UniFi Time-Machine

Automatic timelapse videos from your UniFi Protect cameras, with a clean web interface to watch them.

Screenshots

Daily View

Gallery

Admin Panel

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Features

• Captures hourly snapshots and builds daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly timelapses automatically
• 24-hour gallery — browse any day's images, sort and filter by date
• Share links — generate a time-limited public link to any timelapse
• Daylight filtering — weekly and monthly lapses skip night images automatically
• HLS adaptive streaming — smooth playback on any connection
• All settings configured in the Admin → Settings panel — no restarts needed
• Multi-arch Docker image (amd64 + ARM64)

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Quick Start

Option A — Docker Compose (recommended)

1. Copy .env and fill in the four required values:

   UFP_HOST=192.168.1.1
   UFP_API_KEY=<your api key>
   TARGET_CAMERA_ID=<your camera id>
   APP_KEY=<run: head -c 32 /dev/urandom | base64>
   ADMIN_PASSWORD=<choose a password>
   

2. Start:

   docker compose up -d

3. Open http://localhost:8000 and log in with admin / your ADMIN_PASSWORD.

Option B — start.sh

Edit the values at the top of start.sh, then:

bash start.sh

UFP_API_KEY and APP_KEY can also be exported in your shell before running rather than written into the script.

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Finding your values

UFP_API_KEY — In your UniFi OS console go to Integrations → New API Key.

TARGET_CAMERA_ID — Open the camera in the Protect web UI. The ID is in the URL:

https://192.168.1.1/protect/dashboard/all/sidepanel/device/<YOUR_CAMERA_ID>/manage

APP_KEY — A random secret used to sign sessions. Generate one:

head -c 32 /dev/urandom | base64

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Configuration

Only these values need to be set in the environment. Everything else (snapshot interval, video quality, retention, formats, timezones, etc.) is configured in the Admin → Settings panel after first launch.

Variable	Required	Description
UFP_HOST	Yes	IP or hostname of your UniFi Protect controller
UFP_API_KEY	Yes	API key from UniFi OS → Integrations
TARGET_CAMERA_ID	Yes	Camera ID from the Protect URL
APP_KEY	Yes	Base64 secret for session signing
ADMIN_PASSWORD	Yes	Initial password for the admin account
TZ	No	Container timezone (e.g. Australia/Sydney)
GIN_MODE	No	Set to release for production (default)

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Docker image tags

Tag	Description
v1.2.3	Specific release — recommended for production
latest	Latest build from main
dev	Latest build from development branches

Pull from Docker Hub: mbern/unifi-time-machine

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Permissions

The container runs as appuser (UID/GID 1000). If you're using a bind-mounted data directory, set ownership on the host:

chown -R 1000:1000 ./data

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Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome. See DEVGUIDE.md for build instructions and developer notes.

Roadmap

• GPU encoding support
• Multi-camera support
• Cloud / tiered storage for edge deployments
• AI video summaries