doctor cannot find files left under a former root. Move the files manually before unsetting relocation variables.
Existing installs keep working because the platform-default rung matches the legacy layout. Run lightroom-classic-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path warnings in automation.
Commands
catalog
Catalog-level listings and health
lightroom-classic-pp-cli catalog cameras - List camera bodies with counts and first/last-seen dateslightroom-classic-pp-cli catalog collections - List collections with image countslightroom-classic-pp-cli catalog keywords - List keywords with image countslightroom-classic-pp-cli catalog lenses - List lenses with counts and first/last-seen dates
photos
Find and inspect photos in the catalog
lightroom-classic-pp-cli photos - Search photos by date, rating, pick, label, keyword, collection, camera, lens, and EXIF criteria
Self-learning loop
This CLI caches per-question discovery so repeat queries skip the walk and structurally similar queries get answered via entity substitution. The loop also self-captures: every invocation is journaled locally, and failed-flag corrections plus fresh teaches surface as candidates on the next recall for confirm/reject judgment. Agents call recall before discovery and fire teach & after answering. See the ## Automatic learning section in SKILL.md for the full protocol.
lightroom-classic-pp-cli recall <query> - Look up cached resources for a query before running discoverylightroom-classic-pp-cli teach - Record a query -> resource mapping (silent on success, safe to background with &)lightroom-classic-pp-cli learnings list - Inspect taught rowslightroom-classic-pp-cli learnings forget <query> - Undo a teachlightroom-classic-pp-cli learnings candidates - List auto-captured candidates awaiting confirm/rejectlightroom-classic-pp-cli learnings stats - Local loop metrics: recall hit rate, teach-to-reuse, playbook resolution, candidate countslightroom-classic-pp-cli teach-pattern - Install a query/resource template up frontlightroom-classic-pp-cli teach-lookup - Add an entity mapping (e.g. country code, team alias) for pattern substitution
Pass --no-learn or set LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_NO_LEARN=true to disable the loop for deterministic flows.
The local store's schema version stamp is one-way: once this version of lightroom-classic-pp-cli opens the database, older binaries refuse it with a version error — upgrade the binary rather than downgrading.
Output Formats
# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
lightroom-classic-pp-cli catalog cameras
# JSON for scripting and agents
lightroom-classic-pp-cli catalog cameras --json
# Filter to specific fields
lightroom-classic-pp-cli catalog cameras --json --select id,name,status
# Dry run — show the request without sending
lightroom-classic-pp-cli catalog cameras --dry-run
# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
lightroom-classic-pp-cli catalog cameras --agent
Agent Usage
This CLI is designed for AI agent consumption:
- Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag
- Pipeable -
--json output to stdout, errors to stderr
- Filterable -
--select id,name returns only fields you need
- Previewable -
--dry-run shows the request without sending
- Read-only by default - this CLI does not create, update, delete, publish, send, or mutate remote resources
- Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
- Agent-safe by default - no colors or formatting unless
--human-friendly is set
Exit codes: 0 success, 2 usage error, 3 not found, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.
Health Check
lightroom-classic-pp-cli doctor
Verifies catalog discovery, readability, and catalog health (missing masters, orphan keywords, empty collections).
Configuration
Run lightroom-classic-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/lightroom-classic-pp-cli/config.toml; --home, LIGHTROOM_CLASSIC_HOME, and per-kind env vars can relocate it.
Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.
Troubleshooting
Not found errors (exit code 3)
- Check the resource ID is correct
- Run a listing command such as
photos or collections to see available items
API-specific
- database is locked — The CLI opens read-only/immutable so this is rare; if it appears, close Lightroom's backup dialog or pass --catalog pointing at a copied .lrcat
- no such table: Adobe_images — The path is not a Lightroom Classic catalog; check --catalog points at a .lrcat file, not .lrcat-data
- pick-of-day returns nothing — No photos that day; run streaks to see gap days, or widen with --since/--until
Sources & Inspiration
This CLI was built by studying these projects and resources:
Generated by CLI Printing Press