Getting Started

tip

If you already have an environment with Linux and Docker installed, you can continue to Installing Frigate below.

If you already have Frigate installed through Docker or through a Home Assistant App, you can continue to Configuring Frigate below.

Setting up hardware

This section guides you through setting up a server with Debian Bookworm and Docker.

Install Debian 12 (Bookworm)

There are many guides on how to install Debian Server, so this will be an abbreviated guide. Connect a temporary monitor and keyboard to your device so you can install a minimal server without a desktop environment.

Prepare installation media

1. Download the small installation image from the Debian website
2. Flash the ISO to a USB device (popular tool is balena Etcher)
3. Boot your device from USB

Install and setup Debian for remote access

1. Ensure your device is connected to the network so updates and software options can be installed
2. Choose the non-graphical install option if you don't have a mouse connected, but either install method works fine
3. You will be prompted to set the root user password and create a user with a password
4. Install the minimum software. Fewer dependencies result in less maintenance.
   1. Uncheck "Debian desktop environment" and "GNOME"
   2. Check "SSH server"
   3. Keep "standard system utilities" checked
5. After reboot, login as root at the command prompt to add user to sudoers
   1. Install sudo

      apt update && apt install -y sudo

   2. Add the user you created to the sudo group (change blake to your own user)

      usermod -aG sudo blake

6. Shutdown by running poweroff

At this point, you can install the device in a permanent location. The remaining steps can be performed via SSH from another device. If you don't have an SSH client, you can install one of the options listed in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

Finish setup via SSH

1. Connect via SSH and login with your non-root user created during install

2. Setup passwordless sudo so you don't have to type your password for each sudo command (change blake in the command below to your user)

   echo 'blake    ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL' | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/user

3. Logout and login again to activate passwordless sudo

4. Setup automatic security updates for the OS (optional)

   1. Ensure everything is up to date by running

      sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

   2. Install unattended upgrades

      sudo apt install -y unattended-upgrades
      echo unattended-upgrades unattended-upgrades/enable_auto_updates boolean true | sudo debconf-set-selections
      sudo dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive unattended-upgrades

Now you have a minimal Debian server that requires very little maintenance.

Install Docker

1. Install Docker Engine (not Docker Desktop) using the official docs
   1. Specifically, follow the steps in the Install using the apt repository section
2. Add your user to the docker group as described in the Linux postinstall steps

Installing Frigate

This section shows how to create a minimal directory structure for a Docker installation on Debian. If you have installed Frigate as a Home Assistant App or another way, you can continue to Configuring Frigate.

Setup directories

Frigate will create a config file if one does not exist on the initial startup. The following directory structure is the bare minimum to get started.

.
├── docker-compose.yml
├── config/
└── storage/

This will create the above structure:

mkdir storage config && touch docker-compose.yml

If you are setting up Frigate on a Linux device via SSH, you can use nano to edit the following files. If you prefer to edit remote files with a full editor instead of a terminal, I recommend using Visual Studio Code with the Remote SSH extension.

note

This docker-compose.yml file is just a starter for amd64 devices. You will need to customize it for your setup as detailed in the Installation docs.

docker-compose.yml

services:
  frigate:
    container_name: frigate
    restart: unless-stopped
    stop_grace_period: 30s
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - ./storage:/media/frigate
      - type: tmpfs # 1GB In-memory filesystem for recording segment storage
        target: /tmp/cache
        tmpfs:
          size: 1000000000
    ports:
      - "8971:8971"
      - "8554:8554" # RTSP feeds

Now you should be able to start Frigate by running docker compose up -d from within the folder containing docker-compose.yml. On startup, an admin user and password will be created and outputted in the logs. You can see this by running docker logs frigate. Frigate should now be accessible at https://server_ip:8971 where you can login with the admin user. With no cameras configured yet, the setup wizard runs on first login and walks you through the rest.

Configuring Frigate

This section assumes that you already have an environment setup as described in Installation. You should also configure your cameras according to the camera setup guide. Pay particular attention to the section on choosing a detect resolution.

