Your RAW Library,
at the Speed of Thought.
RapidReady is a lightweight, catalog-free Digital Asset Manager (DAM) engineered for high-volume photographers. Ingest shoots, organize local archives, and cull thousands of high-res RAWs at zero latency — with universal XMP sidecars and seamless handoff to RapidRAW, darktable, and Lightroom Classic.
More Than Just Ingest: A Modern, Fast DAM
RapidReady is designed to organize, triage, and manage thousands of high-resolution RAW files without locking your collection into a proprietary, fragile catalog database.
Catalog-Free Archive Management
Browse internal NVMe drives, external SSDs, and network storage directly through the native filesystem. Move, rename, or backup folders in Finder without fear of corrupting monolithic catalog files.
- Direct filesystem reading via Rust multicore scanner
- Synchronized dual-highlighting folder hierarchy
- Zero SQLite lock-in or database bloat
Zero-Latency Culling & Triage
Skip slow RAW debayering. RapidReady extracts embedded previews instantly, paired with keyboard-driven auto-advance, hardware-accelerated fullscreen presentation, and real-time histogram analysis.
- Configurable muscle memory: Lightroom (P / X / U) or darktable (R, F2–F5)
- Fullscreen slideshow mode with GPU crossfades and live rating
- Live RGB & luminance histogram (H) and safe OS Trash deletion
Smart Ingest & Token Archiving
Automate your import workflow with volume auto-detection, customizable date token structures, companion RAW+JPEG grouping, and zero-I/O duplicate detection against existing archives.
- Auto-detects SD, CFexpress, and USB storage with instant scan cancel
- Format quick-filters (RAW/JPG/Video) with real-time target storage math
- Pre-import culling & archive duplicate detection before copying
Universal Sidecars & EXIF Inspector
Non-destructive rating, tagging, and metadata editing with universal sidecar coexistence. Preserves all foreign XML development blocks and resolves conflicts automatically via filesystem modification time.
- Universal Adobe XMP (.xmp) & RapidRAW (.rrdata) dual-sync
- Supports Adobe standard (file.xmp) and darktable (file.ext.xmp)
- Comprehensive technical EXIF inspector (camera, lens, shutter, sub-second)
High-Performance NAS & Network Storage
Browse massive studio archives over SMB, NFS, or 10GbE network shares with near-local responsiveness. Built from the ground up to eliminate the dreaded network database bottlenecks of legacy tools.
- Zero SQLite network lockups — bypasses Adobe's classic NAS catalog restriction
- High-throughput concurrent thumbnail streaming and pre-caching
- Seamless support for Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS, and SMB3 multi-channel pools
Geo-Location: Read, Set & Rich Formats
Full spatial awareness for your shoots. Inspect embedded GPS coordinates from camera logs or assign and fine-tune locations manually with comprehensive coordinate format flexibility.
- Read and directly set / edit non-destructively latitude, longitude, and elevation
- Flexible coordinate parsing: Decimal (DD.dddd°), DMS (DD° MM' SS''), and map URLs
- Broad format compatibility: Sony ARW, Canon CR2/CR3, Nikon NEF, Fuji RAF, DNG & JPEG
Dual-View GPU Focus Peaking
Instant sharpness verification powered by WebGL. Utilizing a Difference-of-Gradients bandpass filter inspired by darktable, RapidReady isolates true optical micro-contrast at the focal plane without false triggers on high-ISO noise or background bokeh.
- Dual-view inspection: Instant toggle (F key) in both 1:1 Loupe and Inspector preview
- Difference-of-Gradients bandpass (Δ1px vs Δ2px) eliminating bokeh and noise artifacts
- 4 signal colors (Neon Green, Red, Cyan, Yellow) and 3 sensitivity presets at 120 FPS
Storyboard Collections & Sequential Export
Organize project-driven albums non-destructively without duplicating disk space. Arrange narrative sequences by drag-and-drop, and export with sequential numbering to guarantee your exact curation order in photobooks and client galleries.
- Manual drag-and-drop sequencing for photobook layouts and web albums
- Numbered export (001_..., 002_...) preserving narrative order across third-party print labs
- Non-destructive virtual albums with safe deletion guardrails and import tagging
Fast Triage. No Catalog Bloat.
Most photography workflows hit the same wall: monolithic catalogs make you wait minutes just to render previews before you can reject a blurry shot, while legacy photo browsers demand recurring subscriptions and run background cloud daemons.
RapidReady is a lightweight, folder-first companion engineered for pure desktop responsiveness. It lets you triage thousands of RAWs straight on your filesystem with zero lag, standard XMP sidecars, and complete offline privacy.
