n8n-nodes-frigate

v0.1.0

Published

10 days ago

n8n community node to control and monitor Frigate NVR over its real-time WebSocket (/ws) API

0High
0Medium
0Low

nbetcher

n8n-community-node-package n8n frigate nvr mqtt websocket camera surveillance

n8n-nodes-frigate

An n8n community node that controls and monitors a Frigate NVR over its real-time WebSocket (/ws) API — no external MQTT broker required.

Frigate bridges its MQTT command and feed topics onto a public WebSocket endpoint at /ws. This package speaks that protocol natively: the Frigate Trigger node holds a persistent socket open and starts workflows on incoming events, while the Frigate action node publishes commands (toggle detection, control PTZ, restart, and more). Every topic uses the bare name — the frigate/ prefix is omitted on the wire.

Features

Persistent trigger — one always-on WebSocket per trigger node, with automatic exponential-backoff reconnect (5 s → 60 s cap) so workflows survive Frigate restarts and network drops.
45 catalogued trigger events — every documented /ws topic, from tracked-object lifecycle and review items to per-camera/per-zone object counts, audio metrics, GenAI results, and every retained /state read-back. Plus a catch-all Subscribe to Custom Topic option.
27 action operations — toggle detect / recordings / snapshots / audio / motion, set thresholds, control birdseye, send PTZ commands, manage notifications, toggle masks/zones, restart Frigate, publish to any custom topic, and wait for the next value of any topic.
Client-side wildcard subscriptions — leave a placeholder field blank to subscribe to all cameras / zones / objects at once (MQTT-style +), or supply raw + / # patterns.
Optional state confirmation — every setter with a /state read-back can optionally keep the socket open and wait for the confirming message after publishing.
Flexible auth — connect unauthenticated to the internal port, or authenticate against an exposed instance with username/password (auto-login for a JWT) or a pre-issued bearer token.
No MQTT broker — talks to Frigate's own /ws directly.

How It Works

The /ws wire format is a JSON envelope with exactly two fields:

{ "topic": "front_door/person", "payload": "1" }

There is no retain field on the wire — retention is an MQTT-only concept. Topics omit the frigate/ prefix. For structured topics (events, reviews, stats, ...) the payload is itself a JSON-encoded string nested inside the envelope, so the node parses it a second time. Scalar payloads (ON/OFF, integers, dBFS values) pass through unchanged. Frigate's /ws communicator JSON-serializes every envelope and silently drops binary payloads, so snapshot JPEG bytes never arrive over /ws — they are published only over MQTT (use MQTT or the HTTP API to fetch images).

Because /ws broadcasts all topics with no server-side per-topic subscribe, the trigger node filters the incoming stream client-side by matching each message's topic against your resolved subscription pattern (supporting + single-level and # multi-level wildcards).

Prerequisites

| Requirement | Detail | | --- | --- | | Frigate | 0.14, 0.15, or 0.16. Some events/actions are version-gated (marked 0.14+, 0.15+, 0.16+ below and in the field hints). | | WebSocket reachability | n8n must be able to reach Frigate's /ws endpoint — ws://host:5000/ws (internal) or wss://host:8971/ws (authenticated). If Frigate sits behind a reverse proxy, the proxy must allow WebSocket upgrades and you may need a path prefix. | | Authentication (optional) | Port 5000 is trusted-internal and needs no credentials. Port 8971 (or any externally exposed instance with auth.enabled: True) requires a username/password or a pre-issued JWT. | | n8n | A self-hosted n8n instance (this package ships a runtime dependency — see verification note). Node.js >=18.10. |

Installation

Via the n8n UI

In n8n, go to Settings → Community Nodes.
Click Install.
Enter the package name n8n-nodes-frigate and confirm.
After install, the Frigate and Frigate Trigger nodes appear in the node panel.

See the official community-node installation guide for details.

