Ask an agent
about an event.

Before you start

• LookoutNVR is recording, and you can sign in to the viewer as an administrator. The free version is enough.
• The computer that runs the agent can reach the recorder on your own network, or over a VPN such as Tailscale. The key does not travel through Lookout cloud.
• You want to look, not to change settings. A key with View access is the right one. Tune and Admin are for changes you approve later.

1. Make a View key

This is an API key, not the password you sign in with, and not a camera password. The viewer shows the key once.

1. In the Lookout viewer, open Settings, then Users & access, then API keys.
2. Give the key a name, and set the access to View.
3. Pick how long it lasts. The default stops it 30 days after it was last used, and a year after it was made at the latest. For one visit, 24 hours or 7 days is enough. There is no key that lasts forever.
4. Choose the cameras this job may see, or leave it on all cameras.
5. Leave Local network only on when the agent runs on the recorder's network. A VPN such as Tailscale counts as outside: turn it off and put the agent computer's address in Only from these addresses.
6. Press Create key.
7. Copy the key into LOOKOUT_API_KEY on the computer the agent runs on. Do not paste it into the chat, and do not put it in a file inside a project.

When the job is done, revoke the key on the API keys page. It also stops on its own when the time runs out.

2. Connect the agent

On the computer the agent runs on, set LOOKOUT_URL to your recorder's address. Then pin the certificate and check the connection:

1. Run lookout trust. It shows the recorder's certificate fingerprint. Compare it with the one on the viewer's Servers page, then confirm.
2. Run lookout health. A healthy recorder answers. A refused certificate stops before the key is sent.
3. Connect Claude Code, Claude Desktop, or another agent with lookout mcp. The agent then has the read commands, including events, objects, sessions, and pictures.

If you look after more than one recorder, give each one a name with lookout sites add. Each site has its own key. The key itself is not written into the site list.

3. Ask in plain English

Say the place, the time, and what you hope to see. For example:

"Were two people on a bike near the front lot yesterday afternoon? Show me every camera that saw it."

Lookout does not store that sentence as a search. It stores a person and a bicycle as separate names, one name on each event. The agent lists those events around the time you gave, opens the pictures, and tells you whether they are two people on a bike. If the recorder never named a bicycle, the agent says so. It does not invent a clip.

4. What you get back

With a View key the agent can:

• List events by name, camera, and time, and list the objects you have labeled.
• Find the motion sessions around a minute, on one camera or across the cameras that key can see.
• Save the thumbnail and the frames across a session, including a full-resolution still of each detection, and show them to you.
• Open the same minute on another camera, so you can compare angles from the stills.

Every camera picture an agent opens is written in the recorder's log, with the key's name.

5. The video stays in the viewer

An agent key cannot download a clip, stream live video, or combine several cameras into one file. That is refused at every key level. Snapshots and event pictures are allowed.

When the pictures are the moment you wanted, play that minute in the Lookout viewer. The agent can tell you the camera and the time. You press play.

Several recorders

An installer uses one View key per recorder, each on that site's own network. Ask about one site at a time. A key for one recorder cannot see the cameras on another, and a key limited to some cameras cannot see the rest.

Changing a setting is a different job. The agent drafts a plan, you approve that plan, and then it applies. Nothing in this how-to applies a change.

Screenshots and the short video

The steps above are the how-to. The pictures and the video are not filmed yet. These are the frames to capture on a test recorder. Blur the key in any shot. Do not show a camera password.

Screenshot 1. Settings, Users & access, API keys, with View selected.

Screenshot 2. The key shown once, blurred, with the note that it will not be shown again.

Screenshot 3. The question typed to the agent: two people on a bike, near the front lot, yesterday afternoon.

Screenshot 4. The agent's list of events: time, camera, person, bicycle.

Screenshot 5. Thumbnails and frames from one session.

Screenshot 6. The same minute on a second camera.

Screenshot 7. The Lookout viewer playing that minute.

Still stuck?

Open a support ticket and say which recorder, what you asked, and what the agent answered. Do not paste the key or a camera password.