aiprov

Interactive TUI for writing IPTC/XMP provenance metadata to AI-generated images.

Writes machine-readable XMP fields — including the IPTC DigitalSourceType value for generative AI media — directly into a source image (PNG, JPEG, TIFF; also WebP and AVIF/HEIF when used as source). These fields can support AI-image disclosure workflows, including those required by EU AI Act Art. 50 transparency obligations.

Art. 50 also requires a human-visible indication (badge, caption, alt text) — that part depends on your publishing setup.

See Article (German)

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Quickstart

# Run without installing (always fetches the latest version)
npx @mkorun/aiprov my-image.png

# Or install as a dev dependency in your project
npm install --save-dev @mkorun/aiprov
npx aiprov my-image.png

# Bun
bun add -d @mkorun/aiprov
bunx aiprov my-image.png

Requires: ExifTool installed on your system (see below).

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Requirements

Runtime

The published CLI (dist/index.js) runs on Node.js ≥ 18 or Bun ≥ 1.0.

Running the TypeScript source directly (bun index.ts) requires Bun. Node cannot run .ts files directly.

ExifTool

Linux / WSL2 / macOS:

# Debian/Ubuntu/WSL2
sudo apt install libimage-exiftool-perl

# macOS
brew install exiftool

Windows:

# Recommended — built into Windows 10/11, supports winget upgrade
winget install exiftool

# Alternative (requires Chocolatey)
choco install exiftool

If neither package manager is available: download the standalone .exe from exiftool.org, rename exiftool(-k).exe to exiftool.exe, and place it on your PATH.

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Usage

aiprov my-image.png

The TUI reads existing tags, pre-fills all fields, and runs exiftool after confirmation.

Fields written

Field	Description
XMP-dc:Creator	Author / creator (machine-readable entity)
XMP-xmp:CreateDate	Creation date; time always 00:00:00 (privacy)
XMP-dc:Description	Short description of the image content (optional)
XMP-dc:Subject	Tags, comma-separated (e.g. AI-generated, Ideogram)
XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType	trainedAlgorithmicMedia — IPTC value for generative AI media; can support AI disclosure workflows
XMP-photoshop:Credit	Display credit string, e.g. "Jane Doe / Ideogram" — maps to creditText in schema.org
XMP-<ns>:aiTool	AI tool used (Ideogram, Midjourney, DALL-E …)
XMP-<ns>:destination	Target site (example.com …)
XMP-<ns>:aiPrompt	Full generation prompt — stripped from web derivatives

<ns> is the custom namespace prefix from config.json (default: myns).

Priority

Existing XMP tags in the image > config.json defaults > built-in fallbacks

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Configuration

On first run, aiprov starts an interactive setup wizard that creates config.json for you.

Config location: ~/.config/aiprov/config.json

Override with an environment variable:

AIPROV_CONFIG_DIR=/custom/path aiprov image.png

To edit afterwards, open the file directly. Format:

{
  "namespace":    "myns",
  "namespaceUrl": "https://mysite.com/xmp/myns/1.0/",
  "creator":      "Your Name",
  "subject":      "AI-generated",
  "dstType":      "trainedAlgorithmicMedia",
  "aiTool":       "Ideogram",
  "destination":  "mysite.com"
}

ExifTool_config (the Perl custom-namespace definition) is generated automatically from config.json on each run — no manual editing required.

Custom namespace

The myns: prefix (or whatever you set in namespace) defines fields for internal use — primarily aiPrompt. Since these are in your own namespace, they can be selectively stripped from web derivatives without touching the public provenance fields.

NCName rule: The namespace prefix must not contain hyphens. Use myns, acme, mko — not my-ns.

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Language

The TUI language is auto-detected from the LANG environment variable. Falls back to English.

LANG	Language
de_*	Deutsch
fr_*	Français
es_*	Español
it_*	Italiano
anything else	English (default)

Override for a single run:

LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 aiprov image.png

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Bun (direct execution from source)

git clone https://github.com/mkorun/aiprov
cd aiprov
bun index.ts my-image.png
# or link globally
bun link
aiprov my-image.png

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Build (npm package from source)

npm install
npm run build
# dist/index.js is ready with #!/usr/bin/env node shebang

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Why ExifTool and not a native library?

