stass/exif-mcp

An MCP server that allows LLMs (or humans) to read image metadata on-demand, entirely offline. Based on the excellent exifr library it's exremely fast and does not rely on any external tools.
Usecases:
* Analyze image metadata and visualize it
* Perform analysis of your image library: what are my most used cameras? Lens distribution? Which dates of the week I take most pictures on? Most favorite locations?
* Debugging image manipulation code.
Ths tool is used extensively by the reverse geolocation service PlaceSpotter for development and testing.
Overview
exif-mcp is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides tools for extracting various metadata segments from images. Built with TypeScript, it leverages the excellent exifr library to parse metadata from images in common formats like JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and HEIC. This allows this service to parse image metadata without executing any external tools which allows it to be both highly efficient and secure.
Features
- **Local operation**: Works completely offline with no remote network required
- **Multiple segments**: Extracts EXIF, GPS, XMP, ICC, IPTC, JFIF, and IHDR metadata
- **Various input formats**: Supports JPEG, TIFF, HEIC/AVIF, and PNG
- **Flexible image sources**: Read from file system, URLs, base64 data, or buffers
- **Specialized tools**: Get orientation, rotation info, GPS coordinates, and thumbnails
Installation
Usage
Claude Desktop
Put this into Claude config file (claude_desktop_config.json):
Restart Claude. Now you can ask Claude to inspect images for you or e.g. find files taken with specific camera. This works best in combination with filesystem MCP tools so Claude can find files and list directories.
Starting the server
The server uses the StdioServerTransport from the MCP SDK, making it compatible with any MCP client that supports STDIO transport.
You can use mcp-proxy to enable remote access.
Available Tools
The following tools are provided by the server:
| Tool name | Description |
|-----------|-------------|
| read-metadata | Reads all or specified metadata segments |
| read-exif | Reads EXIF data specifically |
| read-xmp | Reads XMP data |
| read-icc | Reads ICC color profile data |
| read-iptc | Reads IPTC metadata |
| read-jfif | Reads JFIF segment data |
| read-ihdr | Reads IHDR segment data |
| orientation | Gets image orientation (1-8) |
| rotation-info | Gets rotation and flip information |
| gps-coordinates | Extracts GPS coordinates |
| thumbnail | Extracts embedded thumbnail |
Debugging with MCP Inspector
1. Start the inspector: npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/server.js