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 need from 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.
- Sort into year/month folders using photo dates; put undated ones in 'no-date'.
- List duplicates and burst shots; don't delete anything.
- Write a summary of major events by date.
- Group burst shots together.
- Leave the private folder untouched.

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

If any of this is unclear, tell me what you have and I'll help fill the gaps.

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

Source

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