IP cameras (ONVIF/RTSP)

ipcam-mcp

An MCP server that lets Claude Code, or another MCP client, see through and control the IP cameras on your local network (ONVIF + RTSP): snapshots, video clips, pan/tilt and change detection, all handled locally.

Any ONVIF camera should work. See known cameras for what has been tested.

What you can ask

Once a camera is added, ask in plain words, for example:

• "Take a snapshot of the front door."
• "Save this view as door-closed." Later: "Does the front door still look like door-closed?"
• "Did anything change at the front door since the last snapshot?"
• "Pan the office camera a bit to the left."
• "Record 10 seconds from the garage."
• "Show me what the garage cameras captured yesterday."

Prerequisites

• Linux or WSL2, on the same network as the camera
• uv on your PATH (it installs Python 3.13+ and the dependencies for you)
• ffmpeg: sudo apt install ffmpeg
• An ONVIF-capable IP camera with a local camera account (username and password), with ONVIF and RTSP enabled
• Claude Code or another MCP client that supports stdio servers

Install

Pick one. All of them run the ipcam-mcp package from PyPI and need ffmpeg and, except pipx, uv (see Prerequisites).

• Claude Code plugin (recommended for Claude Code): /plugin install ipcam --marketplace aidev-iprokszin/ipcam-mcp

On Claude Code older than 2.1.275, run /plugin marketplace add aidev-iprokszin/ipcam-mcp, then /plugin install ipcam@ipcam-mcp. The plugin runs the server from a lockfile (every dependency pinned with hashes). Update it with claude plugin update ipcam@ipcam-mcp, which also updates the server; a new server version reaches the plugin shortly after its PyPI release.

• Claude Code, without the plugin: claude mcp add ipcam -s user -- uvx ipcam-mcp
• Other MCP clients (Cursor, VS Code, Codex CLI, …): configure the stdio command uvx ipcam-mcp. See Other MCP clients.
• A permanent `ipcam-mcp` command: uv tool install ipcam-mcp (or pipx install ipcam-mcp), then configure your client to run ipcam-mcp. Update with uv tool upgrade ipcam-mcp (or pipx upgrade ipcam-mcp).

Then add your first camera.

Add your first camera

1. Camera account: create or find the camera's local ONVIF/RTSP account (username and password). This is not your cloud login. See known cameras for where your brand hides it.
2. IP address: look it up in the camera's app or your router. Network discovery is not supported (WSL2 NAT blocks it).
3. Ask Claude to add it, for example "add my camera at 192.0.2.10 as front-door". Claude calls add_camera, which asks for the username and password in a login form, so they never pass through the model. Before you type the password, check that the IP in the form is your camera's. Without a config file the server starts with no cameras; add_camera creates cameras.toml and the camera's secrets file. See Managing cameras for the other management tools and for clients that cannot show forms.

Or configure it by hand

1. Secrets file (outside any repo), e.g. ~/.config/ipcam-mcp/secrets.env:

   CAMERA_IP=192.168.x.y

CAMERA_USER=... CAMERA_PASSWORD=...

   The host is a bare IP address or hostname: no `rtsp://`, user name, port or path (ports go

in Camera settings). Make it readable only by you: chmod 600 . The server warns at startup if other users can read it.

1. Camera config: copy cameras.example.toml to ~/.config/ipcam-mcp/cameras.toml (or point IPCAM_MCP_CONFIG at another path) and adjust the camera name / variable names. Only variable *names* go in this file, never the secrets themselves. Use type = "onvif".

After editing cameras.toml by hand while the server runs, ask Claude to reload the cameras (reload_cameras).

Camera settings

All optional, set in the camera's section of cameras.toml. A wrong type is reported when the config loads.

ptz = false means the camera has no pan/tilt tools. Set stream_high/stream_low if the ONVIF lookup fails or picks the wrong stream. Set invert_pan = true if ptz_move left turns the view to the right. Some brands need other values; see known cameras.

Other MCP clients

Any client that supports stdio servers (Cursor, VS Code, Codex CLI, …) can run the same command: uvx ipcam-mcp, or uv --directory /absolute/path/to/ipcam-mcp run ipcam-mcp for a clone.

Claude Desktop on Windows: the server runs inside WSL2, so install uv and ffmpeg there (see *Prerequisites*). In Claude Desktop, open *Settings → Developer → Edit Config*, add the ipcam entry below to mcpServers and keep the rest of the file:

{

"mcpServers": { "ipcam": { "command": "wsl.exe", "args": ["-e", "/home/ /.local/bin/uvx", "ipcam-mcp"] } } }

Replace `<you>` with your WSL user name (`which uvx` in WSL shows the path). With several WSL

distributions, add "-d", " " before "-e". Then quit Claude Desktop from the tray icon (closing the window is not enough) and start it again. The server uses the same cameras.toml and media folder inside WSL as Claude Code there. Use *Edit Config* rather than a fixed path: the Microsoft Store version keeps the file under %LOCALAPPDATA%, not %APPDATA%\Claude. For a clone, use "args": ["-e", "/home/ /.local/bin/uv", "--directory", "/home/ /path/to/ipcam-mcp", "run", "ipcam-mcp"].

WSL2 networking

If the camera can't be reached from WSL (nc -zv 554 fails), enable mirrored networking in %UserProfile%\.wslconfig:

[wsl2]

networkingMode=mirrored

then run `wsl --shutdown` from Windows.

Tools

camera is a camera's name: its section name in cameras.toml. quality="high" uses the camera's main stream (its resolution is set on the camera), "low" the sub stream (smaller, quicker). Media is saved to the camera's own folder, / / _ .jpg|.mp4 (media_dir defaults to ~/.local/share/ipcam-mcp/media).

Tool hints. Every tool carries MCP annotations so clients can tell what it does: list_cameras, list_scenes, scene_timeline and ptz_list_presets are read-only; camera_save_baseline, ptz_save_preset, ptz_remove_preset, remove_camera and delete_camera may replace or delete data; everything else only adds files or moves the camera. Snapshots and recordings are not marked read-only because they save files. These are hints for the client; the server's own safeguards (such as delete_camera's approval form) still apply.

Compare and crop. camera_compare lists the grid cells that changed (the same names as region) and a box around them. It compares the frames at the size the camera sends them, so the stream resolution you set on the camera decides how small a change it can notice; a reference of another size is scaled to the new frame. Pass a changed cell as region to camera_snapshot, ideally with from_path set to the snapshot you just looked at, to see it closer. Baselines live in / /baselines/ as a JPEG plus a small JSON file.

Managing cameras

Instead of editing cameras.toml by hand you can let Claude add, rename, remove and delete cameras. This is on by default. To turn it off, set allow_management = false in cameras.toml (see cameras.example.toml), then run /mcp reconnect ipcam; the flag is only read at startup. Claude Code still asks before each tool call unless you allowlist it; if you allowlist the camera tools, consider leaving remove_camera, delete_camera and ptz_remove_preset off the list.

add_camera logs into whatever host it is given. Before you type a password into the login form, check that the IP it shows is your camera's (from the camera's app or your router), not one the agent picked up elsewhere.

| `add_camera(name, host, credentials_via="form", onvif_port=None, scene=No