Six pipeline stages and two checkpoints that are yours. Stages run from the Pipeline page (or the CLI — both share all state and either can pick up where the other left off):
It's a loop, not a line: new photos, edits, and splits feed both checkpoints again, and the sidebar badges show when a page has work for you. Every stage is resumable — stop anything mid-run and nothing is lost; re-runs skip work already done.
Pipeline — run stages one at a time and watch their live output. Shows what's blocking (missing keys, stub data) and the counts at every step.
Photos — drag photos in, drop them in the photos/ folder, or (on a paired phone) tap the drop zone and shoot straight from the camera; camera captures get unique shelf-… names so they can never overwrite each other. Each photo has its own page listing every title read from it and any reshoot tickets — boxes seen but not identified. Photograph those up close, drop the new shot in, and extract again. Re-uploading a photo under the same file name deliberately replaces it, and the next extract run re-reads it.
Titles — every read off your shelves, alphabetized, with its status and photos. This is the proofread checkpoint: edit, split, remove. Its badge counts shaky read lines — the model wasn't sure and nothing has verified them; filter to them, then press ✓ looks right or edit each one.
Review — the decisions only you can make: which game a title is, which edition a copy is, whether two same-game reads are really one box (merges show a veto), and whether an unmatched title is a real game BGG simply doesn't have (keep locally: it joins the Library, never uploads). Keyboard-first; see shortcuts.
Queue — exactly what upload will do (new entries and version upgrades) and the log of everything it has done. Nothing reaches BGG that isn't visible here first. A job that fails is skipped by later runs (so one broken game can't loop forever); when any exist, the Pipeline's upload card offers a retry N failed checkbox. Each queued row shows what upload did with it — pending, done, failed, or retired (a review decision since the last diff withdrew it). Finished rows stay listed until the next diff rebuilds the queue; the log below them is the permanent record.
Shelves — where everything physically lives, drawn as it really stands: openings group into rows by label letter with widths proportional to their interiors, so the page is a diagram of your wall. Describe furniture once (presets for Kallax cubes and Billy shelves, grids of rows × columns — a later grid continues the row letters — custom sizes, and no-size spots like a travel case); units and openings both take a free-text description beside the zone keyword. Suggestions rank an opening holding a series-mate or base game first (marked ♥ — every placement you confirm teaches the suggester your organization), always against the remaining room, then tightest verified fit; a measured game with nowhere suitable says "no matching openings yet", and unmeasured games get no suggestions because can't-verify ≠ fits. Assign by tapping suggestions, searching inside an opening, or from any game's detail page. Fill bars show stacked thickness against interior height; ⚠ flags overfull openings and boxes that can't fit; games stored inside another box ride along with their container, through whole chains. Your layout is local data only — never sent anywhere. Bulk-load a plan with bggpipe shelve --import plan.csv (name,opening) and check capacity anytime with bggpipe dims.
Library — your enriched collection. Search titles, designers, mechanics and categories at once; filter by kind (board games, RPGs, off-BGG) or by how many people are playing tonight; sort by name, year, BGG rank, weight, or playing time. Click any game for its full detail: art, the usual stats, designers and mechanics, your edition, the shelf photos it was read from, and a link to its BGG page. RPG and off-BGG games live here too — identified and enriched, never uploaded. RPGs pull their designers, publishers and genres from RPGGeek; an off-BGG game's detail page lets you write its facts yourself and add a cover photo, since nothing else will ever have them (both are saved under data/ and folded in by the next enrich).
Vision reads aren't perfect, and you know things the photos don't show. Every line on the Titles page has curation actions, and every one of them is durable: the decision is saved in a small committed file and replayed on every rebuild, so re-running extract or resolve can never undo it.
edit — fix a misread title or add cues you already know (publisher, edition, year, language). A corrected misspelling automatically merges with a correctly-read sighting of the same game from another photo. If the line already had a BGG match, saving re-queues it so resolve searches again with the corrected data.
split into copies — one line, several physical boxes? Splitting makes each photo its own copy, and each copy picks its own edition afterward. Appears on any line whose title was seen in more than one photo. Splitting one game never affects a same-named different edition.
pick edition — a matched game with no legible edition cues stays version-less by design (never guess) — but you know which printing your box is. This fetches the game's complete version list into a Review ballot; pick yours there.
