🧼 bleach

bleach is a high‑performance CLI that removes identifying metadata (EXIF, XMP, IPTC) from images.
It uses a concurrency‑safe worker pool, magic‑byte sniffing (no extension trust), and atomic writes to keep your files safe.

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✨ Highlights

• 🧵 Concurrent worker pool capped by CPU cores
• 🧠 Magic‑byte detection (JPEG/PNG/TIFF) — no reliance on file extensions
• 🧼 Aggressive metadata stripping for JPEG & PNG
• 🧪 Dry‑run scan that explains what data is present
• 🎨 Live TUI progress with a clean, high‑contrast palette
• 🧷 Atomic writes for safe, loss‑free output

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🚀 Install

git clone https://github.com/noahlin34/bleach.git
cd bleach
go build -o bleach ./cmd/bleach

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🧰 Usage

Scan (read‑only)

bleach scan [flags] <path>

Scan with insights (opt‑in, inferred)

bleach scan --insights <path>

Clean (writes sanitized copies)

bleach clean [flags] <path>

Clean in place

bleach clean --inplace <path>

Clean to an output directory

bleach clean --output ./sanitized <path>

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🧾 Example Output

bleach scan IMG_0047.png

IMG_0047.png
  GPS:
    - GPSLatitudeRef=N
    - GPSLatitude=[43/1 51/1 4748/100]
    - GPSLongitudeRef=W
    - GPSLongitude=[79/1 19/1 5946/100]
  Device Model:
    - Make=Apple
    - Model=iPhone 14 Pro
  Timestamp:
    - DateTime=2024:01:03 15:56:06
    - DateTimeOriginal=2024:01:03 15:56:06
    - DateTimeDigitized=2024:01:03 15:56:06

bleach scan --insights IMG_0047.png

IMG_0047.png
  ...
  Insights (inferred):
    - Location: Approx location: 43.65100, -79.34700
    - Location: Exact coordinates can reveal home, workplace, or travel patterns.
    - Device: Device: Apple iPhone 14 Pro (smartphone)
    - Timeline: Captured: 2024-01-03 15:56:06 (timezone unknown)
    - Timeline: Capture timestamps can expose routines and time zones.

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🧠 What gets removed?

JPEG

• EXIF (APP1)
• XMP (APP1)
• IPTC / Photoshop (APP13)
• ICC profile (APP2) unless --preserve-icc

PNG

• tEXt, zTXt, iTXt
• eXIf
• tIME
• iCCP unless --preserve-icc

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🏁 Flags

Command	Flag	Description
scan	--insights	Explain what metadata could reveal (inferred)
clean	-i, --inplace	Modify files in place
clean	-o, --output	Output directory for sanitized copies
clean	--preserve-icc	Keep ICC color profiles

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🛡️ Safety Guarantees

• Atomic output: writes to a .tmp file before replacing
• No extension trust: uses magic‑byte sniffing
• Dry run: scan mode never modifies files

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🧭 Project Structure

/cmd                  Cobra CLI entrypoints
/internal/processor    Metadata scanning & stripping pipeline
/internal/tui          Bubble Tea models + lipgloss styling
/pkg/imgutil           Image sniffing utilities

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✅ Roadmap

• TIFF stripping (currently not implemented)
• Optional offline geo‑insights
• Additional formats (HEIC/WebP)
• JSON output for automation pipelines

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🤝 Contributing

PRs welcome!
If you’re adding new file formats or metadata handlers, please include:

• unit tests
• sample fixtures (minimal, anonymized)
• a short explanation of the stripping approach

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📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE.