Install

pip install vancam

Installs a vancam command via a console-script entry point.

Note: both packages install a command literally named vancam. Don't install both on the same machine at the same time — whichever was linked/installed last wins in your PATH.

Setup

No setup required to try it — every client defaults to this shared, public key if VANCAM_API_KEY (or x-api-key) isn't set: abwSAo91eI8wENsNrZFUE7tC6qGkh9Tw66x4cfcQ.

This is one key shared by every anonymous caller — Python or Node, CLI, MCP, or raw REST. Its 1 req/s / 500 requests/month limit is a single collective pool across all of them combined, not 500 each — if it's busy, you'll get rate-limited by other people's traffic, not just your own.

For a limit that's yours alone (5 req/s, 500 requests/month, not shared with anyone), get a free personal key from your account dashboard. Need more than that? See Pro and Enterprise plans.

Set it via .env or exported directly:

VANCAM_API_KEY=abwSAo91eI8wENsNrZFUE7tC6qGkh9Tw66x4cfcQ

Commands

Identical commands and flags in both versions.

Command	Use when	Flags
`vancam nearest`	N nearest cameras to a point	`--lat --lon [--limit]`
`vancam radius`	Cameras within a radius (km) of a point	`--lat --lon [--radius] [--limit]`
`vancam route`	Cameras along a straight-line route	`--origin-lat --origin-lon --dest-lat --dest-lon [--buffer] [--limit]`
`vancam bounds`	Cameras inside a bounding box	`--min-lat --min-lon --max-lat --max-lon [--limit]`
`vancam get <asset_id>`	Camera details by asset ID
`vancam image <asset_id>`	Live image URL, or save with -o <file>	`[-o FILE]`

Example

$ vancam nearest --lat 49.2827 --lon -123.1207 --limit 1 --compact
{"type":"nearest_search","count":1,"cameras":[{"asset_id":29755,"street_address":"Hornby St and Robson St","distance_meters":79.63,...}]}

All commands print JSON (pretty by default, --compact for one line, works before or after the subcommand) — pipes cleanly into jq:

vancam nearest --lat 49.2827 --lon -123.1207 --limit 1 | jq '.cameras[0].image_url'

Source

pypi.org/project/vancam · github.com/shughestr/vancam-cli (Python) · Node version not yet published · REST equivalent · MCP equivalent