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Unofficial UniFi Protect Python API and CLI

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Documentation: https://uiprotect.readthedocs.io

Source Code: https://github.com/uilibs/uiprotect

Python API for UniFi Protect (Unofficial)

Looking for maintainers

This project is looking for maintainers.

Installation

Install this via pip (or your favorite package manager):

pip install uiprotect

Developer Setup

The recommended way to develop is using the provided devcontainer with VS Code:

  1. Install VS Code and the Dev Containers extension
  2. Open the project in VS Code
  3. When prompted, click "Reopen in Container" (or use Command Palette: "Dev Containers: Reopen in Container")
  4. The devcontainer will automatically set up Python, Poetry, pre-commit hooks, and all dependencies

Alternatively, if you want to develop natively without devcontainer:

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# Install dependencies (--all-extras installs the cli extra for CLI tests)
poetry install --with dev --all-extras

# Install pre-commit hooks
poetry run pre-commit install --install-hooks

# Run tests
poetry run pytest

# Run pre-commit checks manually
poetry run pre-commit run --all-files

Subscribing to events

ProtectApiClient exposes two parallel websocket contracts. The raw subscribe_events_websocket continues to deliver WSSubscriptionMessage frames for advanced callers, and the typed subscribe_events API delivers (ProtectEvent, EventChange) pairs intended for application code. The typed path goes through the Public Integration API, so the ProtectApiClient must be configured with an API key and update_public() must have been called at least once before calling subscribe_events. The raw subscribe_events_websocket path does not require an API key.

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import logging

from uiprotect import EventChange, ProtectApiClient, ProtectEvent

_LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)

protect = ProtectApiClient(..., api_key="...")
await protect.update_public()

def on_event(event: ProtectEvent, change: EventChange) -> None:
    if change is EventChange.STARTED:
        _LOGGER.info("%s on %s: %s", event.type, event.device_id, event.identity)
    elif change is EventChange.ENDED:
        _LOGGER.info("%s ended after %s", event.type, event.end - event.start)

unsubscribe = protect.subscribe_events(on_event)
# ...
unsubscribe()

Notes:

  • subscribe_events delivers only events whose EventType maps to a non-OTHER ProtectEventChannel (detection / sensor / alarm-hub / access). Administrative events such as provision, factoryReset and fwUpdate are dropped. Callers that need the unfiltered stream should use subscribe_events_websocket.
  • event.raw is a permanent escape hatch onto the underlying private-API Event model when the public contract does not expose the field you need. In particular, smart-detect detected attributes (license-plate text, face-match name) are not available over the public API today, so consumers that need them must fall back to the private path via event.raw.
  • EventChange.UPDATED may carry no public-visible delta — diff event.raw if you need to know exactly what changed.
  • protect.active_events(device_id=...) returns the in-flight set, derived directly from the public bootstrap cache. Useful for restoring binary-sensor state after a reload — it works before any subscribe_events call as long as update_public() has primed the cache.
  • All runtime state is sourced from public_bootstrap: lifecycle/active state from public_bootstrap.events, credential-event identity from public_bootstrap.ulp_users (UniFi Identity), and event.device_mac from the bootstrap device stores. All are refreshed by update_public() — including automatically on websocket reconnect — and resolve with eventual consistency: an identity that resolves to UnknownIdentity(reason="ulp_user_not_cached") for a freshly-enrolled ULP user, or a device_mac of None for a device not yet in the bootstrap, both fill in on the next update_public() / reconnect resync.

History

This project was split off from pyunifiprotect because that project changed its license to one that would not be accepted in Home Assistant. This project is committed to keeping the MIT license.

Credits

  • Bjarne Riis (@briis) for the original pyunifiprotect package
  • Christopher Bailey (@AngellusMortis) for the maintaining the pyunifiprotect package

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!

uiprotect is an unofficial API for UniFi Protect. There is no affiliation with Ubiquiti.

This module communicates with UniFi Protect surveillance software installed on a UniFi OS Console such as a Ubiquiti CloudKey+ or UniFi Dream Machine Pro.

The API is not documented by Ubiquiti, so there might be misses and/or frequent changes in this module, as Ubiquiti evolves the software.

The module is primarily written for the purpose of being used in Home Assistant core integration for UniFi Protect but might be used for other purposes also.

Documentation

Full documentation for the project.

Requirements

If you want to install uiprotect natively, the below are the requirements:

  • UniFi Protect version 6.0+
  • Only UniFi Protect version 6 and newer are supported. The library is generally tested against the latest stable version and the latest EA version.
  • Python 3.11+
  • POSIX compatible system
  • Library is only tested on Linux, specifically the latest Debian version available for the official Python Docker images, but there is no reason the library should not work on any Linux distro or macOS.
  • PyAV (av) - included as a dependency
  • PyAV is used for audio streaming to camera speakers (talkback feature)

Alternatively you can use the provided Docker container, in which case the only requirement is Docker or another OCI compatible orchestrator (such as Kubernetes or podman).

