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IPP Printers integration for Gladys Assistant

IPP Printers integration for Gladys Assistant

Ink/toner levels and state of your network printers over IPP (AirPrint). Local, no cloud.

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This integration monitors your network printers through the standard IPP protocol (Internet Printing Protocol) — the one AirPrint uses. It runs fully locally: no account, no cloud, no API key.

What you get​

One Gladys device per printer, with:

  • one sensor per ink or toner cartridge (level in %), with history — so you can chart consumption over time and trigger scenes ("black ink below 10% → notification");
  • the printer state: idle (ready), printing, stopped, with the reason when the printer reports it (stopped (media-empty) = out of paper). The state is watched continuously (sampled every 15 s) and updated as soon as it changes, independently of the interval set for the levels: a print job only lasts a few seconds.

A printer permanently showing idle is usually normal: that is the state of a powered-on printer with nothing to do. It only changes while printing or when something is wrong (out of paper, jam). The "Test a printer" button shows you live what yours reports at any moment.

Compatibility​

Any network printer supporting AirPrint / IPP Everywhere (the vast majority of printers sold since ~2012: HP, Epson, Canon, Brother, Lexmark…). The printer must be on the same network as Gladys, with IPP enabled (it is by default; some menus call it "AirPrint").

Some printers do not advertise their ink levels over IPP: in that case the device only exposes its state.

Configuration​

  1. Install the integration: printers advertising IPP over mDNS are discovered automatically and show up in the Discovery tab.
  2. If a printer is not found (mDNS blocked, different subnet…), add it to Printers (manual list): an IP (192.168.1.20), a hostname (printer.local) or a full URI (ipp://192.168.1.20/ipp/print), separated by commas.
  3. Adjust the refresh interval if needed (900 s by default — ink levels move slowly). It only applies to the levels: the state is watched continuously (every 15 s).
  4. Pick the language of the sensor names if you wish: by default they are the raw names reported by the printer (usually English, like "black cartridge"); selecting French turns the recognized cartridges into « Encre noire », « Toner cyan »… The setting applies to newly added devices — for an existing device, rename its features from its page, or delete and re-add it (the history of the old features is then lost).
  5. Add the discovered devices from the Discovery tab.

Tip: give a fixed IP (DHCP reservation) to printers that do not advertise their unique id (UUID) — the integration then falls back to the hostname to identify them.

Actions​

  • Test a printer — type an IP, hostname or ipp:// URI: the integration queries it live and shows the model, state and detected levels. The fastest way to check an address before adding it to the manual list.

Troubleshooting​

  • Printer not discovered: check that it answers IPP with the "Test a printer" action. If the test fails, check that port 631 is open and that IPP/AirPrint is enabled in the printer settings.
  • No ink levels: the printer does not publish the marker-levels attributes over IPP. That is a firmware limitation, not an integration one.
  • A single cartridge shows "unknown" (often the black one, on HP): if that cartridge is refilled or third-party, this is by HP design — the firmware refuses to estimate the level of non-genuine cartridges (it shows "?" even on the printer's own screen). The value exists nowhere; with a genuine cartridge the level comes back by itself. The "Test a printer" button shows the raw reported value ("unknown (-2)").
  • The printer answers but with an error (HTTP 500, HTTP 426): common on minimalist firmwares (Epson EcoTank in particular). The integration automatically tries several request variants (IPP 1.1 then 2.0, with and without an explicit attribute list) and switches to encrypted IPP (ipps://) by itself when the printer requires it (HTTP 426). If everything fails, the "Test a printer" button shows the exact error — paste it on the forum.
  • Non-standard IPP path: by default the integration tries /ipp/print, /ipp then /. If your printer uses another path (some CUPS queues for instance), type the full URI: ipp://host:631/the/path.
  • The integration logs (Gladys UI or docker logs, with LOG_LEVEL=debug for full detail) trace every request and every skipped printer.

Configuration settings​

These are the settings IPP Printers asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

SettingTypeRequiredDescription
How it workssectionNoPrinters advertising IPP (any AirPrint-capable printer) are discovered automatically on your network. You can also list printers manually below — useful when mDNS does not reach them. Each printer exposes one sensor per ink or toner cartridge, plus its state.
Printers (manual list)stringNoOptional. IPs, hostnames or ipp:// URIs, separated by commas — e.g. 192.168.1.20, printer.local, ipp://192.168.1.30/ipp/print.
Sensor namesselectNoApplies to newly added devices. Printers report their supplies in their own words (usually English): keep them as-is, or translate the recognized cartridges.
Levels refresh interval (s)numberNoHow often the ink/toner levels are recorded, in seconds. They move slowly: 900 s (15 min) is plenty. The printer state is watched continuously (sampled every 15 s) and updated as soon as it changes.

How to install IPP Printers in Gladys​

  1. In Gladys, open Integrations: IPP Printers appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
  2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-ipp:1.0.5), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration).
  3. Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
  4. You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/guim31/gladys-ipp.

IPP Printers requires Gladys >=4.62.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.

Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.

About external integrations​

IPP Printers is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by guim31, not by the Gladys core team.

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