LibrePhotos
Mockup designed by rawpixel.com / Freepik
A self-hosted, open-source photo management service with automatic face recognition, object detection, and semantic search โ powered by modern machine learning.
- Stable demo is available here: https://demo1.librephotos.com/ . User is
demo, password isdemo1234(with sample images). - Latest development demo is available here: https://demo2.librephotos.com/ (same user/password)
- You can watch development videos on Niaz Faridani-Rad's channel
- You can join our Discord.
Repository layout
This is a monorepo that consolidates what was previously five separate repositories.
| Path | What it is | Previous repo |
|---|---|---|
apps/backend/ |
Django 5 API, machine-learning pipelines, background jobs | librephotos |
apps/frontend/ |
React 18 + Vite web client, i18next localization | librephotos-frontend |
apps/mobile/ |
React Native mobile client (Android) | librephotos-mobile |
apps/docs/ |
Docusaurus site published to https://docs.librephotos.com | librephotos.docs |
deploy/ |
Dockerfiles, Compose configs, proxy, Kubernetes manifests | librephotos-docker |
Commit history from all five repositories is preserved โ git log --follow apps/<app>/<file> works across the move.
Installation
Step-by-step installation instructions are available in our documentation.
System Requirements
| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| RAM | 4 GB | 8 GB+ |
| Storage | 10 GB (plus your photo library) | SSD recommended |
| CPU | 2 cores | 4+ cores |
| OS | Any Docker-compatible OS | Linux |
Note: Machine learning features (face recognition, scene classification, image captioning) are memory-intensive. 8 GB+ RAM is strongly recommended for smooth operation.
Features
- Support for all types of photos including raw photos
- Support for videos
- Timeline view
- Scans pictures on the file system
- Multiuser support
- Generate albums based on events like "Thursday in Berlin"
- Face recognition / Face classification
- Reverse geocoding
- Object / Scene detection
- Semantic image search
- Search by metadata
Tech Stack
Backend
- Framework: Django 5 with Django REST Framework
- Database: PostgreSQL
- Task Queue: Django-Q2
- Image Conversion: ImageMagick
- Video Conversion: FFmpeg
- Exif Support: ExifTool
Frontend
- UI: React 18 with TypeScript
- Build Tool: Vite
- Component Library: Mantine
- Routing: TanStack Router
- Data Fetching: TanStack Query
- Maps: MapLibre GL
- Internationalization: i18next
Machine Learning
- Face detection: face_recognition
- Face classification/clustering: scikit-learn and hdbscan
- Image captioning: im2txt
- Scene classification: places365
- Reverse geocoding: geopy
Infrastructure
- Deployment: Docker & Docker Compose
- Reverse Proxy: Nginx
API Documentation
After starting LibrePhotos, interactive API docs are available at:
- Swagger UI:
http://localhost:3000/api/swagger - ReDoc:
http://localhost:3000/api/redoc
Development
See CONTRIBUTING.md and the per-app READMEs: - Backend - Frontend - Mobile - Docs site
The Docker Compose-based dev environment lives in deploy/compose/ and is described in the development install guide.
How to help out
- โญ Star this repository if you like this project!
- ๐ Developing: Get started in less than 30 minutes by following this guide. Also see our CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed development setup, code quality standards, and PR guidelines.
- ๐๏ธ Documentation: Improving the documentation is as simple as submitting a pull request here
- ๐งช Testing: If you want to help find bugs, use the
devtag and update it regularly. If you find a bug, open an issue. - ๐งโ๐คโ๐ง Outreach: Talk about this project with other people and help them to get started too!
- ๐ Translations: Make LibrePhotos accessible to more people with weblate.
- ๐ธ Donate to the developers of LibrePhotos
License
This project is licensed under the MIT License.