🌋 K I L N

The Privacy-First, Local-AI Universal Asset Forge & File Converter

Local processing. Zero cloud uploads. Infinite possibilities.

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🌐 Official Web Showcase & Downloads

Experience Kiln live in your browser or install native desktop apps for macOS & Windows

Target	Direct Action Link	Asset Format	Architecture & Compatibility
🌐 Live Website	Visit Official Website →	Web App	All Modern Browsers
 macOS Desktop	Download Kiln.dmg (macOS) ↓	.dmg Installer	Apple Silicon (M1-M4) & Intel Macs
🪟 Windows Desktop	Download Kiln-Setup.exe (Windows) ↓	.exe Setup	64-bit Windows 10 / 11

     

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⚡ Overview

Kiln is a premium desktop application built for creators, engineers, and privacy-conscious users. It combines a Universal File Transcoder with a professional Image Studio, running entirely on your local machine using hardware acceleration and offline neural network models.

No subscriptions. No file size limits. No cloud server uploads.

       📥 Drag & Drop Files  ──►  🛡️ Local Python Sidecar  ──►  ⚡ Transcoded Output
     (Images/Media/Docs)          (FFmpeg + IS-Net AI)          (Zero Network Footprint)

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✨ Key Features

🖼️ Professional Image Studio

• Target File Size Reducer (KB/MB Limit): Set your target size (e.g., 200 KB, 1 MB), and Kiln's binary-search optimizer automatically calculates optimal resolution and compression algorithms.
• Offline Neural Background Removal: Strips image backgrounds into transparent PNGs using offline IS-Net and U²-Net AI models.
• Smart AI Auto-Crop: Saliency detection crops images around key subjects automatically.
• Batch Social Kit: Export any image into 10+ social media preset dimensions (Instagram, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, OpenGraph) with 1 click.
• Non-Destructive Adjustments: Fine-tune exposure, contrast, saturation, sharpness, and add custom text watermarks.

🔄 Universal Multi-Format Converter

• Images: PNG, JPEG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, ICO, AVIF.
• Audio: MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, M4A, OPUS.
• Video: MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI, MKV, GIF, MP6.
• Documents & E-Books: PDF, DOCX, XLSX, TXT, Markdown, HTML, EPUB.
• Data & Spreadsheets: CSV, TSV, XLSX, JSON.

🔒 100% Offline & Private

• Every conversion, neural segmentation, and image edit runs locally on your machine.
• Temporary files are sandboxed in /tmp/kiln_workspace and cleaned up atomically upon export.

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🖼️ Screenshots & Demo

🏠 1. Home Dashboard & Quick Transcoder Hub

All-in-one local file studio, drop zone, and core feature overview with zero cloud tracking.

🔄 2. Universal Batch Conversion Engine & Queue

High-fidelity parallel batch processing for images, video, audio, PDFs, and spreadsheets with custom quality and output directory controls.

🎨 3. Image Studio & Target Size Reducer

Precise Target Size Reducer (KB/MB limit), Smart Auto-Crop with saliency AI, offline neural background removal (IS-Net), and 1-click Social Kits.

📊 4. System Architecture & Live Diagnostic Suite

Detailed local execution pipeline breakdown, detected engine sidecars (FFmpeg, LibreOffice, Pillow, IS-Net), native hotkey cheat sheet, and 29-test diagnostic runner.

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🏗️ Architecture

Kiln utilizes a dual-process architecture combining Electron's native desktop shell with a high-performance Python FastAPI sidecar engine:

graph TD
    A[Electron Main Process] -->|Spawn & Monitor| B[Python FastAPI Sidecar]
    C[React 19 Frontend] -->|REST API / IPC| B
    C <-->|WebSocket Progress Events| B
    
    subgraph Local Sidecar Engine
        B --> D[FFmpeg Engine]
        B --> E[Pillow / HEIF Engine]
        B --> F[PyMuPDF Engine]
        B --> G[IS-Net / U²-Net AI]
        B --> H[Pandas Data Engine]
    end
    
    B -->|Atomic Export| I[User File System]

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📊 Supported Formats Matrix

Category	Input Formats	Output Formats	Powered By
Images	PNG, JPEG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, ICO, AVIF	PNG, JPEG, WebP, BMP, TIFF, ICO	Pillow / OpenCV
Audio	MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, M4A, WMA	MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, M4A	FFmpeg
Video	MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI, MKV, GIF	MP4, WebM, MOV, GIF	FFmpeg
Documents	PDF, DOCX, XLSX, TXT, MD, HTML	PDF, TXT, MD, HTML	PyMuPDF / LibreOffice
Spreadsheets	CSV, TSV, XLSX	CSV, TSV, XLSX, JSON	Pandas

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⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action	Scope
⌘ + O	Open File / Dropzone	Universal
⌘ + Z	Undo Image Edit	Image Studio
⌘ + ⇧ + Z	Redo Image Edit	Image Studio
⌘ + /	Open Capabilities Modal	Universal
⌘ + ,	Open Preferences	Universal

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js: v18.0.0 or higher
• Python: v3.11 or higher
• FFmpeg: (Optional but recommended for audio/video transcoding)

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/satiricalguru/Kiln.git
   cd Kiln

2. Install Node Dependencies

   npm install

3. Set Up Python Virtual Environment

   cd backend
   python3 -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   pip install -r requirements.txt
   cd ..

4. Launch Development App

   npm run dev

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🧪 Automated Testing

Kiln includes an automated Python test suite testing API routers, parameter validation, target size reduction, and format conversions:

# Run all 29 automated feature and conversion tests
./backend/.venv/bin/python -m unittest discover -s tests -p "test_*.py"

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 29 tests in 2.130s

OK

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📦 Building for Production

Build native installers for macOS (.dmg) and Windows (.exe NSIS installer):

npm run build

The output installers will be generated inside the ./build directory.

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📜 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

_{Built with precision by the Kiln Engineering Team • Warm Obsidian & Warm Stone Aesthetics}