Exiftool

io.github.joshmsimpsonPublished by GitHub account joshmsimpsonv0.1.6Updated Oct 24, 2026

Read, write, and remove metadata from 150+ file formats using ExifTool

VerifiedSTDIODesktop onlyFiles & StorageMedia & Design

Overview

AI-generated overview

Wraps the ExifTool command-line tool so an assistant can read, write and strip metadata in 150+ image, video, audio, document and archive formats.

What you can do
  • Read metadata from a file, either all tags or a chosen list such as camera, date or GPS fields
  • Write or update metadata tags in a file, with a backup created by default
  • Remove all metadata or only selected tags, for example GPS and location fields
  • List the file formats ExifTool supports
When to use it
Useful when you want an assistant to inspect or clean up file metadata locally: checking EXIF and GPS data on photos, adding artist or copyright tags, or stripping location data before sharing files.
Requirements
Runs as a local stdio process installed from PyPI (exiftool-mcp), and ExifTool itself must be installed separately on the system (for example via Homebrew, apt or the official Windows download). No accounts, API keys or environment variables are declared.
Before you install
Write and remove operations modify files on disk; overwrite_original can skip the default backup, so keep it false unless you are sure. Removing metadata without specifying tags strips everything. The assistant can act on any file path it is given, so scope which files it may touch.

Installation

In SourceWeft

  1. Open Exiftool in the dashboard and add it to a workspace.
  2. Enable the server for the chats that should use its tools.

Desktop only via STDIO. STDIO servers start a local process, so they need the SourceWeft desktop host.

Other MCP clients

Follow the launch instructions in the repository.

README

MCP ExifTool Server

mcp-name: io.github.joshmsimpson/exiftool

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides access to ExifTool for reading, writing, and removing metadata from a wide range of file types.

Features

  • Read metadata from over 150 file formats
  • Write metadata to files with automatic backup creation
  • Remove metadata selectively or completely from files
  • Extract specific tags or retrieve all available metadata
  • Support for multiple metadata standards: EXIF, IPTC, XMP, GPS, and manufacturer-specific formats

Supported File Formats

Image Formats:

  • RAW Camera Formats: ARW, CR2, CR3, CRW, DNG, ERF, FFF, GPR, IIQ, K25, KDC, MEF, MRW, NEF, NRW, ORF, PEF, RAF, RAW, RW2, RWL, SR2, SRF, SRW, X3F
  • Raster Images: BMP, FLIF, GIF, HDR, HEIC, HEIF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, JXL, JXR, PCX, PGF, PNG, PPM, TIFF, WebP
  • Specialized Images: AVIF, BPG, DPX, EXR, FITS, FLIR, FPX, ICO, LFP, MIFF, PSD, PSP, QTIF, SVG

Video Formats:

  • Containers: 3GP, AVI, F4V, FLV, GLV, M2TS, MOV, MP4, MKV, MPEG, R3D, VOB, WebM, WTV
  • Other Video: DV, DVR-MS, INSV, LRV, MQV

Audio Formats:

  • Lossless: AIFF, FLAC, LA, OFR, PAC, WAV, WV
  • Lossy: AAC, APE, DSF, M4A, MP3, MPC, OGG, OPUS, RA, WMA

Document Formats:

  • Office: DOC, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, XLS, KEY, NUMBERS, PAGES
  • Other Documents: PDF, EPS, RTF, TXT, XML, JSON
  • eBooks: EPUB, MOBI, AZW

Archive Formats:

  • 7z, GZ, RAR, ZIP

Other Formats:

  • Fonts: AFM, OTF, PFA, TTF
  • And many more specialized formats

Prerequisites

ExifTool must be installed on your system. This MCP server is a wrapper that calls the ExifTool command-line tool.

Installing ExifTool

macOS:

bash
brew install exiftool

Ubuntu/Debian:

bash
sudo apt-get install libimage-exiftool-perl

Windows: Download from https://exiftool.org/

Verify installation:

bash
exiftool -ver

Installation

bash
pip install exiftool-mcp

Usage

With Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

json
{  "mcpServers": {    "exiftool": {      "command": "exiftool-mcp"    }  }}

With Other MCP Clients

The server communicates via stdio and follows the Model Context Protocol specification.

Available Tools

read_metadata

Read metadata from a file using ExifTool.

Parameters:

  • file_path (required): Path to the file (absolute or relative)
  • tags (optional): Array of specific metadata tags to extract (e.g., ["DateTimeOriginal", "Make", "Model"])

Example:

json
{  "file_path": "/path/to/image.jpg",  "tags": ["DateTimeOriginal", "Make", "Model", "GPSLatitude", "GPSLongitude"]}

write_metadata

Write or update metadata tags in a file using ExifTool. Creates a backup by default.

Parameters:

  • file_path (required): Path to the file (absolute or relative)
  • tags (required): Dictionary of metadata tags to write (e.g., {"Artist": "John Doe", "Copyright": "2025"})
  • overwrite_original (optional): If true, overwrites the original file without creating a backup. Default is false.

Example:

json
{  "file_path": "/path/to/image.jpg",  "tags": {    "Artist": "John Doe",    "Copyright": "2025",    "Comment": "Beautiful sunset"  },  "overwrite_original": false}

remove_metadata

Remove metadata from a file using ExifTool. Can remove all metadata or specific tags.

Parameters:

  • file_path (required): Path to the file (absolute or relative)
  • tags (optional): Array of specific metadata tags to remove (e.g., ["GPS*", "Comment"]). If not specified, all metadata is removed.
  • overwrite_original (optional): If true, overwrites the original file without creating a backup. Default is false.

Example:

json
{  "file_path": "/path/to/image.jpg",  "tags": ["GPS*", "Location*"],  "overwrite_original": false}

list_supported_formats

List all file formats supported by ExifTool.

Parameters: None

Examples

Reading all metadata from an image

Use the read_metadata tool with file_path: "photo.jpg"

Reading specific EXIF tags

Use the read_metadata tool with:- file_path: "photo.jpg"- tags: ["DateTimeOriginal", "Make", "Model", "LensModel"]

Writing metadata to a file

Use the write_metadata tool with:- file_path: "photo.jpg"- tags: {"Artist": "Jane Smith", "Copyright": "2025", "Rating": "5"}

Removing GPS data from a photo

Use the remove_metadata tool with:- file_path: "photo.jpg"- tags: ["GPS*"]

Removing all metadata from a file

Use the remove_metadata tool with:- file_path: "photo.jpg"(no tags specified removes all metadata)

Checking supported formats

Use the list_supported_formats tool

Development

Setup

bash
git clone https://github.com/joshmsimpson/exiftool_mcp.gitcd exiftool_mcppip install -e .

Running locally

bash
python -m exiftool_mcp.server

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Links

Source: README.md at commit b830315

Tools

0
SourceWeft has not started this package in its sandbox yet, so its tools are not known.

Version history

1
  1. v0.1.6LatestSep 16, 2026

Score

50% of the applicable checks met

How complete this listing is, computed from the registry entry, the endpoint and public sources. Not a rating of the server and not a statement that it is safe or working today: reachability is a dated check, and no installs or reviews go into the score.

  • Reached in the last 30 days25 pts

    Keep the endpoint answering the MCP handshake; SourceWeft probes it every 30 days.

  • Auth declared10 pts

    Declare the credential headers in the registry entry, or keep the endpoint answering the probe so its auth can be classified.

  • Tools listed15 pts

    Answer tools/list without a credential, or ship a package that starts in a sandbox without one.

  • DescriptionRequired15 pts
  • Logo10 pts
  • Documentation15 pts
  • License10 pts