The computer
- A computer that stays on at home: a Mac, or Linux with systemd. See Which computer.
- Room for your photos and videos, plus about 20 GB for previews. Previews, video posters and playable copies are a cache, 20 GiB by default, made again from the originals when needed.
- A fixed address on your home network: a DHCP reservation in your router. The server's certificate names its address, so a stable address means fewer browser warnings.
The tools
- Node.js 26 or newer.
- ffmpeg and ffprobe. One package gives you both.
- On Linux, optionally, libheif's tools, for previews of iPhone HEIC photos. A Mac needs nothing extra. See HEIC photos.
The installer checks all of this before it changes anything: packaging/install.sh --dry-run.
The phones
- Android phones on the same home network, with Piktures. An iPhone app is planned.
- Any browser at home opens the library, phone browsers included.
What you don't need
No Docker, no separate database server, and no account with us. Filamama is one program and one SQLite database file.