Editor, Agency · 1 min

TYPO3 media library: alt text, titles and descriptions after review

Images without alt text leave screen-reader users with a file name, and empty titles and descriptions leave editors guessing what a file shows. In TYPO3 that means three fields per image, once per language. With TYPO3 MCP your AI assistant finds the gaps, drafts all three fields from the photo and saves them once you have read them.

The prompts

  • Which images on our Stadtwerke Musterstadt site have no alt text, title or description yet?
    Reads only; changes nothing
  • Fetch the three photos and Wasserhahn_alt.jpg from their public links and suggest alt text, a short title and a one-sentence description for each, in English and German. Don't save anything yet.
    Drafts only; you review them in the chat
  • Good. Drop "south-facing", call the bus an MVB city bus, and title the water tap "Drinking water from the tap" (German "Trinkwasser aus der Leitung"). Mark the favicon as decorative. Then save all four in English and German, in the German language of the Stadtwerke site.
    Writes after your review; no batch ID

What does the assistant do?

  1. Ask which images have no alt text, title or description. On our demo the assistant names three Stadtwerke photos, a favicon and one more photo in a shared folder.
  2. Ask for suggestions only. The assistant downloads each photo and drafts alt text, title and description in English and German; nothing is saved yet.
  3. Review in the chat. Strike what the photo cannot show, here a guessed roof direction, add names such as MVB, set the title you want and mark the favicon as decorative.
  4. Ask it to save in the German language of the right site. It writes eight sets of fields with AI Accessibility's MCP tool and marks the favicon.
  5. Check the file metadata in the backend and the image on the English and German page.

Shown in Claude; other MCP assistants work too.

How do I check it and put it back?

Open the file in the backend: the English row and the German row each hold alt text, title and description, and the German row shows the English original for reference. The tool returns no batch ID, so records_undo cannot take it back. Ask the assistant to note the old values before it writes, then write them back if you change your mind. On our demo we emptied the fields again afterwards.

What do I need?

AI Foundation with its MCP server switched on, an MCP-capable assistant that can look at images, and AI Accessibility for the image metadata tools; AI Foundation is free, AI Accessibility is licensed.

What can the assistant not do for you?

  • The metadata tools return no batch ID: records_undo cannot take them back, so ask the assistant to note the old values before it writes.
  • File metadata acts live: a draft workspace does not hold it back for review.
  • Language IDs belong to each site: on our demo German is language 1 on Stadtwerke Musterstadt and language 2 on Mustermann Outdoor. Name the site, or the German text lands in a row its pages never read.
  • The list of images without alt text covers every site and only checks alt text: the assistant sorts files by folder and name, and an image with alt text but no title is not listed.
  • To describe a photo, your assistant downloads it from its public address and sends it to its vendor, as with any chat.

Questions about this episode

What does this video show?

Three requests in Claude on our demo install: which Stadtwerke Musterstadt images have no alt text, title or description, suggestions for four photos in English and German, and saving them after one review, with the favicon marked as decorative. Then the file metadata of the water tap photo in the TYPO3 backend, English and German, and the Water page on the website in both languages.

How does the assistant see the photos?

The AI Accessibility tool returns the public address of each image. The assistant downloads that address with its own tools and describes what it sees, so the image goes to the assistant's vendor, as with any chat.

Why mark the favicon as decorative instead of describing it?

A favicon or an ornament carries no information for a screen-reader user. Marking it decorative keeps its alt text empty on purpose, so it is not read out.

In this video
Transcript of the video
  1. 0:00MCP in Practice for TYPO3 · Episode 16: TYPO3 media library: alt text, titles and descriptions after review
  2. 0:02First request: which Stadtwerke images have no alt text, title or description?
  3. 0:04Three photos and a favicon in the site's folder, one more photo in a shared folder. Nothing is changed.
  4. 0:05Second request: fetch the four photos and suggest all three fields, English and German.
  5. 0:07Claude looks at each photo and drafts both languages. Nothing is saved yet.
  6. 0:08It flags its own guess: the roof direction cannot be seen in the photo.
  7. 0:09Third request, after review: fix the wording, mark the favicon decorative, then save.
  8. 0:11Four images saved with alt text, title and description; the favicon is marked decorative.
  9. 0:12The German texts go to the German language of the Stadtwerke site.
  10. 0:14Now check it in TYPO3.
  11. 0:15File metadata of water_tap_final_v2.jpg: alt text, description and the title from the review.
  12. 0:28The German row holds the German texts, with the English original for reference.
  13. 0:40On the website, the English Water page carries the new alt text and title.
  14. 0:45The German page carries the German ones.
  15. 0:50Alt text, title and description, after your review, instead of three fields per image typed by hand.
  16. 0:52All episodes: t3planet.de/en/blog/typo3-mcp-in-practice/

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