Via npm (self-hosted)

For a self-hosted Docker or bare-metal install, add the package to your n8n custom-nodes directory:

# Default custom extensions directory
cd ~/.n8n/nodes
npm install n8n-nodes-frigate

Then restart n8n. If you set a custom N8N_CUSTOM_EXTENSIONS path, install there instead. For Docker, mount a volume at /home/node/.n8n and run the npm install inside that volume.

Credential Setup

Create a single Frigate API credential (internal name frigateApi). Fields:

| Field | Name | Type | Default | Description | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Protocol | protocol | options (HTTP / WS, HTTPS / WSS (SSL)) | http | Transport scheme. http → ws:// for the socket and http:// for the HTTP base; https → wss:// and https://. Use HTTPS/WSS for the authenticated port 8971 when exposed externally. | | Host | host | string (required) | localhost | Hostname or IP of the Frigate server — no scheme, no port (e.g. frigate.local or 192.168.1.10). | | Port | port | number | 5000 | 5000 = internal unauthenticated UI/API. 8971 = authenticated UI/API (recommended when exposed externally). | | Path Prefix | pathPrefix | string | (empty) | Optional base path when Frigate is served under a sub-path behind a reverse proxy (e.g. /frigate). Prepended before /ws and /api. Leave blank for a root deployment. | | Frigate Auth Enabled | authEnabled | boolean | false | Turn on when connecting to an authenticated Frigate (port 8971 / auth.enabled: True). When off, no credentials are sent. | | Authentication Method | authMethod | options (Username & Password, Bearer / JWT Token) | password | Shown when auth is enabled. Username & Password logs in against /api/login to obtain a JWT. Bearer / JWT Token uses a pre-issued JWT directly. | | Username | username | string | admin | Shown for password auth. Frigate username (the default admin user is auto-generated on first startup and printed to the logs). | | Password | password | string (masked) | (empty) | Shown for password auth. Used to obtain a JWT via /api/login; the JWT is then sent as a cookie / Authorization header. | | Bearer / JWT Token | token | string (masked) | (empty) | Shown for token auth. A pre-issued JWT, sent as Authorization: Bearer <jwt> (and as the frigate_token cookie). |

How auth is applied. When auth is disabled, the node opens /ws and calls /api with no credentials. With password auth, the node first POSTs { user, password } to ${base}/api/login, extracts the JWT (from the response body or the frigate_token Set-Cookie), and sends it as both an Authorization: Bearer header and a frigate_token cookie on the /ws upgrade. With token auth it uses your JWT directly. The credential's Test button performs a real auth check: POST /api/login for the username/password method, and an authenticated GET /api/config for the token method (when auth is disabled it falls back to GET /api/version). A wrong password or bad/expired token therefore fails the test rather than showing a false-positive green.

Write access for actions (admin role required)

Action (mutating) operations require an admin-capable Frigate identity. The catch is that /ws returns no write acknowledgement, and write-authorization behaves differently per version:

On Frigate ≤ 0.17.x, /ws enforces no per-message write authorization — any connection that can reach /ws may publish set/command topics.
On Frigate 0.18+, a viewer/non-admin role's writes to command topics are silently dropped server-side, with no error returned to the client.

Because neither case sends back a write ack, use an admin user/token for actions, and verify mutations with Await State Confirmation (now value-checked) or via the HTTP API.

Frigate Trigger Node

The trigger node opens one persistent WebSocket to /ws and starts the workflow whenever a published topic matches your selection. It reconnects automatically with exponential backoff after a drop or a Frigate restart. The in-editor Listen for test event button opens a short-lived socket, waits up to 30 s for the first matching message, emits it, and closes.

Choosing what to listen for. Pick an Event from the catalog, then fill in any placeholder fields that appear (Camera, Object, Zone, Audio Type, Role, Model Name). Any placeholder you leave blank becomes a + single-level wildcard, so leaving Camera empty on Detect State listens to every camera. Choose Subscribe to Custom Topic to supply an exact topic or a raw +/# pattern.

