Exploring Automation with Meraki MT Sensors: A Beginner’s Journey

By Sherif | February 05, 2025

If you’re anything like me, you love automation. There’s something satisfying about setting up a system that does all the work while you sit back with a coffee, feeling like a tech wizard. So, when I came across Meraki MT sensors, I knew I had to see what kind of magic I could pull off with them.

Meraki MT sensors are a set of IoT environmental sensors that can monitor temperature, humidity, water leaks, and even door access. They’re great for businesses that need to keep an eye on conditions in real time. But, of course, the real fun begins when we automate things.

So, let’s dive in and explore how we can use Meraki MT sensors to trigger actions, send alerts, and make life a little easier.

Getting Started: What Can We Automate?

Meraki MT sensors are part of the Cisco Meraki ecosystem, and they integrate seamlessly with the Meraki dashboard and APIs. This means we can set up automation for things like:

✅ Sending alerts when temperature/humidity crosses a threshold
✅ Triggering a webhook to adjust AC or heating
✅ Logging sensor data automatically into a spreadsheet
✅ Notifying IT or security if a door is opened unexpectedly
✅ Detecting water leaks and sending instant alerts

Sounds cool, right? Now, let’s see how we can get started with automation.

Step 1: Accessing the Meraki API

Meraki provides an easy-to-use REST API, which allows us to interact with the sensors programmatically. Before we can automate anything, we need to get our API key and set up API access.

* Log into the Meraki Dashboard

* Navigate to Organization > Settings

* Enable API access and generate an API key

* Store this key somewhere safe (and don’t share it!)

Once we have our key, we can start making API calls.

Step 2: Fetching Sensor Data with Python

Let’s pull in some real-time sensor data using Python. We'll use the requests library to interact with the Meraki API.

import requests
API_KEY = 
API_KEY = "your_meraki_api_key"
NETWORK_ID = "your_network_id"
BASE_URL = "https://api.meraki.com/api/v1"
headers = {
    "X-Cisco-Meraki-API-Key": API_KEY,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}
def get_sensors():
    url = f"{BASE_URL}/networks/{NETWORK_ID}/sensor/readings"
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
    
    if response.status_code == 200:
        return response.json()
    else:
        print(f"Error: {response.status_code}, {response.text}")
sensor_data = get_sensors()
print(sensor_data)

This script retrieves sensor readings from the Meraki API. You’ll see a JSON response with temperature, humidity, and other data.

Step 3: Automating Alerts with Webhooks

Now that we have sensor data, let’s set up an automation to send an alert when the temperature goes above a certain threshold.

We can use webhooks to send notifications automatically. Here's a simple example using Python to send an email alert if the temperature gets too high.

import smtplib
TEMP_THRESHOLD = 
TEMP_THRESHOLD = 30  # Set the temperature limit in Celsius
def check_temperature():
    readings = get_sensors()
    for sensor in readings:
        if sensor["metric"] == "temperature" and sensor["value"] > TEMP_THRESHOLD:
            send_alert(sensor["value"])
def send_alert(temp):
    sender_email = "[email protected]"
    receiver_email = "[email protected]"
    message = f"Subject: Temperature Alert!\n\nWarning! The temperature has risen to {temp}°C."
    
    with smtplib.SMTP("smtp.example.com", 587) as server:
        server.starttls()
        server.login("[email protected]", "your_password")
        server.sendmail(sender_email, receiver_email, message)
    
    print(f"Alert sent! Temperature: {temp}°C")
check_temperature()

Whenever the temperature exceeds 30°C, an email is sent automatically. No more worrying about overheating server rooms or storage areas!

Step 4: Taking Automation to the Next Level

So far, we’ve covered fetching sensor data and triggering alerts, but the possibilities don’t stop there. Here are a few cooler automation ideas:

🔥 Trigger Smart Devices – Connect the sensor to a smart thermostat and adjust the room temperature automatically.
📊 Data Logging – Save sensor readings to a Google Sheet or database for trend analysis.
🔐 Security Integration – If a door sensor detects movement after hours, trigger security cameras or alarms.
🚨 Slack/Teams Alerts – Instead of emails, send real-time notifications to your business chat.

The best part? The Meraki ecosystem makes automation easy by providing webhooks, APIs, and integrations with platforms like Zapier and Make.

Final Thoughts: Is It Worth Automating?

Absolutely. Whether you’re managing an office, warehouse, or IT infrastructure, Meraki MT sensors can save time, reduce risk, and improve efficiency. Automating these sensors means you don’t have to check dashboards manually—you only get notified when something actually needs your attention.

Plus, the process of automating them is a great way to level up your API and IoT skills (which is exactly what I’m doing right now). So if you’re considering automation, I’d say dive in and experiment!

Now, if only I could automate my coffee machine… ☕🤖