Mediapiper

See full-size images and videos instantly — just hover.

MediaPiper shows you the full-resolution version of any thumbnail, video, or image link when you hover over it. No clicks, no new tabs, no waiting. Works on any website out of the box.

Part of the ModelPiper family of apps — available individually or as a bundle on the Mac App Store.

How it works
Hover over a thumbnail, video, or image link. MediaPiper automatically discovers the full-size URL using pattern analysis and CDN detection, then displays it in a smooth overlay. Discovered patterns are cached so subsequent hovers are instant.

Key features
Automatic discovery — no manual rules needed. MediaPiper analyzes page structure, srcset attributes, CDN patterns, and URL conventions to find full-size images on any site.
Hover preview with smooth mouse tracking and configurable display delay.
Scroll-wheel zoom (up to 10x) with cursor-anchored precision. Click-drag to pan.
Rotate, flip, and fit controls via toolbar or keyboard shortcuts.
Video support with playback speed control, frame stepping, screenshots, and A-B looping with bounce/ping-pong mode.
Standalone viewer for direct image/video URLs — auto-fits to viewport with dark background toggle.
AI-powered image upscaling for macOS users via the ToolPiper companion app (available on the Mac App Store). Windows and Linux support coming soon.
27 fully remappable keyboard shortcuts.
Per-site enable/disable with allowlist and blocklist modes.
Full settings page with appearance, behavior, toolbar, video, and keyboard customization.
Closed Shadow DOM — zero style leaks, no interference with page content.
A sieve engine, reimagined
MediaPiper's rule system was inspired by the original Imagus sieve engine — then rethought from the ground up. The legacy approach relied on a massive hand-maintained JSON blob of regex+JavaScript rules that required constant community upkeep and broke silently when sites changed.

MediaPiper replaces that with a fully declarative engine that needs no JavaScript evaluation and no human intervention (unless you want it). Self-healing canary pairs automatically verify that cached rules still work, rediscovering patterns when sites update their URL schemes. Four resolution strategies — substitution, mutation, fetch+extract, and pipeline — handle everything from simple URL rewrites to multi-step API calls. No unsafe-eval, no sandbox iframe, no security prompts. All sieve entries are CRUDable through the built-in canary editor.

Works everywhere
Available for Chrome and Firefox, with Safari on the way. MediaPiper detects images in <img> tags, <video> elements, linked images, CSS background images, srcset, picture elements, and data attributes. Background images in text-oriented elements are automatically skipped to avoid false positives.

Privacy
MediaPiper collects no data. All processing happens locally in your browser. Discovered patterns are stored in local browser storage and never transmitted. The only network requests are HEAD probes to verify image URLs and fetch requests for API-based resolution — both go directly to the image host, never through a third party.

For power users
Discovery Mode is a built-in authoring tool for sites where automatic detection needs a nudge. Run a full-page scan from the popup, review results with confidence scores, and export ready-to-use rules. A canary editor lets you manually manage URL verification pairs for fine-tuned caching.

Open architecture
Built with TypeScript, WXT, and Vite. Modular codebase with typed interfaces at every boundary. The sieve engine, hover detection, popup overlay, toolbar, and video controls are all independent modules that can be extended without touching unrelated code.

Part of the ModelPiper ecosystem — learn more at modelpiper.com.