TeslaCam Viewer

TeslaCam Viewer is a self hosted web app for browsing Tesla dashcam clips and playing the four camera views in sync.

Features

• TeslaCam clip browsing and timeline playback
• Four camera synchronized player (front, back, left_repeater, right_repeater)
• SFTP upload workflow
• Multi vehicle folder support (MX_Name, MY_Name, MS_Name, M3_Name, CT_Name)
• Authentication with password, passkey, and TOTP
• LAN friendly hostname publishing with teslacam.local

Requirements

• Docker Desktop (Windows) or Docker Engine plus Docker Compose (Linux)
• Local network access for browser and SFTP clients
• Available ports: 4321 for web and 5432 for Postgres by default

Quick install from Releases

Use the install scripts. They download the newest release zip, including prereleases (main branch auto releases are prereleases, so /releases/latest often returns 404).

Replace squishylemon/TeslaCam-Viewer if you use a fork.

Windows PowerShell:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/squishylemon/TeslaCam-Viewer/main/install.ps1 | iex

Linux (needs curl, jq, unzip):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/squishylemon/TeslaCam-Viewer/main/install.sh | bash

If you already downloaded a release zip, extract it and run .\setup.ps1 or ./setup.sh.

Manual install from source bundle

1. Ensure config.env.example, docker-compose.yml, setup.ps1, and setup.sh are present.
2. Run setup:
   • Windows: .\setup.ps1
   • Linux: chmod +x setup.sh && ./setup.sh
3. Open the viewer:
   • http://teslacam.local:4321
   • or http://<LAN_IP>:4321

Setup automatically detects a LAN IP, writes config.env, pulls images, and starts containers.

Default credentials and first run

• Username: admin
• Password: admin

After first login:

1. Open Settings.
2. Change password.
3. Configure passkey and or TOTP.
4. Copy SFTP details for uploading clips.

Upload clips

Upload via SFTP to /upload. Example layout:

/upload/
  MX_Family/
    SavedClips/
      2025-12-10_18-55-03/
    SentryClips/
  MY_Daily/
    SavedClips/
    SentryClips/

Legacy single vehicle layout is also supported:

/upload/SavedClips
/upload/SentryClips

SFTP CLI example:

sftp -P PORT teslacam@SERVER_IP
put -r MX_MyCar

HTTPS and ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR

ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR means the browser used https but the server is speaking plain HTTP.

USE_HTTPS in config.env	Open this URL
false (default)	http://teslacam.local:4321 or http://<LAN_IP>:4321
true	https://teslacam.local:4321 or https://<LAN_IP>:4321

After changing USE_HTTPS, recreate the web container:

cp config.env .env   # if you edited config.env by hand
docker compose up -d --force-recreate web
docker logs teslacam-viewer | tail -n 20

You should see [start] USE_HTTPS=true — starting with TLS or ... plain HTTP. Accept the self-signed certificate warning once when using HTTPS.

Do not mix schemes: https:// against an HTTP server causes this error. A hosts file line only maps the name; it does not enable TLS.

Core runtime behavior

• Web UI is HTTP by default; set USE_HTTPS=true to enable HTTPS mode (required for passkeys)
• host-mdns advertises teslacam.local on the LAN
• SFTP credentials and port are shown in Settings after login
• Uploaded clips are read only by the viewer and are not modified

mDNS (teslacam.local) on Linux

teslacam.local is not automatic discovery like a smart TV. Devices must resolve it via mDNS or a hosts file entry.

On Linux, ./setup.sh tries host Avahi first (MDNS_MODE=auto):

sudo apt install avahi-utils
./setup.sh

If teslacam.local still fails:

1. Confirm LAN_IP in config.env is your real LAN address (not docker0 or 172.17.x.x).
2. Check port 5353 is free: ss -ulnp | grep 5353
3. If systemd-resolved owns mDNS, set MDNS_MODE=host and rerun setup, or add a hosts entry on each client: 192.168.x.x teslacam.local
4. Allow UDP 5353 in firewall (ufw allow 5353/udp).
5. Restart host publishing: ./scripts/linux-host-mdns.sh restart

The direct IP URL from setup always works: http://<LAN_IP>:4321.

Configuration

Generated config.env keys:

• LAN_IP
• SITE_HOSTNAME (default teslacam.local)
• WEB_PORT (default 4321)
• USE_HTTPS (false by default)
• MDNS_MODE (auto, host, container, off)
• SESSION_SECRET
• DEBUG (true for local testing only: skips passkey/TOTP and shows a fixed warning footer)
• TESLACAM_*_IMAGE image references

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
Space / K	Play or pause
J / Left Arrow	Back 10 seconds
L / Right Arrow	Forward 10 seconds
P	Previous segment
N	Next segment
M	Mute or unmute
F	Fullscreen

Development

Build and run from source with local builds:

.\setup.ps1 -Dev

./setup.sh --dev

This uses docker-compose.dev.yml.

Publishing and releases

• Docker image publishing workflow: .github/workflows/docker-publish.yml
• Release zip workflow: .github/workflows/release.yml
• Release zip docs: deploy/README.md

For public user installs, make GHCR packages public in GitHub Packages settings.

If docker compose pull fails with permission denied, the images are private or config.env points at the wrong GHCR path. See deploy/README.md (section on GHCR pull errors).