MQTT, webhooks, notifications

Fregata uses upstream Frigate’s notification model unchanged. The short version: MQTT for live state, the HTTP API for snapshots and clips, webhooks if you want a synchronous out-of-band push. This page covers the macOS-specific bits and points at the Frigate docs for the rest.

The data plane

When something happens on a camera, Fregata emits:

1. An MQTT message on a per-camera, per-class topic.
2. A new row in the SQLite events table.
3. (If snapshots.enabled: true) a JPEG to ~/Fregata/media/clips/<camera>-<event-id>.jpg.
4. (If record.enabled: true) the event clip to ~/Fregata/media/clips/<camera>-<event-id>.mp4, once the event ends.

Frigate’s HTTP API exposes all of those to the rest of your stack — locally at http://127.0.0.1:5000/api/... (plain HTTP, unauthenticated, loopback-only) or at https://<host>:8971/api/... (HTTPS + login) — see the Frigate HTTP API reference.

MQTT setup

The minimal config block in ~/Fregata/config/config.yml:

mqtt:
  enabled: true
  host: 10.0.1.42
  port: 1883
  user: fregata
  password: {FREGATA_MQTT_PASSWORD}
  topic_prefix: frigate
  client_id: fregata
  stats_interval: 60

Fregata sets topic_prefix: frigate by default for compatibility with existing dashboards and the HA integration. Override it if you want — but if you do, remember to set the same topic_prefix in the HA integration config.

The topics you’ll typically care about:

Topic	Payload	When
frigate/events	JSON event object	New event, in-progress update, end
frigate/<camera>/<class>	ON / OFF	Class enters or leaves the frame
frigate/<camera>/<class>/snapshot	JPEG bytes	New event snapshot
frigate/<camera>/motion	ON / OFF	Motion start / stop
frigate/stats	JSON system stats	Every stats_interval seconds

For the full topic catalog see the Frigate MQTT reference.

Push notifications to your phone

The cleanest path:

Through Home Assistant. The HA mobile app supports rich push with images via notify.mobile_app_*. The Home Assistant guide shows the automation template.

There’s no first-party Frigate or Fregata mobile app and no plans for one. Notification delivery is best left to Home Assistant, or whichever of the dozens of solid push services you already use.

A note on macOS power management

Fregata holds a .idleSystemSleepDisabled activity assertion for the whole time Frigate is running, so the system stays awake on its own — MQTT publishes keep flowing without you needing to touch Energy Saver. See Mac sleep and Wake-On-Demand for the full story (including the lid-close caveat on laptops).