diff --git a/invokeai/backend/image_util/invoke_metadata.py b/invokeai/backend/image_util/invoke_metadata.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..424eba54c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/invokeai/backend/image_util/invoke_metadata.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2023 Lincoln D. Stein and the InvokeAI Development Team
+
+"""Very simple functions to fetch and print metadata from InvokeAI-generated images."""
+
+import json
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Any, Dict
+
+from PIL import Image
+
+
+def get_invokeai_metadata(image_path: Path) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+    """
+    Retrieve "invokeai_metadata" field from png image.
+
+    :param image_path: Path to the image to read metadata from.
+    May raise:
+      OSError -- image path not found
+      KeyError -- image doesn't contain the metadata field
+    """
+    image: Image = Image.open(image_path)
+    return json.loads(image.text["invokeai_metadata"])
+
+
+def print_invokeai_metadata(image_path: Path):
+    """Pretty-print the metadata."""
+    try:
+        metadata = get_invokeai_metadata(image_path)
+        print(f"{image_path}:\n{json.dumps(metadata, sort_keys=True, indent=4)}")
+    except OSError:
+        print(f"{image_path}:\nNo file found.")
+    except KeyError:
+        print(f"{image_path}:\nNo metadata found.")
+    print()
+
+
+def main():
+    """Run the command-line utility."""
+    image_paths = sys.argv[1:]
+    if not image_paths:
+        print(f"Usage: {Path(sys.argv[0]).name} image1 image2 image3 ...")
+        print("\nPretty-print InvokeAI image metadata from the listed png files.")
+        sys.exit(-1)
+    for img in image_paths:
+        print_invokeai_metadata(img)
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 2ea5455c3d..6f68d5b362 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ dependencies = [
 "invokeai-model-install" = "invokeai.frontend.install.model_install:main"
 "invokeai-migrate3" = "invokeai.backend.install.migrate_to_3:main"
 "invokeai-update" = "invokeai.frontend.install.invokeai_update:main"
-"invokeai-metadata" = "invokeai.frontend.CLI.sd_metadata:print_metadata"
+"invokeai-metadata" = "invokeai.backend.image_util.invoke_metadata:main"
 "invokeai-node-cli" = "invokeai.app.cli_app:invoke_cli"
 "invokeai-node-web" = "invokeai.app.api_app:invoke_api"
 "invokeai-import-images" = "invokeai.frontend.install.import_images:main"