A web and mobile application for ZoneMinder for viewing live camera feeds, reviewing events, a local AI chat agent and much more. It is a rewrite of the original zmNinja application, built on React, TypeScript, Capacitor, and Electron.
- zmNinjaNg supports self-signed certificates on mobile (iOS/Android). Enable it in Settings > Connection. On desktop, add your CA to the system trust store. Using proper certificates (e.g. LetsEncrypt) is still recommended.
- zmNinjaNg has been tested with zmesNg - I'd recommend you switch to this new ecosystem
I (Pliablepixels) don't plan to support zmNinjaNg with any urgency. Please don't ping me and expect quick answers. ZoneMinder however does plan to offer limited support, just like it did with zmNinja.
zmNinjaNg, esNg and pyzmNg heavily use Agentic UI (Claude) for development. Thanks to these tools, I was able to redo things and get it to a point where the new codebase is better in many ways than the old one. I don't plan to change this anytime soon (and if I did, I won't have time to extend this anymore). In short, in my view, this is the new way of development for me atleast. I've spent a lot of time working with Claude to build this system - just because I used AI doesn't really mean I don't know what is going on. I do and I still spend time reading/understanding the code as changes are made.
I am happy to accept PRs, but I don't want AI slop. Funny I am saying this, given this repo is largely AI agent(s) generated. The difference is I understand the system and do my best to ensure it follows good principles. Remember these tools are capable but love to write a lot of code doing custom things when simpler/better means are available. They also make mistakes. So here are the rules:
- PRs are judged by this repo's rules and gates, not by who or what wrote the code. Point your agent at AGENTS.md and AGENTS.project.md; the contracts there describe the sanctioned path through every subsystem, and the gates fail anything that bypasses them
- Every gate must pass before you PR: the unit suite, the blocking lints, and the instruction-system checks. docs/developer-guide/14-agent-development-model.rst explains how the whole system works
- Before you PR, run a code review (agent-driven is fine; that is how this repo works). If a rule seems wrong, propose a rule change in the PR instead of working around it
- Self-signed certificates are supported on mobile (iOS/Android) via Settings > Connection. On desktop, add your CA to the system trust store. Using proper certificates (e.g. LetsEncrypt) is still recommended.
- If you want push notifications, you'll have to use a newer Event Server
- If you use the AI agent, I'd highly recommend you use Qwen-8b on your Ollama server, or Qwen-3b on device. The local LLMs provided in phones are terrible.
- Download from here
- I use Github workflows and runners to automatically build release binaries here. Binaries are built for specific platforms. If the binary doesn't work for your linux distro, look at those files
- Node.js ^20.19.0 || >=22.12.0 and npm (download)
If you're setting up automated builds via GitHub Actions, you need to enable write permissions:
- Go to your repository on GitHub
- Navigate to Settings → Actions → General
- Scroll down to Workflow permissions
- Select "Read and write permissions"
- Check "Allow GitHub Actions to create and approve pull requests" (optional)
- Click Save
This allows the workflows to create GitHub releases automatically when you push a tag.
git clone https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zmNinjaNg
cd zmNinjaNg/app
npm install
# Desktop development
npm run electron:dev # Electron shell (Chromium)Desktop builds use Electron (bundles its own Chromium).
npm run electron:build # -> desktop_release_builds/electron/Signs with the Developer ID and notarizes when APPLE_ID, APPLE_PASSWORD, and APPLE_TEAM_ID are set in the environment. Append :nosign for an unsigned build:
npm run electron:build:nosignThe target folder is wiped at the start of each build.
npm run build # Output: app/dist/
npm run preview # Preview the production buildDeploy the web build (app/dist/) to Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, AWS S3, etc.
The project includes unit tests and cross-platform E2E tests. All commands run from app/.
npm run test:unit # Run all unit tests
npm run test:unit -- --watch # Watch mode
npm run test:coverage # With coverage reportUses Playwright with Gherkin .feature files against a real ZoneMinder server. Configure credentials in app/.env.
npm run test:e2e # All web E2E tests
npm run test:e2e -- tests/features/dashboard.feature # Single feature
npm run test:e2e -- --headed # See the browser
npm run test:e2e:visual-update # Regenerate visual baselines
npm run test:all # Unit + web E2ETests run on real devices: Android emulator and iOS simulator (phone + tablet). Each platform uses shell scripts that handle building, booting, and running tests.
bash scripts/test-android.sh # Android emulator (Playwright via CDP)
bash scripts/test-ios.sh phone # iPhone simulator (WebDriverIO + Appium)
bash scripts/test-ios.sh tablet # iPad simulator (WebDriverIO + Appium)
bash scripts/test-all-platforms.sh # All platforms sequentiallyDevice tests require one-time setup (Xcode, Android Studio, Appium, etc.). Run npm run test:platform:setup to verify your machine is ready. See app/tests/README.md for setup instructions and docs/developer-guide/06-testing-strategy.rst for the full testing guide.
pip install -r docs/requirements.txt sphinx-autobuild && cd docs && make clean && make html && sphinx-autobuild . _build/html- See
scripts/make_release.shhere. This automatically tags the current state and triggers release builds app/package.jsonis the source of truth for the version number- In-app release notice: run
npm run notice <version>to draft a short "what's new" notice from the closed issues since the last release (Claude writes it, you approve it). It only writesdocs/notices.jsonfor you to test; nothing is committed. To discard a test draft, rungit checkout -- docs/notices.json. On minor/major releasesmake_release.shoffers to generate one for you. Details in the developer guide.