HTTP API

The daemon’s web UI is a client of a plain HTTP API — anything the UI does, your own tooling can do too. This page covers the stable, integration-friendly endpoints.

The API is stable in practice but not formally versioned yet. Pin automations to a daemon version and check the changelog on upgrades.

Auth#

With auth enabled, request a session by POSTing credentials, then send the session cookie with subsequent calls:

curl -c cookies.txt -H 'Content-Type: application/json' 
  --data '{"username":"admin","password":"..."}' 
  http://localhost:8085/api/login

curl -b cookies.txt http://localhost:8085/api/cameras

With auth off (LAN trust), no credentials are needed. Over remote access, a signed ?grant= token takes the cookie’s place.

Reading state#

Endpoint	What you get
`GET /api/cameras`	Every configured camera: id, name, streams, record flag, live state
`GET /api/stats`	Per-stream ingest metrics — bitrate, RTP loss, decode errors, frame age
`GET /api/events/{cam}?from=&to=&type=`	Indexed events (motion, linecrossing, intrusion, tamper, videoloss, camera_offline)
`GET /api/recordings/{cam}/{stream}`	Recorded-coverage metadata for a camera + stream
`GET /api/thumbnails/{cam}/{stream}?from=&to=`	Scrub-preview thumbnail index for a window
`GET /api/version`	Daemon version and build identity
`GET /api/health`	Loopback health summary (drives the macOS menu-bar item)

All times are epoch milliseconds unless noted. Responses are JSON.

Images and clips#

Endpoint	What you get
`GET /api/snapshot/{cam}/latest.jpg`	The most recent camera still — what the Wall tab polls
`GET /api/snapshot/{cam}?at={ms}`	A still nearest a historical moment (from recorded footage)

Media streams#

These are the endpoints the players use. They’re long-lived, so give them generous timeouts.

Endpoint	What you get
`GET /mse/{cam}/{stream}`	WebSocket carrying live fMP4 — keyframe-anchored prefix, then the live edge
`GET /hls/{cam}/{stream}/index.m3u8`	Live HLS (the iOS/Safari path)
`GET /hls/{cam}/{stream}/vod.m3u8?from=&to=`	Recorded playback as HLS VOD over a time window
`GET /audio/{cam}/{stream}`	A stream’s audio track, when `audio: true` is set

A minimal integration#

Poll stats and alert when a camera’s frame age stalls — the whole thing is a few lines:

curl -fsS -b cookies.txt http://localhost:8085/api/stats 
  | jq '.streams[] | select(.last_frame_age_ms > 10000)'

For heavier lifting — config changes, camera management, admin actions — use the web app’s Settings rather than scripting the admin endpoints; those are covered by the config editor’s validation and history.