Windows is not supported. If you need to use uiprotect on Windows, use Docker Desktop and the provided docker container or WSL.

Install

From PyPi

uiprotect is available on PyPi:

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pip install uiprotect

To use the command-line interface, install the cli extra (it pulls in typer):

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pip install "uiprotect[cli]"

From GitHub

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pip install git+https://github.com/uilibs/uiprotect.git#egg=uiprotect
# with the CLI:
pip install "uiprotect[cli] @ git+https://github.com/uilibs/uiprotect.git"

Using Docker Container

A Docker container is also provided, so you do not need to install/manage Python as well. You can add the following to your .bashrc or similar.

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function uiprotect() {
    docker run --rm -it \
      -e UFP_USERNAME=YOUR_USERNAME_HERE \
      -e UFP_PASSWORD=YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE \
      -e UFP_ADDRESS=YOUR_IP_ADDRESS \
      -e UFP_PORT=443 \
      -e UFP_SSL_VERIFY=false \
      -e TZ=America/New_York \
      -v $PWD:/data ghcr.io/uilibs/uiprotect:latest "$@"
}

Some notes about the Docker version since it is running inside a container:

  • You can update at any time using the command docker pull ghcr.io/uilibs/uiprotect:latest
  • Your local current working directory ($PWD) will automatically be mounted to /data inside of the container. For commands that output files, this is the only path you can write to and have the file persist.
  • The container supports linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 natively. This means it will also work well on macOS or Windows using Docker Desktop.
  • TZ should be the Olson timezone name for the timezone your UniFi Protect instance is in.
  • For more details on TZ and other environment variables, check the command line docs

Quickstart

CLI

[!WARNING] Ubiquiti SSO accounts are not supported and actively discouraged from being used. There is no option to use MFA. You are expected to use local access user. uiprotect is not designed to allow you to use your owner account to access the console or to be used over the public internet as both pose a security risk.

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export UFP_USERNAME=YOUR_USERNAME_HERE
export UFP_PASSWORD=YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE
export UFP_ADDRESS=YOUR_IP_ADDRESS
export UFP_PORT=443
# set to true if you have a valid HTTPS certificate for your instance
export UFP_SSL_VERIFY=false

# Alternatively, use an API key for authentication (required for public API operations)
export UFP_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE

uiprotect --help
uiprotect nvr

Available CLI Commands

Top-level commands:

  • uiprotect shell - Start an interactive Python shell with the API client
  • uiprotect create-api-key <name> - Create a new API key for authentication
  • uiprotect get-meta-info - Get metadata information
  • uiprotect generate-sample-data - Generate sample data for testing
  • uiprotect profile-ws - Profile WebSocket performance
  • uiprotect decode-ws-msg - Decode WebSocket messages

Device management commands:

  • uiprotect nvr - NVR information and settings
  • uiprotect events - Event management and export
  • uiprotect cameras - Camera management
  • uiprotect lights - Light device management
  • uiprotect sensors - Sensor management
  • uiprotect viewers - Viewer management
  • uiprotect liveviews - Live view configuration
  • uiprotect chimes - Chime management
  • uiprotect doorlocks - Door lock management
  • uiprotect aiports - AI port management

For more details on any command, use uiprotect <command> --help.

Python

UniFi Protect itself is 100% async, so as such this library is primarily designed to be used in an async context.

The main interface for the library is the uiprotect.ProtectApiClient:

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from uiprotect import ProtectApiClient

# Initialize with username/password
protect = ProtectApiClient(host, port, username, password, verify_ssl=True)

# Or with API key (required for public API operations)
protect = ProtectApiClient(host, port, username, password, api_key=api_key, verify_ssl=True)

await protect.update() # this will initialize the protect .bootstrap and open a Websocket connection for updates

# get names of your cameras
for camera in protect.bootstrap.cameras.values():
    print(camera.name)

# subscribe to Websocket for updates to UFP
def callback(msg: WSSubscriptionMessage):
    # do stuff

unsub = protect.subscribe_websocket(callback)

# remove subscription
unsub()

TODO / Planned / Not Implemented

Switching from Protect Private API to the New Public API

Generally any feature missing from the library is planned to be done eventually / nice to have with the following exceptions

UniFi OS Features

Anything that is strictly a UniFi OS feature. If it is ever done, it will be in a separate library that interacts with this one. Examples include:

  • Managing RAID and disks
  • Creating and managing users

Remote Access / Ubiquiti Cloud Features

Some features that require an Ubiquiti Account or "Remote Access" to be enabled are currently not implemented. Examples include:

  • Stream sharing