Tag Reference Images So You Can Find Them Again

Tag an image with the words you would use to find it again. Start with a subject and one useful quality, such as hands and side-light. Add more only when they answer a real retrieval question.

Apply and verify a tag

Select an image and use its metadata tags. Choose an existing tag from the suggestions when it matches your meaning. Search for that tag afterward to check the result.

In refern 1.10, Quick Tags is the one tag picker everywhere, including the grid. The default shortcut is T while hovering an item; bindings are configurable. Typing any part of a tag's name or one of its aliases finds it. Enter applies the tag and clears the search, Shift+Enter keeps the search, and Alt+Enter removes the tag. The compact panel also lists hierarchy paths, categories, and linked sets you can apply in one step, recent and pinned choices, and undo/redo for its current session.

Use bulk editing without flattening differences

Select a small group before trying a larger batch. Current bulk editing distinguishes tags shared by all selected files from tags present on only some. Apply or remove the intended tag, then inspect an item that had extra tags to verify those differences remain.

For example, add a project tag across several images while retaining each image's individual pose or lighting tags. Do not replace the entire tag set when the task is only to add one term. To make the same bulk edit from Claude Code or Codex, with a dry run first, see tagging with an assistant app.

To reuse one image's tags, hover it and press Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+C, then select the targets and press Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+V. Pasting adds the tags and keeps the ones already there.

Build hierarchy only where it helps

A hierarchy can organize related tags, such as anatomy with hands and feet underneath. Use search controls to check the intended matching behavior; a visible tree is not a reason to assume every filter includes all descendants.

By default, applying a child tag such as hands writes only that tag. Turn on Apply parent tags automatically in the workspace settings if you also want anatomy added.

Presets are useful for a set of tags you repeatedly apply together. Test a preset on one image before using it on a batch. Avoid making a preset so broad that it adds subjects the image does not contain.

Clean up through real searches

Use is:untagged for entries without tags. Use tag:anatomy for a known tag and tag:all:anatomy,hands for an explicit combination. Follow autocomplete for quoted names or punctuation. Use tags:1 to find lightly tagged entries, or add sort:tags-asc to any search to put the least-tagged files first. To tag untagged files one at a time in a large preview, start a Review and choose its Untagged queue. A Review can also be ordered Fewest tags first.

If two tags have become synonyms, inspect both result sets, then merge them in the Tag Manager: every item gets the tag you keep, and the other tag is deleted. A merge cannot be undone. If you want both words to find the same tag, keep one and add the other as an alias instead. A usage count can help you review the decision; it does not tell you which meaning is correct.

To rename many tags at once, select them in the Tag Manager and choose Add prefix, Add suffix, or Replace (find and replace text in the names). Check the New names preview before you click Rename. Unlike a merge, the rename is one step you can undo.

Tags edited in refern live in workspace data rather than being automatically written into each source image. Include that data in your backup.

For vocabulary planning, see the tagging taxonomy guide. For recurring selections, see smart folders.