mochify-cli

A command-line tool and MCP server for mochify.app — a fast, privacy-first image compression and conversion API powered by a native C++ engine.

Compress and convert images to modern formats (AVIF, JXL, WebP, Jpegli) from your terminal, work on PDFs, or give AI assistants like Claude direct access to the same engine over the Model Context Protocol — either as a local stdio server (mochify serve) or the hosted one at mcp.mochify.app, which needs no install at all.

Jump to: Installation · CLI usage · PDF processing · MCP server · Plans

Installation

macOS (Homebrew):

brew tap getmochify/mochify
brew install mochify

Windows (Scoop):

scoop bucket add mochify https://github.com/getmochify/scoop-mochify
scoop install mochify

Linux / WSL:

# x86_64
curl -L https://github.com/getmochify/mochify-cli/releases/latest/download/mochify-linux-x86_64 -o mochify
chmod +x mochify
sudo mv mochify /usr/local/bin/

# arm64
curl -L https://github.com/getmochify/mochify-cli/releases/latest/download/mochify-linux-arm64 -o mochify
chmod +x mochify
sudo mv mochify /usr/local/bin/

Cargo (all platforms):

cargo install mochify

Requires Rust. Easiest option on Linux/WSL if you already have the toolchain.

Manual: All binaries at Releases.

From source:

cargo install --path .

Authentication

Sign in with your mochify.app account to unlock your full quota:

mochify auth login

This opens your browser, where you sign in and authorize the CLI. Credentials are saved automatically to ~/.config/mochify/credentials.toml — no environment variables or manual key copying required. Both the CLI and MCP server pick them up automatically.

mochify auth status   # check whether you're signed in
mochify auth logout   # remove saved credentials

Without an account you get 3 images per batch (IP-based). With a free account: 25 images/month. Sign up at mochify.app.

CLI Usage

mochify [OPTIONS] <FILES>...

Options

Flag	Description
-t, --type <FORMAT>	Output format: jpg, png, webp, avif, jxl
-w, --width <N>	Target width in pixels
-H, --height <N>	Target height in pixels
--crop	Crop to exact dimensions (saliency-guided)
-r, --rotation <DEG>	Rotation: 0, 90, 180, 270
-o, --output <DIR>	Output directory (default: same as input)
-n, --name <NAME>	Base name for the output file (without extension)
--clarity	Apply clarity (midtone contrast enhancement — crisper, more detailed look)
--remove-bg	Remove the background (AI foreground isolation)
--background <COLOR>	Composite colour for --remove-bg (white, #ff0000, …)
--keep-metadata	Preserve EXIF/metadata (stripped by default)
-q, --quality <N>	Output quality 1–100 (default: automatic)
--smart-compress	Saliency-guided quality — detail keeps more, flat areas less
--brightness <N>	Exposure, -100 (darkest) to +100 (brightest)
--optimize-for-web	Progressive + 4:2:0 chroma — smallest file to serve
--lossless	Pixel-exact output (jxl, webp, png only)
--hdr [MODE]	Ultra HDR gain map: preserve (bare flag) or generate
-p, --prompt <TEXT>	Natural-language prompt — resolves all params automatically
-j, --jobs <N>	Files to process at once (default 4; 1 for strictly one at a time)
-k, --api-key <KEY>	API key override (or set MOCHIFY_API_KEY env var)

Examples

# Convert to AVIF
mochify photo.jpg -t avif

# Resize and convert to WebP
mochify photo.jpg -t webp -w 800

# Batch convert a folder to AVIF at 1200px wide
mochify ./images/*.jpg -t avif -w 1200 -o ./compressed

# Natural-language prompt — let the AI pick the right params
mochify photo.jpg -p "convert to avif, 1200px wide"
mochify photo.jpg -p "optimise for eBay"
mochify photo.jpg -p "remove background and convert to WebP"
mochify photo.jpg -p "resize to 50%, strip EXIF, keep as WebP"

# Custom output name
mochify photo.jpg -t webp -n hero
mochify product.jpg -p "optimise for Shopify" -n product-main

# Pipe file paths from stdin
find . -name "*.jpg" | mochify -t webp -o ./out
cat images.txt | mochify -p "convert to avif 1200px wide" -o ./compressed
ls *.heic | mochify -t jpg

Quality

Quality is chosen automatically unless you say otherwise.

# Fixed quality
mochify photo.jpg -t webp -q 70

# Let saliency pick it — detailed subjects keep more, flat areas less
mochify photo.jpg -t avif --smart-compress

# Smallest file to serve from a web server
mochify photo.jpg -t webp --optimize-for-web

# Brighten a dark photo
mochify photo.jpg --brightness 30

# Pixel-exact
mochify scan.png -t webp --lossless

--lossless only works for jxl, webp and png — jpg and avif are rejected before the request goes out. It overrides -q and --smart-compress, and the output is usually larger than the input: lossless preserves pixels, not file size. A source that is already lossy (JPEG, AVIF, HEIC) comes back as the best lossy encode instead, since nothing can restore what that file discarded — the CLI says so when that happens.

