The SEASONS_GREY_STDDEV_MIN and SEASONS_GREY_DARK_FLOOR settings are
now commented out so the filter is fully inert by default and requires
a deliberate edit to activate.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
A stddev-only filter would wrongly drop near-black night frames.
Now only skips a frame when BOTH stddev < GREY_MIN AND mean brightness
> GREY_DARK_FLOOR (default 30/255). Night frames are dark so they
always pass; bad-signal grey frames are mid-bright so they are caught.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
The previous size check caught empty files but not corrupt JPEGs with
a partial header (common first frame after a camera reconnect).
Replace with ffprobe codec detection — if ffprobe can't identify a
video stream in the file it's skipped with a clear "corrupt" message.
Also adds SEASONS_GREY_STDDEV_MIN (default 0 = off): when enabled,
frames with near-zero pixel standard deviation (uniform grey = bad
RTSP signal) are silently dropped before encoding.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Corrupt or 0-byte JPEGs (e.g. first frame after a camera reconnect)
caused ffmpeg concat to silently truncate the output, missing all
images after the bad file. Now filters those out before building the
concat list and logs a warning + notification when raw video covers
less than 50% of the expected image count.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
read_config / _read_conf now strips trailing inline shell comments
(whitespace + # + anything) before processing the value. Without this,
a line like:
SUNRISE_CAM=east # which camera faces east
produced SUNRISE_CAM = 'east # which camera faces east',
causing sunrise2mm.py to build a path with the comment embedded in it.
The regex \s+#.*$ requires at least one whitespace before # so passwords
or URLs containing # (e.g. %23 URL-encoded) are unaffected.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Audio:
AUDIO_DIR/<cam>/YYYY-MM-DD/<cam>-HH-MM-SS.m4a
Movies — cam name now always leads the filename:
daily_sunrise_video.sh:
east-2026-04-22-daily-sunrise.mp4
east-2026-04-22-daily-sunrise-sped.mp4 (intermediate)
east-2026-04-22-daily-sunrise-test.mp4 (demo)
4-seasons.sh:
east-2026-04-21_Mvt2-Day2of31-final.mp4 (was: 2026-04-21_east_Mvt2-...)
montage-mvt.sh:
east-2026-03-20_Spring_Mvt1-Sped.mp4
east-2026-03-20_Spring_Mvt1-Montage.mp4
year-end-join.sh:
east-2026.mp4 (already had cam at front)
sunrise2mm.py updated to look for the new east-YYYY-MM-DD-daily-sunrise.mp4
filename. Retention find patterns (wildcards) already match both formats.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
New AUDIO_DIR variable (like BASE_DIR/MOVIES_DIR) is the root for all
audio recordings. Set in .env to put audio on a separate drive.
Directory layout:
AUDIO_DIR/<cam>/YYYY-MM-DD/HH-MM-SS.m4a — ambient recordings
AUDIO_DIR/sunrise/<cam>/YYYY-MM-DD/sunrise-audio.m4a — sunrise clips
sky-cam.conf:
- Add AUDIO_DIR="${AUDIO_DIR:-$BASE_DIR/audio}" in storage section
- Remove AMBIENT_DIR (replaced by AUDIO_DIR)
- Add SUNRISE_AUDIO_RETENTION_DAYS=7 (sunrise clips kept separately from ambient)
- Add per-camera ambient retention examples:
AMBIENT_RETENTION_DAYS_south=60 (keep bird recordings longer)
ambient-record.sh:
- Use AUDIO_DIR instead of AMBIENT_DIR
- Per-camera retention: AMBIENT_RETENTION_DAYS_<cam> overrides global default
sunrise-audio-capture.sh:
- Save clips to AUDIO_DIR/sunrise/<cam>/<date>/sunrise-audio.m4a
- Rolling retention of sunrise clips (SUNRISE_AUDIO_RETENTION_DAYS)
daily_sunrise_video.sh:
- Look for cam_audio in new AUDIO_DIR/sunrise path first, fall back to
old BASE_DIR path so existing recordings keep working
install.sh:
- Pre-create AUDIO_DIR/<cam> and AUDIO_DIR/sunrise/<SUNRISE_CAM> dirs
- Add AUDIO_DIR to .env.example storage section
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
daily_sunrise_video.sh:
- Test output now saves to DEMO_DIR/<cam>/ (default: MOVIES_DIR/demoio/<cam>/)
instead of the production sunrise-only directory
- After each test run, deletes test files older than DEMO_RETENTION_DAYS (8)
- Production mode: warns if the last selected frame is >3 intervals before
the window end, which indicates the capture service had a gap near sunrise:
WARNING: last frame is 20min 0s before window end — capture gap near sunrise
Check: systemctl --user status sky-cam-capture-east.service
sky-cam.conf: add DEMO_DIR and DEMO_RETENTION_DAYS settings
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
daily_sunrise_video.sh:
- Fix "Sunrise (UTC)" label — sunrise.py has always returned local time;
now labelled correctly as "Sunrise (local)"
- After image selection, log first and last frame timestamps alongside the
overlay time so the window can be verified at a glance:
Images: 481 (05:22:10 → 06:43:00 overlay: 06:32)
sunrise2mm.py:
- Cleanup now only deletes posts whose message matches "Sunrise YYYY-MM-DD"
(the format this script posts), so other posts with attachments in the
channel are never touched
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
sunrise2mm.py: after a successful upload, scan the channel and delete any
post older than MM_SUNRISE_RETENTION_DAYS that is not pinned and has a file
attachment. Pinned posts are always preserved regardless of age.
