| name | sonycam-dev |
| description | Develop and extend the sonycam Sony Alpha CLI: Alpha REST client, CameraWebApp server lifecycle, liveview tally UI, CLI flags, and open-source contribution workflow. Use when changing sonycam source, fixing USB/API issues, or shipping the public repo. |
sonycam-dev — build the camera CLI
Stack (do not replace without strong reason)
- Python 3.9+ package, CLI via
sonycam.cli:main
- stdlib HTTP (
urllib) against local Alpha Camera REST API — no required cloud deps
- Pillow + Tk only for
liveview
- Sidecar:
@alpha-sdk/api → native CameraWebApp on :8080
Repo map
| Path | Role |
|---|
sonycam/api.py | REST client, property resolve, REC idempotency, pull helpers |
sonycam/server.py | Start/stop CameraWebApp, DYLD + openssl shim |
sonycam/cli.py | argparse commands |
sonycam/liveview.py | Tk preview + red REC tally |
.cursor/skills/ | Agent skills |
AGENTS.md | Agent entrypoint |
Makefile | install + smoke |
Agent workflow when changing code
Dev:
- [ ] 1. Touch only needed modules (keep files ~<300 lines)
- [ ] 2. pip install -e . (in .venv)
- [ ] 3. sonycam server start && sonycam connect && sonycam status
- [ ] 4. Smoke set / rec status / pull --list (camera on PC Remote)
- [ ] 5. Update CLI help + README + skills if UX changed
- [ ] 6. Sanitize: no camera serials, tokens, or personal absolute paths in docs
Install / smoke
make install
make smoke
Hard rules
- Master footage path remains in-camera REC + pull — don’t ship liveview-as-master.
rec start / stop must stay idempotent via recording-state.- Never commit camera IDs/serials, local media paths with private names, or
.venv.
- Prefer launching
CameraWebApp directly with DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH (node camera-server start often drops dylibs).
- Default API base URL is
http://127.0.0.1:8080 (avoid localhost IPv6 surprises).
- If port is open but status hangs, do not spawn a second server — tell the user to stop/start.
- Update both
sonycam and sonycam-dev skills when behavior changes.
Feature extension guide
| Feature | Where |
|---|
| New CLI command | cli.py + skills/README |
| New property | api.py resolve helpers + set flags |
| Server reliability | server.py |
| Liveview UX | liveview.py (lazy-import Tk from CLI) |
| Pull progress / SSE | new small module; keep api.py thin |
Open-source hygiene
- MIT license; Sony CRSDK binary stays a user-installed dependency (
@alpha-sdk/api)
- README uses generic clone paths (
cd sonycam), not personal home directories
- Example camera IDs in docs must be placeholders (
YOUR_CAMERA_ID), never a real serial
.gitignore must exclude .venv/, *.egg-info/, media dumps
Architecture notes
See architecture.md.
