Integration with Home Assistant

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

Installation#

Available via HACS as a custom repository. To install:

Add the custom repository:

Home Assistant > HACS > Integrations > [...] > Custom Repositories

Key	Value
Repository URL	https://github.com/blakeblackshear/frigate-hass-integration
Category	Integration

Use HACS to install the integration:

Home Assistant > HACS > Integrations > "Explore & Add Integrations" > Frigate

Restart Home Assistant.
Then add/configure the integration:

Home Assistant > Configuration > Integrations > Add Integration > Frigate

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

Configuration#

When configuring the integration, you will be asked for the following parameters:

Variable	Description
URL	The `URL` of your frigate instance, 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 `http://ccab4aaf-frigate:5000` (or `http://ccab4aaf-frigate-beta:5000` if your are using the beta version of the addon). Live streams required port 1935, see RTMP streams

## Options

Home Assistant > Configuration > Integrations > Frigate > 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, clips and snapshots.
`binary_sensor`	A "motion" binary sensor entity per camera/zone/object.

Media Browser Support#

The integration provides:

Rich UI with thumbnails for browsing event clips
Rich UI for browsing 24/7 recordings by month, day, camera, time

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

## API

Notification API with public facing endpoints for images in notifications

Notifications#

Frigate publishes event information in the form of a change feed via MQTT. This allows lots of customization for notifications to meet your needs. Event changes are published with before and after information as shown here. Note that some people may not want to expose frigate to the web, so you can leverage the HA API that frigate custom_integration ties into (which is exposed to the web, and thus can be used for mobile notifications etc):

To load an image taken by frigate from Home Assistants API see below:

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

To load a video clip taken by frigate from Home Assistants API :

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

Here is a simple example of a notification automation of events which will update the existing notification for each change. This means the image you see in the notification will update as frigate finds a "better" image.

automation:
  - alias: Notify of events
    trigger:
      platform: mqtt
      topic: frigate/events
    action:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_3
        data_template:
          message: 'A {{trigger.payload_json["after"]["label"]}} was detected.'
          data:
            image: 'https://your.public.hass.address.com/api/frigate/notifications/{{trigger.payload_json["after"]["id"]}}/thumbnail.jpg?format=android'
            tag: '{{trigger.payload_json["after"]["id"]}}'

automation:
  - alias: When a person enters a zone named yard
    trigger:
      platform: mqtt
      topic: frigate/events
    condition:
      - "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['label'] == 'person' }}"
      - "{{ 'yard' in trigger.payload_json['after']['entered_zones'] }}"
    action:
      - service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_3
        data_template:
          message: "A {{trigger.payload_json['after']['label']}} has entered the yard."
          data:
            image: "https://url.com/api/frigate/notifications/{{trigger.payload_json['after']['id']}}/thumbnail.jpg"
            tag: "{{trigger.payload_json['after']['id']}}"

- alias: When a person leaves a zone named yard
  trigger:
    platform: mqtt
    topic: frigate/events
  condition:
    - "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['label'] == 'person' }}"
    - "{{ 'yard' in trigger.payload_json['before']['current_zones'] }}"
    - "{{ not 'yard' in trigger.payload_json['after']['current_zones'] }}"
  action:
    - service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_3
      data_template:
        message: "A {{trigger.payload_json['after']['label']}} has left the yard."
        data:
          image: "https://url.com/api/frigate/notifications/{{trigger.payload_json['after']['id']}}/thumbnail.jpg"
          tag: "{{trigger.payload_json['after']['id']}}"

- alias: Notify for dogs in the front with a high top score
  trigger:
    platform: mqtt
    topic: frigate/events
  condition:
    - "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['label'] == 'dog' }}"
    - "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['camera'] == 'front' }}"
    - "{{ trigger.payload_json['after']['top_score'] > 0.98 }}"
  action:
    - service: notify.mobile_app_pixel_3
      data_template:
        message: "High confidence dog detection."
        data:
          image: "https://url.com/api/frigate/notifications/{{trigger.payload_json['after']['id']}}/thumbnail.jpg"
          tag: "{{trigger.payload_json['after']['id']}}"

If you are using telegram, you can fetch the image directly from Frigate:

automation:
  - alias: Notify of events
    trigger:
      platform: mqtt
      topic: frigate/events
    action:
      - service: notify.telegram_full
        data_template:
          message: 'A {{trigger.payload_json["after"]["label"]}} was detected.'
          data:
            photo:
              # this url should work for addon users
              - url: 'http://ccab4aaf-frigate:5000/api/events/{{trigger.payload_json["after"]["id"]}}/thumbnail.jpg'
                caption: 'A {{trigger.payload_json["after"]["label"]}} was detected on {{ trigger.payload_json["after"]["camera"] }} camera'

## 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:

rtmp://<frigate_host>:2000/live/front_door

Use the camera name in the stream URL:

rtmp://<frigate_host>:2000/live/{{ name }}

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

rtmp://<frigate_host>:2000/live/{{ 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 paremeter 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.