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File metadata and controls

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MetaLens

Version License Platform

MetaLens — Universal File Metadata Manager

Universal File Metadata Manager — read, edit, delete and compare metadata across all major file formats.

Features

  • File-manager UI: folder tree + file list + metadata detail panel
  • All major formats: images (JPEG/PNG/TIFF/WebP/RAW), audio (MP3/FLAC/OGG/M4A/WAV), video (MP4/MKV/MOV), documents (PDF/DOCX/XLSX/PPTX/DOC/XLS), any file (filesystem metadata)
  • Full operations: read, edit, delete individual fields, compare/diff two files
  • Atomic writes: temp-file + rename — no file corruption on failure
  • Undo stack: 50 operations per session
  • File integrity hashes: on-demand MD5 / SHA-1 / SHA-256 / SHA-512 / BLAKE2b with one-click copy
  • Cyber dark theme: professional dark UI with cyan/blue accents
  • Compiled binaries: no Python or Node.js required to run

Download

See Releases for pre-built binaries:

Platform Download
Windows 11 MetaLens-vX.Y.Z-Setup-Windows.exe
Linux (deb) MetaLens-vX.Y.Z-Linux.deb
Linux (rpm) MetaLens-vX.Y.Z-Linux.rpm
Linux (tar) MetaLens-vX.Y.Z-Linux.tar.gz

Build from Source

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.11–3.13
  • Node.js 20+
  • npm 10+

Steps

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/MetaLens.git
cd MetaLens

# 2. Install Python dependencies
cd python
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate        # Linux
# .venv\Scripts\activate         # Windows
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 3. Install Node dependencies
cd ../electron && npm install
cd ../frontend && npm install

# 4. Run in development mode
cd ../electron && npm start

# 5. Build for production
cd python && pyinstaller main.py --onefile --name metalens-sidecar
cd ../frontend && npm run build
cd ../electron && npm run make

Supported Formats

Category Formats Read Write
Images JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, WebP ✅ ✅
Images (RAW) CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG ✅ —
Audio MP3, FLAC, OGG, M4A, WAV, AIFF, WMA, APE, Opus ✅ ✅
Video MP4, MOV ✅ ✅
Video MKV, AVI ✅ —
Documents PDF ✅ ✅
Office DOCX, XLSX, PPTX ✅ ✅
Office (legacy) DOC, XLS, PPT ✅ —
Any file Filesystem timestamps, permissions, xattr ✅ ✅
Other Hundreds of formats via hachoir ✅ —

File Integrity

Compute cryptographic hashes on demand from the Metadata tab — no impact on browsing performance:

Algorithm Notes
MD5 Legacy, widely used for checksums
SHA-1 Legacy, used by Git and many tools
SHA-256 Modern standard, recommended
SHA-512 High-security workloads
BLAKE2b Fast modern algorithm, built into Python

Architecture

Electron Main (Node.js)
    ├── Spawns Python sidecar (FastAPI, localhost only)
    ├── Manages window, native menus, file dialogs
    └── IPC bridge (contextBridge) ↔ React renderer

Python Sidecar (FastAPI)
    ├── /list   — directory listing with handler detection
    ├── /read   — full metadata extraction
    ├── /write  — atomic metadata write-back
    ├── /delete — field removal
    └── /diff   — metadata comparison

React Frontend (Vite + TailwindCSS)
    ├── FolderPanel  — folder tree navigation
    ├── FilePanel    — file list with metadata summary
    └── DetailPanel  — View / Edit / Diff tabs

License

MIT License — © 2026 Graziano Mariella

See LICENSE for full text.

Credits

Developed by Graziano Mariella.