camview - Control a Unifi Viewport from the command line

Features

• switch Liveviews on Viewports
• list Viewports, Liveviews, or Cameras
• Display a snapshot of a camera's current view (requires iTerm2 or Warp)

Usage

USAGE: camview <subcommand>

OPTIONS:
  -h, --help              Show help information.

SUBCOMMANDS:
  show [liveview] [viewport]               Set a Liveview for a Viewport
  snapshot (camera)                        Display a snapshot of a camera's current view (requires iTerm2 or Warp)
  list (cameras | viewports | liveviews)   Show a list of liveviews, viewports or cameras
  config (read | write)                    Manage tool configuration (protect host, api key)

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Getting Started:

1 . Generate an API Key to allow access to the Protect API. You can generate an API key from the UniFi Protect web interface by navigating to Settings → Control Plane → Integrations. The API Key is a 32 character string

2 . Run the following commands to set the API key and host:

camview config write api-key <your-API-Key>
camview config write protect-host <your-Unifi-Protect-web-interface-hostname-or-IP-Address>

3 . Confirm that they are set correctly by running

camview config read  # Note: the api-key will be slightly obfuscated

4 . Try out camview!

camview list cameras
camview list viewports
camview list liveviews
camview show Backyard MyViewport   # assumes you have a camera called Backyard and a viewport named MyViewport
camview snapshot Backyard   # if you're running iTerm2 or Warp

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Switching Liveviews

You can tell a viewport to switch to a specific Liveview by passing the Liveview name and Viewport name on the cmd line. Names are case-INsensitive. e.g. camview show Driveway MyViewport

If you don't give a Viewport name, it will use the first viewport returned by the camview list viewports command e.g. camview show Backyard

If you don't give either a Liveview name or a Viewport name it will, it will try a liveview called "Default" on the first viewport returned by camview list viewports e.g. camview show

Note: You can't give a viewport name without a liveview name. camview will assume it's a liveview name, and may or may not do what you want. e.g. camview show MyViewport # Uh-oh! Tries to find a Liveview called MyViewport!!)

Listing Viewports, Liveviews and Cameras

• You can list available Viewports with camview list viewports
• You can list available Liveviews with camview list liveviews (or just camview list)
• You can list available Cameras with camview list cameras
• You can get more data in csv format by adding -f csv. For example: camview list cameras -f csv

Note: The listings are minimal and ugly. There is a lot that can be improved in future versions.

Getting Camera Snapshots

Some Mac Terminal replacements (e.g. iTerm2 and Warp) can show images inline. camview has a Snapshot subcommand that captures a snapshot from the specified camera and displays it inline in the terminal.

• It's a static snapshot, not a streaming video.
• It sends output to the terminal, not to a file or the clipboard (yet)
• It uses the iTerm image protocol, not Kitty
• I've only tested it in iTerm2 and Warp

Configuration Details

Camview needs two configuration strings:

1. your Unifi Protect host IP or DNS name. For example 192.168.1.1 or udm.local
2. your Unifi Protect API Key (a 32 character string which you can generate in Protect -> Settings -> Control Plane -> Integrations)

Use the config write subcommand to store them where camview can find them.

• The API Key is stored securely in the macOS keychain as an application password under com.peterichardson.camview
• The Protect host is stored in user preferences in domain com.peterichardson.camview under the key protect-host

camview config write api-key XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
camview config write protect-host 192.168.1.1
camview config read

Of course, you can also use built in macOS tools (security and defaults) to set and validate these items:

# Get API Key
security find-generic-password -a api-key -s com.peterichardson.camview -w

# Set API Key
security add-generic-password -a api-key -s com.peterichardson.camview -w XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

# Get Protect Host
defaults read com.peterichardson.camview protect-host

# Set Protect Host
defaults write com.peterichardson.camview protect-host 192.168.1.1

Extras

Elgato Stream Deck

To change the live view on your Viewport by pushing a button on an Elgato Stream Deck, you can wrap the cli "camview show" call in a mac app using Automator. Or, you can use the code in the Streamdeck Extras folder to quickly generate smaller, faster apps. For more info, see this readme.