Generate a client

There are no hand-maintained client libraries. The API is described by an OpenAPI 3.1 document, and you generate a client for whatever language you are working in directly from it.

That document is the same one the API reference renders, and it lives beside the server that implements it, so a generated client tracks the real API rather than a separately maintained copy of it.

https://crsdk.github.io/alpha-sdk-api/api-reference/openapi.yaml

Note

Generating from the spec is the supported path for every language. There is no package to install from npm, PyPI or SwiftPM — a generator gives you the same typed surface without a package that has to be kept in step with the server by hand.

Generate

Point any OpenAPI generator at the specification. A few common ones:

TypeScript

npx @hey-api/openapi-ts \
  -i https://crsdk.github.io/alpha-sdk-api/api-reference/openapi.yaml \
  -o src/camera-client

Python

pip install openapi-python-client
openapi-python-client generate \
  --url https://crsdk.github.io/alpha-sdk-api/api-reference/openapi.yaml

Swift

# Add the Swift OpenAPI Generator plugin to Package.swift, then place the
# specification at Sources/<Target>/openapi.yaml and build.
swift package plugin --allow-writing-to-package-directory generate-code-from-openapi

Any language

# openapi-generator supports ~50 languages; swap the generator name.
npx @openapitools/openapi-generator-cli generate \
  -i https://crsdk.github.io/alpha-sdk-api/api-reference/openapi.yaml \
  -g go \
  -o ./camera-client

Pin the specification file into your repository rather than fetching it at build time if you want reproducible builds — it is a single YAML file.

What the API looks like

The operations are grouped by tag, and a generated client will mirror that grouping:

server        health, status, logs
cameras       list, connect, disconnect, getConnectionStatus
properties    get, set, getAll, getPriorityKey, setPriorityKey
actions       shutter, halfPress, afShutter, zoom, focusNearFar, movieRec
liveView      enable, disable, getStatus, start, stop, getFrame
sdCard        list, download, downloadThumbnail, downloadScreennail
settings      download, upload, list, importLut

Two things sit outside what a generator will give you, because they are not plain request/response operations:

• Server-Sent Events — the two event streams are long-lived and most generators will not produce anything usable for them. Consume them with native EventSource (browser), URLSession.bytes(for:) (Swift), or httpx.stream (Python). See the SSE recipe.
• Discovery, reconnect and lifecycle handling — application concerns rather than API surface. The recipes below cover the usual patterns.

Caution

Set the priority key to pc-remote before the camera will accept remote property changes or shooting commands. This trips up most first integrations — see Connection.

Running the server

Every client, generated or not, talks to the REST server running on the machine the camera is attached to.

Run the serverBuild and run the server, and the endpoints it exposes for health, logs and shutdown.

Recipes

Patterns that sit outside generated code. Each works against the REST API directly, so they apply whatever language you generate for.

SSE event consumerReact in real time to propertyChanged, downloadComplete, transferProgress.

Live-view JPEG pollingPull a frame every ~66ms and render it.

Server subprocessSpawn and supervise the native server from your own runtime.

Discovery + reconnectPoll /api/cameras, track which is connected, handle hot-plug.

Retry + backoffExponential backoff for flaky connect and SD card calls.

React hookuseCamera() — bind one camera's connection and property state.