🔒 Metadata Scrubber

A privacy-focused CLI tool that removes sensitive metadata (EXIF, GPS, author info) from image files. Perfect for protecting your privacy before sharing photos online.

✨ Features

• Multi-format support - JPEG, PNG (with PDF/Office planned)
• Concurrent processing - Process 1000+ files efficiently with ThreadPoolExecutor
• Dry-run mode - Preview what would be scrubbed without making changes
• Smart format detection - Uses Pillow's format detection, not just file extensions
• Beautiful CLI - Rich progress bars and formatted output
• Privacy-first - Removes GPS coordinates, camera info, timestamps, author data

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

# Using uv (recommended)
uv pip install metadata-scrubber

# Or clone and install locally
git clone https://github.com/Heritage-XioN/metadata-scrubber-tool.git
cd metadata-scrubber-tool
uv sync

Basic Usage

# Read metadata from a file
mst read photo.jpg

# Scrub metadata and save to output folder
mst scrub photo.jpg --output ./cleaned

# Batch process entire folder
mst scrub ./photos -r -ext jpg --output ./cleaned

📖 Commands

mst read - View Metadata

mst read photo.jpg                      # Single file
mst read ./photos -r -ext jpg           # Directory (recursive)

mst scrub - Remove Metadata

mst scrub photo.jpg --output ./out      # Single file
mst scrub ./photos -r -ext jpg -o ./out # Directory
mst scrub ./photos -r -ext jpg --dry-run # Preview only
mst scrub ./photos -r -ext jpg -w 8     # 8 concurrent workers

CLI Options

Option	Description
-r, --recursive	Process directories recursively
-ext, --extension	Filter by file extension (jpg, png)
-o, --output	Output directory for cleaned files
-d, --dry-run	Preview without making changes
-w, --workers	Number of concurrent workers
-V, --verbose	Show detailed debug logs
-v, --version	Show version

🛠️ Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Heritage-XioN/metadata-scrubber-tool.git
cd metadata-scrubber-tool

# Install with dev dependencies
uv sync --all-extras

# Run tests
pytest

# Run linting
ruff check .

# Run type checking
mypy src

Project Structure

src/
├── main.py                 # CLI entry point (Typer app)
├── commands/
│   ├── read.py             # Read metadata command
│   └── scrub.py            # Scrub metadata command
├── services/
│   ├── metadata_factory.py # Factory for creating handlers
│   ├── image_handler.py    # JPEG/PNG handler
│   └── batch_processor.py  # Concurrent batch processing
└── core/
    ├── jpeg_metadata.py    # JPEG EXIF processor
    └── png_metadata.py     # PNG metadata processor

⚠️ Security Considerations

• Original files are never modified - processed copies are created
• Use --dry-run to preview changes before committing
• GPS coordinates are completely stripped for privacy
• Always backup files before scrubbing in production

📄 License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details.

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Made with ❤️ for privacy