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LookoutNVR for AI agents

Use Claude Code or any coding agent
with LookoutNVR.

Did your cameras miss something? Tell your agent what, where and when. It finds the moment, shows you the pictures, works out why it was missed, and fixes it with a setting you approve, or sends us a ticket with the evidence. No settings pages for you to learn. It works with Claude Code, Claude Desktop and any agent that can run a command or speak MCP.

See how it handles a miss Set it up in four steps
The headline use case

It missed something? Tell your agent.

Say it the way you would say it to a person. The agent does the looking, the testing and the explaining. You say yes or no.
  1. You

    "On CreekView it missed me on the UTV around 4:35 today. I want to see that."

  2. Your agent finds the moment and shows you

    It looks up the motion around 4:35 on CreekView, on your recorder's clock, and saves the pictures for you. "Is this you, top right? Lookout saw movement there but never named it. You are only a few dots in the picture the AI looks at."

  3. It re-checks that moment with other settings Coming

    "With far-object detection on, it finds a person in 4 of 6 frames." Nothing changes on your recorder while it tests.

  4. It proposes a plan, with the before and after

    "One change on CreekView: turn on far-object detection. It uses a little more processing. Apply it?" You see exactly what changes, from what to what, and why.

  5. You say yes. It applies it and checks again

    The change is logged with the agent's name and can be undone. It re-checks the same moment to show the fix works.

  6. The moment is saved as a must-detect Coming

    Your recorder keeps it as a test, so a later change cannot quietly make it miss you again.

  7. Or, if no setting fixes it, a ticket to Lookout with the evidence

    The pictures, the scores and everything it tried, written up for our support team. It shows you the ticket first and sends it only when you agree.

For installers: the monthly tune-up

Across every site you look after: health worst first, each miss the customer reported investigated and fixed with their approval, and a one-page report in plain words to hand to the customer.

Get the skill Coming

A ready-made Claude Code skill that follows this playbook step by step, plus the same playbook as plain instructions for any other agent and a setup for Claude Desktop. It is being added to the LookoutNVR download with the lookout tool.

Works for one site or fifty

Give each recorder a name, each with its own key and pinned certificate. Your agent works on one site and one camera at a time, and never needs to see a key.

Too much from one spot?

Quiet down a busy area.

A front desk where someone gets up all day, a flag, a screen that flickers. Each movement is a new event. Tell your agent which part of the picture to ignore. It looks first, and shows you before it changes anything.
  1. You

    "Every time the receptionist gets up, that's an event. Ignore the front desk."

  2. Your agent looks at the camera

    It fetches the camera's picture with the zones already drawn, and says what it sees: "The desk is on the right, the doorway on the left. I would ignore the desk and the chair, and keep the doorway and the walkway watched. Is that the area?"

  3. It shows you the zone it would draw

    A picture of your camera with the proposed zone filled in, next to the zones you already have, and in plain words what happens inside it. Nothing has changed yet.

  4. You say yes. It adds the zone and checks the next hour

    Movement at the desk stops making events, and people coming through the door are still seen. The recording is kept as always. Wrong? One undo removes the zone.

Every zone change, by a person, an agent or Home Assistant, is in the recorder's change history with its outline, and in its log in plain words, with who approved it. So is every camera picture an agent looks at.

What it does

An assistant that reads your recorder.

The agent works through lookout, a small command line tool that talks to your recorder on your own network. It can analyse and tune the recorder, read its logs, and file support tickets to LookoutNVR. You decide what it is allowed to do.

At home

For anyone with a few cameras and no time to dig through settings.

  • "It missed me on the UTV around 4:35. Show me."
  • "Fix the false alarms on the driveway."
  • "Why didn't I get an alert at 6:10 this morning?"
  • "How many days of footage do I have?"
  • "Ignore the front desk: every time someone gets up it's an event."

For installers

For the person who set the system up and keeps it running.

  • "Commission this site: check every camera is recording, with AI on where it should be."
  • "Write the monthly tune-up report for this customer."
  • "The loading dock camera keeps dropping. Find out why, then open a ticket."

For IT admins

For the team that answers for the system and needs a record of every change.

  • "Who changed what on the recorder this month?"
  • "Set night-only alerts on the warehouse cameras. Show me the plan first."
Setup

Four steps, about five minutes.

The full guide for agents, with every command, is in the documentation.
  1. Install the lookout tool on the computer your agent runs on. Coming It is being added to the LookoutNVR download.
  2. Create an agent key in the LookoutNVR viewer under Settings, Coding agents. Choose the lowest level that does the job, how long it lasts, and which cameras it may see. The key is shown once.
  3. Set two environment variables on that computer: LOOKOUT_URL (your recorder's address) and LOOKOUT_API_KEY. Never paste the key into a chat or a file in your project.
  4. Trust your recorder by running lookout trust. It shows your recorder's certificate fingerprint and remembers it after you confirm. Then ask your agent to run lookout health, or connect it with lookout mcp.
Security

Secure by design, not by promise.

An agent is software acting for you. These are the limits it works inside, enforced by the recorder and the tool, not by asking the agent nicely.

Read

Looks at cameras, health, events, objects, stats and logs, and can open a support ticket. It can draft a plan but never apply one. Right for most questions.

Tune

Read, plus applying the changes you approve: detection thresholds, zones, schedules, alert rules, flows on and off, and each camera's AI, alerts and privacy mode. Never camera logins, stream addresses, storage or users. Every change is logged and can be undone.

Admin

Tune, plus system settings, each through a plan confirmed by typing the plan id back. Storage figures and the full diagnostics bundle, for an installer or IT admin. Use it for the length of a job.

Create agent keys in the viewer under Settings, Coding agents. A key can be limited to some cameras, and the recorder refuses it everything above its level.

Keys expire

An agent key lasts 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days, never longer. It stops working on its own, and you can revoke it in Settings at any time.

Local network only by default

The agent talks to your recorder on your own network, with the recorder's certificate pinned. A different certificate is refused before the key is sent, and the recorder refuses an agent key that arrives through the cloud or from outside your network.

Plan, then approve, then apply

The agent proposes a plan that shows each change, from what to what, and why. Nothing changes until you say yes to that exact plan, and if anything changed in the meantime the recorder refuses it.

Every change logged, with undo

The recorder records who changed what and when, whether a person or a key, and which camera pictures an agent looked at. Any change can be undone from the history, even a zone added or removed.

Secrets never exposed

The key comes from your environment, never the command line, and never appears in output, errors or logs. Camera logins and stream addresses are withheld from every answer.

Logs are treated as data

Text in logs comes from cameras and the network. The tool labels it as untrusted, and agents are told never to follow instructions found in it.

Never possible with an agent key

  • Reading a camera password
  • Creating or listing API keys
  • Scanning your network for cameras
  • Managing accounts or passwords
  • Pairing or unpairing the cloud
  • Downloading video

These stay with a person signed in to the LookoutNVR viewer.

Support

When it needs a person, it files a ticket.

Your agent can write up what it found and send it to LookoutNVR support through your recorder, with diagnostics attached. It shows you the ticket first and sends it only when you agree. Passwords and keys are scrubbed before anything leaves the building. You can always reach us directly on the support page.
Ask your recorder anything.
Approve every change.
LookoutNVR is free at home with local AI. Set up your recorder, then bring your agent.
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