The privacy‑first security nightmare most homes face

Traditional network video recorders (NVRs) rely on crude motion detection, flooding users with hours of irrelevant footage—shadows, wind‑blown leaves, or passing cars. To make sense of those recordings, many turn to cloud‑based AI services that ship video off‑site, sacrificing privacy and incurring recurring fees.

Frigate flips the script. It brings real‑time object detection to the edge, running TensorFlow (or a compatible accelerator) on your own hardware. Your camera feeds never leave your network, false positives drop dramatically, and you keep full control over your data—all without a monthly subscription.

Why Choose Frigate?

• Privacy by Design – All video analysis happens locally; no footage is ever uploaded to a third‑party cloud.
• AI‑Powered Accuracy – Leveraging TensorFlow (or Coral/Hailo accelerators) reduces false positives compared with motion‑only NVRs, detecting people, cars, pets, and more.
• Home‑Assistant Integration – A custom component publishes real‑time sensors, camera entities, and MQTT events, turning your cameras into actionable automation triggers.
• Resource‑Efficient Architecture – Multiprocessing isolates object detection from video capture, only running AI on frames where motion is detected, keeping CPU/GPU load low.
• Flexible Deployment – Docker‑compose, Kubernetes, or a simple systemd service—Frigate runs on a Raspberry Pi, a modest x86 box, or any GPU‑enabled server.
• Open Community & Extensible – Free, community‑driven, with a vibrant translation effort on Weblate and a roadmap that welcomes contributions.

Spotlight on Key Features

Getting Started

Below is a minimal Docker‑Compose setup that gets Frigate up and running on a single‑board computer or any Docker‑enabled host.

# 1. Create a directory for the configuration
mkdir -p ~/frigate/config

# 2. Pull the official image
docker pull ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable

Create a docker-compose.yml file in the same folder:

version: "3.9"
services:
  frigate:
    container_name: frigate
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    restart: unless-stopped
    privileged: true               # required for GPU/accelerator access
    shm_size: "512mb"              # shared memory for high‑resolution streams
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - ./config:/config
      - /media/frigate/clips:/media/frigate/clips
      - /media/frigate/recordings:/media/frigate/recordings
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"   # UI
      - "1935:1935"   # RTMP (optional)
    environment:
      FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD: "YOUR_RTSP_PASSWORD"

Next, add a basic config.yml (replace camera1 with your actual RTSP URL):

mqtt:
  host: mqtt-broker.local
  user: mqtt_user
  password: mqtt_pass

detectors:
  coral:
    type: edgetpu
    device: usb

cameras:
  front_yard:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://user:[email protected]:554/stream
          roles:
            - detect
            - rtmp
    width: 1280
    height: 720
    fps: 5
    objects:
      track:
        - person
        - car
        - dog
    zones:
      driveway:
        coordinates: 0,0,1280,0,1280,720,0,720
        objects:
          - car

Finally, launch the stack:

docker compose up -d

Open a browser to http://<your-host>:5000 and you’ll see the Frigate dashboard, where you can fine‑tune zones, view live WebRTC streams, and explore recorded clips.

How Frigate Stacks Up Against Proprietary Alternatives

Bottom line: If you care about privacy, want AI accuracy without a cloud bill, and love the flexibility of open‑source, Frigate delivers a feature set that rivals (and often exceeds) the leading proprietary NVRs.

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Call to Action

Ready to take back control of your security footage?

• Explore the live demo on the official site: https://frigate.video/
• Read the full docs to customize models, zones, and automation: Getting Started
• Star the project and join the community: GitHub Repository

Frigate empowers you to build a privacy‑first, AI‑enhanced surveillance system that scales from a single Raspberry Pi to a full‑blown home‑automation hub. Dive in, contribute, and keep your home’s eyes where they belong—right on your own hardware.