Setup wizard

The first time you open Frigate with no cameras configured, the setup wizard walks you through the basics. Every step can be skipped, everything it sets can be changed later in Settings, and once you finish or dismiss it, it doesn't come back.

note

Frigate only sees hardware that has been passed into the container. If you plan to use a GPU, a Coral, or another accelerator, add the device to your docker-compose.yml and restart before running the wizard, otherwise it won't appear in the detection or hardware acceleration steps. The Manual tab shows the device entries for an Intel or AMD GPU and for a Coral, and the hardware acceleration and object detectors docs cover the rest.

Account

Set a password for the admin account to replace the generated one from the logs, and add accounts for anyone else who needs access. This step is hidden if you have turned authentication off.

Add a camera

Opens the Add Camera Wizard, which connects to the camera, tests each stream, and writes its configuration for you. You can add more than one before moving on.

Object detection

Lists the detection hardware Frigate found on your system, such as a Coral, an Intel GPU or NPU, or a discrete GPU, and configures the one you pick. NVIDIA and AMD GPUs need a model before detection can start, so the wizard offers your Frigate+ models if you have them, or lets you finish setup and add one later under Settings→System→Detection models.

Hardware acceleration

Offers only the decoding methods your hardware supports. Auto picks one based on that hardware and the codec your camera sends, so a mixed h264 and h265 setup gets the right preset per camera.

Recording

Choose whether to record only when something is detected or around the clock, and how long to keep it.

The last screen summarizes what was set up. If a step changed something that needs a restart, the button restarts Frigate and returns you to the Live view once it is back.

The wizard configures the essentials only. Motion masks are not included and should be set up afterward, once you can identify the areas of the frame that trigger unwanted motion. See the masks documentation. Zones, tracked object types, notifications, and MQTT are also configured in Settings.

Manual

On a new install the setup wizard opens first. Click Skip setup and configure manually on its welcome screen to dismiss it, and the steps below apply. The wizard won't come back once dismissed.

Step 1: Start Frigate

At this point you should be able to start Frigate and a basic config will be created automatically.

Step 2: Add a camera

Click the Add Camera button in Settings→Global configuration→Camera management to use the camera setup wizard to get your first camera added into Frigate. See Adding a camera with the Add Camera Wizard for a walkthrough of each step.

Step 3: Configure hardware acceleration (recommended)

Now that you have a working camera configuration, set up hardware acceleration to minimize the CPU required to decode your video streams. See the hardware acceleration docs for examples applicable to your hardware.

note

Hardware acceleration requires passing the appropriate device to the Docker container. For Intel and AMD GPUs, add the device to your docker-compose.yml:

services:
  frigate:
    ...
    devices:
      - /dev/dri/renderD128:/dev/dri/renderD128 # for intel & amd hwaccel, needs to be updated for your hardware
    ...

After modifying, run docker compose up -d to apply changes.

Frigate UI

Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→FFmpeg and set Hardware acceleration arguments to the appropriate preset for your hardware (e.g., VAAPI (Intel/AMD GPU) for most Intel processors).

YAML

mqtt: ...

cameras:
  name_of_your_camera:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs: ...
      hwaccel_args: preset-vaapi
    detect: ...

Step 4: Configure detectors

By default, Frigate will use a single OpenVINO detector running on the CPU.

In many cases, the integrated graphics on Intel CPUs provides sufficient performance for typical Frigate setups. If you have an Intel processor, you can follow the configuration below.

Use Intel OpenVINO detector

You need to refer to Configure hardware acceleration above to enable the container to use the GPU.

Frigate UI

1. Navigate to Settings→System→Detection models and select Intel GPU from the Hardware dropdown
2. On the same model, open the Custom Model tab and configure the model settings for OpenVINO:

Field	Value
Object detection model input width	300
Object detection model input height	300
Model Input Tensor Shape	nhwc
Model Input Pixel Color Format	bgr
Custom object detector model path	/openvino-model/ssdlite_mobilenet_v2.xml
Label map for custom object detector	/openvino-model/coco_91cl_bkgr.txt

YAML

mqtt: ...

models: # <---- add models
  - devices:
      - openvino:GPU # <---- use the openvino detector on the GPU
    # We will use the default MobileNet_v2 model from OpenVINO.
    width: 300
    height: 300
  input_tensor: nhwc
  input_pixel_format: bgr
  path: /openvino-model/ssdlite_mobilenet_v2.xml
  labelmap_path: /openvino-model/coco_91cl_bkgr.txt

cameras:
  name_of_your_camera:
    ffmpeg: ...
    detect:
      enabled: True # <---- turn on detection
      ...