Emitted item shape. Each matching message produces an item with:

{
  "topic": "front_door/person",
  "payload": 1,
  "raw": "{\"topic\":\"front_door/person\",\"payload\":\"1\"}"
}

Snapshots are not available over /ws. Frigate publishes snapshot bytes only over MQTT — its /ws communicator JSON-serializes every envelope and silently drops binary payloads, so the per-object snapshot is unreachable over /ws on every Frigate version. To get a snapshot image, use MQTT or the HTTP API (/api/events/<id>/snapshot.jpg, /api/<camera>/<label>/snapshot.jpg).

Trigger Event Catalog

Topics below are shown without the frigate/ prefix. Placeholders (<camera>, <object>, ...) are filled from the node's fields; blanks become + wildcards.

| Event (option name) | Topic | Description | Payload | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Tracked Object Event | events | Tracked-object lifecycle change-feed. Fires on new, update, and end. Not retained. | JSON → { type: 'new'\|'update'\|'end', before: {…}, after: {…} }. Each object has id, camera, label, sub_label, top_score, false_positive, start_time, end_time, score, box[4], area, region[4], current_zones[], entered_zones[], thumbnail, has_snapshot, has_clip, active, stationary, attributes{…}, plus current_estimated_speed/average_estimated_speed/velocity_angle (0.14+) and recognized_license_plate(_score) (0.15+). | | Review Item | reviews | Review change-feed (0.14+). Fires on review create/update/end; severity escalates detection → alert. Not retained. | JSON → { type, before, after }. Each review: id, camera, start_time, end_time, severity('detection'\|'alert'), thumb_path, data{ detections[], objects[], sub_labels[], zones[], audio[] }. | | Tracked Object Update | tracked_object_update | GenAI/recognition results attached to a tracked object, discriminated by type. Not retained. | JSON, one of: description {id, description}; face {id, name, score, camera, timestamp}; lpr {id, name, plate, score, …} (0.15+); classification sub-label/attribute {id, camera, model, sub_label\|attribute, score} (0.16+). | | Semantic Search Trigger | triggers | A semantic-search trigger fires (0.16+). Not retained. | JSON → { name, camera, event_id, type, score }. | | Stats | stats | Server statistics, identical to GET /api/stats, on a configurable interval. Not retained. | JSON → full stats object (cameras, detectors, gpu, service, processes, …). | | Camera Activity | camera_activity | Per-camera feature + detection status, emitted on connect and on activity changes. Not retained. | JSON → object keyed per camera with feature/detection status. | | Availability | available | Frigate online/offline availability. Retained (MQTT). | Scalar string: online or offline. | | Global Notifications State | notifications/state | Global notifications toggle read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Object Count - Camera | <camera>/<object> | Count of a given object type on a camera changes. | Scalar integer. | | Active Object Count - Camera | <camera>/<object>/active | Active (non-stationary) count of an object type on a camera changes. | Scalar integer. | | All Object Count - Camera | <camera>/all | Total object count on a camera changes. | Scalar integer. | | All Active Object Count - Camera | <camera>/all/active | Total active object count on a camera changes. | Scalar integer. | | Object Count - Zone | <zone>/<object> | Count of an object type in a zone changes (zones are named, not camera-prefixed). | Scalar integer. | | Active Object Count - Zone | <zone>/<object>/active | Active count of an object type in a zone changes. | Scalar integer. | | All Object Count - Zone | <zone>/all | Total object count in a zone changes. | Scalar integer. | | All Active Object Count - Zone | <zone>/all/active | Total active object count in a zone changes. | Scalar integer. | | Audio Type Detected | <camera>/audio/<audio_type> | A specific audio type (speech, bark, scream, …) detected or cleared. