# SCM launches local AI search for photos and videos on macOS

Digest AI · Agents & Tools · published 2026-10-04T09:24:52Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/scm-launches-local-ai-search-for-photos-and-videos-on-macos

## Summary

SCM is a local-first search tool for macOS that allows users to search photos and video frames using plain language. The application runs entirely offline on the user's Mac, requiring no accounts, cloud uploads, or telemetry. It uses a local vision model, OCR, and Whisper for exact spoken-line search.

The tool features automatic library maintenance, watched folders, and deduplication via SHA-256 content hashing. It supports four switchable models via ONNX Runtime, with a default CLIP model requiring a one-time download of approximately 435MB. Users can also opt in to a llama.cpp sidecar for local chat querying over extracted evidence. SCM can be installed on Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 12+ via Homebrew.

## Key points

- Runs entirely offline on macOS with no accounts, cloud uploads, or telemetry, performing all inference locally.
- Features multi-modal search including visual match, OCR text search, and exact dialogue retrieval using Whisper.
- Supports four switchable models via ONNX Runtime and an opt-in llama.cpp sidecar for local chat.

## Why it matters

Provides a completely private, local alternative to cloud-based media search, giving users control over their data without sacrificing semantic search capabilities.

## Sources

1. [Show HN: AI search for every photo and every frame of video on macOS](https://github.com/allenv0/SCM) (github.com, 2026-10-04, primary source)

## Cite

Digest AI, "SCM launches local AI search for photos and videos on macOS", 4 October 2026, https://digestai.news/story/scm-launches-local-ai-search-for-photos-and-videos-on-macos

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