Mulita - Self-Hosted Photo Management Application

A self-hosted, Docker-deployed photo management application inspired by Lightroom's workflow. Mulita provides a fast, keyboard-driven interface to browse, organize, tag, and manage your photo library.

Features

• Photo Organization: Browse photos in a timeline view with virtual scrolling for performance
• Thumbnail Generation: Automatic thumbnail generation for all photo formats including RAW
• Metadata Extraction: Full EXIF/XMP metadata extraction and search
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Lightroom-style keyboard navigation and actions
• File Support: JPEG, PNG, RAW formats (CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, etc.), HEIC/HEIF, and videos
• Heaps: Temporary collections for organizing photos
• Tags & Ratings: Organize with tags, star ratings, and color labels
• Dark Mode: Photography-optimized dark interface

Tech Stack

Backend

• Python 3.12 with FastAPI
• SQLite with SQLAlchemy (async)
• Celery + Redis for background tasks
• pyvips for fast thumbnail generation
• ExifTool for metadata extraction

Frontend

• React 18 with TypeScript
• Vite for fast development
• TanStack Query for data fetching
• TanStack Virtual for virtualized scrolling
• Tailwind CSS for styling
• Zustand for state management

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose

Setup (one variable)

1. Clone the repo:

git clone <repository-url>
cd muleimage

2. Copy the example env file and set one variable — the host directory that contains your photo library. Whatever you point at will become your library inside Mulita.

   cp .env.example .env
   # then edit .env and set PHOTO_DIRS:
   #   macOS / Linux:    PHOTO_DIRS=/Users/you/Pictures
   #   Network share:    PHOTO_DIRS=/mnt/nas/photos
   #   Windows (WSL):    PHOTO_DIRS=/mnt/c/Users/you/Pictures
   

3. Start the stack:

docker compose up -d

4. Open http://localhost:3000. On first boot Mulita will:
   • Mount your PHOTO_DIRS at /photos inside the container
   • Auto-create a source root called Library pointing at /photos
   • Queue an initial scan, generate thumbnails, and start serving them

You don't need to touch mulita.yml or the API to get started.

Configuration knobs

Everything is environment-driven. PHOTO_DIRS is the only required value; the rest have sensible defaults documented in .env.example:

Variable	Default	Notes
PHOTO_DIRS	—	Required. Host path mounted at /photos.
FRONTEND_PORT	3000	SPA host port. Bump if 3000 is taken.
BACKEND_PORT	8001	Direct backend port (debug only — frontend uses internal nginx proxy).
REDIS_PORT	6379	Redis host port (internal services don't need it).
ALLOWED_ORIGINS	*	Comma-separated CORS origins for direct backend access. Lock down for prod, e.g. https://photos.example.com.
LOG_LEVEL	INFO	Backend + worker log level. DEBUG for chasing scan issues.
TZ	UTC	Container timezone. Affects log timestamps and "added at".
CELERYD_CONCURRENCY	4	Parallel worker processes (scans, thumbs, metadata). Lower on a Pi, higher on a beefy host.

Accessing from another machine

The frontend talks to the backend through its bundled nginx, which proxies /api/ to the backend on the internal compose network. That means requests are always same-origin as the page, so accessing Mulita from another host works without any CORS dance:

http://<your-server-ip>:3000

If you want to put it behind a reverse proxy at e.g. https://photos.your.tld, set ALLOWED_ORIGINS to that host so the backend's direct port (BACKEND_PORT) also accepts cross-origin requests if anything bypasses the proxy.

How libraries are managed

Mulita is config-driven: the host directory you mount via PHOTO_DIRS becomes your library, and the backend automatically registers it as a source root on startup. There is no UI for adding or removing source roots — to change what Mulita scans, edit .env (or docker-compose.yml for multi-mount setups) and restart the stack.

This keeps the model simple: the docker mount IS the library. No two layers, no confusion about which view to use.

Changing or adding libraries

To point at a different library:

1. Edit PHOTO_DIRS in .env
2. docker compose down
3. (Optional, for a clean slate) docker volume rm muleimage_db_data muleimage_thumbs_data muleimage_proxies_data
4. docker compose up -d

The new library shows up automatically. Without step 3 the old library's metadata stays in the DB and you'll see a warning at startup that the old source root's path is missing on disk — that's a hint to clean up.

For multiple libraries, edit docker-compose.yml and add additional mount lines:

volumes:
  - ${PHOTO_DIRS}:/photos:rw
  - /Volumes/Archive:/archive:rw   # additional library

Each mounted directory will need a corresponding source root row in the DB; today that means POST /api/v1/folders via curl, or wait for the multi-mount auto-registration that's on the roadmap.

Read-only libraries

The default mount is :rw because file operations (rename, move, empty discard pile) need to mutate the filesystem. If you want a strict read-only library — pointing at a network share, an authoritative archive, etc. — flip :rw to :ro in docker-compose.yml. Mulita will keep working for browsing, rating, color labels, picks, heaps, and the (soft) discard flag, but the following will return an OS error:

• PATCH /photos/{id} with a new filename (rename)
• POST /photos/move (bulk move)
• DELETE /discard/empty (file unlinks)

Heads up: with :rw, Mulita has full write access to whatever host directory you mount. Treat the same way you would Lightroom's catalog folder.

Architecture

The application consists of 5 Docker services:

• frontend: React SPA served by Nginx
• backend: FastAPI REST API
• worker: Celery workers for background tasks
• redis: Message broker for Celery
• db: SQLite database (file-based)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
← → ↑ ↓	Navigate photos
Space	Quick preview
Enter	Open loupe view
P	Pick photo
X	Reject photo
1-5	Set star rating
Tab	Toggle left sidebar
I	Toggle metadata panel
G	Grid view
E	Loupe view
Delete	Move to trash

Development

Backend Development

cd backend
pip install -r requirements.txt
uvicorn app.main:app --reload

Frontend Development

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Configuration

Source roots are managed by the UI / API (the database owns them). Edit mulita.yml to configure operational settings only:

• Thumbnail sizes, quality, and format
• Scanner behaviour (watch, batch size, initial scan)
• Performance tuning (concurrency, cache TTLs, DB pool)

Performance

• Handles 100,000+ photos efficiently
• Virtual scrolling for smooth timeline navigation
• Thumbnail generation at 10+ photos/second
• SQLite FTS5 for fast full-text search

Future Features (Phase 2)

• AI-powered scene classification
• Face detection and clustering
• Smart albums
• Duplicate detection
• Export presets
• Multi-user support

License

MIT