reolink-cli

A local-first command-line tool for operating Reolink cameras — JSON by default, with a built-in MCP server and a cross-agent skill so AI agents drive the same core.

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Control Reolink cameras over your local network — no cloud account, no app. Script it with jq, or let an AI agent drive it in plain language.

$ reolink-cli --camera front-door info | jq '.data | {model, firmware, name}'
{
  "model": "Reolink Video Doorbell",
  "firmware": "v3.0.0.6696_26062799",
  "name": "Front Door"
}

What this repository is. The official distribution point for the prebuilt reolink-cli binaries (proprietary, royalty-free EULA — see License), plus the agent skill, plugin manifests and installers (Apache 2.0). The CLI source code is not published here.

Does it work with my camera?

It talks to Reolink devices directly over your LAN:

• IP cameras and video doorbells with a LAN address, wired or Wi-Fi
• NVRs and the Home Hub — device expand <nvr> registers one entry per channel, which is also the only way to reach a battery camera paired to a hub
• Battery cameras, on your Wi-Fi or through a Home Hub — a sleeping camera can take several seconds to answer the first command

Features differ by model. Ask the camera rather than guessing:

reolink-cli --camera porch capabilities

An operation the model does not implement fails with a clear "device does not support" error, never silently.

Highlights

• 🔍 Discovery — LAN broadcast, plus bulk device import
• 🎥 Live media — preview play, file/stdout capture, batch capture, JPEG snapshot
• 🕹️ PTZ — pan/tilt/zoom, presets, patrol, guard, autotrack, real timed jog
• 💡 Lights — IR, spotlight (with native blink), white-LED, status LED
• 🎚️ Video encoder — resolution, frame rate, bit rate, H.264/H.265, GOP per stream
• 📢 Siren — sound / silence the built-in siren on demand
• 🧠 Detection — motion + AI (person / vehicle / dog_cat / package)
• 📼 Recording & storage — schedule, SD/HDD status, VOD search & download
• 🔔 Events — query/stream + a declarative rule engine (events monitor)
• 🗣️ Two-way audio — talkback / TTS straight to the camera speaker
• 🌐 Stream URLs — RTSP / RTMP / FLV for Frigate, Home Assistant, go2rtc, VLC
• 🤖 AI-native — built-in MCP stdio server + cross-agent operator skill
• 🧩 Fleet-aware — camera & tag selectors, local session daemon for a fast control plane

The authoritative command list comes from the binary: reolink-cli --help, reolink-cli <command> --help, or reolink-cli features for a machine-readable manifest.

For a terminal walkthrough, see the Operator Guide. For command-oriented navigation, see the CLI Reference.

Area	Commands	What you can do
Setup & registry	init, device, config, doctor, setup	Scaffold config, register/import cameras, tag them, health-check the install
Connect & inspect	ping, login, info, capabilities, status, benchmark	Reach a camera, read model/firmware/serial, list what the model supports, measure round-trip latency
Discovery	discover	Find cameras on the LAN (broadcast)
Live media	preview, snapshot, stream	Play or capture live video, grab a JPEG, print RTSP/RTMP/FLV URLs
Image & encoder	image, encode, osd	Flip/mirror, encoder settings per stream, on-screen name/time overlay
Lights	light	IR / night vision, spotlight (with blink), white-LED, status LED
Audio	audio	Volume, alarm mute, siren, quick replies, two-way talkback / TTS
PTZ	ptz	Pan / tilt / zoom, focus, presets, patrol, guard, autotrack, timed jog
Detection & events	detect, notify, events	Motion + AI detection, push settings, query/stream events, rule engine
Recording & storage	record, vod, storage, log	Recording schedule, VOD search & download, SD/HDD status, device logs
Privacy & users	privacy, users	Privacy-mask regions, manage device accounts
Network	wifi	Push a new SSID + PSK (pre-validated), auto-rediscover, update the registry
System	system	Reboot
Gateway & tooling	gateway, mcp-server, plugin, cache, self-update	Run the local gateway, expose MCP tools, maintain the skill cache, update the binaries

Install

Claude Code — no Node required

/plugin marketplace add reolink/reolink-cli
/plugin install reolink-cli@reolink-cli

Install the CLI and gateway first with the command-line installer below, then install the plugin. The plugin provides the skill and MCP registration; it does not install the CLI binaries or start the gateway. Start the gateway separately, then just talk: “show me the front door camera”, “point the back-yard camera left”, “blink the porch spotlight 3 times”.

Other agents — requires Node.js

Codex, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot, OpenCode and 70+ others:

npx skills@latest add reolink/reolink-cli

Pick reolink-cli and the agents to install it into. npx skills installs the skill files; it does not install the CLI binaries or start the gateway. Install those separately with the command-line installer below.

