Export for Lightroom¶

krites is built to hand off to Lightroom: cull and correct in krites, finish in Lightroom. There are two ways the work reaches your catalog.

Option A: export a rendered keeper set¶

krites export --shoot ~/Pictures/smith-wedding

Export is the only step that writes pixels. It renders the keepers with every edit baked in, into the shoot's export/ directory, applying object removals, then straighten, then crop, then the look. Import that set into Lightroom as finished frames. The same records always produce the same output, so re-run it any time.

export does not write XMP sidecars

Rendering and sidecar-writing are separate commands. If you want the cull to show up on your originals in Lightroom, run krites xmp write as well: Option B below.

Option B: write XMP sidecars beside the originals¶

To surface the cull decisions in Lightroom without a rendered export, write sidecars next to your originals:

krites xmp write --shoot ~/Pictures/smith-wedding

Import the originals into Lightroom and each frame arrives with its krites verdict as a star rating and colour label. You cull in krites, then finish from your own RAWs in Lightroom.

What does and doesn't travel into XMP¶

Travels	Does not travel
The verdict, as a star rating (keep 5, maybe 3, reject 1) and a colour label	The look: white balance, tone, grade, LUT
The crop rectangle	Object removals
The straighten angle	The reasons behind a verdict, and any AI review

Looks and removals are not oversights. Camera-Raw XMP cannot express a generative fill, and a half-applied colour mapping would open in Lightroom as something that is neither krites' render nor your original. If a keeper needs either in Lightroom, import the rendered file from export/, which is Option A.

A RAW+JPEG pair collides on one sidecar¶

xmp write strips the frame's extension rather than appending to it, so IMG_2043.ARW and IMG_2043.JPG both map to IMG_2043.xmp. When both are in the shoot, one verdict overwrites the other, and which one wins is not deterministic.

If you shoot RAW+JPEG and rely on sidecars, ingest only one of the two.

Cleaning up sidecars¶

krites reset does not remove .xmp files; resets only touch .krites/ and export/. The sidecars live in your own folder, so deleting stale ones is a manual step.

See the export and xmp write command references.