I can't code, yet I have my own photo sorting program. Claude Code wrote it for me.

I can’t code. I can’t write a single line of code in any programming language, yet now I have my own program that saves me a lot of annoying clicking when writing reviews and photo tests. Artificial intelligence in Claude Code wrote it for me, and I just described what I needed in plain Czech. I’ll show you how the whole collaboration went, where the AI made a mistake, and how you can try the same thing yourself.

I’m an editor, not a clicking monkey

When I test a phone, I can take over a hundred photos with it in a few days. For a review, I then need to sort them by the lens they were taken with, and whether they are portrait or landscape. For each photo, I also want to know the focal length, and before uploading them to the web, I need to resize them. Manually, this means opening one photo after another, moving them into folders, changing names, and so on. In a way, it’s part of my job, but every time I tell myself that I’m not a trained monkey, but a technology editor.

So I wrote the prompt to Claude Code very simply, as if I were explaining it to a colleague. I wanted folders like “Phone Name main lens landscape”, photos within them renamed to “Phone Name main lens (24mm)”, and bulk resizing so that the longer side was 2,000 pixels. At the end, I added: “Do you understand what I want from you?”

AI first asked for details

Claude Code is an AI assistant from Anthropic that works directly with files on your computer. You can find it as the Code tab in the Claude desktop application for both Windows and macOS. Unlike a regular chat, it can not only write a program but also save, run, and test it. Depending on how you set it up, it will ask for your permission before each change. I worked with the Opus 5.5 model in Medium mode (with a medium level of reasoning), but the more affordable Sonnet 5.5 would almost certainly handle the problem as well. I chose the stronger model to have greater confidence that everything would work on the first try.

Before it started writing, it asked me six follow-up questions. It explained that the phone stores hidden technical data (so-called EXIF data) in each photo, and from this, it’s possible to determine which camera took the photo. It asked whether a photo with 2x zoom from the main camera should be categorized with the main lens or the telephoto lens. It also wanted to know whether to use the actual focal length in the name or the 35mm equivalent, which we are used to from marketing (24 mm, 85 mm, and so on).

I answered as concisely as I would to a human: the crop belongs to the main lens, I want the 35mm equivalent in the name, I will enter the phone name myself, and the resized photos should replace the large ones. I didn’t have to think about anything else.

A program you just drag and drop

Claude Code verified that I had Python installed on my computer (the programming language in which it wrote the program) and installed the necessary library for image processing. Then it created two files: the program itself and an auxiliary .bat file, onto which you just drag and drop the folder with photos. The program then asks for the phone name and the resizing dimension, and first lists exactly what it will do. Only after confirmation does it start moving the photos.

I also asked about completely layman things. When I didn’t know what “drag a folder onto a file” meant, the AI patiently explained it to me step by step and also offered an alternative: double-click the file to run it and paste the folder path into the window.

A dry run revealed a bug in the program

Before I ran the program live, I sent the AI the path to a folder with 142 photos from the Vivo X500 Pro phone, which is also coming to the Czech Republic. Claude Code first read the technical data of all photos and ran the program only as a dry run, so nothing was moved. And it’s a good thing it did.

It turned out that Vivo records zoom information in its own way: for the 85mm telephoto lens, it states a 3.5x zoom, relative to the main camera. The original version of the program would have inferred that this was a digital crop from the main lens, and photos from both the telephoto and ultrawide lenses would have ended up in the wrong folder. The AI itself described and corrected the error. The program now sorts by actual focal length, which each camera in the phone has differently and which Vivo records reliably.

The result after the correction is accurate. All 142 photos were divided as follows:

The photos were also renamed according to the 35mm equivalent focal length, for example, “Vivo X500 Pro telephoto lens (85mm)” or “Vivo X500 Pro main lens (48mm)” for a 2x crop.

I had WebP conversions added soon after

Only after the first use did I remember that I should upload photos to the web in WebP format. One sentence was enough, and Claude Code modified the program to automatically convert photos. When launched, it now directly asks about the conversion. Since I already had the photos sorted, it also added a separate mode upon request, which converts existing folders without further renaming.

On a copy of my folder, the total size decreased from 100 MB to 67 MB, roughly by a third. Google, which developed the format, states that lossily compressed WebP files are 25-34% smaller than comparable JPGs. Camera data and color profiles remained preserved in the photos.

How to try it yourself, step by step

A similar helper is useful for many household tasks, such as bulk renaming documents or cleaning up a downloads folder. The procedure is always the same:

1. Download the Claude desktop application and log in with a paid subscription account
2. Open the Code tab and select the folder where the AI should work
3. Describe what you need in plain Czech, including a specific example of the desired outcome
4. Answer the follow-up questions
5. Let the program run a dry test on real data
6. Only then run it live, ideally on a copy of the files

What to consider before you start

The biggest catch in my procedure is that the Claude Code environment is not included in the free tier. The cheapest Pro subscription, which includes it and which I also subscribe to, costs 17 dollars per month (approximately 370 CZK) with annual payment, or 20 dollars (approximately 440 CZK) with monthly payment, excluding VAT. Those who don’t want to pay can have a similar program written in a free AI chat. However, they will then have to save and run it themselves, which adds more steps.

Control is also important. Artificial intelligence often makes mistakes, as shown by the zoom error with Vivo. Therefore, demand a dry run and work on copies of files, especially when the program overwrites or deletes originals. My program does this twice: resized photos replace the large ones, and the conversion to WebP is lossy, with the original JPG disappearing. And read carefully what the AI asks for your permission to do.

We should also not overlook the issue of privacy. Although Claude Code runs programs on your computer, what the AI reads is sent to Anthropic’s servers for evaluation. For photos, this data may include location information. According to the documentation, the company retains this data for 30 days for standard plans, or five years if you allow it in privacy settings to use it for model training. Therefore, it’s better not to let the AI access folders with sensitive documents.

For someone who can’t code, this is still a great example of what today’s artificial intelligence can do. I didn’t have to study anything, and the program does exactly what I wanted it to.

What would you have artificial intelligence program for you?