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

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.

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.)

create is the exception: its inputs are images, so there is nothing in a .jpg to route on. Pass --op create, or just say "pdf" in a prompt — mochify *.jpg -p "convert to pdf" builds one too.

# 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