For image-heavy work on your Mac
Lumen restores a way back to the image you mean, then helps you choose and finish it.
The first signed release is coming soon. Local-first, with no account required.
What people actually lose
Visual work gets hard when a useful image becomes one of hundreds: the right screenshot, the strongest generation, the reference with the exact light, the export that was almost final.
Lumen restores context without asking you to rebuild your folders around the app.
Find the one you mean
Follow a real folder once. Lumen remembers the text, colors, traits, provenance, and visual signals that make an image recognizable after its filename stops helping.
“The screenshot with the pricing table” is a useful starting point, even when you cannot remember what it was called.
How retrieval worksChoose the one you want
Use the wall for context, then open Focus when one image needs your full attention. The result set, curation controls, metadata, and filmstrip stay close to the decision.
Mark a keeper, reject a near miss, compare a variant, or copy the image without reopening the whole search.
See the workflow
Lumen is built around the three moments that usually send visual work back into a pile: finding it, choosing it, and getting it out.
Search by the clue you still have.
Follow a real folder and Lumen builds local memory from thumbnails, OCR, colors, exact fingerprints, provenance, traits, and optional visual understanding. Search words, appearance, or both.
Why it matters: You do not need to remember the filename when you remember the screenshot, color, text, or visual direction.
Compare without losing the set.
Keep the folder in view, then open Focus, Compare, or Duplicate Review when a decision needs more attention. Favorites, rejects, tags, collections, and notes stay local to the work.
Why it matters: You can make a visual call without reopening Finder, Preview, and temporary copies just to reconstruct the context.
Finish from the same context.
Cull, rename, create a contact sheet, Smart Resize with Crop, Fill, or Pad, and export derivatives from the set you just judged. Optional local upscale packs stay inside the same boundary.
Why it matters: The output is ready to use without turning the source folder into a staging area or touching the original pixels.
The folder stays yours. The memory stays with it.
Lumen works over real folders, processes on your Mac, and keeps originals read-only by default. Rename, move, and Trash are explicit actions with recovery paths where macOS provides them.
Why it matters: You get the help of a memory system without giving your visual work to an account, upload pipeline, or cloud archive.
Screenshots, generations, references, photos, exports, and the files you meant to come back to.
Generations multiply faster than filenames can keep up. Lumen gives a working folder enough memory to browse the set, find a visual direction again, compare variants, and separate a keeper from the almost-right attempts.
A Downloads folder can be a product history, a bug archive, and a research shelf at the same time. OCR and provenance make the evidence easier to retrieve without forcing a new filing system.
Collect first and name the pattern later. Lumen keeps color, appearance, tags, notes, and saved search recipes close enough to become useful handles when the folder gets large.
When a set needs a human decision, a wall of thumbnails is the beginning, not the finish. Focus, Compare, Duplicate Review, and export keep the selection process together.
Keep the context local
No accounts. No cloud upload. No analytics of your filenames, paths, tags, OCR, thumbnails, or image contents. The help stays on your Mac.
The first signed release is coming soon. The signed download and App Store link will appear when they are real.
