Release notes

0.19.0

Visual Search and a new 3D Model Library expand what Image MetaHub can find, organize and inspect, alongside a dedicated Portable Windows build and important metadata, file-handling and reliability fixes.

• Visual Search: Find visually similar images across the library, including files without generation metadata.
• 3D Model Library: Index, filter, thumbnail, view and export GLB, GLTF, OBJ, FBX and STL models, with sidecar metadata where the format cannot embed it.
• Portable Windows Build: Run Image MetaHub without installation while keeping settings and caches beside the app.
• Dates on Network Shares: Fixed invalid 1969 dates on SMB/CIFS shares when creation time is unavailable.
• Desktop File Actions: Restored Show in Folder, preserved timestamps when copying or moving files, and added a confirmed permanent-delete fallback when the Recycle Bin is unavailable.
• Metadata and Media Reliability: Fixed ComfyUI EXIF detection in JPEG and WebP files, packaged MP4 dimensions and duration, CLI metadata parsing and Card View preview positioning.

0.18.0

A unified Explore workspace replaces Model View, Smart Library and Collections, plus a live ComfyUI generation preview, first-class AVIF metadata support and a round of performance and reliability fixes.

• Unified Explore Surface: Model View, Smart Library and Collections are replaced by a single Explore workspace with Models / Clusters / Collections dimensions and card-based drill-in. Opening a card scopes the Library grid to it, shown as a dedicated chip in Active Filters that stays combinable with every other filter.
• Classic Mode: A new Settings → Appearance toggle restores the old Model View / Smart Library / Collections / Node View labels as shortcuts into Explore, for anyone who prefers the previous navigation.
• ComfyUI Nodes Filter: Node View is retired in favor of a multi-select "ComfyUI Nodes" filter in the sidebar's Generation Parameters, combinable with every other filter and the active scope instead of being a separate screen.
• Header Tools Menu: Automation rules and Auto-tag library moved into a new header "Tools" menu, since they're library-wide operations rather than tied to a specific collection or cluster.
• Live Generation Preview: The Queue now shows a live, KSampler-style preview image that updates step-by-step during ComfyUI generation — both for generations started from MetaHub's own workspace and from the embedded ComfyUI UI. The preview/output image box can be dragged taller for portrait images, and the size is remembered across sessions.
• Run Current Workflow: Added a "Run" button to the top of the Queue that queues whatever workflow is currently loaded in the embedded ComfyUI workspace, so you can trigger a generation from anywhere in the app.
• First-Class AVIF Metadata: Added AVIF discovery, Chromium-backed previews and thumbnails, dimensions, ComfyUI XMP prompt/workflow parsing, legacy AVIF EXIF compatibility, CLI parsing, bounded full-file fallback for late XMP, metadata stripping, and metadata-preserving AVIF export. Exports keep the full prompt and workflow graph in standard ComfyUI XMP fields, while MetaHub's own tags, notes, attribution and an extracted parameter snapshot (model, seed, steps, cfg, sampler, scheduler, negative prompt) live in a compact private extension. Thanks to @austintraver.
• Group By Model/Cluster: Sort Order and Group By moved from the sidebar to the persistent grid footer, with new Group By options for checkpoint model and cluster.
• Reparse Metadata Performance: "Reparse Metadata" no longer rewrites the entire folder cache for a single image, so it stays fast regardless of library size. It patches only the cache chunk(s) that hold the reparsed images instead of re-serializing every entry, and uses a persistent id→chunk index to read just the target chunk directly rather than scanning the whole cache — a big win on large ComfyUI libraries where each chunk can be tens of MB. The index is validated on every use and rebuilt automatically if the cache changed, so it never serves stale data.
• Compare Mode Metadata Panels: Metadata panels in Compare now expand and collapse together and scroll in sync, so one click reveals every image's metadata. Simplified the Standard/Diff toggle and fixed the Flicker view mode, which was rendering both images stacked instead of alternating.
• Library Toolbar: Added a Back button that returns to the matching Explore dimension from a drill-in scope, and moved the Library Tools menu and Analytics button out of the global header into the library toolbar.
• A1111 Sampler/Schedule Parsing: Fixed the Sampler value being written to the Schedule field instead of Sampler, which left the Generation Details pane showing the sampler name under the wrong heading.
• Group By Navigation: Fixed the Group By date/session calendar getting stuck on the active month, and Jump to Group requiring two clicks to scroll correctly on the first try.
• Light Theme Contrast: Fixed accent-colored text that stayed light in the light theme and washed out — the update dialog's download-error message, the active Settings navigation item, and the startup-verification info box are now readable. These colors were hardcoded for the dark themes; a dedicated light-theme override keeps the dark, Dracula, Nord and Ocean themes unchanged.
• ComfyUI Workspace Folder Selector: The folder dropdown in the thumbnail rail now gives its options an explicit background and text color, fixing folder names rendering as white-on-white in the native dropdown.

0.17.5

Clickable Civitai links for model and LoRA hashes in the Image Modal, plus generator detection, metadata and reliability fixes.

