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 is the URL you use to access Frigate in the browser. This may look like http://<host>:5000/. 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 Version | URL |
|---|---|
| Frigate NVR | http://ccab4aaf-frigate:5000 |
| Frigate NVR (Full Access) | http://ccab4aaf-frigate-fa:5000 |
| Frigate NVR Beta | http://ccab4aaf-frigate-beta:5000 |
| Frigate NVR Beta (Full Access) | http://ccab4aaf-frigate-fa-beta:5000 |
Options
Home Assistant > Configuration > Integrations > Frigate > Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| RTSP URL Template | A 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
| Platform | Description |
|---|---|
camera | Live camera stream (requires RTSP). |
image | Image of the latest detected object for each camera. |
sensor | States to monitor Frigate performance, object counts for all zones and cameras. |
switch | Switch entities to toggle detection, recordings and snapshots. |
binary_sensor | A "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.
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
RTMP stream
RTMP is deprecated and it is recommended to switch to use RTSP restreams.
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.