No database lock-in. No background services. Just your local photos, ready to cull instantly.
The Missing Frontline for RapidRAW & FOSS Photography
We all love and admire RapidRAW for its blazingly fast GPU processing pipeline, beautiful editing interface, and non-destructive philosophy. But every great RAW developer needs a dedicated companion to ingest, organize, and cull shoots before creative grading begins.
RapidReady is that missing piece — built with 100% bidirectional sync for RapidRAW and universal, lossless sidecar handoff to darktable and Adobe Lightroom Classic.
RapidReady
Media Ingest, folder structures, zero-latency culling, star ratings, and safe triage.
RapidRAW
GPU color grading, tone curves, AI masking, non-destructive image adjustments.
100% Culling Parity
Picks (P) and rejects (X / R) sync seamlessly into RapidRAW tag arrays, darktable color labels, and Adobe Lightroom XMP. Star ratings (1–5) match 1:1.
Configurable RAW Launcher
Hand off keepers instantly. Launch directly into RapidRAW, darktable, Lightroom Classic, or your favorite RAW converter with a single shortcut key.
Non-Destructive SSoT Engine
Edits, tone curves, and history stacks remain 100% intact. Dual-sidecar conflicts resolve automatically using filesystem modification timestamps (mtime).
Platforms & Roadmap
Built on Rust and Tauri v2 for native desktop efficiency across modern operating systems.
macOS
Apple Silicon native (M1/M2/M3/M4). Lightweight ~6.5 MB footprint with native windowing.
Download .dmg ↗Windows
Native 64-bit Windows build (x64). Multithreaded drive scanning, native Recycle Bin support, and full RapidRAW sync.
Download Installer ↗Linux
AppImage and Flatpak releases planned for Linux photography workstations running Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch.
In active developmentWhat’s Ahead on the Roadmap
Active engineering priorities and core architecture planned for upcoming releases.
Metadata & Ingest
-
Universal XMP & Sidecar Coexistence Delivered
Non-destructive Adobe XMP (
.xmp) and RapidRAW (.rrdata) sidecar synchronization with automatic filesystem modification time (mtime) conflict resolution. -
Extended IPTC & Rights Authoring
Standardized assignment of creator, copyright notices, credit lines, and captions with complete IPTC/XMP sidecar sync for agency-ready workflows.
-
Import History & Session Audit
Full journal of past import sessions with camera body tags, import timestamps, file counts, and duplicate statistics for transparent archive auditing.
Archive & Collections
-
Virtual Collections & Smart Filters Delivered
Delivered: Virtual albums with drag-and-drop storyboard sequencing and sequential numbered export (
001_...) for photobooks and web galleries.
Next up: Dynamic rules-based smart albums automatically filtering archive assets by EXIF parameters, ratings, focal lengths, and camera models. -
Archive Health Check & Repair
Automated archive auditing to detect bitrot corruption, discover orphaned sidecars, deduplicate storage, and execute guided integrity repairs.
-
Large-Library Scale (>50,000 RAWs)
Folder-based lazy loading and unlimited directory tree depths for fluid, zero-latency browsing across massive long-term photo archives.
Performance & Platforms
-
Speculative RAM Pre-Caching Delivered
Intelligent idle background warming for adjacent thumbnails and previews (visible ±20) to drop loupe inspection delay to a true 0 ms.
-
Linux Desktop Distribution
Dedicated native AppImage and Flatpak releases optimized for Linux photography workstations running Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch.
-
SD Card & Bus Health Diagnostics
Continuous USB read-speed benchmarking and I/O timeout early warning system to protect shoots before formatting flash media.
Getting Started
RapidReady is distributed as lightweight native desktop releases directly from GitHub.
Download .dmg
Download RapidReady.dmg (~6.5 MB) from our GitHub repository releases.
Drag to Applications
Mount the disk image and drag RapidReady into your local /Applications folder.
One-Time Permission
Open Terminal once to clear the macOS quarantine flag for open-source community tools.
xattr -cr /Applications/RapidReady.app
Why is this command needed? RapidReady is 100% free and community-driven. To keep the software free without charging monthly subscriptions, we avoid Apple's annual commercial Developer Program notarization fee. Alternatively, right-click the app in Finder and select Open.
Report an Issue or Suggest an Idea
RapidReady thrives on real-world feedback from photographers in the field. Thank you for taking the time to test, report edge cases, and help make RapidReady faster and more reliable with every release!
Ready to Speed Up Your Library?
Download RapidReady now for macOS and Windows. Free forever, open source under the MIT License, and engineered for high-volume RAW photography.
Get RapidReady on GitHub — 100% Free