gphoto2-tether

gphoto2-tether is a skill for Claude Code from damionrashford/media-os. It costs 265 tokens per session (3,361 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A command-line camera control tool for supported DSLR and mirrorless cameras connected by USB or Wi-Fi. It uses gphoto2 to communicate with the camera and download captured files.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to detect cameras, capture photos or video, download files, show live previews, change settings, run timelapses, and build photobooths or tethered studio setups.
Why use it?
It removes the need to operate the camera manually when taking repeated or remotely controlled photos.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: argument-hint in frontmatter.

Needs its repository: it runs a file that does not travel with it, so clone the repository first. The line is uv run ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/tether.py preview --fps 10 --dest ./live/.

Part of the media-os plugin — 121 skills, 11 agents, 5 hooks, 1 plugin shipped together

Good fit Use it to detect cameras, capture photos or video, download files, show live previews, change settings, run timelapses, and build photobooths or tethered studio setups.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install

Getting it into your agent

It runs from inside its repository, so the clone comes first — what it calls does not travel with the file alone.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/damionrashford/media-os
agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/damionrashford/media-os/gphoto2-tether

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install media-os, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 121 skills, 11 agents, 5 hooks, 1 plugin.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for gphoto2-tether

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/damionrashford/media-os/gphoto2-tether/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/damionrashford/media-os/gphoto2-tether)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/damionrashford/media-os/gphoto2-tether"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/damionrashford/media-os/gphoto2-tether/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for gphoto2-tether

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/damionrashford/media-os/gphoto2-tether"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/damionrashford/media-os/gphoto2-tether.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 265 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,361 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00265 $0.03361
Opus 5 $0.00133 $0.01681
Sonnet 5 $0.00053 $0.00672
Haiku 4.5 $0.00026 $0.00336

Measured 9d ago against content hash f60b0ec372df, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

gphoto2-tether scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 9d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/tether.py), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

- **`http://gphoto.org` uses HTTP only** — their HTTPS cert has long been invalid. Don't `curl https://gphoto.org/...` in scripts; use `http://` or pin to the mirror. Documentation URLs: manual at `http://gphoto.org/doc/
skills/gphoto2-tether/SKILL.md · 310 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 310 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Gphoto2 Tether

Context: $ARGUMENTS

Quick start

  • What camera do I have plugged in? -> Step 1 (tether.py detect)
  • Take one shot + pull it to disk: -> Step 2 (tether.py shoot --download)
  • Live-view preview as MJPEG / JPEGs: -> Step 3 (tether.py preview)
  • Record movie on camera: -> Step 4 (tether.py movie)
  • Download every photo on the card: -> Step 5 (tether.py bulk-download)
  • Change a setting (shutter / ISO / aperture): -> Step 6 (tether.py config-*)
  • Timelapse: -> Step 7 (tether.py timelapse)
  • Connect via Wi-Fi (PTP/IP): -> Step 8 (tether.py ptpip)

When to use

  • A supported DSLR/mirrorless is on USB (or on Wi-Fi via PTP/IP) and you want CLI control.
  • Building a timelapse rig, photobooth, studio tether, automated capture loop.
  • Remote focus pull, ISO/shutter/aperture bracketing, battery check.
  • Always pair with media-exiftool after capture if you need to tag EXIF / IPTC / XMP.
  • Not for video editing — use ffmpeg-transcode / moviepy after download.

Step 1 — Detect the camera

uv run ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/tether.py detect

Expands to:

gphoto2 --auto-detect

Output is a table of "Model | Port" pairs. Port is usually usb:NNN,MMM (bus, device). Use tether.py config-list afterwards to confirm config keys exist for that camera.


Step 2 — Capture (and optionally download)

Shoot one frame, keep it on the card:

uv run ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/tether.py shoot

Shoot and pull to the current directory:

uv run ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/tether.py shoot --download

Burst of 10 shots, all downloaded:

uv run ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/tether.py shoot --download --count 10

Under the hood (single shot):

gphoto2 --capture-image-and-download --filename "%Y%m%d-%H%M%S-%n.%C"

The %C specifier uses the file's actual extension (JPG, CR2, NEF, ARW, ...).


Step 3 — Preview / live-view

Dump a live-view JPEG to stdout once:

Read the full file on GitHub · 310 lines

Files

What ships with it

2 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 9d ago First seen · 310 lines · 265 tokens per session scan A f60b0ec372df

Subscribe to this mod's changes

gphoto2-tether is a skill published in the GitHub repository damionrashford/media-os (19 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 265 tokens to every session and 3,361 once invoked, about $0.0013 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.

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