HDR (Ultra HDR gain maps)

--hdr controls the Ultra HDR / ISO 21496-1 gain map that makes a photo render with real headroom on an HDR display.

Mode	What it does
--hdr (or --hdr preserve)	Keeps a gain map the source already has. Never invents one, so it does nothing to an SDR photo.
--hdr generate	Keeps an existing gain map and synthesises one when the source is plain SDR. This is the one for "make it HDR".

Only jpg output can carry a gain map (jxl carries HDR by a different route; avif, webp and png cannot), so pair it with -t jpg. It is also skipped alongside --clarity or --remove-bg, which change the base the gain map is a ratio to. The CLI reads the X-Mochify-HDR response header and tells you when the output ended up with no gain map.

# Keep the headroom an iPhone photo already captured, converting to JPEG
mochify IMG_1234.heic -t jpg --hdr

# Give an SDR photo a gain map
mochify photo.jpg --hdr generate

# Or just say so
mochify photo.jpg -p "make this HDR"

Output file naming

By default, when the output format and directory match the input, the result is saved as {name}_mochified.{ext} so it's always clear something happened. If that file already exists, a numeric suffix is added (_1, _2, etc.). When the format changes (e.g. .jpg → .webp), the extension change is already unambiguous so no suffix is added.

Use -n, --name to set an explicit base name: mochify photo.jpg -t webp -n hero saves hero.webp. The prompt path also supports this: mochify *.jpg -p "optimise for Shopify, name them product" will produce product.webp, product_1.webp, etc.

PDF processing

PDFs are detected automatically by the .pdf extension, and --op picks what to do with them. (PDFs and images can't be mixed in a single command — run them separately.)

Op	Takes	Returns	What it does
optimize	a PDF	.pdf	Recompresses the images inside the PDF. Text, fonts, vector art and layout are untouched, so the document stays searchable.
extract	a PDF	.zip	Pulls out the images somebody placed into the document, at the resolution they were stored at.
rasterize	a PDF	.zip	Renders every page to an image, text and all.
split	a PDF	.zip	Explodes the PDF into one single-page PDF per page.
create	images	.pdf	Builds a PDF from images, one page per image, in the order given.

Flag	Applies to	Description
--op <OP>	all	optimize, extract, rasterize, split, create
-t, --type <FORMAT>	rasterize, extract	png, jpg, webp, avif, jxl — plus original for extract (no re-encode)
--dpi <N>	rasterize, optimize, create	Render resolution (rasterize, default 150), target resolution for the images kept inside the PDF (optimize), or page sizing (create)
-q, --quality <N>	all but split	Output quality 1–100 (same flag as for images)
--max-width <N>	extract, optimize, create	Cap image width in pixels; 0 leaves sizes alone
--min-size <N>	extract, optimize	Skip images smaller than this on either axis; 0 takes everything
--page <SIZE>	create	fit (default), a4, letter
--no-combine	create	One single-page PDF per image, returned as a .zip

# Make a PDF smaller without touching the text
mochify report.pdf --op optimize -q 75 --dpi 150

# Pull the embedded images out as WebP, capped at 1600px
mochify brochure.pdf --op extract -t webp --max-width 1600

# Render pages to PNG at 150 DPI, or high-res JPEGs for print
mochify document.pdf --op rasterize -t png --dpi 150
mochify document.pdf --op rasterize -t jpg --dpi 300 -q 90

# One PDF per page
mochify document.pdf --op split

# Build a PDF from images (one page per image, in the order given)
mochify page-*.jpg --op create --page a4 -n scanned
mochify page-*.jpg --op create --no-combine   # one PDF per image, as a zip

# Or describe it in natural language
mochify report.pdf -p "compress this pdf"
mochify brochure.pdf -p "get the photos out as png"
mochify document.pdf -p "split into pngs"
mochify page-*.jpg --op create -p "one a4 pdf, good quality"

Outputs are named after the input: report_compressed.pdf, brochure_images.zip, document_rasterized.zip, document_pages.zip, and <first image>.pdf for create (override with -n).

optimize, extract, rasterize and split require a paid plan; create works on every plan, including Free.

MCP server

Mochify speaks MCP two ways. Both call the same engine at api.mochify.app, where encoding happens in RAM and the original is discarded immediately. The difference is where your files live.