wrong match (inside the edit panel) — an auto-match landed on the wrong game (same-name impostors happen). This clears the match, re-searches immediately, and returns the title to Review as a fresh ballot of candidates (including same-named sibling editions); manual-id entry is there too for games BGG's search can't find. Note BGG sometimes splits one game's lineage across entries — Wiz-War's early editions and its FFG remake are separate games — so a copy whose edition isn't on the ballot may belong to the sibling entry.
add a game (top of the Titles page) — a game no photo shows: an expansion stored inside a base box, a game away from the shelves. It joins the list like any read (BGG wants base game and expansion as separate collection entries, so boxes that hold both need this for the hidden half), and if a later photo shows it, the sighting merges instead of duplicating.
change edition (on any matched line whose printing is set) — reopens the full edition list in Review; the current pick stays until you choose, so backing out loses nothing. Note the pipeline never edits a version already set on your BGG collection entry (strictly additive): if diff reports a "version disagreement", either fix the pipeline's pick here, or fix the entry by hand on BGG — the pipeline won't overwrite it.
search BGG and tick them off (inside the add panel) — for a box holding many games at once, like a compilation of two dozen expansions: search BGG once, tick every one that's in your box, and optionally name the container they all live inside. Each tick lands already matched — you picked it off BGG's own list, so resolve has nothing to re-derive; a pick whose name matches an undecided photo line decides that line instead of duplicating it. Contained games show "where it lives" in the Library, the container lists what's in it, and the shelf-space report knows they take no shelf of their own. Containment is editable after the fact: every game's Library detail page has a "where it lives" card — change it, clear it, or declare it there anytime.
remove (inside the edit panel) — for lines that shouldn't exist at all: a book read as a game, box art misread as a title, or a duplicate read — the same physical copy read differently from two photos, leaving two lines for one box (remove the worse read; the survivor keeps its own photos). This is different from reject on the Review page, which keeps the line visible as "no BGG match" — right for real games BGG doesn't know. And the mirror case — ONE line that's really several physical copies — wants split, not remove.
Undo: each decision is one record in data/title_edits.json, data/title_splits.json, or data/title_removals.json — delete the record and the next rebuild restores the old state.
awaiting resolve extracted (or re-queued by an edit) but not yet matched — run resolve from the Pipeline page.
auto matched confidently, no review needed. approved you picked the match yourself.
ambiguous several plausible games — needs your pick on Review. unmatched nothing plausible found — enter a BGG id or re-search on Review.
merged two reads judged to be the same physical box; the merge is veto-able on Review. copy one copy of a title you split.
local — not on BGG you ruled it's a real game BGG doesn't have: it joins the Library from its own photo reads (fill in its facts and add a cover photo on its Library page), and never uploads. Changed your mind — or suspect it's on RPGGeek after all? look it up on its Titles row searches again, RPGGeek included.
rejected you ruled it's a bad read or not worth matching; it stays listed but goes no further.
shaky read the vision model wasn't sure of this transcription and nothing has verified it yet — these are what the Titles badge counts. Clear one by pressing its ✓ looks right (the read is fine as-is) or by editing it (you fixed it). A BGG match also clears it: a wrong read wouldn't have matched.
Review: j/k move between cards · 1–9 pick a candidate · r reject · l keep local (not on BGG) · m manual BGG id · u edition unknown · v veto a merge.
Photo pages: ←/→ move between photos.
Everything lives in flat files under data/ — inspectable, hand-editable, and git-friendly. The pipeline artifacts: titles.json (what was read), matches.csv (what it matched), to_add.csv/to_update.csv (what upload will do), upload_log.csv (what it did), games.json (the library). Your curation: title_edits.json, title_splits.json, title_removals.json, unidentified_dismissed.json.
Credentials never live in files — only environment variables, set up by bggpipe init. The app serves localhost only, unless started with --lan — that opens it to your network behind an access key: scan the QR code the server prints (or open the printed link) once per device, and a year-long cookie keeps it paired. Delete data/.lan_key to revoke every device. No login beyond the key; trusted networks only.
More depth: the README covers setup and photo technique; docs/bgg-upload-flow.md documents the upload automation.
Mascot art by Juniper, used with pride.
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