Does LumaSync need a cloud account?

No. LumaSync runs entirely on-device — no accounts, no telemetry, no cloud. Hue bridge pairing and configuration live in ~/.config/lumasync/app.json on your machine.

Can I use LumaSync with a console or Apple TV via HDMI?

No. LumaSync reads the OS screen buffer, so it cannot capture HDMI input from external devices. For HDMI sources the Philips Hue Sync Box is the right tool.

What hardware do I need?

Any one of: a Philips Hue Bridge (gen 2 or newer) with at least one Entertainment Area, a WS2812B or SK6812 RGBW LED strip driven by a CH340 / CH341 / FT232 / PL2303 / CP2104 USB-serial controller, or an ESP32 / ESP8266 board running WLED firmware on the same LAN. Any single path on its own is enough; LumaSync can drive all three concurrently.

Is LumaSync free and open source?

Yes. LumaSync is MIT licensed. Source is at github.com/voyvodka/LumaSync — fork it, ship it, audit the screen-capture and streaming pipelines yourself.

Does LumaSync work on Linux?

Yes. v1.5.0 added native X11 screen capture via xcap, and v1.5.1 was the first release to ship all three platform installers in lockstep — macOS DMG, Windows MSI, and Linux AppImage / deb / rpm. Tray behaviour still varies by desktop environment: GNOME needs an AppIndicator extension, and some tiling window managers may force the window into a tile.

Where are my Hue credentials stored?

In the OS keychain — macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, or Linux Secret Service (gnome-keyring / KWallet). Existing v1.4 installs migrate transparently from the previous shellStore plaintext on first launch of v1.5.0+, with an idempotent and downgrade-safe migration path.

Open source · Tauri 2 · MIT

Your screen, your lights. Locally.

LumaSync mirrors your screen to WS2812B / SK6812 RGBW LED strips over USB, WLED boards over Wi-Fi, and Philips Hue Entertainment areas — all from one source. Local-only, brand-agnostic, MIT-licensed.

Download View on GitHub →

macOS · Windows · Linux

LumaSync's full-mode Lights section showing Ambilight active, scene presets, the live edge-signal preview, and the Δ/Σ telemetry pill.

All at once

One pipeline. Three sinks.

USB LED strips

WS2812B and SK6812 RGBW chips over CH340 / CH341 / FT232 / PL2303 / CP2104 USB-serial controllers at 115200 baud — running the LumaSync v1 serial frame or the opt-in Adalight profile.

Supported chipsets →

WLED over Wi-Fi

Drive ESP32 / ESP8266 boards running WLED firmware via the DDP protocol — auto-discovered on the LAN over mDNS or paired by static IP. Loopback, multicast, and broadcast addresses are rejected up-front.

WLED setup →

Philips Hue Entertainment

DTLS 1.2 PSK streaming to any Entertainment Area at up to 20 Hz, with Hue Zones, AR-locked sizing, and per-bulb gamut clipping for accurate colour.

How Hue streaming works →

All three, synchronized

Same screen source drives every sink. Pick per mode — USB, WLED, Hue, or any combination — switched from the tray.

Live Δ/Σ telemetry
EN · TR i18n
Compact 320×480 / Full 900×620
OS keychain credentials

First-setup walkthrough →

Ambient mode

Real-time screen capture. 20 Hz update.

Tuned for latency, not flash. The telemetry pill shows live capture and send rates so you can see when the pipeline is healthy and when it isn't — no mystery numbers.

Read about performance →

LumaSync ambient mode with the edge-signal preview and live telemetry overlay.

Room map editor

A canvas, not a config file.

Drag your TV, furniture, and USB strips onto a grid. Hue channels project onto normalized coordinates. Undo / redo, snap guides, keyboard shortcuts.

Calibration docs →

Lives in the menu bar

Out of your way until you need it.

Single window hides to tray on close. Compact 320×480 mode for quick toggles, full 900×620 mode when you want to configure. Auto-starts on login, if you want it to.

First-setup walkthrough →

LumaSync compact mode — narrow window with mode tiles and scene picker.

LumaSync full mode — main window with sidebar and Lights section open.

Platform support

Installs anywhere you already work.

macOS Full support

Primary development target. Universal DMG (Apple Silicon + Intel).

Windows Full support

Signed MSI installer, winget in progress. All three sinks fully functional.

Linux Supported

Native X11 screen capture (xcap). AppImage / deb / rpm ship every release; Flathub submission underway. Tray behaviour still varies by desktop environment.

Open · signed · auditable

No accounts. No telemetry. No cloud.

