cameras/README.md

Cameras

A web interface for discovering and managing Hikvision and Annke IP cameras on your local network.

Securing the web interface

The dashboard and its API are protected by a single admin login. The login is stored in a file, never in plain text: the password is hashed with scrypt (random salt, N=65536, r=8, p=1), so it can't be recovered from the file.

Setting	Default
ADMIN_AUTH_FILE (environment variable, e.g. in .env.local)	./.data/admin.json

If the file doesn't exist, the app starts unsecured: anyone who can reach it can view your cameras and change their logins. To avoid ever running it that way, create the admin file before the first start (below).

Setting it up from the browser instead

With no admin file, the server prints a one-time setup code in its console at startup:

====================================================================
  No admin login is set up: the camera dashboard is NOT secured.

  To secure it from a browser, open /setup and enter this one-time code:

      XLZ7-Q4MB
  ...

Opening the app sends you to /setup, which asks for that code plus the new admin username and password. Only someone who can see the server console can claim the login. After 5 wrong codes a new one is printed.

You can also choose Skip for now and run unsecured. Every page then shows a red warning banner, the API stays open to anyone on the network, and the setup prompt returns the next time the browser is restarted.

Signing in

Once an admin exists, every page and API call needs a session: pages redirect to /login, and the API answers 401. A session lasts 12 hours from your last activity. After 10 wrong passwords from one address (or 100 from all addresses) within 15 minutes, logins are paused for up to 15 minutes. Sign out (top right) ends the session in that browser; to sign out everywhere, change the password.

Create the admin login (recommended)

npm run admin:create

It asks for a username and a password (at least 12 characters; typing is hidden, and you confirm it), then writes the file with owner-only permissions (0600). Options:

npm run admin:create -- --username admin      # only ask for the password
npm run admin:create -- --force               # replace the existing admin (reset the password)
printf '%s\n' "$PW" | npm run admin:create -- --username admin   # non-interactive, e.g. provisioning

Without npm: a Node one-liner

Any Node 24+ can produce the same file. The password is read from the terminal without echoing, so it never appears in your shell history or the process list:

(read -rs PW && export PW && umask 077 && mkdir -p .data && node -e '
const c = require("node:crypto"), N = 65536, r = 8, p = 1, salt = c.randomBytes(16);
const key = c.scryptSync(process.env.PW, salt, 64, { N, r, p, maxmem: 256 * N * r });
const passwordHash = ["scrypt", N, r, p, salt.toString("base64"), key.toString("base64")].join("$");
console.log(JSON.stringify({ version: 1, username: "admin", passwordHash }, null, 2));
' > .data/admin.json)

The parentheses run it in a subshell, so the password variable and the stricter umask end with it.

Change username: "admin" to taste. Usernames are 1–64 letters, digits, or . _ @ -.

File format

{
  "version": 1,
  "username": "admin",
  "passwordHash": "scrypt$65536$8$1$<salt, base64>$<64-byte key, base64>"
}

A file that exists but is malformed stops the app from authenticating anyone rather than quietly turning security off; fix it or delete it.

Forgot the password?

Run npm run admin:create -- --force (or delete the file and create it again). Changing the password signs out every existing session.

Live video (MediaMTX)

Browsers can't play the cameras' RTSP streams, so live video goes through MediaMTX, a single MIT-licensed binary that the app will run on this machine only (localhost). Install the pinned build with:

npm run video:install

This downloads the MediaMTX release pinned in src/lib/mediamtx-install.ts for your platform (macOS or Linux, Intel or ARM), checks its SHA-256 against the value committed there, and puts the binary in ./bin/ (not checked in). A download that doesn't match is refused and nothing is written. Re-running it does nothing if that build is already installed.

To upgrade, change version in MEDIAMTX_RELEASE and replace every sha256 with the values from that release's checksums.sha256 on GitHub (cross-check them against the per-file digests on the release page), then run npm run video:install again.

Motion recording

When a camera reports motion over ONVIF, the app records a clip and stops a few seconds after the motion ends. Clips are fragmented MP4 and play in the browser.

Variable	Default	Meaning
RECORDINGS_DIR	.data/recordings	Where clips are written; point it at an external drive or NAS if you like. One folder per camera.
RECORD_STREAM	sub	Which stream is recorded. sub is about 5 MB per minute of motion, main about 38 MB.
RECORD_KEEP_DAYS	7	Clips older than this are deleted by an hourly sweep.
MOTION_RECORDING	on	Set to off to record nothing.

There is no pre-roll: a clip starts when the camera reports motion, which is a second or two after movement begins. Recording pulls the camera only while motion lasts.

---

This is a Next.js project bootstrapped with create-next-app.

Getting Started

First, run the development server:

npm run dev
# or
yarn dev
# or
pnpm dev
# or
bun dev

Open http://localhost:3000 with your browser to see the result.

You can start editing the page by modifying app/page.tsx. The page auto-updates as you edit the file.

This project uses next/font to automatically optimize and load Geist, a new font family for Vercel.

Learn More

To learn more about Next.js, take a look at the following resources:

• Next.js Documentation - learn about Next.js features and API.
• Learn Next.js - an interactive Next.js tutorial.

You can check out the Next.js GitHub repository - your feedback and contributions are welcome!

Deploy on Vercel

The easiest way to deploy your Next.js app is to use the Vercel Platform from the creators of Next.js.

Check out our Next.js deployment documentation for more details.