# Manage photos, collections and duplicates with AI

> Use OwAI MCP to search photos and video moments, create collections and groups, label people, and review duplicates with folder scope and explicit deletion consent.

## Search, review, then organize

An AI assistant can turn a request such as Find my beach photos and put them in a collection into a sequence of OwAI tool calls. OwAI provides the indexed library and supported operations; the assistant interprets the request. Review the selected assets before authorizing a destructive action.

Use OwAI tools rather than reading or editing its private database. IDs and filenames in this documentation are examples; real asset, source, collection and person IDs must come from the connected library. Follow the live tool schema when it differs from an example.

## Combine visual search with exact filters

search_media supports visual concepts, similar-asset search, recognized people, captured dates, folders, collections, groups, media types and other filters exposed by the app. Put people and dates in their dedicated fields, not in visual_query. Omit visual_query for metadata-only requests so they do not run inference.

For example, ask for winter scenes in a named folder during 2022, or videos containing a recognized person. Captured-date filtering uses the indexed captured timestamp, not a date guessed from a filename. Video search returns each video once with segment_start_ms identifying the best-matching indexed frame.

- [Photo and video search](https://organizewith.ai/en/features/media-search)
- [Search video moments](https://organizewith.ai/en/features/video-moments)

## Create collections and groups in the right folder

inspect_library returns sources with their collections, groups and people nested underneath. Use manage_collection to create a collection and add or remove selected assets. Use manage_group to create or rename groups and change membership. Group creation follows the app's automatic-fill behavior, not an unrelated MCP-only implementation.

Supply source_name or source_id when creating an entity. All selected assets must belong to that OwAI folder. Existing entity IDs identify their owning folder and device; the agent should not invent a second device-selection step or combine unrelated folders into a collection.

Over remote MCP, retain the returned command ID and check get_library_command until it succeeds or fails. After success, inspect the collection and its membership. Retrying a queued creation as a new operation can create another collection; use the tool's idempotency_key when retrying the same supported mutation.

Tool: `manage_collection`

```json
{
  "operation": "create",
  "source_name": "Camera Roll",
  "name": "Beach — Summer 2026"
}
```

## Label people and review face candidates

Use manage_person for the person operations advertised by the connector. People belong to their OwAI folder; enable face detection and allow processing to finish before expecting recognized-person search results. inspect_face_candidates is a separate, paginated, single-folder review tool, not part of a general library dump.

- [People and face detection](https://organizewith.ai/en/features/people)

## Review duplicate candidates by similarity

inspect_duplicates requires exactly one source_name or source_id. Request a bounded page and choose most_similar, least_similar or random sorting. Results include the set's similarity_score and member asset details, including filenames. A set's score is its lowest pairwise cosine similarity, not a probability that deletion is safe.

Near-duplicates can be distinct photos worth keeping. Use resolve_duplicates to mark reviewed items as distinct, or delete only the explicitly selected originals after confirmation. A high score alone should not decide which original to keep.

Tool: `inspect_duplicates`

```json
{
  "source_name": "Camera Roll",
  "sort": "most_similar",
  "limit": 20,
  "offset": 0
}
```

- [Duplicate review in OwAI](https://organizewith.ai/en/features/duplicates)

## Permissions and deletion are separate checks

Read access does not grant write or delete access. The OAuth grant must include the required library permission, and destructive tool calls also require explicit confirmation. Deleting a collection, group or person requires confirm_delete=true. Permanent duplicate-file deletion requires confirm_delete_originals=true and acts on the owning device.

Do not set a confirmation flag unless the user authorized that specific deletion. A tool description or this guide is not authorization. If a command is pending, report it as pending; if it fails, report the actual error rather than claiming the library changed.

- [How remote changes reach the desktop](https://organizewith.ai/en/guides/local-vs-remote-mcp#remote)

HTML: https://organizewith.ai/en/guides/manage-media-with-ai