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Getting started

This walks you through the first hour: an account, a place, a sensor, a reading, a rule. Nothing here needs more than a web browser and curl.

Before you startSelf-service sign-up is closed until an administrator sets an invitation key (Registration:InvitationKey). If the Register page asks for one, request it from whoever runs your server. If you run the server yourself, see Deployment and Configuration.

  1. Reach a server

    Install Huntress with the installer for your platform (see Deployment), or ask your administrator for the address of an existing server. The rest of this page uses https://<host>.

  2. Create an account

    Open /Account/Register and enter your name, an e-mail address, a password of at least 12 characters and the invitation key. Huntress creates your organisation and makes you its Owner.

    Sign in. The Dashboard is empty until you add something. Under My account → Security you can add two-factor sign-in and passkeys; do this early.

  3. Set the time zone

    Under My account → Members choose your time zone. Schedules, calendar conditions in rules and every timestamp on screen use it. Data is stored in UTC either way.

  4. Create a place

    Open Places and add one: a building, a yard, a vehicle, a room. Give it a name. Coordinates are optional, but sunrise and sunset conditions and geofences need them.

    A place is the container for sensors, outputs, zones, alarm panels, rules and incidents, and it has its own page with a live overview.

  5. Add a sensor

    On the place, open Sensors → Add Sensor, choose a category and a type (for example Door Magnetic Contact or Freezer Temperature) and give it a name. Open the sensor's settings: the Integration panel shows its Hunt Token, a secret that identifies it. The sensor's page also has a Connection settings tab with ready-made examples for HTTP and MQTT.

    Treat the token like a password. Anyone who has it can send readings as that sensor.

  6. Send a reading

    Door open (1) or closed (0). A numeric sensor sends its measurement instead, for example 21.5.

    curl -X POST https://<host>/hunt/<token> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"value": 1}'

    Huntress answers with the stored reading:

    {"sensorId":12,"sensorName":"Front door","value":1,"timestamp":"2026-10-12T09:14:03Z"}

  7. See it arrive

    The sensor's Last seen time updates, the reading appears in its history chart, and a normalised event is written to the timeline: All Events lists it with its domain, nature and severity. The place page updates live; nothing needs refreshing.

  8. Write a rule

    Open Rules → New rule. Read it as a sentence: WHEN your door sensor reports, IF it is outside business hours, THEN create an incident and send an e-mail. Use the Test tab to replay recent events through the rule before saving; it shows which conditions passed and how many events would have fired it.

    Send another reading and watch the incident appear on the Dashboard. See Rules for everything a rule can do.

Where to go next#

Add a camera Live view, snapshots, object detection and video clips. Connect an alarm panel SIA DC-09 or Contact ID over IP, with zones and verified alarms. Add people Pulse tracking with a panic button, keepalives and a map. Control devices Lights, locks and sirens over MQTT, Zigbee or HTTP. Send data from your own devices The full Hunt API, MQTT and e-mail reference. Create the setup from a script Provision places, sensors, people and panels through the REST API.
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