About Goldplated Photos¶
The Project¶
Goldplated Photos is a beautiful, secure, self-hosted photo gallery designed for photographers and enthusiasts who want complete control over their images.
Why We Built This¶
- Privacy First - Your photos deserve to stay on your own server, not on someone else's cloud
- No Lock-in - File-based architecture means your content is always portable
- Modern Experience - Professional gallery features without the complexity of enterprise solutions
- Developer Friendly - Clean codebase with comprehensive documentation for customization
The Team¶
Kristijan Lukacin¶
Creator & Developer
Kristijan is a web developer and photographer based in Croatia. He built Goldplated Photos to showcase his photography work while maintaining full control over his content.
- Website: kristijan.lukacin.com
- GitHub: @klukacin
- Twitter/X: @klukacin
Claude AI¶
AI Development Partner
This project was built with substantial assistance from Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant. Claude helped with:
- Architecture design and best practices
- Code implementation and debugging
- Documentation writing
- Security review and improvements
The collaboration between human creativity and AI capabilities demonstrates a new model for software development.
Human + AI Development¶
Goldplated Photos is openly developed with AI assistance. We believe in transparency about how modern software is built.
What This Means¶
- CLAUDE.md - The project includes a comprehensive context file that helps Claude understand the codebase
- AI-Assisted Contributions - Contributors are encouraged to use Claude Code for development
- Iterative Refinement - Features are developed through human-AI conversation and iteration
Why We Share This¶
- Demonstrates practical human-AI collaboration
- Provides a template for AI-assisted open source projects
- Encourages transparency in modern software development
Technology¶
Core Stack¶
| Technology | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Astro | Static site generator with SSR support |
| PhotoSwipe | Touch-friendly image lightbox |
| Sharp | High-performance image processing |
| Node.js | Server runtime |
Key Libraries¶
| Library | Purpose |
|---|---|
| exifr | EXIF metadata extraction |
| fluent-ffmpeg | Video metadata via ffprobe |
| Express | Admin panel server |
| jszip | Album ZIP downloads |
License¶
Goldplated Photos is released under the MIT License.
This means you can:
- Use it for personal or commercial projects
- Modify the code as needed
- Distribute your modifications
- Use it privately
The only requirement is to include the original license and copyright notice.
Support¶
Getting Help¶
- Documentation - Start with the Quick Start guide
- GitHub Issues - Report bugs or request features on GitHub
- Discussions - Ask questions in GitHub Discussions
Support the Project¶
If you find Goldplated Photos useful, consider supporting its development:
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi Send a tip via Wise
Your support helps maintain and improve this project!
Contributing¶
We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for details.
Links¶
- Website: goldplated.photos
- Documentation: docs.goldplated.photos
- Live Demo: kristijan.lukacin.com
- GitHub: github.com/klukacin/goldplated-photos
Thank you for using Goldplated Photos!