dgreif/ring: an unofficial TypeScript client and HomeKit bridge for Ring

Unofficial is the important word

The repository is described as unofficial packages to enable interaction and automation with the majority of Ring products, and that qualifier carries all the weight. These packages are unofficial and built by analysing the Ring API, so they work until the app changes. The set of covered devices is broad, spanning doorbells, cameras, the alarm system and smart lighting, and the topics list names alarm, homebridge, homekit and ring. The primary language is TypeScript, the licence is MIT, the project is not archived and the last push was on 2026-10-16. The README points contributors to the wiki and to existing issues before opening a new one, which is the normal courtesy for a project whose bug reports are usually reports of an upstream change.

Two packages with two different audiences

The monorepo publishes two things, and they serve different users. `ring-client-api` is a TypeScript package designed to be used by developers to create your own apps and programs which interact with the Ring API, so it is a library you build on. `homebridge-ring` allows users to easily integrate Ring products into Apple HomeKit via homebridge, so it is a plugin a Homebridge user installs rather than code anyone writes. Both are published with the same version number, ring-client-api 14.3.0 and homebridge-ring 14.3.0, both dated 2026-02-08, with ring-client-api 14.2.0 on 2025-11-11 before that. The version alignment is the giveaway that the HomeKit plugin is a consumer of the client library, so a bug fix in the API layer reaches the plugin without a separate release. The repository also holds an `examples` package, and the README points to a separate full project example repository for a complete application.

The examples package is the documentation

The examples directory is where this repository explains itself, and the root package manifest shows that each example is a separate runnable script. There are `example`, `api-example`, `record-example`, `return-audio-example`, `stream-example` and `browser-example`, and the root manifest routes to them with `npm run example -w examples` and the matching per-example commands. The names tell you what the client can do. Recording is the doorbell event capture, returning audio is the two-way talk response, streaming is the live video path, and the browser example is presumably the flow that needs a page in front of it. Two more scripts live in the client package itself, `auth-cli` and `device-data-cli`, reachable as `npm run auth-cli -w ring-client-api` and `npm run device-data-cli -w ring-client-api`. The auth CLI is the one to run first, because the device data CLI needs credentials that the auth CLI obtains.

A turbo monorepo with changesets and npm workspaces

The build tooling is a modern monorepo setup, and the root manifest is short enough to read in full. It is a private package named `ring`, of type module, with npm workspaces over `packages/*` and turbo 2.11.5 as the task runner, so `build`, `dev`, `test` and `lint` all fan out across the workspace with `turbo run`. Linting has a separate fix variant, `lint:fix`, and the root test watch script is scoped to the client package, `npm run test:watch -w ring-client-api`. Releases go through changesets, and the `deploy` script is the whole flow in one line: `changeset version && git commit -am 'Bump versions for release' && changeset publish`. There are separate `prepare-beta` and `exit-beta` scripts that move the whole monorepo into and out of a beta channel with changesets pre mode, and a `predeploy` hook that pulls with rebase and then runs `turbo run build test lint` before anything is published. The package manager is pinned to npm 12.1.0.

The credit list is a map of the reverse engineering

The acknowledgements section is unusual and genuinely informative. It thanks the developers who spent time analysing the Ring API and building similar libraries, and then names them with what each contributed. `@davglass` is credited with the original node project that proved we can interact with Ring's API at all. `@jimhigson` built a promisified API for Ring's original line of products. `@tchellomello` wrote a python API which is widely used for Ring integrations. `@mrose17` wrote the original Ring camera homebridge plugin, which is the ancestor of the `homebridge-ring` package in this repository. `@joeyberkovitz` is credited with the discovery work on the Ring Alarm websockets API, and `@codahq` with help debugging that API. Read as a whole, this list explains the architecture. The websockets work in particular suggests the alarm features are event-driven rather than polled, which is a different and harder problem from the camera and doorbell paths.

Where this approach breaks down

The limitation is structural and cannot be engineered away. Because the packages are unofficial and built on analysis of the Ring API, the client has to keep pace with an app that is updated on the vendor's schedule, and a change to an endpoint, a token refresh or a response shape can break the client with no deprecation period and no changelog on the other side. The maintenance burden lands on the maintainers of this repository and on anyone running it, and the README's own advice to search the wiki and existing issues first is a symptom of that. The second limitation is that the client is a TypeScript library, so the HomeKit plugin path is the only one that reaches non-Node users, and it reaches them only if they run homebridge. The third is that the alarm system support depends on websocket behaviour that the credits describe as discovery work, and discovery work can be undone by a server-side change. A consumer of this repository should treat it as a maintained-by-volunteer integration with the support characteristics that implies, not as a product with a service level.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt dgreif/ring if you want to build your own tooling on Ring devices or bring them into HomeKit, and you accept that you are depending on an unofficial client of a private API. Skip it if you need a supported integration, since nothing here is affiliated with Ring and the underlying endpoints can change without notice. Before writing code, plan for the authentication step, because the package ships a `auth-cli` script and a `device-data-cli` for inspecting what your account exposes, and pin to a released version, since the package is published from a monorepo with changesets and both public packages moved in step to 14.3.0.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. dgreif/ring on GitHub
2. Issues
3. License: MIT
4. README
5. Releases