Photos Library Sort Helper is a local-first macOS app for reviewing similar media from Apple Photos or a regular folder. It is built for a conservative manual workflow: the app groups likely-similar items for review, but it does not auto-pick winners, auto-delete media, or silently move files.
This is a Sidelark Labs / John Kenneth Fisher project. More Sidelark Labs projects live at sidelarklabs.com.
- No automatic deletion.
- No direct destructive delete action.
- No hidden telemetry, analytics, ads, or background sync.
- Photos access is requested only when Photos work starts.
- Folder writes happen only after an explicit commit review.
- Marked discards are queued into review destinations instead of being deleted.
- macOS 15 or later.
- Xcode for local builds.
- User-granted Photos permission for Photos Library review.
- Read/write access to any folder-mode source you intentionally select.
When the review pane is active:
Left Arrow/Right Arrow: move to the previous or next group.Up Arrow/Down Arrow: highlight the previous or next item.`: toggle the highlighted item between keep and discard.E: queue the highlighted item for edit.
The Review menu also includes command-key shortcuts for scanning, stopping a scan, group navigation, item navigation, keep/discard actions, edit queueing, and opening the summary.
- Current status and known limitations are tracked in docs/WHERE_WE_STAND.md.
- Durable project decisions are tracked in docs/DECISIONS.md.
- Agent instructions begin in AGENTS.md.