whatisgithub

What is lychee?

mgibeau/lychee — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-18 · repo last pushed 2017-12-13

PHPAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5DormantSetup · moderate

In one sentence

A self-hosted photo gallery you run on your own server, so your photos and albums stay under your control instead of living on a third-party service.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((lychee))
    What it does
      Uploads and organizes photos
      Creates shareable albums
      Generates thumbnails
      Social preview cards
    Tech stack
      PHP
      MySQL
      ImageMagick
      Docker
    Use cases
      Photographer portfolio
      Private family albums
      Bulk photo storage
    Audience
      Photographers
      Privacy-conscious families
      Self-hosters

Code map

Detail Auto

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Host a private photo portfolio without paying for Adobe or Google Photos

USE CASE 2

Share family photo albums without trusting them to a Big Tech company

USE CASE 3

Import and consolidate thousands of photos from Dropbox or a WiFi SD card

USE CASE 4

Extend the gallery with plugins for watermarks or automatic folder syncing

What is it built with?

PHPMySQLImageMagickDocker

How does it compare?

mgibeau/lycheeargosback/aura.sqlqueryargosback/jcgenealogy
LanguagePHPPHPPHP
Last pushed2017-12-132023-05-282018-02-01
MaintenanceDormantDormantDormant
Setup difficultymoderateeasymoderate
Complexity2/52/53/5
Audiencegeneraldeveloperops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Needs a web server with PHP and a MySQL database, ImageMagick recommended for better performance.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Walk me through installing Lychee on my own web server with PHP and MySQL.
Prompt 2
How do I set up Lychee with Docker instead of a manual PHP install?
Prompt 3
Show me how to import my existing Dropbox photos into a Lychee gallery.
Prompt 4
Help me write a Lychee plugin that adds a watermark to uploaded photos.
Prompt 5
What does installing ImageMagick change about how Lychee processes my photos?

Frequently asked questions

What is lychee?

A self-hosted photo gallery you run on your own server, so your photos and albums stay under your control instead of living on a third-party service.

What language is lychee written in?

Mainly PHP. The stack also includes PHP, MySQL, ImageMagick.

Is lychee actively maintained?

Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2017-12-13).

How hard is lychee to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is lychee for?

Mainly general.

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