🔍 File Insights

A small tool you run on your own PC to view and edit file metadata through a friendly browser interface — no cloud, nothing leaves your machine.

Point it at a folder and it lets you:

• Browse your files with sizes, types and icons
• View full metadata for any file:
  • created / modified / accessed dates
  • size, MIME type, permissions, owner, symlink targets
  • MD5 / SHA-1 / SHA-256 checksums (computed on demand)
  • Photos — dimensions, camera make/model, GPS location, EXIF dates
  • Music — title, artist, album, duration, bitrate (MP3, FLAC, OGG, M4A…)
  • PDFs — title, author, subject, page count
  • Office docs — author, title, revision (docx / xlsx / pptx / odt…)
• Edit the editable bits:
  • rename files
  • change modified and accessed timestamps (all platforms) and the created timestamp on Windows
  • change POSIX permissions (Linux / macOS)
  • edit EXIF fields (description, artist, copyright, date taken…)
  • remove GPS location from photos, or strip all EXIF in one click
  • edit audio tags and PDF document info

Quick start

You need Python 3.9+ installed.

git clone https://github.com/exotic209093/file-insights.git
cd file-insights
pip install -r requirements.txt   # flask + all optional format handlers
python -m file_insights

Your browser opens at http://127.0.0.1:8765 showing your home folder.

Options

python -m file_insights serve --root "D:\Photos"   # browse a specific folder
python -m file_insights serve --port 9000          # different port
python -m file_insights serve --no-browser         # don't auto-open a browser
python -m file_insights inspect path/to/file.jpg   # print metadata as JSON

Optional dependencies

Only Flask is required. Each format handler switches on when its library is installed — the UI tells you what to install if a section is unavailable:

Feature	Install
Image EXIF view/edit	pip install Pillow piexif
Audio tags	pip install mutagen
PDF document info	pip install pypdf
Office doc props	built in (nothing needed)

Platform notes

• Modified / accessed dates are editable everywhere.
• Created date is editable on Windows only — Linux and macOS don't expose an API to change a file's birth time. On Linux the "created" value shown is actually the inode-change time (the filesystem doesn't always store a true creation time), and the UI labels it as such.
• Permissions editing (octal chmod) is available on Linux / macOS.
• EXIF editing works on JPEG and TIFF; other image formats are view-only.

Safety

• The server binds to 127.0.0.1 only — nothing on your network can reach it.
• Browsing is confined to the root folder you start it with (your home folder by default); requests outside it are rejected.
• Metadata edits change your real files. There is no undo — if you're experimenting, work on copies.

Development

pip install -e ".[all,dev]"
pytest

The code layout:

file_insights/
├── __main__.py      # CLI entry point (serve / inspect)
├── server.py        # Flask app + JSON API
├── metadata.py      # core stat-based metadata (stdlib only)
├── editors.py       # rename, timestamps, permissions
├── handlers/        # per-format metadata (EXIF, audio, PDF, Office)
└── static/          # browser UI (vanilla HTML/CSS/JS)