Operational Pattern (Battle-Tested)
Here’s the pattern that scales cleanly:
- Import photos → Lightroom writes baseline XMP
- AI pipeline updates XMP using ExifTool
- Back in Lightroom:
- Use Smart Collections to validate results
You can do this on 10 or 10,000 images.
How You’ll Know It Worked
- Keywords appear instantly
- Keyword List count increments
- Smart Collections update
- No warning dialogs appear
If Lightroom shows a metadata conflict warning, stop and inspect the XMP—you’ve likely overwritten a block you shouldn’t have.