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Any Audio Detected | <camera>/audio/all | Any monitored audio type detected or cleared. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Audio Level dBFS | <camera>/audio/dBFS | Audio level metric published. | Scalar numeric (dBFS). | | Audio Level RMS | <camera>/audio/rms | Audio RMS metric published. | Scalar numeric (RMS). | | Audio Transcription | <camera>/audio/transcription | Live audio transcription text (0.16+). | Scalar string: transcription text. | | Camera Enabled State | <camera>/enabled/state | Whole-camera processing toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Detect State | <camera>/detect/state | Object detection toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Recordings State | <camera>/recordings/state | Recordings toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Snapshots State | <camera>/snapshots/state | Snapshots toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Audio Detection State | <camera>/audio/state | Audio detection toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Motion Detected | <camera>/motion | Motion detected or cleared. OFF after the motion off-delay (default 30 s). The only non-retained state topic. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Motion Detection State | <camera>/motion/state | Motion detection enabled/disabled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Improve Contrast State | <camera>/improve_contrast/state | Contrast improvement toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Motion Threshold State | <camera>/motion_threshold/state | Motion threshold changed read-back. Retained. | Scalar integer. | | Motion Contour Area State | <camera>/motion_contour_area/state | Motion contour area changed read-back. Retained. | Scalar integer. | | Birdseye State | <camera>/birdseye/state | Camera's birdseye inclusion toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Birdseye Mode State | <camera>/birdseye_mode/state | Birdseye mode changed read-back (~30 s to apply). Retained. | Scalar string: CONTINUOUS | MOTION | OBJECTS. | | PTZ Autotracker State | <camera>/ptz_autotracker/state | PTZ autotracker enabled/disabled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | PTZ Autotracker Active | <camera>/ptz_autotracker/active | Autotracker is actively tracking right now. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Review Alerts State | <camera>/review_alerts/state | Alert-level review toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Review Detections State | <camera>/review_detections/state | Detection-level review toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Object Descriptions State | <camera>/object_descriptions/state | GenAI object descriptions toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Review Descriptions State | <camera>/review_descriptions/state | GenAI review descriptions toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Per-Camera Notifications State | <camera>/notifications/state | Per-camera notifications toggled read-back. Retained. | Scalar string: ON or OFF. | | Per-Camera Notifications Suspended | <camera>/notifications/suspended | Per-camera notification suspension updated. | Scalar: UNIX timestamp until which suspended, or 0. | | Camera/Role Status | <camera>/status/<role> | Stream/role state change (e.g. detect, record roles). | Scalar string: online | offline | disabled. | | Review Status | <camera>/review_status | Current review status of the camera. | Scalar string: NONE | DETECTION | ALERT. | | Classification Model Result | <camera>/classification/<model_name> | Custom state-classification model result changed (0.16+). | Scalar string: predicted class name. | | Subscribe to Custom Topic | any | Catch-all. Subscribe to any /ws topic by exact string or +/# wildcard pattern (filtered client-side). | Passthrough: JSON parsed when possible, scalars passed through. |

