Pipeline

How MetaClean reads your bytes

Metadata is not magic — it is structured data parked in predictable corners of the file. MetaClean walks those corners directly.

Detection

• JPEG — scans APP markers: APP1 (EXIF/XMP), APP13 (IPTC/Photoshop), APP2 (ICC), COM comments, APP11/JUMBF for C2PA. A minimal TIFF/EXIF walk extracts GPS coordinates when present.
• PNG — walks chunks: tEXt, zTXt, iTXt text chunks, eXIf, plus a C2PA/JUMBF signature scan.
• WebP — walks RIFF chunks: EXIF, XMP, ICCP, C2PA scan.

Cleaning

Once you approve, the image is decoded and re-encoded through the Canvas API. The output contains only pixel data and the format's required structural chunks — every metadata container is gone by construction, not by selective deletion that could miss an edge case.

What it deliberately does not do

Pixel-level edits. Visible watermarks, AI-detection patterns baked into the image data, and steganography are not metadata and are out of scope. MetaClean is honest about that boundary so you know exactly what you are getting.