Organize 12,000 photos by date and find duplicates with Claude Code

Posted

Sep 20, 2025 by Tyler Folkman (Gradient Ascent)

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Last checked

Oct 16, 2026

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Method:

How we verify

Evidence: Article or interviewA newsletter, journalist or interview account of what happened.

Outcome

Asked to organize 12,000+ photos by EXIF date and location, find duplicates and group burst shots, Claude Code built year/month folders and an event summary, found 3,200 duplicates and 890 burst shots, and surfaced photos the author thought were lost, in about twenty minutes.

Agent

Claude Code

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

Let's work this out together. I'll tell you what I'm after; help me sharpen the goal before you dive in, and check in with me before anything you can't undo.

Goal: Organize years of photos into dated folders and flag duplicates.

Questions to explore first: Which folder, and should duplicates be moved or just listed?

What I'll give you:
- Photo folder path
- A backup (required before any moves)
- Photos to exclude (e.g. a private folder)

Rules:
- Start by restating my goal and suggesting 2–3 ways to approach it; recommend one.
- Confirm a backup exists before starting, and leave the private folder untouched.
- Sort into year/month folders using photo dates; put undated ones in 'no-date'.
- Group burst shots together and list duplicates. Don't delete anything.
- Write a summary of major events by date.

Output: Organized folders, a duplicates list and an event summary, plus 2–3 suggested next steps.

If anything here is unclear or missing, ask me instead of guessing.

You'll know it worked when: every photo is in a dated folder and nothing was deleted.

Let's work this out together. I'll tell you what I'm after; help me sharpen the goal before you dive in, and check in with me before anything you can't undo.

Goal: Organize years of photos into dated folders and flag duplicates, safely.

First: restate the goal in one sentence, suggest 2–3 ways to approach it, recommend one, and wait for my pick.

Inputs (fill in or confirm):
- Photo folder path
- Backup location (required)
- Photos to exclude
- File types included (RAW, HEIC, video)

Rules:
- Suggest 2–3 approaches and recommend one.
- Use EXIF date, then file date, and log which was used.
- Find duplicates by content hash.
- Move duplicates to review, never delete.
- Keep RAW+JPEG pairs together.
- Use YYYY/YYYY-MM folders unless I choose otherwise.
- Write a CSV log (old path, new path, date source) so any move can be reversed.
- Do a dry run on a sample of 200 photos first.
- Group burst shots separately from true duplicates.

Checkpoint: Confirm a backup exists before any move.

If you get stuck: If dates are missing, put photos in 'undated'. If a login, CAPTCHA or two-step code appears, stop and ask me to handle it; never guess or store passwords.

Verify before you finish: Count photos before and after.

Output: Folder tree, duplicate list and log, plus next steps.

Done when: every photo is in a dated folder and nothing is lost.

Source

https://newsletter.artofsaience.com/p/claude-code-is-not-a-coding-toolits