Whimbrel for Lightroom Classic — Setup & Options

Whimbrel adds two Immich integrations to Lightroom Classic:

Export — a one-shot "send to Immich" in the Export dialog.
Publish — a published collection becomes an Immich album that stays in sync as you re-edit.

A small menu-bar app holds your server settings and installs the Lightroom plugin for you.

Requirements

In Immich: Account Settings → API Keys → New API Key.

For Export only, the asset.upload permission is enough.
For Publish, Whimbrel also creates/updates albums and moves removed photos to the Immich Trash, so the key additionally needs album create / update / delete and asset delete permissions. The simplest option is a full-access key.

Copy the key — you'll paste it into Whimbrel once.

Download and open Whimbrel for Lightroom Classic (drag it to /Applications first).
Open the window from the menu-bar icon, go to Settings, and under Immich Connection paste your Server URL and API key.
Click Test Connection to confirm it reaches your server.
Click Install to install the Lightroom plugin.
Click Save, then restart Lightroom Classic so it loads the plugin.

In Lightroom, select photos → File → Export, choose Immich as the destination, and export. The rendered files upload to Immich.

In the Publish Services panel (left side), find Immich and create a published collection. Each published collection maps to one Immich album.
Drag photos into the collection and click Publish. Whimbrel uploads them and adds them to the album.
Re-edit a published photo and Lightroom marks it to re-publish; the next Publish uploads the new version, points the album at it, and moves the old version to the Immich Trash.
Remove a photo from the collection → it's moved to the Immich Trash (recoverable; it leaves the album).
Rename the collection → the Immich album is renamed to match.
Delete the collection → its assets are trashed and the album is removed.

Re-publishing unchanged photos is safe — Immich de-duplicates by checksum.

Section	Option	What it does
Immich Connection	Server URL	Your Immich address. `https://` anywhere; plain `http://` only on a local network (LAN/localhost).
Immich Connection	API key	Stored in your macOS Keychain, never sent anywhere but your server.
Immich Connection	Test Connection	Checks the URL + key reach your Immich.
Plugin	Install	Installs the Whimbrel plugin into Lightroom (Export + Publish services). Restart Lightroom afterwards.
Plugin	Remove	Deletes the installed plugin (you can reinstall anytime).
Visibility	Show in Dock	Show a Dock icon.
Visibility	Show in Menu Bar	Show the menu-bar icon. If you turn both off, the menu-bar icon comes back on next launch so the app stays reachable.
(footer)	Save	Saves your settings. The window stays open.

The plugin reads the settings you saved in the app — change your URL or key, then click Save (no need to reinstall the plugin).
Removals are non-destructive: photos taken out of a published collection go to the Immich Trash, where you can recover them.
Local networks: plain http:// is allowed for localhost and private ranges (192.168.x, 10.x, 172.16–31.x). Everything else must be https://.
Updates are included; the app is signed and notarized by Apple.