psn_monitor

psn_monitor is a Python tool which allows for real-time monitoring of Sony PlayStation (PSN) players activities.

Features

• Real-time tracking of PlayStation users gaming activity (including detection when user gets online/offline or played games)
• Basics statistics for user activity (how long in different states, how long played game, overall time and number of played games in the session etc.)
• Email notifications for different events (player gets online/offline, starts/finishes/changes game, errors)
• Saving all user activities with timestamps to the CSV file
• Possibility to control the running copy of the script via signals

Change Log

Release notes can be found here

Disclaimer

I'm not a dev, project done as a hobby. Code is ugly and as-is, but it works (at least for me) ;-)

Requirements

The tool requires Python 3.9 or higher.

It uses PSNAWP library, also requests, pytz, tzlocal and python-dateutil.

It has been tested successfully on:

• macOS (Ventura & Sonoma)
• Linux:
  • Raspberry Pi Bullseye & Bookworm
  • Ubuntu 24
  • Kali Linux 2024
• Windows (10 & 11)

It should work on other versions of macOS, Linux, Unix and Windows as well.

Installation

Install the required Python packages:

python3 -m pip install requests python-dateutil pytz tzlocal PSNAWP

Or from requirements.txt:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Copy the psn_monitor.py file to the desired location.

You might want to add executable rights if on Linux/Unix/macOS:

chmod a+x psn_monitor.py

Configuration

Edit the psn_monitor.py file and change any desired configuration variables in the marked CONFIGURATION SECTION (all parameters have detailed description in the comments).

PSN npsso code

Log in to your My PlayStation account.

In another tab, go to: https://ca.account.sony.com/api/v1/ssocookie

Copy the value of npsso code.

Change the PSN_NPSSO variable to respective value (or use -n parameter).

The refresh token that is generated from npsso should be valid for 2 months. You will be informed by the tool once the token expires (proper message on the console and in email if errors notifications have not been disabled via -e parameter).

Timezone

The tool will try to automatically detect your local time zone so it can convert PSN API timestamps to your time.

In case you want to specify your timezone manually then change LOCAL_TIMEZONE variable from 'Auto' to specific location, e.g.

LOCAL_TIMEZONE='Europe/Warsaw'

In such case it is not needed to install tzlocal pip module.

User privacy settings

In order to monitor PlayStation user activity, proper privacy settings need to be enabled on the monitored user account, i.e. in PlayStation 'Account Settings' -> 'Privacy Settings' -> 'Personal Info | Messaging', the value in section 'Online Status and Now Playing' should be set to 'Friends only' (if you are friends) or to 'Anyone'.

SMTP settings

If you want to use email notifications functionality you need to change the SMTP settings (host, port, user, password, sender, recipient) in the psn_monitor.py file. If you leave the default settings then no notifications will be sent.

You can verify if your SMTP settings are correct by using -z parameter (the tool will try to send a test email notification):

./psn_monitor.py -z

Other settings

All other variables can be left at their defaults, but feel free to experiment with it.

Getting started

List of supported parameters

To get the list of all supported parameters:

./psn_monitor.py -h

or

python3 ./psn_monitor.py -h

Monitoring mode

To monitor specific user activity, just type the PlayStation (PSN) id (misiektoja in the example below):

./psn_monitor.py misiektoja

The tool will run infinitely and monitor the player until the script is interrupted (Ctrl+C) or killed the other way.

You can monitor multiple PSN players by spawning multiple copies of the script.

It is suggested to use sth like tmux or screen to have the script running after you log out from the server (unless you are running it on your desktop).

The tool automatically saves its output to psn_monitor_{psnid}.log file (can be changed in the settings via PSN_LOGFILE variable or disabled completely with -d parameter).

The tool also saves the timestamp and last status (after every change) to psn_{psnid}_last_status.json file, so the last status is available after the restart of the tool.

How to use other features

Email notifications

If you want to get email notifications once the user gets online or offline use -a parameter:

./psn_monitor.py misiektoja -a

Make sure you defined your SMTP settings earlier (see SMTP settings).

Example email:

If you want to be informed when user starts, stops or changes the played game then use -g parameter:

./psn_monitor.py misiektoja -g

Saving gaming activity to the CSV file

If you want to save all reported activities of the PSN user, use -b parameter with the name of the file (it will be automatically created if it does not exist):

./psn_monitor.py misiektoja -b psn_misiektoja.csv

Check intervals

If you want to change the check interval when the user is online to 30 seconds use -k parameter and when the user is offline to 2 mins (120 seconds) use -c parameter:

./psn_monitor.py misiektoja -k 30 -c 120

Controlling the script via signals (only macOS/Linux/Unix)

The tool has several signal handlers implemented which allow to change behavior of the tool without a need to restart it with new parameters.

List of supported signals:

Signal	Description
USR1	Toggle email notifications when user gets online or offline (-a)
USR2	Toggle email notifications when user starts/stops/changes the game (-g)
TRAP	Increase the check timer for player activity when user is online (by 30 seconds)
ABRT	Decrease check timer for player activity when user is online (by 30 seconds)

So if you want to change functionality of the running tool, just send the proper signal to the desired copy of the script.

I personally use pkill tool, so for example to toggle email notifications when user gets online or offline, for the tool instance monitoring the misiektoja user:

pkill -f -USR1 "python3 ./psn_monitor.py misiektoja"

As Windows supports limited number of signals, this functionality is available only on Linux/Unix/macOS.

Other

Check other supported parameters using -h.

You can combine all the parameters mentioned earlier.

Coloring log output with GRC

If you use GRC and want to have the tool's log output properly colored you can use the configuration file available here

Change your grc configuration (typically .grc/grc.conf) and add this part:

# monitoring log file
.*_monitor_.*\.log
conf.monitor_logs

Now copy the conf.monitor_logs to your .grc directory and psn_monitor log files should be nicely colored when using grc tool.

License

This project is licensed under the GPLv3 - see the LICENSE file for details