A CLI tool for controlling Elgato lights.

On macOS, lights are automatically discovered via Bonjour with support for multiple lights. On Linux, an IP address must be provided.

• Multi-light support with automatic discovery of all lights on the network
• Auto-discovery on macOS via Bonjour/mDNS, no configuration needed
• Discovery caching for instant subsequent runs
• Manual IP support via --ip-address flag or ELGATO_LIGHT_IP environment variable, comma-separated for multiple lights
• Power control with on and off commands
• Brightness control, absolute on turn-on or relative adjustments
• Color temperature control in Kelvin (2900K to 7000K)
• Status reporting of current light state with light name

$ elgato-light --help

A CLI for controlling Elgato lights (auto-discovers via Bonjour on macOS)

Usage: elgato-light [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Commands:
  on           Turn the light(s) on (use -b and -t to set brightness and temperature)
  off          Turn the light(s) off
  brightness   Adjust brightness by a relative amount, e.g. 10 or -10
  temperature  Set the color temperature in Kelvin (2900-7000)
  status       Get the current status of the light(s)
  discover     Discover lights on the network and save for future use
  clear-cache  Clear the saved lights cache

Options:
  -i, --ip-address <IP_ADDRESS>  Light IP address(es), comma-separated
  -l, --light <LIGHT>            Target a specific light by name (case-insensitive substring match)
      --timeout <TIMEOUT>        Discovery timeout in seconds [default: 10]
  -h, --help                     Print help
  -V, --version                  Print version

On macOS, no configuration is needed. The CLI discovers all Elgato lights automatically on first run and saves them for instant subsequent runs.

elgato-light on
elgato-light off

Brightness and/or temperature can be set when turning on. Brightness defaults to 10% and temperature to 5000K.

elgato-light on --brightness 20
elgato-light on --temperature 5000
elgato-light on --brightness 20 --temperature 5000

Adjust relative brightness between 0 and 100. Use -- before negative values.

elgato-light brightness -- 10
elgato-light brightness -- -10

Set the color temperature in Kelvin (2900 to 7000).

elgato-light temperature 5000

Get the current light status.

elgato-light status

When multiple lights are discovered, all commands target every light by default.

Discover and save lights on the network.

elgato-light discover

Target a specific light by name (case-insensitive substring match).

elgato-light --light "Key Light" on
elgato-light -l AB12 status

On Linux, or to skip auto-discovery on macOS, provide the light's IP address directly. Supports comma-separated values for multiple lights.

elgato-light --ip-address 192.168.0.10 on
elgato-light --ip-address 192.168.0.10,192.168.0.11 on

The ELGATO_LIGHT_IP environment variable can be set as an alternative to passing --ip-address on every command.

export ELGATO_LIGHT_IP=192.168.0.10,192.168.0.11
elgato-light on

If auto-discovery is not finding your light, verify Bonjour can see it with the macOS built-in tool.

dns-sd -B _elg._tcp

Re-run discovery if lights have changed on the network.

elgato-light discover

Clear the saved lights cache.

elgato-light clear-cache

The discovery cache is stored at ~/Library/Caches/elgato-light/target.

The Apple binaries are signed and notarized with an Apple Developer account, so they should work without any Gatekeeper warnings.

• elgato-autolight - A macOS automation tool that watches for camera activation and automatically turns your Elgato lights on and off. Uses elgato-light under the hood.
• raycast-elgato-light - A Raycast extension for controlling Elgato lights on macOS.