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Frigate Configuration

Frigate can be configured through the Settings UI or by editing the YAML configuration file directly. The Settings UI is the recommended approach — it provides validation and a guided experience for all configuration options.

It is recommended to start with a minimal configuration and add to it as described in the getting started guide.

Configuration File Location​

For users who prefer to edit the YAML configuration file directly:

  • Home Assistant App: /addon_configs/<addon_directory>/config.yml — see directory list
  • All other installations: Map to /config/config.yml inside the container

It can be named config.yml or config.yaml, but if both files exist config.yml will be preferred and config.yaml will be ignored.

A minimal starting configuration:

mqtt:
  enabled: False

cameras:
  dummy_camera: # <--- this will be changed to your actual camera later
    enabled: False
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:554/rtsp
          roles:
            - detect

Accessing the Home Assistant App configuration directory​

When running Frigate through the HA App, the Frigate /config directory is mapped to /addon_configs/<addon_directory> in the host, where <addon_directory> is specific to the variant of the Frigate App you are running.

App VariantConfiguration directory
Frigate/addon_configs/ccab4aaf_frigate
Frigate (Full Access)/addon_configs/ccab4aaf_frigate-fa
Frigate Beta/addon_configs/ccab4aaf_frigate-beta
Frigate Beta (Full Access)/addon_configs/ccab4aaf_frigate-fa-beta

Whenever you see /config in the documentation, it refers to this directory.

If for example you are running the standard App variant and use the VS Code App to browse your files, you can click File > Open folder... and navigate to /addon_configs/ccab4aaf_frigate to access the Frigate /config directory and edit the config.yaml file. You can also use the built-in config editor in the Frigate UI.

VS Code Configuration Schema​

VS Code supports JSON schemas for automatically validating configuration files. You can enable this feature by adding # yaml-language-server: $schema=http://frigate_host:5000/api/config/schema.json to the beginning of the configuration file. Replace frigate_host with the IP address or hostname of your Frigate server. If you're using both VS Code and Frigate as an App, you should use ccab4aaf-frigate instead. Make sure to expose the internal unauthenticated port 5000 when accessing the config from VS Code on another machine.

Environment Variable Substitution​

Frigate supports the use of environment variables starting with FRIGATE_ only where specifically indicated in the reference config. For example, the following values can be replaced at runtime by using environment variables:

mqtt:
  host: "{FRIGATE_MQTT_HOST}"
  user: "{FRIGATE_MQTT_USER}"
  password: "{FRIGATE_MQTT_PASSWORD}"
- path: rtsp://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USER}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD}@10.0.10.10:8554/unicast
onvif:
  host: "192.168.1.12"
  port: 8000
  user: "{FRIGATE_RTSP_USER}"
  password: "{FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD}"
go2rtc:
  rtsp:
    username: "{FRIGATE_GO2RTC_RTSP_USERNAME}"
    password: "{FRIGATE_GO2RTC_RTSP_PASSWORD}"
genai:
  api_key: "{FRIGATE_GENAI_API_KEY}"

Common configuration examples​

Here are some common starter configuration examples. These can be configured through the Settings UI or via YAML. Refer to the reference config for detailed information about all config values.

Raspberry Pi Home Assistant App with USB Coral​

  • Single camera with 720p, 5fps stream for detect
  • MQTT connected to the Home Assistant Mosquitto App
  • Hardware acceleration for decoding video
  • USB Coral detector
  • Save all video with any detectable motion for 7 days regardless of whether any objects were detected or not
  • Continue to keep all video if it qualified as an alert or detection for 30 days
  • Save snapshots for 30 days
  • Motion mask for the camera timestamp
  1. Navigate to Settings→System→MQTT and configure the MQTT connection to your Home Assistant Mosquitto broker
  2. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→FFmpeg and set Hardware acceleration arguments to Raspberry Pi (H.264)
  3. Navigate to Settings→System→Detector hardware and add a detector with Type EdgeTPU and Device usb
  4. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording and set Enable recording to on, Motion retention > Retention days to 7, Alert retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30, Alert retention > Event retention > Retention mode to motion, Detection retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30, Detection retention > Event retention > Retention mode to motion
  5. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Snapshots and set Enable snapshots to on, Snapshot retention > Default retention to 30
  6. Navigate to Settings→Camera configuration→Management and add your camera with the appropriate RTSP stream URL
  7. Navigate to Settings→Camera configuration→Masks / Zones to add a motion mask for the camera timestamp

Standalone Intel Mini PC with USB Coral​

  • Single camera with 720p, 5fps stream for detect
  • MQTT disabled (not integrated with Home Assistant)
  • VAAPI hardware acceleration for decoding video
  • USB Coral detector
  • Save all video with any detectable motion for 7 days regardless of whether any objects were detected or not
  • Continue to keep all video if it qualified as an alert or detection for 30 days
  • Save snapshots for 30 days
  • Motion mask for the camera timestamp
  1. Navigate to Settings→System→MQTT and set Enable MQTT to off
  2. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→FFmpeg and set Hardware acceleration arguments to VAAPI (Intel/AMD GPU)
  3. Navigate to Settings→System→Detector hardware and add a detector with Type EdgeTPU and Device usb
  4. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording and set Enable recording to on, Motion retention > Retention days to 7, Alert retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30, Alert retention > Event retention > Retention mode to motion, Detection retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30, Detection retention > Event retention > Retention mode to motion
  5. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Snapshots and set Enable snapshots to on, Snapshot retention > Default retention to 30
  6. Navigate to Settings→Camera configuration→Management and add your camera with the appropriate RTSP stream URL
  7. Navigate to Settings→Camera configuration→Masks / Zones to add a motion mask for the camera timestamp

Home Assistant integrated Intel Mini PC with OpenVINO​

  • Single camera with 720p, 5fps stream for detect
  • MQTT connected to same MQTT server as Home Assistant
  • VAAPI hardware acceleration for decoding video
  • OpenVINO detector
  • Save all video with any detectable motion for 7 days regardless of whether any objects were detected or not
  • Continue to keep all video if it qualified as an alert or detection for 30 days
  • Save snapshots for 30 days
  • Motion mask for the camera timestamp
  1. Navigate to Settings→System→MQTT and configure the connection to your MQTT broker
  2. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→FFmpeg and set Hardware acceleration arguments to VAAPI (Intel/AMD GPU)
  3. Navigate to Settings→System→Detector hardware and add a detector with Type openvino and Device AUTO
  4. Navigate to Settings→System→Detection model and configure the OpenVINO model path and settings
  5. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording and set Enable recording to on, Motion retention > Retention days to 7, Alert retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30, Alert retention > Event retention > Retention mode to motion, Detection retention > Event retention > Retention days to 30, Detection retention > Event retention > Retention mode to motion
  6. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Snapshots and set Enable snapshots to on, Snapshot retention > Default retention to 30
  7. Navigate to Settings→Camera configuration→Management and add your camera with the appropriate RTSP stream URL
  8. Navigate to Settings→Camera configuration→Masks / Zones to add a motion mask for the camera timestamp