• Civitai Links: Model and LoRA hashes in the Image Modal are now clickable and open the matching Civitai page. The lookup happens only when you click — a single request to Civitai's public API, with the result cached locally so each hash is only ever looked up once. Works with A1111, Forge, SD.Next and Fooocus images, plus ComfyUI images saved with the MetaHub Save Node. Can be fully disabled under Settings → Privacy. Indexing and browsing remain 100% offline, as always.
• Generator Detection Priority: Reordered metadata parser dispatch so DreamStudio, Draw Things, Midjourney, Niji and Forge images are correctly identified instead of being swallowed by the generic Automatic1111 catch-all.
• MetaHub Save Node Tags/Notes: Tags and notes from MetaHub Save Node images are no longer dropped during metadata normalization.
• Large Library Metadata Re-reads: Files that overflowed the batch read budget are now re-read consistently, and truncated WebP metadata is detected and re-read the same way PNG already was.
• Folder Tree Sorting: Subfolders now sort case-insensitively and naturally (matching Finder/Windows Explorer) instead of raw filesystem order.
• macOS External File Drag: Dragging grid cards onto ComfyUI or into Finder on macOS now transfers the actual file instead of a text clipping.

0.17.4

ComfyUI workspace and workflow tooling improvements, accessibility and tactile feedback polish, and large-library performance and reliability fixes.

• Create New Folder in Move/Copy: Added a "Create New Folder" option to the Move/Copy To panel, with folder-tree navigation for picking or creating the destination.
• ComfyUI Workspace Drag & Drop: Added drag-and-drop for bringing images into the ComfyUI workspace.
• ComfyUI Workflow Tools: Simplified the Image Modal workflow experience around the embedded original workflow, combining parameters with the visual graph, adding a dedicated node list with editable parameters, and a metadata-only workflow option.
• ComfyUI Workflow Preview: Enlarged the visual workflow canvas with an expandable view, opaque node cards, collision-aware positioning, draggable node arrangement, and a clear Restore Layout action.
• Filter Recovery: Added a clearer empty state when filters return no images, with convenient Clear All actions beside active filters and in the results area.
• Accessibility and UI Feedback: Improved visible keyboard focus and tactile feedback across toolbar, search, modal, facet filter, rating, pagination, view, and queue controls, added copy-confirmation feedback in the Image Modal and Image Card, a keyboard shortcut hint in the search bar, and keyboard access for the ComfyUI metadata toggle.
• Large Library Performance: Reduced temporary allocations and repeated processing across analytics, prompt similarity, Smart Library clustering, the search/filter worker, image grouping and stacking, path filtering, and the image store.
• Collections Grouping: Fixed Group By inside open Collections so date, name, and generation-session grouping work in both grid and table views, including Jump To navigation.
• ComfyUI Metadata Truncation: Fixed metadata loss for large embedded ComfyUI workflows in PNG files by re-reading the full file when a head-read truncates metadata chunks.
• Checkpoint Facets: Fixed checkpoint facets so they stay scoped to the current library.
• Folder Filters: Fixed folder filters so they derive correctly from the selected directory prefix.
• macOS Audio Playback: Fixed macOS audio playback mitigation for embedded media.

0.17.3

Broader MetaHub and ComfyUI metadata recovery, faster large-library paths, improved accessibility and focused reliability fixes.

• Added a Viewer setting to skip delete confirmations for faster cleanup workflows.
• Improved MetaHub metadata parsing across PNG, JPEG, WebP and video files, preserving analytics, Pro payloads, generation type, lineage, LoRAs and recovered workflow details.
• Improved ComfyUI extraction for subgraphs, grouped Flux workflows, Ideogram 4 scheduler flows, rgthree/LoraManager LoRA nodes, text joiners, guiders, schedulers, switches and muted nodes.
• Reduced unnecessary intermediate allocations across analytics, indexing, filters, automation, similar-image search and cache-heavy paths.
• Improved keyboard and screen reader accessibility across comparison, changelog, settings and modal/navigation controls.
• Improved Find Similar scoring and matching for normalized prompts, LoRA weights, checkpoints, folders and model/prompt overlap.
• Improved cache delta reliability and fixed generated-image deep links, watched-folder removals and the generation queue's Clear Finished state.

0.17.2

ComfyUI workspace reload fixes, safer workflow loading and more reliable watched-folder deletion/cache handling.

• Fixed embedded ComfyUI reload behavior so failed or hidden views can reopen the configured ComfyUI URL correctly.
• Fixed stale workflow load requests that could be reused after already being handled.
• Improved deletion handling for auto-watched folders so removed files are reconciled through the watcher instead of being removed twice.
• Improved cache delta writes after watched file removals and added safer retry handling when replacing cache chunks.

0.17.1

Ideogram v4 metadata support, desktop deep links, rating hotkeys, Find Similar improvements, performance work and update notification polish.

