Security cameras, on my terms.
Runs at home. Used daily on my iPhone.
A home security camera system I designed and built with Claude. It runs on my own computer, and I use it every day from my iPhone.
Store-bought camera apps charge a monthly fee to keep your video, store it on their servers, and buzz your phone for every passing car and windy tree. They make the rules, not you. I wanted cameras with no monthly fee, footage that stays private, and alerts that do exactly what I tell them to.
It runs on a computer in my house, so there's no monthly fee and no outside company holding my video.
| Smart alerts | Alerts for people or cars only, set for each camera. It checks the weather too, so wind and rain don't set it off. |
|---|---|
| Easy timeline | Pick a day, then an hour. Drag along the bar to jump between detections, with a picture of each one as you go. |
| My storage, my choice | Recordings go to a home server, a local drive or the cloud. Only the clips I pick get uploaded to Google Drive. |
| Locked down | The app opens with Face ID, using passkeys. Video stays on my own computer unless I choose to upload a clip. |
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Frigate | Open-source camera software that spots people and cars in the video. |
| Python back end | Handles alerts, recordings, the timeline and settings. |
| Docker | Runs it all on my Windows PC at home. |
| Web app | Runs on my iPhone, with its own push notifications. |
Every change is saved in GitHub and goes live only after I approve it.
My phone buzzes for a person at the door, not a tree in the wind. And when I want to know what happened, the timeline gets me there in a few taps instead of hours of scrolling.
iPhone and Android apps. The long-term goal is a product other people can use.
Easy setup, step by step, so anyone can get it running without tech skills.