A read-only command-line client for the Famly childcare app. It archives every full-resolution photo of your child from every source Famly exposes to a parent: observations, newsfeed, messages, notes, tagged photos, and profile. It also exposes Famly's read surface (children, feed, messages, events, observations) as JSON. It never writes, sends, or deletes anything on your account.
Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Famly ApS; "Famly" is a trademark of its owner. It uses Famly's private API with your own credentials and may break without notice. Use it only with an account you control, per Famly's Terms of Service, at your own risk.
The tour above runs against a bundled mock server, so every name, message, and photo shown is fake. You can run the same thing yourself from a clone, with no Famly account:
python3 scripts/demo_server.py & # fake backend on https://localhost:8765
export FAMLY_BASE_URL=https://localhost:8765
export SSL_CERT_FILE=scripts/.demo/cert.pem
export FAMLY_ACCESS_TOKEN=demo
famly children
famly photos --incremental --gallery --out famly-demo- Python 3.11+
- pipx, for the install command below
- git, which pipx uses to fetch the repo
Developed and used day to day on macOS. CI runs the test suite and an install check on Linux, macOS, and Windows on every push, so all three are exercised, though the tool hasn't had heavy real-world use outside macOS yet.
pipx install git+https://github.com/shanegriffiths/famly-cli.git
Not comfortable in a terminal? Paste the prompt below into an AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or a coding assistant like Claude Code) and it will walk you through installing, logging in, and downloading your photos, one step at a time. It never asks for your password in the chat.
Click to copy the setup prompt
You are helping me install and set up "famly-cli", a free, open-source
command-line tool that downloads full-resolution photos and exports data from
my own child's Famly nursery/school account. I am not very technical, so please
guide me patiently.
About the tool:
- It is unofficial and READ-ONLY: it never changes, sends, or deletes anything
in my Famly account. It only reads my data and saves files onto my computer.
- Source code and full docs: https://github.com/shanegriffiths/famly-cli
- It needs Python 3.11 or newer, the "pipx" tool, and "git" (pipx uses git to
download it).
- It is developed and tested on macOS. It should also work on Linux and
Windows, but that is not tested yet.
How to work with me:
- If you are able to run terminal commands yourself, do that and show me what
happened. If you cannot, give me ONE command at a time, tell me exactly where
to type it (Terminal on macOS/Linux, PowerShell on Windows), and wait for me
to paste the result back before moving on.
- Explain each step in plain language and define any jargon.
- IMPORTANT: never ask me to paste my Famly password into this chat. When it is
time to log in, have me run the tool's own "famly login" command, which asks
for my password privately in my terminal and never reveals it to you.
- If a step produces an error, help me understand the message and fix it before
continuing. Do not skip ahead.
Please take me through this, step by step:
1. Work out my operating system, and check whether Python 3.11+ is installed
(try "python3 --version"). If it is missing or too old, walk me through
installing it (python.org installer, or Homebrew on macOS).
2. Check whether "pipx" is installed (try "pipx --version"). If not, install it
("python3 -m pip install --user pipx" then "python3 -m pipx ensurepath") and
have me open a new terminal window afterwards.
3. Install the tool:
pipx install git+https://github.com/shanegriffiths/famly-cli.git
4. Confirm it worked: "famly --help" should list commands.
5. Log me in with "famly login" (it will prompt for my Famly email and password
privately in the terminal). Then run "famly whoami" and check for
{"authenticated": true}. If my account uses two-factor authentication,
"famly login" will tell me; in that case explain how to copy an access token
from a browser where I am logged into Famly (open the developer console and
read localStorage['famly.accessToken']) and set it as the FAMLY_ACCESS_TOKEN
environment variable instead.
6. Show my children and their ids: "famly children".
7. Help me with the main thing I want: download every full-resolution photo of
my child into a folder and build a browsable gallery:
famly photos --incremental --gallery --out ~/Pictures/famly
Then tell me where the photos and the "gallery.html" file are, and how to
open the gallery in my web browser.
8. Briefly mention the other things I can do: newest newsfeed posts
("famly feed"), unread messages ("famly messages --unread"), upcoming events
("famly events --from ... --to ..."), and a complete archive of everything
("famly export"). Then point me to the README for the details.
Remember: one step at a time, plain language, and stop to help me whenever
something does not go as expected.
Log in once; the token is cached (owner-only) at ~/.config/famly/token.json
and reused automatically afterwards.
famly login # prompts for email + password, caches a token
famly whoami # -> {"authenticated": true}For headless use (cron, CI, a server), skip the prompt with environment variables:
export FAMLY_EMAIL="you@example.com" FAMLY_PASSWORD="…"
# or: export FAMLY_OP_ITEM="Famly" # read user/pass from a 1Password item
# or: export FAMLY_ACCESS_TOKEN="…" # a token you already haveTwo-factor accounts: password login can't complete on its own. Copy a token
from a logged-in browser (localStorage['famly.accessToken']) and set
FAMLY_ACCESS_TOKEN.
Every command needs auth and prints JSON to stdout (except gallery, which reads
a local manifest).
famly children # list children + ids
famly photos --incremental --gallery --out ~/Pictures/famly # archive all photos + build gallery
famly feed --since 2026-06-01 # newsfeed since a date
famly messages --unread # unread messages
famly events --from 2026-07-01 --to 2026-07-31 # calendar events
famly observations --since 2026-06-01 # learning-journey observations
famly export --out ~/Pictures/famly-export # full archive: media + all JSONAdd --child <id> to child-scoped commands (observations, events, photos,
export) for multi-child accounts; they default to your first child. photos
downloads at native resolution, dedupes, and with --incremental skips anything
already saved, so re-runs just top up. Progress prints to stderr and results to
stdout (piping stays clean); add --quiet to silence progress. Run
famly <command> --help for all flags.
git clone https://github.com/shanegriffiths/famly-cli.git
cd famly-cli
python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -e ".[dev]"
.venv/bin/python -m pytest -qTests are offline and fixture-driven (fixtures are scrubbed of personal data). See CONTRIBUTING for more.
MIT © Shane Griffiths.