• Added ComfyUI parser support for Ideogram v4 / KJ prompt-builder workflows, including subgraph-prefixed nodes, prompt reconstruction, model/VAE, CFG, scheduler, sampler, steps and seed extraction.
• Added imagemetahub:// protocol handling so the desktop app can open folders from deep links, CLI directory arguments and second-instance launches.
• Added 1–5 keyboard shortcuts for quickly applying ratings to the active image or current selection.
• Improved Find Similar with a minimum prompt similarity slider, result-set filtering, scoped result navigation and a smoother inspect-results flow.
• Reduced temporary array, map and set allocations across collections, file sync, image editing and large ComfyUI workflow rendering.
• Added clearer labels, titles and decorative SVG handling across filter controls, the image editor, hotkey help and browser compatibility surfaces.
• Replaced the native update dialog with a cleaner in-app update modal that shows release notes, download progress and clear install options.
• Fixed footer visibility, sidebar scrolling and long checkpoint/LoRA text overflow in Find Similar results.
• Fixed a startup race that could cause the What's New modal to reopen on every launch after the current version had already been viewed.
• Corrected versioning on the Folder Selection screen.

0.17.0

Expanded Compare View, a full built-in image editor, faster viewer navigation, ComfyUI metadata parsing improvements and focused stability fixes.

• Added two-image comparison modes: slider, hover, flicker, diff map, loupe and edge comparison.
• Added a built-in local image editor for still images with adjustments, crop, rotate, flip, resize, sharpen, blur, annotations, text, highlights and blur/pixelate regions.
• Added editor history/workflow support including undo/redo, zoom, Save As and Overwrite.
• Improved responsiveness in large libraries and reduced UI slowdowns during cache updates, file watching and rapid browsing.
• Improved image viewer navigation and zoom behavior.
• Improved ComfyUI metadata extraction for more node patterns and workflow graph structures.
• Fixed watched file deletions, edited image metadata, invalid video fallback metadata parsing and ComfyUI seed 0 parsing.

0.16.1

Library grouping, Group by Session, ComfyUI workflow polish, large-library performance work and focused stability fixes.

• Added Group by Session with section navigation and thumbnail previews for faster movement through large folders.
• Expanded ComfyUI workflow actions across the main app, image viewer, grid and embedded workspace, including clearer metadata copying and dimension display.
• Reduced temporary allocations and queue overhead in large libraries, including hot-path improvements for maps, sets, queues, thumbnails, lineage and automation flows.
• Improved ComfyUI visual workflow performance and resilience for long or incomplete graphs.
• Preserved ComfyUI workflow metadata when image adjustment exports write edited PNG files.
• Added more accessible labels, clearer disabled-state tooltips, safer hotkey reset confirmation and macOS media diagnostics/safe-mode documentation.
• Fixed bulk favorite behavior, duplicate Delete-key confirmations, ComfyUI queue monitor update loops, workspace prompt selection and stale group preview hovers.

0.16.0

Image adjustments, embedded ComfyUI Workspace, external queue detection and large-library stability improvements.

• Added brightness, contrast, saturation and hue adjustment controls with desktop Save As and Overwrite PNG workflows that preserve generation metadata.
• Added a ComfyUI Workspace with an embedded browser, image context panel, workflow metadata tabs, thumbnails, copy/generate actions and direct viewer entry points.
• Added optional monitoring for ComfyUI jobs started outside Image MetaHub, including queue status, progress, output previews and cancel support where available.
• Reduced OOM risk and improved cache reconciliation for very large ComfyUI libraries.
• Fixed image-grid keyboard navigation on macOS, video viewer scaling, Smart Library cluster restore and cache refresh persistence issues.

0.15.4

Folder management, generation queue and navigation improvements.

• Added directory tree navigation, subfolder operations, drag-and-drop file transfers and directory renaming.
• Rebuilt generation queue execution and progress tracking for clearer A1111 and ComfyUI workflows.
• Added a preview modal for completed generation queue results.
• Fixed heavy-indexing render loops, queue cancellation issues, folder rename edge cases and grid layout inconsistencies.

0.15.3

Viewer navigation stability hotfix.

• Fixed a React hook ordering issue that could turn the app black when changing preview images or navigating the image viewer.
• Improved arrow-key handling in the image modal to avoid conflicts with other keyboard shortcuts.

0.15.2

Thumbnail pipeline performance follow-up and video thumbnail display fix.

• Refactored desktop thumbnail cache to resolve cached image thumbnails through URL-backed disk cache hits.
• Added batched thumbnail cache resolution, manifest-backed cache lookup, visible-first scheduling and main-process thumbnail generation.
• Fixed video thumbnails being generated or resolved but not displayed in the grid.
• Kept the media memory-safety protections from 0.15.1.

0.15.1

Memory-safety hotfix after the 0.15.0 release.

• Blocked unsafe media read paths for large video/audio files in the renderer.
• Added crash/process diagnostics logging.
• Adjusted thumbnail guardrails, later refined in 0.15.2.

Older releases

For the complete release history, installers and update assets, use GitHub Releases.