Command line only — no Node required

Installs reolink-cli + reolink-gateway to ~/.local/bin (no sudo) and initializes config:

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/reolink/reolink-cli/main/install.sh | sh

# Windows — works from PowerShell or the Command Prompt
powershell -NoProfile -Command "iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/reolink/reolink-cli/main/install.ps1 -UseBasicParsing | iex"

Both installers verify the download before installing anything — see Install and verify for exactly what they do.

Windows x64 requires the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime.

Upgrading: reolink-cli self-update --yes on macOS/Linux. On Windows, re-run the installer (a running .exe cannot replace itself).

Grab the archive for your platform from the latest Release, verify it, extract, and run the bundled installer:

tar -xzf reolink-cli-*.tar.gz && cd reolink-cli-*/ && ./install.sh
# Windows: extract the .zip and run .\install.ps1

The archive is self-contained: binaries + the skill/plugin + installer + THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt.

reolink-cli setup --uninstall            # add --purge to also delete config and the camera registry
npx skills remove reolink-cli            # if you installed the skill with npx

Claude Code users: also run /plugin uninstall reolink-cli.

Quick start

1. Start the gateway. Most commands go through a small local process that keeps camera sessions open, so repeated commands are fast. Leave it running in its own terminal (or under your service manager):

reolink-cli gateway start --addr 127.0.0.1:9000

2. Tell the CLI where it is — for this shell, or permanently by adding gateway-addr = "127.0.0.1:9000" to config.toml (reolink-cli doctor prints where that file lives):

export REOLINK_GATEWAY_ADDR=127.0.0.1:9000

Port 9000 already taken (Portainer, MinIO, …)? Use any free port in both places.

3. Find a camera, register it, use it:

reolink-cli discover                                      # cameras on your LAN
reolink-cli device add porch --host 192.0.2.41 --user admin
reolink-cli --camera porch info
reolink-cli --camera porch snapshot --file ./porch.jpg

The interactive device add command prompts for the password without echoing it. For non-interactive scripts, pipe exactly one password line to --password-stdin and remove the variable afterwards:

printf '%s\n' "$DEVICE_PASSWORD" |
  reolink-cli device add porch --host 192.0.2.41 --user admin --password-stdin
unset DEVICE_PASSWORD

device list also shows a few disabled example entries the installer wrote to illustrate the file format — device remove <name> clears them.

Many cameras at once — credentials via the environment, never --password:

export REOLINK_PASSWORD='<device-password>'
reolink-cli --user admin device import
unset REOLINK_PASSWORD

preview play needs ffplay on PATH (or pass --player, or set REOLINK_PLAYER).

Multi-device workflow

Target selection stays explicit — there is no hidden “current device” state.

Selector	Meaning
--camera <name>	one registered device
--cameras <a,b,c>	several registered devices
--tag <tag>	every device carrying a tag
--all-devices	the whole registry
--host <ip[:port]>	an ad-hoc device by address

reolink-cli device list
reolink-cli --tag outdoor device inventory --capabilities
reolink-cli --tag outdoor snapshot           # fan out across a tag group

Frigate, Home Assistant, go2rtc, VLC

Print a camera's stream URLs, read from its real port configuration:

reolink-cli --camera porch stream url --kind rtsp,rtmp,flv --stream main,sub

Credentials come back as separate JSON fields. --with-auth embeds user:password@ in the URL for players that need it — treat that output as a password.

AI agents & MCP

Two ways in, both driving the same runtime as the CLI:

For complete MCP setup, client configuration, target selection, security, and troubleshooting, see the MCP Guide.

• The skill — natural language. It teaches the agent the command surface and the safety rules, so you say “point the driveway cam to preset 2, then take a snapshot” or “let me know if anyone shows up at the door tonight”. The agent never guesses device state — it only reports what a command returned.

• The MCP server — typed tool calls for tight automation loops. The Claude Code plugin already registers it. For any other MCP client:

  "mcpServers": {
    "reolink-cli": {
      "command": "reolink-cli",
      "args": ["mcp-server"],
      "env": { "REOLINK_GATEWAY_ADDR": "127.0.0.1:9000" }
    }
  }
  

  JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio; the gateway must be running, as for the CLI.

Platform support

Prebuilt binaries on each Release:

OS	Architectures
macOS	arm64 (Apple Silicon)
Linux (glibc)	x86_64, arm64
Linux (musl, static)	x86_64, arm64 — Alpine, Home Assistant OS, slim Docker images
Linux 32-bit ARM	armv7 (Pi 2/3/4 on a 32-bit OS), armv6 (Pi 1 / Zero) — glibc 2.28+
Windows	x86_64

The installers select the matching architecture and libc variant. For manual downloads, choose both values from the release asset name; see the Operator Guide for host-specific notes.

Security and privacy

Use this tool only on cameras you own or are authorised to administer. discover and ping are for locating your own devices, not for sweeping networks you were not asked to work on. Snapshots, recordings and event history written to disk are personal data — protect them like the camera's own storage, and delete what you no longer need.