window.showDirectoryPicker opens up a whole new world

# window.showDirectoryPicker opens up a whole new world Source: [https://steveharrison.dev/showdirectorypicker-opens-up-a-whole-new-world/](https://steveharrison.dev/showdirectorypicker-opens-up-a-whole-new-world/) Chrome introduced a new API,`window\.showDirectoryPicker\(\)`that allows the user to grant access to a directory on their computer and allow a website to read/write everything inside\. Examples that have been thrown around are a local\-first notes app, where you can grant it access to a folder full of Markdown notes, and you own the data rather than it being squirrelled away in some cloud service\. The other day I was getting nostalgic about Apple’s[Aperture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_(software))UI and wondered whether Claude could create a similarly\-themed UI\. I asked it to also use`window\.showDirectoryPicker`\. Here’s the[result](https://github.com/steveharrison/photo-viewer): It reminds me of using Lightroom to view local files, but it’s a webpage\! You can also create folders within the app and move photos into them, and it all happens on your filesystem\. It doesn’t stop there though\. Imagine whole photo & video editing apps using this: powerful UIs in your browser, but working with source files on your filesystem\. People are[already](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47471601)[building](https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1qy8kwi/i_built_an_opensource_browserbased_video_editor/)WebGPU video editors in the browser—I really hope they also take advantage of new local\-first storage opportunities like this\. To take this prototype further, I asked Claude to create a simple compositing app inspired by Apple’s[Shake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shake_(software))\. Sure enough,[here’s](https://github.com/steveharrison/shake-compositor)a little node\-based compositing app where you can draw a polygon and get it composited on top of your source image\. All of this without a single line of hand\-written code\. It’s an amazing world we’re living in\!