Let Claude Code or Codex edit your RAW photos.
rawsmith is a command-line RAW developer built for AI assistants, plus a skill that teaches the assistant how to edit. Ask it to edit a photo and it works like a photo editor: it looks at the picture, decides what it should be, crops, sets light and colour, checks the result against the camera's JPEG and exports. You don't need to describe a look; if you have one in mind, say so and it comes first.
- Local. Photos are developed on your machine; the RAW is never modified.
- Reproducible. Each edit is a small JSON recipe; the same recipe and binary give the same output, bit for bit.
- Made for agents. Every command returns JSON, and renders report tone, clipping and colour statistics, so the assistant can check its work by numbers as well as by eye.
Left: the camera's JPEG. Right: the assistant's edit, asked only to “edit this photo”. More examples.
Install the CLI and the skill for Claude Code and Codex (macOS or Linux, no Rust needed):
curl -fsSL https://github.com/Lewin671/rawsmith/releases/latest/download/install.sh | shThen ask your assistant:
Use rawsmith to edit ~/Pictures/DSC0001.ARW.
Add a direction if you like: “keep it dark and quiet”, “the foreground is too dark”. See installation options for PATH setup, single-agent installs and building from source.
Supported cameras: Sony A7 IV (ILCE-7M4) Bayer ARW: uncompressed, lossy-compressed, and lossless-compressed full-frame L / APS-C M. Lossless full-frame M/S and APS-C S are not supported. Format details · Add a camera
RAW file + recipe.json ──rawsmith──▶ JPEG / 16-bit PNG + JSON report
The assistant edits by changing the recipe, rendering a preview, looking at it and repeating. A typical session:
rawsmith inspect photo.ARW # camera settings, exposure, clipping
rawsmith auto photo.ARW -o start.jpg # measured starting recipe + preview
rawsmith edit photo.ARW --set shadows=40 \
--set temperature=5900 -o edit.jpg # change and save settings, render a preview
rawsmith compare photo.ARW -o compare.jpg # camera JPEG beside the edit
rawsmith render photo.ARW --region 0.4,0.3,0.6,0.5 -o detail.jpg # 100% detail check
rawsmith render photo.ARW -o final.jpg # full-resolution export| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
inspect |
Describe the RAW: compression, camera settings, white balance, sensor exposure |
schema |
List every recipe parameter with its range, default and meaning |
auto |
Analyse the scene and save an automatic starting recipe |
edit |
Change recipe parameters, save the recipe, optionally render a preview |
render |
Render from the recipe (or try settings with --set without saving) and report image statistics |
compare |
Show camera and recipe versions side by side and note what each gave up |
extract-jpeg |
Copy the camera's embedded JPEG unchanged |
The recipe is saved next to the RAW as <raw>.rawsmith.json and holds
only what differs from the defaults, for example:
{
"crop": { "top": 0.1, "left": 0.06, "bottom": 0.97 },
"shadows": 45, "highlights": -55, "contrast": 12,
"temperature": 5900, "tint": 28, "vibrance": 25,
"hsl": { "orange": { "saturation": 30 } },
"vignette": -25
}Recipes cover exposure, white balance, tone and curves, clarity, dehaze,
HSL, colour grading, crop and rotation, noise reduction, sharpening,
defringing, vignette, and local edits with graduated filters and
linear/radial masks. rawsmith schema lists them all.
Editing skill · CLI and recipe reference · Developing pipeline
Camera JPEG on the left, assistant edit on the right; each request was only “edit this photo”. Sony A7 IV photographs, reproduced with permission.
Rime on pines: the camera rendered the frost blue-grey; the edit makes it white against a deeper sky.
Ginkgo at dusk (ISO 4000): the surroundings go cool and quiet so the gold leaves carry the picture.
Recipes for these edits · Photo permissions
Ten Sony A7 IV photos were edited by an assistant following the skill, with no direction beyond “edit these photos”, then judged blind against other renderings. Counts are wins – losses – ties.
| Comparison | All 10 photos | 6 never used in development |
|---|---|---|
| Assistant edit vs camera JPEG | 10 – 0 – 0 | 6 – 0 – 0 |
| Assistant edit vs macOS RAW converter | 10 – 0 – 0 | 6 – 0 – 0 |
Assistant edit vs auto |
8 – 0 – 2 | 5 – 0 – 1 |
auto vs camera JPEG |
6 – 0 – 4 | 2 – 0 – 4 |
The sample is small, and the judge (Codex gpt-6.1-sol, both image orders,
with control pairs) was the same model as the editor. The main gain comes
from the assistant's choices of crop, brightness and palette; the engine
alone is roughly level with the camera.
Method, limits and full results.
The decoder matches LibRaw sample for sample on all 20 test files. On an 8-core Intel i7-10700, a 33 MP photo's first preview takes 3–4 s, and later previews in the same session about 1.3 s. Performance details.
- Only Sony A7 IV Bayer ARW for now; other cameras need a colour matrix and a test file (CONTRIBUTING.md).
- No brushes, subject masks, local white balance, or spot and dust removal.
- Output is sRGB JPEG or 16-bit PNG, without camera metadata.
- Known weak spots: a blown sun pulled far down can show a hard-edged disc; fine branches against a blown sky can keep faint coloured specks; at high ISO, texture weaker than the noise is smoothed away.
rawsmith works offline. Images from render, edit, auto and compare
contain no EXIF, GPS or serial numbers; extract-jpeg keeps the camera
JPEG's metadata. If your assistant runs in the cloud, the previews it looks
at are sent to its provider, like any image you show it.
The optional rawsmith-select helper, installed alongside, compares
candidate edits with Codex and only runs with explicit cloud consent.
| docs/install.md | Install options, skill locations, building from source |
| docs/cli.md | Commands, recipe parameters, reports, error handling |
| skill/rawsmith/SKILL.md | The editing workflow the assistant follows |
| docs/pipeline.md | Developing stages, from decoding to sharpening |
| docs/formats.md | Supported ARW formats |
| docs/benchmark.md | Quality measurements and photo judging |
| docs/performance.md | Speed and memory measurements |
| CHANGELOG.md | Release notes |
| CONTRIBUTING.md | Building, testing, adding a camera |
Code: Apache License 2.0 or MIT, at your option; contributions use the same terms. The example photographs have separate permissions. The embedded sRGB profile is CC0 (source). The camera colour matrix is sensor characterisation data published in Adobe's DNG Converter and reproduced by open-source RAW software.