sky-cam.conf: add MM_SUNRISE_RETENTION_DAYS=8 (independent of the local
disk SUNRISE_RETENTION_DAYS so the two retentions can differ).
Also modernises sunrise2mm.py: uses the same ${VAR:-default} aware
read_config as sunrise.py, consistent error handling, cleaner structure.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Rule is now consistent throughout:
- *_ENABLED flags are plain true/false in sky-cam.conf — flip them there
- Private values (URLs, credentials, location) go in .env only
sky-cam.conf:
- NTFY_ENABLED, EMAIL_ENABLED, MM_NOTIFY_ENABLED are now plain false (not
using the ${VAR:-} pattern, which implied they could go in .env)
- NTFY_URL, EMAIL_TO, EMAIL_FROM, MM_NOTIFY_CHANNEL_ID use ${VAR:-} pattern
so they are set in .env
- LATITUDE/LONGITUDE comment clarified with example .env lines
install.sh .env.example: updated notification comment to match
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Adds TIMEZONE, BASE_DIR, MOVIES_DIR (commented out) so .env.example
is a complete reference — location, storage paths, RTSP URLs, Mattermost
credentials, and notification endpoints all in one place.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
sky-cam.conf:
- MUSIC_DIR now uses override pattern (MUSIC_DIR="${MUSIC_DIR:-$SCRIPT_DIR/music}")
so the real path can be set in .env without hardcoding it
- LATITUDE/LONGITUDE use override pattern; set real coords in .env to keep
location private and out of git
- NTFY_URL now uses override pattern with empty default; set in .env
- NTFY_ENABLED moved out of comments into active config with false default
sunrise.py:
- Reads .env after sky-cam.conf so .env values override (same source order
as sky-cam.conf itself)
- Handles ${VAR:-default} bash syntax when parsing sky-cam.conf values
All completion notifications now include the full output file path so you
can tell at a glance where the file landed:
- daily_sunrise_video.sh: "filename — Xs, sunrise at HH:MM | /full/path"
- 4-seasons.sh: "filename — Xs | /full/path"
- montage-mvt.sh: "filename | checks | /full/path | verify: ..."
- year-end-join.sh: "filename — Xmin | /full/path" (also adds [cam] to title)
install.sh .env.example now includes LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, MUSIC_DIR, NTFY_URL
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
- chmod +x all *.sh and *.py in install.sh so permissions survive git checkouts
- Fix daily_sunrise_video.sh and Python scripts missing executable bit
- Add [CAM_NAME] prefix to all 4-seasons.sh notify.sh calls so multi-camera
setups show which camera each daily clip came from
- Include camera name in output filename: YYYY-MM-DD_<cam>_MvtN-DayXofY-final.mp4
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Per-camera capture interval:
CAPTURE_INTERVAL_<cam> in sky-cam.conf overrides the global value for
a specific camera. capture.sh and 4-seasons.sh both respect it.
Example: south at 30s saves storage; north at 5s gives smoother motion.
4-seasons.sh one-frame bug fix:
Same root cause as the sunrise scripts — concat list had no 'duration'
entries, collapsing all JPEG frames to timestamp 0. Fixed by writing
'duration INTERVAL' per frame. Added fps=25 to the speed-adjust step
so the VFR source resamples to a standard frame rate.
ambient-record.sh (new):
Continuous AAC recorder for natural sounds (birds, rain, wind).
Saves AMBIENT_CHUNK_SECS chunks to AMBIENT_DIR/<cam>/YYYY-MM-DD/HH-MM-SS.m4a.
