Documentation

staticDAM is a modern Digital Asset Management system that stores everything in Git. No expensive subscriptions. No proprietary databases. No vendor lock-in. Just your files, organized exactly how you want them.

Who Is This For?

You're a marketing team, creative agency, or business that manages images—product photos, team headshots, campaign assets, brand materials. You need a place to organize them, tag them, search them, and share them with your team.

You've probably looked at enterprise DAM systems like Bynder, Brandfolder, or Canto. You've seen the price tags: $30,000 to $100,000 per year. You've sat through sales demos with features you'll never use. You've wondered: "Do we really need all this?"

You don't.

staticDAM gives you what you actually need: a beautiful interface to browse your images, smart filtering by category/person/tag/product, one-click downloads in any format, and metadata that travels with your files forever.

The Problem with Traditional DAM Systems

They're expensive. Enterprise DAM software charges per user, per asset, per GB, per feature. A mid-size marketing team can easily spend $50,000/year just to store and organize images. That's money that could go toward actually creating content.

Your data is trapped. When you add tags and categories in a traditional DAM, that information goes into their proprietary database. Want to switch providers? Good luck exporting those tags. Want to use your images in another tool? The metadata stays behind. You're locked in.

They're overcomplicated. Most DAM systems were built for enterprise workflows you'll never need. Approval chains. Asset versioning. Rights management. Workflow automation. AI tagging. Integration marketplaces. You end up paying for 100 features to use 5.

How staticDAM Is Different

Your images live in Git. Git is the same technology developers use to track every change to their code. It's battle-tested, free, and gives you superpowers: full history of every change, the ability to undo anything, bulletproof backups on GitHub's infrastructure, and free or very cheap hosting.

Metadata lives inside your images. Here's the magic: when you tag an image in staticDAM, that tag is written directly into the image file itself using industry-standard EXIF data. The same format professional cameras and tools like Adobe Lightroom use.

This means your tags travel with your files forever. Open any image in any tool and the metadata is there. Switch systems anytime without losing your organization. No database to corrupt, crash, or lose.

No database means nothing to break. Traditional DAM systems need servers, databases, backups, security patches, and ongoing maintenance. staticDAM needs a folder of images and a free Netlify account. There's literally no database. The manifest is regenerated automatically from your images whenever something changes.

Open source means freedom. staticDAM's code is completely open source. You can see exactly how it works. You can modify it. You can host it yourself. You're never at the mercy of a vendor's roadmap, pricing changes, or business decisions.

Your entire image library in a clean, responsive grid. Find exactly what you need in seconds.

Filter by Anything

Use the sidebar to filter your library by:

• folder Folder — Your natural directory structure
• category Category — Portrait, landscape, product, lifestyle, etc.
• person Person — Who's in the image
• sell Tags — Any descriptive keywords you want
• inventory_2 Product — What products are featured

Each filter shows a count of matching images, so you always know what you're working with.

View in Detail

Click any image to open the lightbox. Navigate with arrow keys or swipe on mobile. See every detail: file name, dimensions, size, camera and date information, and all your custom metadata.

Share Direct Links

Every image has a shareable permalink. Send it to a colleague, embed it in a document, or reference it in your project management tool.

Get exactly the file you need, in exactly the format you need it.

Any Format You Need

Need a smaller version for the web? A different file format? Just choose what you want:

• image Formats — JPEG, WebP, AVIF, PNG
• aspect_ratio Size — Any width up to 4096 pixels
• tune Quality — Dial in the compression

Downloads are generated on-demand—your original files stay pristine.

Tag, categorize, and organize through a simple interface. No command line required.

Edit Metadata Through the UI

Select images, click edit, and update:

• Categories
• People
• Tags
• Products

Changes are saved directly to the image files and synced to Git automatically. Your team sees updates immediately.

Track Every Change

Because everything lives in Git, you have a complete audit trail. Who added that tag? When was this image uploaded? What did the metadata look like last month? It's all there in the commit history.

Let's demystify the technology. Here's what happens under the hood:

1. Your images live in a GitHub repository
   (Think: a special folder in the cloud)

2. staticDAM reads metadata directly from image files
   (No separate database needed)

3. You browse and edit through a beautiful web interface
   (Works on any device)

4. Edits are saved back to the image files
   (And automatically tracked in Git)

When You Edit Metadata

1. Your change is sent to a small cloud function
2. The function tells GitHub to update the image file
3. The metadata is written directly into the image's EXIF data
4. The manifest is automatically regenerated
5. Everyone sees the updated tags immediately

It's all automatic. You just click, type, and save.

staticDAM is MIT licensed. Clone it, fork it, modify it, deploy it—it's yours.

Requirements

• GitHub account (free)
• Netlify account (free tier works great)
• Node.js 18+ for local development

Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/superfunteam/staticdam.git
cd staticdam

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Start the development server
pnpm dev

Open http://localhost:5173 and you're running.

Project Structure

/assets/              # Your original images (with EXIF metadata)
/assets-thumbs/       # Generated thumbnails (auto-created)
/data/manifest.json   # Generated index (auto-created)
/site/                # React frontend (Vite + Tailwind)
/netlify/functions/   # API endpoints for downloads and editing
/scripts/             # Build scripts

Adding Metadata via CLI

You can add metadata using exiftool:

# Add a category
exiftool -IPTC:SupplementalCategories="product" image.jpg

# Add a person
exiftool -XMP-iptcExt:PersonInImage="Sarah Chen" headshot.jpg

# Add tags
exiftool -IPTC:Keywords="summer" -IPTC:Keywords="outdoor" hero.jpg

Or just use the web interface after deployment—it's much easier for day-to-day use.

Ongoing Costs

With either option, your ongoing costs are minimal:

• GitHub: Free for most teams
• Netlify: Free tier is generous; paid plans start at $19/month if needed
• Domain: ~$12/year if you want a custom domain

Compare that to $30,000–$100,000/year for enterprise DAM software.

After Year One

Concierge customers can continue on their own (it's your code and data, forever), or extend priority support at $2,400/year.