Early testing · the server is available now, apps coming soon

The home hub that can see.

Sentinel Core is one server in your house that runs your cameras with local AI, your lights, locks and sensors, a real alarm, the family calendar and your own movies and music. Because it can see, the house reacts to what actually happens, not just to motion.

Download for Linux Read the docs

Live

It knows a delivery from a shadow.

cat 88%

van 96%

person 97%

The hub

Cameras are its eyes. Everything else is its hands.

MQTT and Zigbee2MQTT built in, with its own broker. Home Assistant discovery and Tasmota devices are found automatically. Expose cameras (with live video) and devices to Apple Home through the HomeKit bridge.

Automations

When it sees it, the house does something.

Sees

Does

Tells you

No code. Rules run on the server from anything the AI notices, on a schedule, or at sunrise and sunset.

What it does

One box in the closet. The whole house runs on it.

AI camera alerts

A local vision model reads every trigger and only pings you for what matters, written in plain English.

Private by design

Runs on your own hardware with a local AI model by default. No cloud account, no subscription for your footage.

Family organizer

Shared calendar, reminders, notes and boards, with widgets and voice on every device.

Smart home & alarm

Lights, plugs, locks, gates and Zigbee sensors over MQTT, plus a real alarm with Home, Night and Away modes.

Movies, music & podcasts

Your own library on every screen, including the Apple TV, without a separate media server. Moving over from Spotify, Letterboxd or IMDb? Import your playlist or watchlist and the server fills the library in for you, over a VPN.

Weather & radar

Forecasts, alerts and a zoomable live radar map straight from the National Weather Service, with live lightning strikes from NOAA's GOES-19 satellite.

Everywhere

Every screen in the house, starting with the browser.

Web dashboardWall kiosk iPhoneiPadMacApple TV AndroidWindows

Available now: the web dashboard runs the whole system from any browser, phones included. The native apps are in private testing and not publicly available yet.

Watch

See it running in a real house.

I Built My Own Local AI Security Camera System (No Cloud)

Knows a raccoon from a skunk

Never sends footage to the cloud

YouTube channel: @NR5P

Download

Install it on a Linux PC.

Latest release on GitHub

New in this release: a fresh install can no longer be taken over through a Cloudflare Tunnel or other reverse proxy before you create the admin account, and the dashboard warns you if it is published with the login turned off.What's new

Sentinel Core is in early testing. The server is the only download for now. Once it's installed you use everything through its web dashboard in any browser, on a computer, phone or wall-mounted tablet. The iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Android and Windows apps are in private testing and will follow. Expect rough edges, and please tell me what breaks.

Download for Linux x86-64 PC, mini PC or server

unzip SentinelCore-linux-x64.zip
sudo mv linux-x64 /opt/sentinelcore
cd /opt/sentinelcore
sudo ./install.sh

The unzipped folder is the install: the server runs from it and keeps all its data there, so move it somewhere permanent (like /opt/sentinelcore) rather than leaving it in Downloads. The installer sets up ffmpeg, go2rtc, Ollama and its vision model, and the system services, then prints the dashboard address. Updates install themselves overnight. Full install guide · Release notes & checksums · Source
Free for personal and household use (PolyForm Noncommercial). macOS and Windows servers currently build from source.

Support on PayPal Sentinel Core is free and made in my spare time. If it's useful to you, a tip helps keep it going.