MIT licensed

Source at voyvodka/LumaSync. Fork it, ship it, read it.

Updates signed with minisign

Every binary is signature-verified before replacing the on-disk version. How updates work.

Credentials stay local

Hue bridge pairing and everything else lives in ~/.config/lumasync/app.json on your machine.

Picking an ambilight tool

See how LumaSync compares.

LumaSync is the open-source desktop ambient-lighting app for Philips Hue and WS2812B LED strips. It sits in a different category from each of the alternatives below — pick the comparison that matches what you already own. Not to be confused with the Sync-on-Luma RGB SCART signal used in retro consoles or the lumalabs.ai video tools.

vs Philips Hue Sync

Desktop app vs HDMI passthrough box

Hue Sync Box is HDMI hardware for TV-centric rooms. LumaSync drives Hue from a computer — different category, different problem.

Read comparison →

vs WLED

Native USB vs ESP32 firmware

WLED is firmware on an ESP32 board with its own Wi-Fi web UI. LumaSync is the desktop app — often run alongside WLED, not instead of it.

Read comparison →

vs Hyperion

Install-and-run vs RPi-first stack

Hyperion is the RPi-first ambilight stack with a deep config surface. LumaSync runs on the computer you already use, no Pi required.

Read comparison →

vs Prismatik

Built fresh vs Lightpack legacy

Prismatik is the legacy Lightpack-era driver. LumaSync is built from scratch for current hardware — Hue Entertainment, Tauri 2, signed updates.

Read comparison →

All four comparisons in one place →

Transparent about scope

Roadmap honesty.

No vaporware, no silently-aging footnotes. What shipped, what's queued, and what we've explicitly rejected — read end-to-end.

Shipped

v1.5.2 — 2026-05-05

WLED bridge over Wi-Fi — DDP protocol with mDNS auto-discovery (_wled._tcp.local.) and IP guard against loopback / multicast / broadcast
Hue Zones — entertainment areas mapped to logical zones with zone-relative coordinates, AR-locked sizing, HSV picker, and live bounds visual
Linux X11 capture via xcap — LumaSync now ships on macOS, Windows, and Linux every release
SK6812 RGBW chip support with host-side W = min(R,G,B) extraction; expanded USB allowlist (PL2303, CH341, CP2104, FT232H)
OS keychain credentials — Hue username + PSK migrated from plaintext store to macOS Keychain / Windows CredMan / Linux Secret Service
Per-bulb Hue gamut clipping — A/B/C triangle clipping in the DTLS frame builder hot-path with luminance-preserving xy→RGB mapping
Beta update channel scaffold — opt-in updateChannel shell state with separate latest-beta.json endpoint
macOS lifecycle hardening — Cmd+Q, tray Quit, and Ctrl+C unified onto a single watchdog-bounded shutdown path; close-to-tray OS notification on first dismiss
Polling discipline — telemetry and Hue health checks pause when the window is hidden, resume on visibility (lower idle CPU and battery draw)
Frontend log bridge — webview console.* calls now write into the platform log file alongside Rust log entries

Full changelog →

Flathub submission for Linux — discoverable in GNOME Software / KDE Discover with verified runtime sandboxing
glib 0.18 → 0.19 migration to clear the remaining RUSTSEC-2024-0429 Linux-runtime warning (gated on Tauri / gtk-rs upstream)
Companion firmware repo — reference sketch with the v1.5 PING/PONG handshake for LumaSync v1 controllers
OpenRGB sink (v2.0 track) — peripherals, motherboards, fans on the same pipeline

No dates promised. The LedSink abstraction (v1.4) and the WLED bridge (v1.5) make the OpenRGB track tractable.

Never

DNA-conflicts

Daemon / headless mode — answered via a local HTTP API + Home Assistant
Cloud telemetry or Sentry-class reporting — privacy posture is load-bearing
Cloud scene gallery — local files and JSON export only
AI-prompt scene inference — cloud inference breaks the zero-network promise
Docker / headless Linux server distribution — tray-first DNA

These are rejections, not "not yet" items.

Honest filter

Not for you if…

You need HDMI passthrough for a console or Apple TV. LumaSync reads the OS screen buffer — no HDMI in the signal path. Grab a Hue Sync Box instead.
You don't have a Hue Bridge, a WS2812B / SK6812 controller, or a WLED board. The app will run, but you won't see anything light up. Start with the hardware checklist.
You're on a tiling Linux WM with no system tray. LumaSync expects to live in the menu bar — GNOME needs an AppIndicator extension, and tiling WMs may force the window into a tile. The pipeline still runs; the UX is just less menu-bar-shaped.