Lap is an open-source desktop photo manager and local photo organizer for people who want to browse family albums, find old photos quickly, and manage large personal media libraries offline. It is built as a privacy-focused alternative to cloud photo services: no forced upload, local AI photo search, folder-first workflow, and free to use.
- Website: https://julyx10.github.io/lap/
- Demo: https://youtu.be/RbKqNKhbVUs
- Privacy: PRIVACY.md
Open the latest release page, then download the file that matches your system:
| Platform | Package | Status |
|---|---|---|
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | aarch64.dmg | Notarized by Apple |
| macOS (Intel) | x64.dmg | Notarized by Apple |
| Windows 10/11 (x64) | .msi | Currently unsigned (SmartScreen warning may appear) |
| Ubuntu/Debian (amd64) | amd64.deb | Linux adaptation and testing are not completed yet |
Screenshot sample images come from Wikimedia Commons.
- No cloud required: keep your library on your own disk instead of uploading it to a hosted service.
- Private by default: processing happens locally, so your photos stay under your control.
- Free to use: no subscription plan or recurring fee.
- Folder-first: work directly with your existing folders, no import step required.
- Built for large libraries: smooth browsing and organization across thousands of photos and videos.
- Browse and filter by date, location, camera, lens, tags, favorites, ratings, and faces(BETA).
- Manage multiple libraries and switch between them quickly.
- Find duplicates and batch move unwanted copies to trash.
- Edit in place with crop, rotate, flip, resize, and basic adjustments.
- Keep folders in sync with filesystem-aware operations and refresh support.
- Use local search tools such as text/image search, similar-image search, face clustering, and smart tags.
- View RAW photos with built-in decoding for 20+ camera RAW formats (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG, etc.).
- Support more image and video formats such as Live Photos and Motion Photos.
- Expand metadata support for standards commonly used in photography workflows, including EXIF, XMP, and IPTC.
Requirements: Node.js 20+, pnpm, Rust stable.
# macOS system deps xcode-select --install brew install nasm pkg-config autoconf automake libtool # Linux system deps (Ubuntu/Debian) # sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev \ # patchelf nasm clang pkg-config autoconf automake libtool # Clone and build git clone --recursive https://github.com/julyx10/lap.git cd lap ./scripts/download_models.sh # Windows: .\scripts\download_models.ps1 cd src-vite && pnpm install && cd .. cargo tauri dev| Type | Formats |
|---|---|
| Images | JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, HEIF |
| RAW photos | CR2, CR3, CRW, NEF, NRW, ARW, SRF, SR2, RAF, RW2, ORF, PEF, DNG, SRW, RWL, MRW, 3FR, MOS, DCR, KDC, ERF, MEF, RAW, MDC |
| Videos | MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM |
- Core: Tauri + Rust
- Frontend: Vue + Vite + Tailwind CSS
- Data: SQLite
| Library | Purpose |
|---|---|
| LibRaw | RAW image decoding and thumbnail extraction |
| FFmpeg | Video decoding and thumbnail generation |
| ONNX Runtime | Local AI model inference engine |
| CLIP | Image-text similarity search |
| InsightFace | Face detection and recognition |
| Leaflet | Interactive map for geotagged photos |
| Video.js | Video playback |
| daisyUI | UI component library |
GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

