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Getting Started

Setting up hardware​

This section guides you through setting up a server with Debian Bookworm and Docker. If you already have an environment with Linux and Docker installed, you can continue to Installing Frigate below.

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 addon or another way, you can continue to Configuring Frigate.

Setup directories​

Frigate requires a valid config file to start. The following directory structure is the bare minimum to get started. Once Frigate is running, you can use the built-in config editor which supports config validation.

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

This will create the above structure:

mkdir storage config && touch docker-compose.yml config/config.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

version: "3.9"
services:
  frigate:
    container_name: frigate
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - ./storage:/media/frigate
      - type: tmpfs # Optional: 1GB of memory, reduces SSD/SD Card wear
        target: /tmp/cache
        tmpfs:
          size: 1000000000
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
      - "8554:8554" # RTSP feeds

config.yml

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

Now you should be able to start Frigate by running docker compose up -d from within the folder containing docker-compose.yml. Frigate should now be accessible at server_ip:5000 and you can finish the configuration using the built-in configuration editor.

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.

Step 1: Add a detect stream​

First we will add the detect stream for the camera:

mqtt:
  enabled: False

cameras:
  name_of_your_camera: # <------ Name the camera
    enabled: True
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://10.0.10.10:554/rtsp # <----- The stream you want to use for detection
          roles:
            - detect
    detect:
      enabled: False # <---- disable detection until you have a working camera feed

Step 2: Start Frigate​

At this point you should be able to start Frigate and see the the video feed in the UI.

If you get an error image from the camera, this means ffmpeg was not able to get the video feed from your camera. Check the logs for error messages from ffmpeg. The default ffmpeg arguments are designed to work with H264 RTSP cameras that support TCP connections.

FFmpeg arguments for other types of cameras can be found here.

Now that you have a working camera configuration, you want to setup hardware acceleration to minimize the CPU required to decode your video streams. See the hardware acceleration config reference for examples applicable to your hardware.

Here is an example configuration with hardware acceleration configured to work with most Intel processors with an integrated GPU using the preset:

docker-compose.yml (after modifying, you will need to run docker compose up -d to apply changes)

version: "3.9"
services:
  frigate:
    ...
    devices:
      - /dev/dri/renderD128 # for intel hwaccel, needs to be updated for your hardware
    ...

config.yml

mqtt: ...

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

Step 4: Configure detectors​

By default, Frigate will use a single CPU detector. If you have a USB Coral, you will need to add a detectors section to your config.

docker-compose.yml (after modifying, you will need to run docker compose up -d to apply changes)

version: "3.9"
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://coral.ai/docs/m2/get-started/#2a-on-linux
    ...
mqtt: ...

detectors: # <---- add detectors
  coral:
    type: edgetpu
    device: 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 will need to be added according to 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. To do this, navigate to the camera in the UI, select "Debug" at the top, and enable "Motion boxes" in the options below the video feed. 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.

Now that you know where you need to mask, use the "Mask & Zone creator" in the options pane to generate the coordinates needed for your config file. More information about masks can be found here.

caution

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 events and detections in areas with motion masks. These only prevent motion in these areas from initiating object detection.

Your configuration should look similar to this now.

mqtt:
  enabled: False

detectors:
  coral:
    type: edgetpu
    device: usb

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

Step 6: Enable recording and/or snapshots​

In order to see Events in the Frigate UI, either snapshots or record will need to be enabled.

Record​

To enable recording video, add the record role to a stream and enable it in the config. If record is disabled in the config, turning it on via the UI will not have any effect.

mqtt: ...

detectors: ...

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.

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

Snapshots​

To enable snapshots of your events, just enable it in the config. Snapshots are taken from the detect stream because it is the only stream decoded.

mqtt: ...

detectors: ...

cameras:
  name_of_your_camera: ...
    detect: ...
    record: ...
    snapshots: # <----- Enable snapshots
      enabled: True
    motion: ...

By default, Frigate will retain snapshots of all events for 10 days. The full set of options for snapshots can be found here.

Step 7: Complete config​

At this point you have a complete config with basic functionality. You can see the 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. Configuring go2rtc - Additional live view options and RTSP relay
  2. Home Assistant Integration - Integrate with Home Assistant
  3. Masks
  4. Zones