Two Rust ports exist (exiftool-rs, exif-oxide) but both explicitly drop custom tag configuration — a custom namespace schema like myns: would not work with either. ExifTool is a moving target (monthly releases); both ports chase it and shed the hardest parts first. For a tool that depends on a custom namespace, ExifTool + Perl is the only reliable option today.

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Structured Data & Licensing — Design Decisions (ADR)

Context

SEO tools, including Google Search Console, may report up to four ImageObject fields as missing in structured data: creditText, copyrightNotice, license, acquireLicensePage. Google documents these in its image license metadata guide. The same fields map to XMP/IPTC metadata in image files.

What aiprov implements

XMP field	schema.org field	Decision
XMP-photoshop:Credit	creditText	✓ Written — display credit, e.g. "Jane Doe / Ideogram"
XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType	digitalSourceType	✓ Written — trainedAlgorithmicMedia
XMP-dc:Creator	creator	✓ Written — machine-readable creator entity
XMP-dc:Description	description (ImageObject)	✓ Written — image content description

What aiprov deliberately omits — and why

aiprov does not write copyrightNotice, license, or acquireLicensePage by default. For AI-generated images, these fields may imply rights or licensing statements that depend on jurisdiction, the degree of human creative input, and individual legal assessment. aiprov therefore focuses on provenance and disclosure metadata instead.

Background on copyrightNotice → XMP-dc:rights

In many jurisdictions (including Germany/EU under §§ 2, 7 UrhG and EuGH Painer, C-145/10), copyright requires a personal intellectual creation by a natural person. For standard AI-generated images where the model makes the decisive creative choices, the copyright status of the output is legally uncertain or unprotected. Adding a copyright notice may imply rights that do not exist — consult your local laws and legal counsel if you need to make a copyright claim.

Background on license → XMP-xmpRights:WebStatement

A license is a grant of rights. If copyright status is unclear, a standard Creative Commons license (CC BY, CC BY-NC, etc.) may create an inconsistent signal. CC0 (Public Domain Dedication) includes a "no rights to waive" clause and may be a more appropriate option to evaluate if you want to signal open reuse for AI-generated images — but this still depends on your jurisdiction and publishing context.

acquireLicensePage

Only meaningful if you have a licensing page to link to. Omit if you have no such page.

What DigitalSourceType provides

XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType: trainedAlgorithmicMedia is the IPTC-standardized machine-readable signal for AI-generated content (IPTC guidance for AI-generated media). It communicates how the image was created — separate from, and not a replacement for, copyright or licensing information.

Note: DigitalSourceType is not a legal compliance solution. It is a standardized disclosure signal. Whether additional steps are required depends on your use case and applicable law.

Note: Google Search Console may report copyrightNotice, license, creditText, and acquireLicensePage as missing in image structured data. These are classified as non-critical improvement suggestions — they do not affect indexing or ranking. See Google's image license metadata guide for context.

For JSON-LD publishers

The same reasoning applies to ImageObject in JSON-LD structured data (e.g. in BlogPosting schema):

JSON-LD field	Source	Decision
creditText	XMP-photoshop:Credit (→ XMP-dc:Creator as fallback)	✓ Populate from image XMP
description	XMP-dc:Description	✓ Populate from image XMP
digitalSourceType	XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType	✓ Populate from image XMP
license	—	✗ Omit by default — copyright status of AI images is jurisdiction-dependent
copyrightNotice	—	✗ Omit by default — same reason; consult legal counsel if needed
acquireLicensePage	—	✗ Omit unless you have a licensing page to link

Important: creditText must come from the image's XMP metadata, not from the article's author: field. The article author and the image creator are different roles (e.g. a guest author writes the article, but the site owner created the image).

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Further reading

• IPTC DigitalSourceType vocabulary
• EU AI Act Art. 50 (transparency obligations)
• Google image license metadata guide
• schema.org ImageObject
• ExifTool custom namespace docs