About TidyBatch

A command-line tool that renames files in bulk, shows you the result first, and can undo it. You are letting it touch your files, so here are the facts, and a way to check them yourself.

The facts

• What it is: a command-line tool for bulk renaming. It has no graphical interface.
• Current version: 1.1.4 (tidybatch --version prints tidybatch 1.1.4).
• License: MIT. The free version (TidyBatch Core) is open source on GitHub.
• Who makes it: the project is published under the name "TidyBatch". Most of the code was written with an AI coding agent. What protects your files (two-phase moves, collision checks, undo) is covered by a test suite that, according to the README, runs on Linux, macOS and Windows on every push.
• Dependencies: none. It is one Python file and imports only modules from Python's standard library (argparse, json, os, re, shutil, struct, sys, unicodedata, dataclasses, datetime, pathlib, typing). It needs Python 3.9 or newer.
• Runs locally, no account: you don't sign in to use the free version. The file imports no networking module, so you can read it and confirm that for yourself.
• There is a paid version: TidyBatch Pro (9 €, one-time) adds organize and dedupe. Renaming and undo are in the free version. The comparison table in the README lists what each version does.

What it can touch

• It changes nothing until you add --apply. Without it you get a preview.
• It works in the folder you give it. Files are renamed in place. The project's security policy treats "a move outside the folder you gave it" as a security bug.
• It writes a journal inside that folder (.tidybatch/journal-*.json), written before any file moves. That journal is what tidybatch undo <folder> reads.

Check it yourself in one minute

Use a throwaway folder, not your photos. These are the commands, run for this page, with their real output.

Version:

$ python3 tidybatch.py --version
tidybatch 1.1.4

Help. The last lines state what is in the paid version:

$ python3 tidybatch.py --help
usage: tidybatch [-h] [--version] {rename,undo,organize,dedupe} ...

Bulk rename files safely. Dry run by default; every change can be undone.

positional arguments:
  {rename,undo,organize,dedupe}
    rename              rename files from a template
    undo                revert the last applied run in a folder
    organize            [Pro] sort files into folders
    dedupe              [Pro] move exact duplicates aside

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --version             show program's version number and exit

Need to sort folders or remove duplicates? TidyBatch Pro adds `organize` and `dedupe`:
  https://whop.com/tidybatch/bulk-file-renamer/?utm_source=cli&utm_campaign=tidybatch

A preview on an empty temporary folder (nothing to rename, nothing changed):

$ mktemp -d
/tmp/tmp.OuAd9WRlGS
$ python3 tidybatch.py rename /tmp/tmp.OuAd9WRlGS --slug --lower
Nothing to do: every file already matches.

To see a real preview, put a few copies of unimportant files in a temporary folder and run the same rename command on it. Then read how undo works or how to bulk rename files safely.

Reporting problems

Bugs: GitHub issues, with a folder layout that reproduces it. Anything that could lose or overwrite a file: report it privately, as described in SECURITY.md.