Build your own Lightroom.

# Build an original app inspired by Lightroom

You are an experienced product designer and full-stack engineer. Build a working, polished MVP from the brief below. Implement the core journeys end to end; a static mockup is not sufficient. Inspect the current environment, make sensible implementation decisions, and get started. Ask a question only if a missing answer genuinely blocks implementation.

Starting platform: Desktop. Explicit customized Product & audience and Tech stack requirements take precedence over this starting target.

## Product & audience
Build an original photo catalog and development app called Lighttable, inspired by Lightroom. It is for photographers organizing owned JPEG/PNG images and making reversible adjustments. The core flow is importing a shoot, rating and grouping images, adjusting a selected photo, and exporting copies without altering originals. RAW support is a later explicit extension.

## Design
Use an original desktop interface with a folder/album sidebar, thumbnail grid, single-image development view, adjustment panel, and filmstrip. Give before/after comparison and original-file status clear visual treatment. Keep batch actions and export destinations explicit.

## Features
1. Catalog: import supported image files or folders, index dimensions and available metadata, detect duplicates by content hash, and generate bounded thumbnails. Preserve original files unchanged.

2. Organization: create albums, set ratings, favorite/reject images, add keywords, and filter by album, rating, and text. Missing source files should be relinkable.

3. Development: apply exposure/brightness, contrast, temperature/tint, saturation, and crop/rotation through a saved adjustment recipe. Show a before/after comparison and reset individual adjustments.

4. Presets and batches: save original adjustment presets, apply one to a selection, and copy/paste an adjustment recipe. Preview the scope of batch actions and allow undo.

5. Export: export selected photos to a chosen folder with explicit format, dimensions, quality, and naming rules. Handle collisions, permission failures, and cancellation without overwriting sources.

## Tech stack
Use Python with PySide6 for a new desktop app, SQLite for catalog metadata, and maintained image-processing libraries such as Pillow/NumPy for a clearly bounded sRGB JPEG/PNG pipeline. Run thumbnail generation and exports off the UI thread. Keep adjustment recipes independent from previews. Add RAW decoding only if the user explicitly requests it and a suitable library and color pipeline can be verified.

## Data & behavior
Catalog; Photo {id, originalPath, hash, dimensions, metadata, rating, flags, keywords}; Album; AlbumPhoto; AdjustmentRecipe {photoId, version, parameters}; Preset; ThumbnailCache; ExportJob. Originals remain immutable; only recipes and catalog metadata are edited. Back up SQLite metadata and resolve moved files by hash or user selection.

Acceptance checks and scope:
Verify an adjustment recipe survives reload and exports the same result, originals keep their hashes, batch exports handle name conflicts, and moved sources can be relinked. Test thumbnail cache limits and worker cancellation. Exclude professional RAW development, lens profiles, HDR merges, AI masks, cloud sync, and complete Lightroom catalog interchange.

## Originality and assets
The named product is a reference for general workflows only. Use an original product name, visual identity, wording, layout, and assets. Do not copy proprietary code, branded logos, distinctive screens, private APIs, paid templates, or protected media. Use original or appropriately licensed sample data and assets. Build from this brief rather than scraping the reference service. Do not imply affiliation with the referenced company.

## Implementation quality
- Make every visible control work, with clear loading, success, empty, validation, and failure states. Remove controls for unimplemented features.
- Support the target platform and responsive or resizable layouts where appropriate. Use platform-appropriate accessibility semantics, labels, keyboard operation, visible focus, sufficient contrast, and reduced-motion preferences. Provide alternatives for drag-only interactions.
- Validate inputs at the relevant boundary. Treat imported or user-generated content as untrusted; render it safely. Confirm destructive actions or offer undo.
- Keep state changes reliable across navigation and reloads. Never silently lose edits. Handle persistence and network errors with an actionable message.
- Keep the scope realistic. Prioritize the complete primary journey. If a custom Features section differs from the baseline, update the data model, design, and acceptance checks to match it; explicit custom requirements take precedence over baseline assumptions.
- Provide realistic original sample content and a useful empty state. Keep sample data clearly separate from user-created data.

## Delivery and verification
1. Inspect the repository and outline the implementation in a few sentences.
2. Implement the app and connect its actual data flow. Continue until the primary journey works.
3. Run appropriate checks and test the acceptance cases above on the target platform. Verify responsive layouts and keyboard navigation when browser tools are available. For native projects, build with the available SDK and test an emulator or device when possible; report any missing native verification honestly. For games, verify the rules and gameplay loop, not only the menus.
4. Fix observed failures, then provide the runnable result, setup/run instructions, a brief explanation of what is implemented, and any specific configuration or verification limits.

This is a focused MVP. Do not add billing, AI services, or unrelated features unless explicitly requested in the brief. Start building now.