august-connect

A simple module for locking, unlocking, and getting the status of August smart locks via the August Connect WiFi bridge.

---

Setup

You'll need:

• A set up & configured August Smart Lock + August Connect WiFi bridge
• The password to the August account you'll be using with this client
• A valid August API key¹

npm i august-connect

Require august-connect in your project:

let august = require('august-connect')

---

Configuration

Calls must be made with a configuration set either as environment variables, or passed in the parameters of the method in question.

Environment variables

The following configuration environment variables are required if not passing a config object:

• AUGUST_API_KEY - string - a valid August API key¹ (please refer notes at the bottom of this readme for more)
• AUGUST_INSTALLID - string - referred to as the "installation" below, this string represents your authorized session; changing it will break things and require re-authorization; suggest using something reasonably long, random, and unique
• AUGUST_PASSWORD - string - your August password
• AUGUST_ID_TYPE - string - one of email or phone
• AUGUST_ID - string - the corresponding account email or a phone number (phone format is +[countrycode][number] with no other symbols, i.e. [phone])

To work with august-connect locally, I suggest setting up your variables with dotenv.

Config object

The following configuration keys are required if not using the environment variables noted above:

• apiKey - - string - a valid August API key¹ (please refer notes at the bottom of this readme for more)
• installID - - string - referred to as the "installation" below, this string represents your authorized session; changing it will break things and require re-authorization; suggest using something reasonably long, random, and unique
• password - - string - your August password
• IDType - - string - one of email or phone
• augustID - - string - the corresponding account email or a phone number (phone format is +[countrycode][number] with no other symbols, i.e. [phone])

Tokens

August's API uses short-lived tokens (JWTs); as of version 3.0 august-connect returns a token string from its first session initiation; subsequent requests may reuse the same token.

⚠️ Warning: Depending on how your processes run, network conditions, API latency, etc., these tokens may expire mid-use. If you aren't totally sure, don't reuse your token between transactions.

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API

Authorization

august.authorize([params][, callback]) → [Promise]

⚠️ Required step!

Also aliased to august.validate()

Before you can use august-connect, you'll have to authorize an installation (i.e. your AUGUST_INSTALLID, which is just a unique identifier of your choosing that you'll continue reusing). You only need to authorize an installation one time – you should not attempt continued / ongoing reauthorization attempts.

If passed, params must be an object; this object may contain a code string, and config object, and it returns the string of the authorized installation ID.

To authorize an installation, you must input a six digit code that August will send to your email or phone ID. Here's how:

• First, assuming your configuration env vars are set, initiate the request for an auth code by calling: august.authorize()
• Alternately, if passing a config object, initiate the request for an auth code by calling: august.authorize({config: {...})
• Then, complete your auth request by adding the six digit code (as a string) as the first param: august.authorize({code: '123456'})

You should now have an authorized installation!

⚠️ Warning: if you change your AUGUST_INSTALLID, or don't make use of that installation's session for 120 days, you'll have to repeat the authorization process again.

Example

// Get a second-factor code
august.authorize({
  config: {
    apiKey,
    installID,
    password,
    IDType,
    augustID
  }
}, console.log)

// Authorize
august.authorize({
  code,
  ...config
}, console.log)

Status / info

august.status([params][, callback]) → [Promise]

If passed, params must be an object; this object may contain a lockID string, config object, and token string.

Returns error, or object containing status and diagnostic info of a single lock, and a reusable token:

• If your account only has access to a single lock, you can opt not to specify a lockID
• For reference, lock states:
  • status.kAugLockState_Locked: lock is locked
  • status.kAugLockState_Unlocked: lock is unlocked

Example

// Check your lock's status
const August = require('august-connect')

August.status({ lockID: '7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295' }, console.log)
// {
//   status: 'kAugLockState_Locked',
//   info: { ... }
//   retryCount: 1,
//   totalTime: 1786,
//   resultsFromOperationCache: false,
//   token: 'foobar'
// }

august.locks([params][, callback]) → [Promise]

If passed, params must be an object, and may contain a config object, and token string.