If you have a USB Coral, you will need to add a detectors section to your config.

Use USB Coral detector

note

You need to pass the USB Coral device to the Docker container. Add the following to your docker-compose.yml and run docker compose up -d:

services:
  frigate:
    ...
    devices:
      - /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb # passes the USB Coral, needs to be modified for other versions
      - /dev/apex_0:/dev/apex_0 # passes a PCIe Coral, follow driver instructions here https://github.com/jnicolson/gasket-builder
    ...

Frigate UI

Navigate to Settings→System→Detection models and select Coral EdgeTPU (USB) from the Hardware dropdown.

YAML

mqtt: ...

models: # <---- add models
  - devices:
      - edgetpu:usb

cameras:
  name_of_your_camera:
    ffmpeg: ...
    detect:
      enabled: True # <---- turn on detection
      ...

More details on available detectors can be found here.

Restart Frigate and you should start seeing detections for person. If you want to track other objects, they can be configured in Settings→Global configuration→Objects or via the configuration file reference.

Step 5: Setup motion masks

Now that you have optimized your configuration for decoding the video stream, you will want to check to see where to implement motion masks. Click on the camera from the main dashboard, then select the gear icon in the top right, enable the Debug view, and finally enable the switch for Motion Boxes. Watch for areas that continuously trigger unwanted motion to be detected. Common areas to mask include camera timestamps and trees that frequently blow in the wind. The goal is to avoid wasting object detection cycles looking at these areas.

Use the mask editor to draw polygon masks directly on the camera feed. Navigate to Settings→Camera configuration→Masks / Zones and set up a motion mask over the area. More information about masks can be found here.

warning

Note that motion masks should not be used to mark out areas where you do not want objects to be detected or to reduce false positives. They do not alter the image sent to object detection, so you can still get tracked objects, alerts, and detections in areas with motion masks. These only prevent motion in these areas from initiating object detection.

If you are using YAML to configure Frigate instead of the UI, your configuration should look similar to this now:

mqtt:
  enabled: False

models:
  - devices:
      - edgetpu:usb

cameras:
  name_of_your_camera:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://10.0.10.10:554/rtsp
          roles:
            - detect
    motion:
      mask:
        motion_area:
          friendly_name: "Motion mask"
          enabled: true
          coordinates: "0,461,3,0,1919,0,1919,843,1699,492,1344,458,1346,336,973,317,869,375,866,432"

Step 6: Enable recordings

In order to review activity in the Frigate UI, recordings need to be enabled.

Frigate UI

1. If you have separate streams for detect and record, navigate to Settings→Camera configuration→Streams (FFmpeg), select your camera, and add a second input with the record role pointing to your high-resolution stream
2. Navigate to Settings→Global configuration→Recording (or Settings→Camera configuration→Recording for a specific camera) and set Enable recording to on

YAML

mqtt: ...

models: ...

cameras:
  name_of_your_camera:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://10.0.10.10:554/rtsp
          roles:
            - detect
        - path: rtsp://10.0.10.10:554/high_res_stream # <----- Add stream you want to record from
          roles:
            - record
    detect: ...
    record: # <----- Enable recording
      enabled: True
    motion: ...

If you don't have separate streams for detect and record, you would just add the record role to the list on the first input.

note

If you only define one stream in your inputs and do not assign a detect role to it, Frigate will automatically assign it the detect role. Frigate will always decode a stream to support motion detection, Birdseye, the API image endpoints, and other features, even if you have disabled object detection with enabled: False in your config's detect section.

If you only plan to use Frigate for recording, it is still recommended to define a detect role for a low resolution stream to minimize resource usage from the required stream decoding.

By default, Frigate will retain video of all tracked objects for 10 days. The full set of options for recording can be found here.

Complete config

At this point you have a complete config with basic functionality.

• View common configuration examples for a list of common configuration examples.
• View full config reference for a complete list of configuration options.

Follow up

Now that you have a working install, you can use the following documentation for additional features:

1. Zones
2. Review
3. Masks
4. Home Assistant Integration - Integrate with Home Assistant