Give your agent a searchable photo archive
A creative brief often starts with a memory: an empty coastline, a backlit runner, a portrait with room for a headline. Nevervault's bundled MCP server lets a compatible agent search those visual ideas across indexed folders, external drives and NAS shares, inspect small previews, and gather candidates into a collection.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets an agent application discover and call tools supplied by another app. Your agent needs support for local stdio MCP servers and image inspection. See the official MCP architecture guide for how clients and servers connect. The agent client must run on your Mac, although it may use a cloud-hosted model. Nevervault does not expose an internet-accessible MCP endpoint. Giving this page to a hosted chat assistant does not, by itself, connect it to your library.
Connect an agent to Nevervault
- Open Nevervault and index the folders you want included. Let the initial scan and search preparation finish.
- Open Settings → Agents and enable Allow agents to browse this library.
- Under Connect your agent, choose Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, or VS Code. Click Copy command and paste it into Terminal on this Mac. Install your agent’s command-line tool first; VS Code needs its
codecommand in PATH. Nevervault fills in the correct paths for your installation. - Follow the connection check shown below the command. For another client or manual setup, use the separate Copy MCP configuration button and enter its command and arguments in that client’s MCP settings.
- Keep Nevervault open. Ask the agent to check its connection and list the indexed sources. Approve tool access in the agent application when prompted.
- To assemble a shortlist, also enable Allow agents to create and add to collections. Collection creation and additions require Pro.
The MCP helper ships inside Nevervault. No separate server package, Node installation, or database setup is needed. If you move the app, copy its setup command or configuration again so your agent uses the correct location. If your client reports an existing Nevervault entry, update or remove that entry in its MCP settings before adding it again.
What the agent can do
- Search: describe a subject or scene, search a filename, or narrow the search to an indexed source.
- Inspect: retrieve lightweight previews and indexed metadata, including source availability and timestamps for video frames.
- Collect: read collections and, with your separate permission, create a collection and add existing items.
Agent searches use the same search allowance and free result-depth limit as the app. Search relevance and library visibility settings still apply. Agents cannot use this connection to delete items, edit originals, or export files.
Can an agent change existing collections?
With collection changes enabled and Pro access, an agent can create new collections and add items to any existing collection. This permission is not limited to collections the agent created; Nevervault does not track agent ownership of collections.
The current MCP tools cannot rename or delete collections, or remove items from them—even from a collection the agent created. Make those changes in Nevervault. The prompt above asks the agent to leave existing collections unchanged; that is an instruction to the agent, not an app-enforced restriction.
Search, inspect, then collect
Ask the agent to try focused searches such as “person on beach at sunset” and “backlit person by ocean.” Results are candidates, not proof that an image meets every part of a brief. Inspect composition and subject placement before collecting an image. Search scores are ranking signals, not confidence percentages.
The connection provides get_status, list_sources, search, get_photo, get_preview, list_collections, get_collection, create_collection, and add_to_collection. The agent discovers their arguments through MCP; it does not need to query Nevervault's internal databases.
Use indexed metadata for factual constraints such as capture date or dimensions. Do not infer a camera model from the look of a photograph. For variety, ask the agent to compare candidates and avoid filling a shortlist with adjacent frames from one burst.
Use previews for selection, originals for final review
Nevervault stores small previews separately from originals. The agent connection returns them as JPEG images, so an agent can inspect candidates without opening full-resolution RAW files. Cached previews can remain available while source drives are disconnected; previews stored on an unavailable source may need that source reconnected.
A small preview helps with subject matter and composition. It may not reveal critical focus or enough detail for a final print decision. Review the original in your editor before approving a deliverable. Video search uses sampled frames and can miss brief moments between samples.
Review the collection and export in the app
The agent's collection appears in Nevervault's sidebar. Review it, then choose Export Originals… and a destination. If sources are disconnected, Nevervault lists each source and its original count. Connect a source and click its Export button to copy that batch into the collection's destination folder.
Reconnection makes a source available; it does not automatically start export. Keep the export window open while working through sources and check copied and skipped counts. See collections across drives and exporting originals for the complete workflow.
If the connection is not working
- No Nevervault tools: check that your agent supports local stdio MCP, has loaded the configuration, and has enabled the server.
- App unavailable: open Nevervault, enable browsing in Settings → Agents, and check that the connection says Ready. If you moved the app, copy the configuration again.
- Search is preparing: let Nevervault finish loading its search index, then try again.
- Collection changes denied: enable the separate collection setting and check your Pro access. If a create request times out, check the sidebar before retrying to avoid making a duplicate collection.
Control access and understand privacy
Agent access is off by default and limited to this Mac. Browsing and collection changes have separate controls. Turn browsing off in Settings → Agents to disconnect agents. The settings pane also shows the most recent tool call.
The bundled helper uses an authenticated local connection with a fresh credential each time access is enabled. This prevents unauthenticated network access; it does not isolate your library from malicious software already running as your macOS user. Only connect agents you trust with the returned content.
Nevervault's indexing and search run locally. If your local agent client uses a cloud model, it may send returned previews, filenames, metadata, and your prompts to that provider. Nevervault does not control the provider's processing, retention, or training policies. Check your agent's data settings and your permission to share client material before connecting it.
Use the bundled connection for agent workflows. Direct database access is not the supported integration: stored data alone does not provide the complete semantic-search pipeline, and direct writes bypass the app's collection updates.