Turn your Home Assistant instance into a powerful object detection platform with Frigate NVR.

This guide walks you through installing Frigate as an add-on, configuring it for cat detection, and integrating it into automation’s like my Cat Bugger Off 3000.

📦 What You’ll Need

• Home Assistant OS or Supervised install
• A compatible camera with RTSP stream
• MQTT broker (like Mosquitto) already installed in Home Assistant
• Optional but recommended: Google Coral USB/PCIe for faster object detection

🔧 Step 1: Install Frigate NVR Add-on

1. Open Home Assistant → Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store
2. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) > Repositories
3. Add this repository:

https://github.com/blakeblackshear/frigate-hass-addons


4. Install Frigate NVR (Stable)
5. On the Frigate add-on page:
   • Enable Start on boot
   • Enable Watchdog

📁 Step 2: Configure your Frigate YAML

Click Configuration editor on the add-on sidebar and paste this example:

mqtt:
  host: core-mosquitto
  user: mqtt_user  # Replace with your MQTT username
  password: your_mqtt_password  # Replace with your MQTT password
  topic_prefix: frigate

ffmpeg:
  path: '5.0'

logger:
  default: info
  logs:
    frigate.detectors: debug
    frigate.objects: debug
    frigate.motion: debug
    frigate.events: debug
    frigate.mqtt: debug

# Detectors: Only include this section if you're using a Coral TPU.
# Remove or comment out if you're not using Coral hardware acceleration.
detectors:
  coral:
    type: edgetpu
    device: usb

model:
  path: plus://your_model_id  # Replace with your Frigate+ model token

cameras:
  garden:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://user:password@camera-ip/stream1
          input_args:
            - -rtsp_transport
            - tcp
            - -an
            - -fflags
            - nobuffer
            - -flags
            - low_delay
          roles: [detect]
    detect:
      enabled: true
      width: 1920
      height: 1080
      fps: 6
      max_disappeared: 35
      stationary:
        threshold: 15
    motion:
      threshold: 15
      contour_area: 10
      improve_contrast: true
    objects:
      track: [cat]
      filters:
        cat:
          min_area: 4000     # this will need calibrating see below
          max_area: 120000   # this will need calibratingsee below 
          threshold: 0.7
    record:
      enabled: true
      retain:
        days: 15
        mode: active_objects
      alerts:
        retain:
          days: 15
          mode: active_objects
      detections:
        retain:
          days: 15
          mode: active_objects
    snapshots:
      enabled: true
      timestamp: true
      bounding_box: true
      retain:
        default: 15
        objects:
          cat: 15

semantic_search:
  enabled: true
  reindex: false
  model_size: large

version: 0.15.0

✅ Tip: Replace user, pass, and the cameraIP with your actual login details and camera IP.

🔄 Step 3: Start the Add-on

1. Click Start
2. Access Frigate’s UI:
   http://homeassistant.local:5000

You’ll see live feeds and real-time object detection (highlighted boxes). Frigate will also start logging MQTT events.

🌐 Step 4: Integrate with Home Assistant

Home Assistant automatically discovers Frigate if MQTT is set up. You can now:

• Use frigate/events to trigger automation’s
• Monitors person, cat, car detection in real time

Frigate+

I recommend signing up and paying for Frigate+. This will enable you to fine-tune a model you use for your particular setup. It’s amazing how much this improves the functionality and accuracy of Frigate.

The base model is great but nowhere near as good or accurate as a fine-tuned model.

If you have any issues or need help feel free to send me a message.

I will reply as soon as I can.

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