Automatically toggle Elgato lights when your Mac camera activates. Monitors macOS camera events and shells out to elgato-light to control your lights.

The tool watches the macOS system log for UVC camera power events. When the camera turns on (e.g., joining a video call), it runs elgato-light on. When the camera turns off, it runs elgato-light off.

brew install wassimk/tap/elgato-autolight

This will also install elgato-light as a dependency.

After installing, set it up as a background service:

elgato-autolight install

That's it. The light will now turn on and off automatically with your camera.

$ elgato-autolight --help

Automatically toggle Elgato lights when your Mac camera activates

Usage: elgato-autolight <COMMAND>

Commands:
  start      Run the camera monitor in the foreground
  install    Install the LaunchAgent for automatic startup
  uninstall  Uninstall the LaunchAgent
  status     Show running state, config, and log paths

Options:
  -h, --help     Print help
  -V, --version  Print version

Run the monitor in the foreground for testing:

elgato-autolight start
elgato-autolight start --verbose

Install as a LaunchAgent that starts automatically on login:

elgato-autolight install
elgato-autolight install --force   # overwrite existing

Remove the LaunchAgent:

elgato-autolight uninstall

Check the current state:

elgato-autolight status

Create ~/.config/elgato-autolight/config.toml to override defaults:

brightness = 10          # 0-100, default 10
temperature = 5000       # 2900-7000K, default 5000
# light = "Key Light"    # --light flag passed to elgato-light
# ip_address = "1.2.3.4" # --ip-address flag passed to elgato-light

If the file is missing, defaults are used. No config file is created automatically.

When running as a LaunchAgent, logs are written to:

• ~/Library/Logs/elgato-autolight/stdout.log
• ~/Library/Logs/elgato-autolight/stderr.log

Verify the service is running:

elgato-autolight status

Test the monitor interactively with verbose output:

elgato-autolight start --verbose

Then open Photo Booth or FaceTime to trigger the camera.

If elgato-light is not found, install it:

brew install wassimk/tap/elgato-light

After installing, macOS may show this one-time notification:

This is expected. The binary is signed with an Apple Developer certificate, so macOS displays the developer's name rather than the program name. This is just elgato-autolight running as a background service to monitor your camera. When your camera turns on, it switches your Elgato light on. When the camera turns off, it switches the light off. Nothing else.

To stop or remove the service, run elgato-autolight uninstall.