	Hosted (mcp.mochify.app)	Local (mochify serve)
Install	none	this binary
Transport	Streamable HTTP	stdio
Auth	OAuth 2.0 + PKCE, one browser approval	mochify auth login, or anonymous
Input	public HTTPS URL, or base64 bytes	absolute paths on your disk
Output	short-lived download URL (~5 min) on files.mochify.app	written straight to disk
Image bytes through the agent	on base64 input	never
Handles	images	images and PDFs

Reach for hosted when the agent has no filesystem — Claude.ai, a hosted runtime, anything talking to images that already live on the web. Reach for local when the files are on your machine, which is most of the time: nothing but a path and a byte count ever enters the model's context.

Both can run side by side in the same client with independent tokens.

Hosted (no install)

Register https://mcp.mochify.app as a remote MCP connector and complete the OAuth flow once. No API key to copy or rotate.

• Claude.ai — Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector
• Claude Desktop — Settings → Connectors, or a "type": "http" entry in the config
• Cursor, Windsurf, Gemini, any client with remote MCP support — same URL

Or install it from Smithery:

Results come back as a download URL with roughly a five-minute expiry, held in an in-memory pickup store until fetched or the TTL lapses. Originals are never stored. This is the one path that is not zero-retention end to end — see why we relaxed zero retention for MCP.

Local (stdio)

Run mochify auth login first, then point your client at the binary:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mochify": {
      "command": "mochify",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop's config lives at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS. Restart the client afterwards; the server picks up your saved credentials automatically. Any stdio MCP client works the same way — Cursor, Continue, Cline, Claude Code.

Set MOCHIFY_API_KEY instead for CI, or leave auth off entirely to run on the anonymous free tier.

Tools

Both servers expose the same four tools. The difference is how files get in and out: the local server takes paths and writes to disk, the hosted one takes URLs or base64 and hands back a short-lived download URL.

Tool	Takes	Does
squish	one image	Everything on the image side: format conversion, resize, crop, rotate, background removal, brightness, clarity, quality control (fixed, saliency-guided or lossless), web optimisation, Ultra HDR gain maps.
pdf	one PDF	optimize (smaller PDF, text and layout untouched), extract (the images inside it, as a zip), rasterize (pages to images, as a zip), split (one PDF per page, as a zip).
pdf_create	images	Builds a PDF, one page per image, in the order given. fit, a4 or letter pages; combine: false returns a zip of single-page PDFs.
check_usage	nothing	Reports operations remaining this billing period and the plan they belong to. Needs authentication.

squish parameters: file_path, type, width, height, crop, rotation, quality, smart_compress, lossless, optimize_for_web, brightness, clarity, remove_background, background, strip_metadata, hdr, output_dir, output_name.

pdf parameters: file_path, op, type, dpi, quality, max_width, min_size, output_dir.

pdf_create parameters: file_paths, page, quality, dpi, max_width, combine, output_name, output_dir.

check_usage takes no parameters.

Every tool reads and writes the filesystem itself, so the agent never has to load an image to process it. Responses carry the saved path plus whatever the API reported: how much smaller the PDF got, whether a gain map survived, whether a lossless request had to fall back to lossy, and how much quota is left.

Usage

Describe what you want in natural language, with the full path to your file:

"Convert /Users/me/Desktop/photo.jpg to AVIF at 1000px wide"

"Compress all the JPEGs in /Users/me/projects/blog/images/ to WebP and save to /Users/me/projects/blog/compressed/"

"Optimise /Users/me/Desktop/product.jpg for eBay"

"Remove the background from /Users/me/Desktop/shirt.png and save as WebP"

"Compress /Users/me/Desktop/report.pdf — it's too big to email"

"Rasterize /Users/me/Desktop/report.pdf to PNGs at 200 DPI"

"Make /Users/me/Desktop/sunset.jpg HDR"

"Brighten /Users/me/Desktop/dim.jpg a bit and optimise it for my website"

"Turn the scans in /Users/me/Desktop/receipts/ into one A4 PDF"

API

Powered by https://api.mochify.app — /v1/squish for images, /v1/pdf for PDF optimize/extract/rasterize/split/create. Files are processed in RAM and never written to disk.

Plan	Ops/month	Files per batch	Max file size
Free (no account)	3 per batch	3	20 MB
Free (with account)	25	3	20 MB
Day Pass ($2 one-time)	100, valid 24h	25	75 MB
Seller ($7.99/mo)	300	25	75 MB
Pro ($24.99/mo)	1,200	25	75 MB
Growth ($79.99/mo)	5,000	25	75 MB

One operation is one output image. Compress, convert, resize and rotate the same file and it stays one operation; ask for two formats at two sizes and that is four. PDF optimize, extract, rasterize and split need a paid plan (Day Pass counts); create works on every plan including Free.

Visit mochify.app for the web interface, pricing, and API docs.

Listed in the official MCP Registry as mcp-name: app.mochify/mochify.