Reconnects automatically on stream failure. Rolling retention via
AMBIENT_RETENTION_DAYS. Enabled by setting AMBIENT_ENABLED=true and
listing cameras in AMBIENT_CAMS in sky-cam.conf, then re-running install.sh.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Notification config (NTFY_URL, MM_NOTIFY_CHANNEL_ID, etc.) lives in
.env but notify.sh was only sourcing sky-cam.conf, so notifications
were silently skipped even when configured.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
enable --now only starts a service that is not yet running — it leaves
an already-running service untouched, so changes to .env credentials
are never picked up without a manual restart.
Switching to enable + restart means every install.sh run brings capture
services in sync with the current sky-cam.conf and .env: new cameras
start, reconfigured cameras restart, and nothing needs manual follow-up.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
CAM_RTSP_<cam> is set in .env, not sky-cam.conf, but capture.sh was
only sourcing sky-cam.conf — causing the service to fail with "not set"
even after credentials were added to .env.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Root cause: the concat list had no 'duration' entries, so all JPEG
frames collapsed to timestamp 0 and only one frame survived encoding.
Fix: add 'duration CAPTURE_INTERVAL' per entry in both scripts.
Also add fps=25 to the speed-adjust step so the VFR source is resampled
to a standard frame rate — without this, players see ~6fps and may drop
frames to reach the declared rate.
daily_sunrise_video.sh --test [MINUTES]:
Skips sunrise.py lookup and capture-window wait. Uses the last MINUTES
minutes of captured frames (default 2). Overlay shows the mid-point
frame's timestamp. Audio grabbed live from RTSP immediately.
Output: <date>-daily-sunrise-test.mp4 — no notifications or upload.
Usage: ./daily_sunrise_video.sh east --test 2
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
- fontcolor: white → yellow (both scripts)
- y position: (h-th)/2 → h-th-18 (vertically centered → lower-right corner)
- test-sunrise.sh: reverted to reading last 60 frames from capture directory
(~10 minutes at 10s interval) instead of live RTSP capture
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Overlay fix (both scripts):
Switch from text='...\n...' to drawtext's textfile= option. Writing
each character on its own line eliminates the \n escape ambiguity in
ffmpeg's filter-string single-quote parser, which was causing 'n' to
appear literally instead of as a line break.
test-sunrise.sh redesign:
Now captures NUM_FRAMES fresh RTSP frames (120s at default interval)
at run time instead of reading pre-existing frames from the capture
directory. The RTSP URL must be set in .env — the script fails early
with a clear message if it is not.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
- Overlay text was showing characters run together (e.g. '1n2n') because
inside ffmpeg single-quoted filter text, \n is consumed as just 'n'.
Fix: use \\\\n in bash double-quotes which stores \\n in the variable,
which ffmpeg then parses as \n, which drawtext renders as a newline.
Applied to both test-sunrise.sh (MID_VERT) and daily_sunrise_video.sh
(SR_VERT, replacing the awk one-liner with the same bash approach).
- test-sunrise.sh concat list was missing per-frame duration entries,
causing 12 frames to encode as 0.48s (25fps default) and then slow
down instead of compress. Fixed by writing 'duration INTERVAL' per
frame so 12 frames × 10s = 120s raw → 12× compression to 10s.
- Removed 2>/dev/null from audio ffmpeg call in test-sunrise.sh so
capture failures are visible for diagnosis.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Runs the same 4-step pipeline as daily_sunrise_video.sh but uses the
most recent ~2 minutes of captured frames instead of the sunrise window,
grabs live RTSP audio for the audio mix step, and accepts an arbitrary
output path — so it can be run at any time of day to verify the full
pipeline (speed-adjust, audio mix, vertical time overlay) without
waiting for tomorrow's sunrise.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
capture.sh creates the per-day subdirectory at runtime, but BASE_DIR/<cam>
and MOVIES_DIR/<cam> need to exist first. Create them during install so the
capture service works immediately on first start without needing a separate
manual mkdir step.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
The shell version had to pass the password through a shell variable into
a Python subprocess, which is fragile for special characters.
The Python version uses getpass.getpass() which reads directly from the
terminal at the Python level — no shell variable, no quoting issues, no
risk of special characters being mishandled.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Prompts for a password without echoing, URL-encodes it via Python's
urllib.parse.quote, and prints the result with a ready-to-paste .env
snippet. Password is passed via environment variable to avoid any
shell quoting or injection issues — never written to disk or network.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
- Set XDG_RUNTIME_DIR before systemctl --user calls so daemon-reload
and enable --now work when run outside a login session (e.g. via SSH
or sudo)
- Run loginctl enable-linger so user services start at boot without a
login session
- Update .env.example to use single quotes around RTSP URLs and
document URL-encoding for special characters in passwords
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Older sky-cam.conf versions may not define these. Fall back to the
canonical defaults so make-finals.sh works without requiring the user
to update their local conf.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Outis