nooie-proxy

Your own Nooie IP camera has a WebRTC path but no RTSP output. nooie-proxy uses that path to stream live H.264 and AAC, without the official app. The proxy signs in, places the call, and muxes the result to stdout or to a URL. It does not decode or re-encode the media.

nooie-proxy | vlc -                              # watch it
NOOIE_OUTPUT=udp://127.0.0.1:5004 nooie-proxy &  # serve it to other tools
ffmpeg -i udp://127.0.0.1:5004 frame%04d.jpg     # attach and detach freely

To use this in Home Assistant instead, see hass-nooie. It is an add-on and component that run the proxy with go2rtc. Each camera becomes a camera entity.

Install

The proxy needs Python 3.11 or later.

uv tool install nooie-proxy      # or: pipx install nooie-proxy

To install from a checkout, use uv:

git clone https://github.com/ltrgoddard/nooie-proxy.git
cd nooie-proxy
uv tool install --editable .

Configure

The proxy reads its configuration from the environment. Copy .env.example to ~/.config/nooie-proxy/.env, or to ~/Library/Application Support/nooie-proxy/.env on macOS, then chmod 600 it. The proxy reads the values literally. An exported variable replaces the value in the file.

nooie-proxy --list-devices prints the UUID, name, model, and online state of every camera on the account. The proxy also stores a UUID beside the dotenv to identify this install. Do not edit or delete it.

Sessions

The proxy stores its Nooie session in sessions.json beside the identity and reuses it, so a restart signs in again only when the account refuses what it holds. This keeps a camera that retries from becoming a login loop. The file holds session secrets, and the proxy writes it with the same permissions as the identity. Delete it to sign in from nothing.

Nooie's signalling holds one websocket for each install, and a second connection closes the first. Two proxies that share a state directory therefore end each other's calls. To run more than one, give each its own XDG_CONFIG_HOME, or on macOS its own HOME.

Stream

Every sink carries MPEG-TS with the camera's own H.264 and AAC. As a result, a consumer can attach later and synchronize at the next keyframe, which takes about two seconds. One process serves one consumer. To serve more, use ffmpeg -f tee or the Home Assistant add-on.

The first frame arrives 10 to 20 seconds after the start. The login, the P2P registration, and the WebRTC handshake each occur once for every call. The option -probesize 200000 reduces the time a player spends on probing.

Service

The proxy exits when the camera ends the call, so run it with a supervisor that restarts it, such as launchd or systemd. A restart recovers a dropped call. Limit the retry rate to avoid too many login attempts.

Design

Two independent handshakes precede each call, and each one has a module.

The proxy muxes the media as it arrives, so it costs a few percent of one core. Use it only with accounts and cameras that you own.