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Lynceus indexes JPG, JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, and TIFF files. Pick a folder in Settings and it scans that folder and every subfolder inside it.

Open Settings with the gear icon in the top right, go to the Folders section, and add at least one folder. Lynceus scans it and starts building thumbnails and search data straight away. You can add more folders later, or switch any of them off without losing your work.

The Mac App Store version works offline from its first launch, because its AI models are bundled inside the app. Development builds download the model files from Hugging Face once during setup, then run fully offline afterwards.

You can browse thumbnails as soon as they are ready. Similarity and natural-language search switch on for each image once Lynceus has finished building its local search data in the background, so you never have to wait for the whole library before you start looking around.

Open Settings and choose Restart onboarding. It replays the same six looping demonstrations you saw the first time you launched the app.

Type a plain phrase like “forest path at dusk” or “dynamic pose” into the search bar and Lynceus finds matching images by meaning, even ones you never tagged. It compares your words against local image data on your Mac, so nothing about your search leaves the machine.

Open any image. Lynceus automatically swaps the grid behind it to that image’s similar set, ranked by how close each one looks. You can keep diving from one similar set into the next, with a breadcrumb trail to step back to any earlier image.

Type “#” in the search bar to filter by tag. Lynceus shows a picker of matching tags as you type. Anything you type without a leading “#” always runs as a natural-language search, even if it happens to match a tag’s name exactly.

Yes. Open an image in the inspector to add or remove tags, or type a new name to create one on the spot with an optional colour. You can filter the grid by several tags at once, matching all of them or any of them. The notes box on each image saves whatever you write automatically.

You can. Drag any tile to move it, or grab a corner to resize it, and it snaps to a clean column span when you let go. A live placeholder shows where it will land, and Lynceus loads a sharper thumbnail for tiles you stretch larger.

Yes. The Encoders section in Settings lists each model with its own switch, so you can run any combination you like and search adapts to whichever ones are on. Switching a model off just skips it during future indexing. It does not delete anything it already worked out, so turning it back on brings those results straight back.

It is a fullscreen reference session you start from an image. Lynceus steps through that image’s similar set on a timer you set, with controls for the interval, how many images to show, and how many times to repeat, which makes it handy for figure-drawing practice.

Yes. Indexing runs in the background and the grid stays usable while thumbnails and search data are still being prepared, so tens of thousands of images stay smooth. For a big first import, it helps to leave Lynceus open until the initial pass finishes.

Never. Lynceus only reads your image files. Everything it creates, the thumbnails, tags, notes, and search data, is stored separately, so your originals stay exactly where they are and exactly as they were.

Your original images stay where you put them. Lynceus keeps its own local database, thumbnails, search data, settings, tags, and notes in ~/Library/Application Support/com.capataina.lynceus/ on your Mac.

Lynceus watches your enabled folders and rescans after changes. When it can recognise a moved file from its contents, it relinks the existing entry. A missing file is marked as missing so its tags and notes are not thrown away by accident.

Lynceus takes that folder out of the library, deletes the indexed entries and cached thumbnails it made for it, and releases its access to the folder. It never touches the original files inside.

Yes. The Reset control in Settings clears your preferences back to their defaults and asks you to confirm first. It only touches settings, so your folders, tags, notes, and search data all stay put.

No. There are no accounts, no analytics, no crash reporter, and no third-party SDKs of any kind. The Mac App Store version has no network access at all, so your images and searches never leave your Mac. The privacy policy has the full detail.