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Home Assistant Integration

The best way to integrate with Home Assistant is to use the official integration.

Installation​

Preparation​

The Frigate integration requires the mqtt integration to be installed and manually configured first.

See the MQTT integration documentation for more details.

In addition, MQTT must be enabled in your Frigate configuration file and Frigate must be connected to the same MQTT server as Home Assistant for many of the entities created by the integration to function.

Integration installation​

Available via HACS as a default repository. To install:

  • Use HACS to install the integration:
Home Assistant > HACS > Integrations > "Explore & Add Integrations" > Frigate
  • Restart Home Assistant.
  • Then add/configure the integration:
Home Assistant > Settings > Devices & Services > Add Integration > Frigate

Note: You will also need media_source enabled in your Home Assistant configuration for the Media Browser to appear.

(Optional) Lovelace Card Installation​

To install the optional companion Lovelace card, please see the separate installation instructions for that card.

Configuration​

When configuring the integration, you will be asked for the URL of your Frigate instance which needs to be pointed at the internal unauthenticated port (5000) for your instance. This may look like http://<host>:5000/.

Docker Compose Examples​

If you are running Home Assistant Core and Frigate with Docker Compose on the same device, here are some examples.

Home Assistant running with host networking​

It is not recommended to run Frigate in host networking mode. In this example, you would use http://172.17.0.1:5000 when configuring the integration.

services:
  homeassistant:
    container_name: hass
    image: ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable
    network_mode: host
    ...

  frigate:
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    ...
    ports:
      - "172.17.0.1:5000:5000"
      ...

Home Assistant not running with host networking or in a separate compose file​

In this example, you would use http://frigate:5000 when configuring the integration. There is no need to map the port for the Frigate container.

services:
  homeassistant:
    container_name: hass
    image: ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable
    # network_mode: host
    ...

  frigate:
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    ...
    ports:
      # - "172.17.0.1:5000:5000"
      ...

HassOS Addon​

If you are using HassOS with the addon, the URL should be one of the following depending on which addon version you are using. Note that if you are using the Proxy Addon, you do NOT point the integration at the proxy URL. Just enter the URL used to access Frigate directly from your network.

Addon VersionURL
Frigate NVRhttp://ccab4aaf-frigate:5000
Frigate NVR (Full Access)http://ccab4aaf-frigate-fa:5000
Frigate NVR Betahttp://ccab4aaf-frigate-beta:5000
Frigate NVR Beta (Full Access)http://ccab4aaf-frigate-fa-beta:5000

Frigate running on a separate machine​

If you run Frigate on a separate device within your local network, Home Assistant will need access to port 5000.

Local network​

Use http://<frigate_device_ip>:5000 as the URL for the integration. If you want to protect access to port 5000, you can use firewall rules to limit access to the device running Home Assistant.

services:
  frigate:
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    ...
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
      ...

Tailscale or other private networking​

Use http://<frigate_device_tailscale_ip>:5000 as the URL for the integration.

services:
  frigate:
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    ...
    ports:
      - "<tailscale_ip>:5000:5000"
      ...

Options​

Home Assistant > Configuration > Integrations > Frigate > Options
OptionDescription
RTSP URL TemplateA jinja2 template that is used to override the standard RTSP stream URL (e.g. for use with reverse proxies). This option is only shown to users who have advanced mode enabled. See RTSP streams below.

Entities Provided​

PlatformDescription
cameraLive camera stream (requires RTSP).
imageImage of the latest detected object for each camera.
sensorStates to monitor Frigate performance, object counts for all zones and cameras.
switchSwitch entities to toggle detection, recordings and snapshots.
binary_sensorA "motion" binary sensor entity per camera/zone/object.

Media Browser Support​

The integration provides:

  • Browsing event recordings with thumbnails
  • Browsing snapshots
  • Browsing recordings by month, day, camera, time

This is accessible via "Media Browser" on the left menu panel in Home Assistant.

Casting Clips To Media Devices​

The integration supports casting clips and camera streams to supported media devices.

tip

For clips to be castable to media devices, audio is required and may need to be enabled for recordings.

NOTE: Even if you camera does not support audio, audio will need to be enabled for Casting to be accepted.

Notification API​

Many people do not want to expose Frigate to the web, so the integration creates some public API endpoints that can be used for notifications.

To load a thumbnail for an event:

https://HA_URL/api/frigate/notifications/<event-id>/thumbnail.jpg

To load a snapshot for an event:

https://HA_URL/api/frigate/notifications/<event-id>/snapshot.jpg

To load a video clip of an event:

https://HA_URL/api/frigate/notifications/<event-id>/clip.mp4

RTSP stream​

In order for the live streams to function they need to be accessible on the RTSP port (default: 8554) at <frigatehost>:8554. Home Assistant will directly connect to that streaming port when the live camera is viewed.

RTSP URL Template​

For advanced usecases, this behavior can be changed with the RTSP URL template option. When set, this string will override the default stream address that is derived from the default behavior described above. This option supports jinja2 templates and has the camera dict variables from Frigate API available for the template. Note that no Home Assistant state is available to the template, only the camera dict from Frigate.

This is potentially useful when Frigate is behind a reverse proxy, and/or when the default stream port is otherwise not accessible to Home Assistant (e.g. firewall rules).

RTSP URL Template Examples​

Use a different port number:

rtsp://<frigate_host>:2000/front_door

Use the camera name in the stream URL:

rtsp://<frigate_host>:2000/{{ name }}

Use the camera name in the stream URL, converting it to lowercase first:

rtsp://<frigate_host>:2000/{{ name|lower }}

Multiple Instance Support​

The Frigate integration seamlessly supports the use of multiple Frigate servers.

Requirements for Multiple Instances​

In order for multiple Frigate instances to function correctly, the topic_prefix and client_id parameters must be set differently per server. See MQTT configuration for how to set these.

API URLs​

When multiple Frigate instances are configured, API URLs should include an identifier to tell Home Assistant which Frigate instance to refer to. The identifier used is the MQTT client_id parameter included in the configuration, and is used like so:

https://HA_URL/api/frigate/<client-id>/notifications/<event-id>/thumbnail.jpg
https://HA_URL/api/frigate/<client-id>/clips/front_door-1624599978.427826-976jaa.mp4

Default Treatment​

When a single Frigate instance is configured, the client-id parameter need not be specified in URLs/identifiers -- that single instance is assumed. When multiple Frigate instances are configured, the user must explicitly specify which server they are referring to.

FAQ​

If I am detecting multiple objects, how do I assign the correct binary_sensor to the camera in HomeKit?​

The HomeKit integration randomly links one of the binary sensors (motion sensor entities) grouped with the camera device in Home Assistant. You can specify a linked_motion_sensor in the Home Assistant HomeKit configuration for each camera.