Flickr logo Flickr automation · runs weekly

Sort Flickr photos into albums

Your Flickr photostream holds a trip, a family weekend and a product shoot mixed together. The albums exist, but nobody has dragged the new photos in.

Cotlet does it in your own Flickr account with list_photos, list_albums, create_album and add_photo_to_album, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

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Hosted · nothing to install or maintain

Can Flickr do this on its own?

Flickr offers manual album tools only (checked 17 Oct 2026): Add to album in Camera Roll and album editing in the Organizr. The Flickr API has album methods, but new keys are for Pro subscribers only, and there is no official MCP server. Flickr's Zapier app has triggers for a new album and a new photo in an album, and no action to create an album or add a photo.

How you do it in Flickr today

  1. Flickr works in reverse of most sites: you upload the images first, then add them to an album.
  2. In the upload steps, you can add photos to albums as you batch upload them.
  3. Later, hover over You, select Camera Roll, select the photos and use Add to album to add them to an album or group them any way you like.
  4. In the Organizr, under You > Organize, you create and manage albums from a desktop or laptop browser.
  5. Photos you skip stay loose in the photostream, and nothing on Flickr lists the photos that belong to no album.

How to sort Flickr photos into albums

Prompt

Look at the photos from my last 7 days that are in no album. Group them by place and date, create an album for each new group and move the photos in. Show me the plan first.
  1. 01

    Find the loose photos

    list_photos runs with in_album set to false and a date window, so the agent works only on photos that belong to no album yet.

  2. 02

    Group by date and tags

    The agent groups photos by the date taken and the tags, and keeps one group per trip or shoot. Groups under the minimum size you gave stay loose.

  3. 03

    Reuse before creating

    list_albums shows your existing albums. A group whose place and dates match an existing album joins it; only the rest get a new one, so you never end up with two "Lisbon 2026" albums.

  4. 04

    Show the plan, then create

    The agent lists each album with its photo count before it acts. create_album then makes the new albums, which ask for your OK by default.

  5. 05

    Move the photos

    add_photo_to_album adds each photo and runs without asking: it reaches nobody new on its own and remove_photo_from_album undoes it. The agent reports photos it could not add.

What you get back

Example data

Loose photos from the last 7 days: 58
Added 41 to the existing album Lisbon 2026
Created Sunday market (12 photos)
Left loose 5 (no date taken, no place)

Other ways to ask

  • Every Sunday, file last week's uploads into albums named by month and place.
  • Move all photos tagged "portfolio-2026" into one album called Portfolio.
  • List albums with fewer than 5 photos and suggest which to merge, without changing anything.
  • Put each day of my last trip into its own album and order them by date.

What Flickr allows, and what to know first

  • Flickr warns that an album a non-public photo is part of lets anyone with the link see that photo.
  • Flickr says images come first and albums second: you upload photos, then add them to albums, in the upload steps or in bulk in Camera Roll.
  • The Zapier app for Flickr reads new albums and new album photos only, so an album-filing job needs another route.
  • The Organizr, where albums are created and managed, works only in a desktop or laptop browser.

create_album asks for your OK by default. To run it weekly without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: Flickr: Get the most out of Flickr (albums) · Flickr Help: View and manage your items within the Camera Roll · Flickr Help: View and manage your photos with the Organizr · Flickr Help: Change your privacy settings

Call add_photo_to_album from a script

curl

curl -X POST https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/flickr/albums/72177720330012345/photos/53917620011/to-album \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY"

Example response

{
  "album_id": "72177720330012345",
  "album_title": "Lisbon 2026",
  "photo_id": "53917620011",
  "photos_in_album": 42,
  "status": "added"
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the call is flickr_write → add_photo_to_album. Example data.

Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron

Flickr tools this automation uses

Cotlet Flickr tools used to sort Flickr photos into albums
Tool Parameters
list_photos album_id, uploaded_since, privacy, untagged, in_album, limit, cursor
list_albums limit, cursor
create_album title, description, primary_photo_id
add_photo_to_album album_id, photo_id
All 13 Flickr tools with descriptions

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to connect Flickr to Cotlet?

Yes. You sign in to Flickr yourself, in your own Cloud Browser in the EU, and we never save your password. Your agents only get Flickr once you enable it, every background request is listed, and the browser profile is stored encrypted with AES-256-GCM, the cipher 1Password uses for its vaults. The AI model never sees a login, posts and messages wait for your OK, and Disable for agents cuts access in one click. Independent scanners grade cotlet.dev A+ on Qualys SSL Labs, securityheaders.com and Mozilla Observatory; live results are on https://cotlet.dev/security.

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