Describe a rule, rule templates and Insights
Updated 2026-10-22
Write an alarm rule in plain English, start from a ready-made template, and read what your cameras saw over the last days with recommendations.
New in Sentinel 3.2. None of these pages turn anything on by themselves: a draft or a template opens the rule editor, and nothing is saved until you press Save.
Describe a rule
- Turn AI on once: Admin → System → AI, add your Anthropic API key and enable it. Without it the box answers "AI is off".
- Open Admin → Rules and Events → Rules. In Describe a rule, type what should raise an alarm, for example
Tell me about people at the loading dock after 6pm, and click Draft rule. - Read the draft: cameras, alarm kinds, hours and days, minimum severity and delivery, with a short explanation. A warning shows anything Sentinel could not match, such as a camera name it does not know; the draft then applies to every camera until you pick some.
- The draft opens in the rule editor switched off. Change what you like and save it.
What is sent to the model: your text, the camera names and locations, the list of alarm kinds, severities and time profile names, and the server's local date and time. No video, events, licence plates or names of people. Each draft counts against the daily AI limit set in System → AI.
The same box is in the Mac Operator's Rules pane and in the Linux desktop app's Rules tab.
Start from a template
Under Start from a template on the same page are eight ready-made rules:
- Security: After-hours people (18:00–07:00), Loitering, Vehicles at night (22:00–06:00), Line crossing or intrusion, Camera tampering.
- Camera health: Camera offline, Storage low.
- Operations: Loud noise.
Use template prefills the editor with every camera selected and a short "what to do" note for whoever gets the alarm. Narrow the cameras, set the delivery to Dashboard + iPhone push if you want it on your phone, then save.
Insights
Admin → Basics → Insights shows the last 24 hours, 7 days (the default) or 30 days: totals, a bar per day, the alarm mix, the busiest cameras, and up to six recommendations. Insights uses only the activity your server already recorded and makes no AI call, so it works with AI off.
| Recommendation | When it appears | Button |
|---|---|---|
| Mostly plain motion | A camera had 20 or more alarms and 70% or more were plain motion while it alerts on motion | Switch to people & vehicles |
| Keeps going offline | Camera Offline alarms on three or more days | Open camera |
| No rule for people | Five or more Person alarms and no enabled rule covers them | Use template (After-hours people) |
| Storage alarm | Any Storage alarm in the range | Check storage |
| Quiet camera | A range of 7 days or more with no events at all from the camera | none; check the view and the schedule |
A button only shows when your role allows that change. The Mac Operator and the Linux desktop app have the same page; the iPhone app shows Insights from Home, read-only except for the people & vehicles switch.
More guides, including Sentinel Cloud setup and users and roles, are in the knowledge base for signed-in users.