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.
Integration installation#
Available via HACS as a default repository. To install:
- Use HACS to install the integration:
- Restart Home Assistant.
- Then add/configure the integration:
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#
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| RTMP URL Template | A jinja2 template that is used to override the standard RTMP stream URL (e.g. for use with reverse proxies). This option is only shown to users who have advanced mode enabled. See RTMP streams below. |
Entities Provided#
| Platform | Description |
|---|---|
camera | Live camera stream (requires RTMP), camera for image of the last detected object. |
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.
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:
To load a snapshot for an event:
To load a video clip of an event:
RTMP stream#
In order for the live streams to function they need to be accessible on the RTMP
port (default: 1935) at <frigatehost>:1935. Home Assistant will directly
connect to that streaming port when the live camera is viewed.
RTMP URL Template#
For advanced usecases, this behavior can be changed with the RTMP 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).
RTMP URL Template Examples#
Use a different port number:
Use the camera name in the stream URL:
Use the camera name in the stream URL, converting it to lowercase first:
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 paremeter included in the configuration,
and is used like so:
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.