Read, write, and remove metadata from 150+ file formats using ExifTool
Read, write, and remove metadata from 150+ file formats using ExifTool. That is what the exiftool mcp server brings to an AI assistant: the same capability, reachable through the Model Context Protocol rather than a separate app or dashboard.
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides access to ExifTool for reading, writing, and removing metadata from a wide range of file types.
Installation goes through your MCP client rather than a global install: point it at exiftool-mcp on PyPI and it is fetched when the client starts. The copy-paste blocks for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor are further down this page.
The server publishes 5 tools. What each one is for:
read_metadata — The read_metadata tool exposed by this serverwrite_metadata — Write or update metadata tags in a file using ExifTool. Creates a backup by defaultremove_metadata — Remove metadata from a file using ExifTool. Can remove all metadata or specific tagslist_supported_formats — The list_supported_formats tool exposed by this serverSetup — The Setup tool exposed by this serverExifTool must be installed on your system. This MCP server is a wrapper that calls the ExifTool command-line tool.
Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Exiftool's toolset — read_metadata, write_metadata, remove_metadata and 2 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by joshmsimpson; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| read_metadata | The read_metadata tool exposed by this server. |
| write_metadata | Write or update metadata tags in a file using ExifTool. Creates a backup by default. |
| remove_metadata | Remove metadata from a file using ExifTool. Can remove all metadata or specific tags. |
| list_supported_formats | The list_supported_formats tool exposed by this server. |
| Setup | The Setup tool exposed by this server. |
{
"mcpServers": {
"exiftool": {
"command": "exiftool-mcp"
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
ExifTool must be installed on your system. This MCP server is a wrapper that calls the ExifTool command-line tool.
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