apple-photos

Apple Photos

Manage the macOS Photos library via AppleScript/JXA: search, export, and create albums.

Use Cases

• The user says "Help me find the photos I took in Tokyo last year" or "Where are my recent screenshots"
• The user says "Export all the photos in this album"
• The user says "Create an album called Travel"

Execution Method

Search Photos

osascript -e '
tell application "Photos"
    set results to (media items whose description contains "Tokyo" or name contains "Tokyo")
    set output to ""
    repeat with photo in (items 1 thru (min of {20, count of results}) of results)
        set output to output & (id of photo) & " | " & (filename of photo) & " | " & (date of photo) & linefeed
    end repeat
    return output
end tell'

Search by date range

osascript -e '
tell application "Photos"
    set startDate to date "2025-12-01"
    set endDate to date "2025-12-31"
    set results to (media items whose date ≥ startDate and date ≤ endDate)
    return (count of results) & " photos found"
end tell'

Get album list

osascript -e '
tell application "Photos"
    set output to ""
    repeat with a in albums
        set output to output & (name of a) & " (" & (count of media items of a) & " items)" & linefeed
    end repeat
    return output
end tell'

Create album

osascript -e '
tell application "Photos"
    make new album named "旅行 2026"
end tell'

Export photos

osascript -e '
tell application "Photos"
    set targetAlbum to album "旅行 2026"
    set exportPath to POSIX file "/Users/me/Desktop/export/"
    export (media items of targetAlbum) to exportPath
end tell'

Output Specifications

• Search results display thumbnail information (file name, date, count)
• Confirm the count and destination directory before export operations
• Do not delete photos; only read and export