Returns error, or object containing locks that your valid installation has access to, and a reusable token

Example

// Check to see if your lock is locked
const August = require('august-connect')

August.locks(console.log)
// {
//  '7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295': {
//    LockName: 'Front door',
//    UserType: 'superuser',
//    macAddress: '1A:2B:3C:4D:5E:6F',
//    HouseID: '097dcab3-a29a-491a-8468-bab41b6b7040',
//    HouseName: 'Home',
//    token: 'foobar'
//   }
// }

august.details([params][, callback]) → [Promise]

If passed, params must be an object, and may contain a lockID string, config object, and token string.

Returns error, or object containing lock details on a single lock, and a reusable token

• If your account only has access to a single lock, you can opt not to specify a lockID

Examples

// Obtains details on a specific lock
const August = require('august-connect')

August.details({ lockID: '7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295' }, console.log)
// {
//   battery: { ... },
//  ...
// }

// Assuming your have only one August lock on your account
const August = require('august-connect')

;(async () => {
  await August.details()
})

Lock / unlock

august.lock([params][, callback]) → [Promise]

If passed, params must be an object, and may contain a lockID string, config object, and token string.

Returns error, or object containing status and diagnostic info after locking a single lock, and a reusable token

• If your account only has access to a single lock, you can opt not to specify a lockID
• If your account has access multiple locks, you must specify a lockID
  • This is to prevent locking the wrong lock, which would be pretty not good

Examples

// Lock a specific lock
const August = require('august-connect')

August.lock({ lockID: '7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295' }, console.log)
// {
//   status: 'kAugLockState_Locked',
//   info: { ... }
//   retryCount: 1,
//   totalTime: 1786,
//   resultsFromOperationCache: false,
//   token: 'foobar'
// }

// Assuming your have only one August lock on your account
const August = require('august-connect')

;(async () => {
  await August.lock()
})

august.unlock([params][, callback]) → [Promise]

If passed, params must be an object, and may contain a lockID string, config object, and token string.

Returns error, or object containing status and diagnostic info after unlocking a single lock, and a reusable token

• If your account only has access to a single lock, you can opt not to specify a lockID
• If your account has access multiple locks, you must specify a lockID
  • This is to prevent unlocking the wrong lock, which would be pretty not good

Examples

// Unlock a specific lock
const August = require('august-connect')

August.unlock({ lockID: '7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295' }, console.log)
// {
//   status: 'kAugLockState_Unlocked',
//   info: { ... }
//   retryCount: 1,
//   totalTime: 1786,
//   resultsFromOperationCache: false,
//   token: 'foobar'
// }

// Assuming your have only one August unlock on your account
const August = require('august-connect')

;(async () => {
  await August.unlock()
})

---

Upgrade guide

3.0

• Version 3.0 now requires calls that methods may only be passed objects; specifically, those breaking changes would manifest in the following ways:
  • august.authorize:
    • Before: august.authorize('123456')
    • After: august.authorize({ code: '123456' })
  • august.status:
    • Before: august.status('7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295')
    • After: august.status({ lockID: '7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295' })
  • august.lock:
    • Before: august.lock('7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295')
    • After: august.lock({ lockID: '7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295' })
  • august.unlock:
    • Before: august.unlock('7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295')
    • After: august.unlock({ lockID: '7EDFA965E0AE0CE19772AFA435364295' })

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Contributing

• Please fork and submit PRs against master
• Make sure unit tests pass
• Integration tests should also pass, but are not automated
  • Because we wouldn't want real doors getting locked and unlocked in the real world, integration tests are not part of the automated test suite
  • To run them, ensure you are using a valid API key¹, set up your local .env file, and test against your own hardware with a valid installation

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Acknowledgments

Big ups to Nolan Brown and Joe Lu's py-august project for paving the way!

Notes

¹ august-connect uses August's unpublished API, and August has been known to occasionally recycle their client API keys. Hard-coding a August API key into august-connect would not reliable, so you'll need to acquire a key of your own. I suggest using Nolan Brown's August API reverse engineering guide to get one – or there's always Google!

• This module was tested with a 1st-generation August Smart Lock
  • If you have future-gen August smart locks, I'd love to know more about how the library performs for you!
• This module does not provide an interface to August locks via BLE
• This module is not intended to provide complete coverage of the August API, only the bare minimum necessary to operate the August Smart Lock
• Unfortunately, August does not publish their API for consumer usage, so this may break at any time; August name etc. trademark Assa Abloy (who make some truly great locks, by the way!)
• I am in no way responsible for any safety issues that arise from the use of this module!