Frigate Action Node

The Frigate action node opens one multiplexed /ws connection per execution, reuses it across every input item, and closes it once at the end. Pick an Operation, fill its parameters, and the node sends JSON.stringify({ topic, payload }) for each item.

By default actions are fire-and-forget — /ws has no application-level ack. Every operation that has a /state read-back (i.e. everything except PTZ Command, Set Audio Transcription, Suspend Per-Camera Notifications, and Restart) exposes an optional Await State Confirmation toggle. When on, the node keeps the socket open after publishing and waits (up to Confirmation Timeout, default 5000 ms, range 0–600000 ms) for the matching /state message, returning it as stateValue. The result then carries two distinct flags: received is true when a /state read-back frame arrived at all, and confirmed is true only when that frame's value actually matches the value you requested (compared with string/number tolerance, so 'ON' vs on or 30 vs '30' still match). A frame can arrive (received: true) reporting a different/concurrent value, in which case confirmed is false.

Action Operation Catalog

Topics shown without the frigate/ prefix. value is the ON/OFF options field; placeholders are filled from the node's fields.

| Operation | Topic | Parameters | Description | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Set Detect | <camera>/detect/set | camera, value (ON/OFF) | Turn object detection on/off. Enabling detect also enables motion. Read-back …/detect/state. | | Set Recordings | <camera>/recordings/set | camera, value | Turn recordings on/off. Requires recordings enabled in config. Read-back …/recordings/state. | | Set Snapshots | <camera>/snapshots/set | camera, value | Turn snapshot capture on/off. Read-back …/snapshots/state. | | Set Audio Detection | <camera>/audio/set | camera, value | Turn audio detection on/off. Requires audio enabled in config. Read-back …/audio/state. | | Set Motion Detection | <camera>/motion/set | camera, value | Turn motion detection on/off. Cannot disable while detect is enabled. Read-back …/motion/state. | | Set Improve Contrast | <camera>/improve_contrast/set | camera, value | Turn contrast improvement for motion on/off. Read-back …/improve_contrast/state. | | Set Camera Enabled | <camera>/enabled/set | camera, value | Turn whole-camera processing on/off. Requires enabled present in config. Read-back …/enabled/state. | | Set Motion Threshold | <camera>/motion_threshold/set | camera, motionThreshold (int, 0–255) | Set how much a pixel must change to count as motion. Read-back …/motion_threshold/state. | | Set Motion Contour Area | <camera>/motion_contour_area/set | camera, motionContourArea (int, 0–10000) | Set the minimum contour size counted as motion. Read-back …/motion_contour_area/state. | | Set Birdseye (Camera) | <camera>/birdseye/set | camera, value | Include/exclude this camera in birdseye (per-camera; no global topic). Read-back …/birdseye/state. | | Set Birdseye Mode | <camera>/birdseye_mode/set | camera, birdseyeMode (CONTINUOUS/MOTION/OBJECTS) | Set when the camera appears in birdseye. Read-back …/birdseye_mode/state. | | PTZ Command | <camera>/ptz | camera, ptzCommand (+ ptzCustomValue for preset/relative) | Send a PTZ command to an ONVIF camera. Fire-and-forget, no read-back. Requires onvif configured. | | Set PTZ Autotracker | <camera>/ptz_autotracker/set | camera, value | Turn PTZ autotracking on/off. Requires ptz_autotracker in config. Read-back …/ptz_autotracker/state. | | Set Global Notifications | notifications/set | value | Enable/disable notifications for all cameras. Read-back notifications/state. | | Set Per-Camera Notifications | <camera>/notifications/set | camera, value | Turn per-camera notifications on/off. Read-back …/notifications/state. | | Suspend Per-Camera Notifications | <camera>/notifications/suspend | camera, minutes (int, 0–10080) | Suspend a camera's notifications for N minutes. Read-back …/notifications/suspended. | | Set Audio Transcription | <camera>/audio_transcription/set | camera, value | Turn live audio transcription on/off (0.16+). Requires audio + transcription in config. No read-back. | | Set Review Alerts | <camera>/review_alerts/set | camera, value | Turn generation of alert review items on/off (0.16+). Read-back …/review_alerts/state. | | Set Review Detections | <camera>/review_detections/set | camera, value | Turn generation of detection review items on/off (0.16+). Read-back …/review_detections/state. | | Set Object Descriptions | <camera>/object_descriptions/set | camera, value | Turn GenAI object descriptions on/off (0.16+). Read-back …/object_descriptions/state. | | Set Review Descriptions | <camera>/review_descriptions/set | camera, value | Turn GenAI review summaries on/off (0.16+). Read-back …/review_descriptions/state. | | Set Motion Mask | <camera>/motion_mask/<mask_name>/set | camera, maskName, value | Enable/disable a named motion mask. Read-back …/motion_mask/<mask_name>/state. | | Set Object Mask | <camera>/object_mask/<mask_name>/set | camera, maskName, value | Enable/disable a named object mask. Read-back …/object_mask/<mask_name>/state. | | Set Zone | <camera>/zone/<zone_name>/set | camera, zoneName, value | Enable/disable a named zone. Read-back …/zone/<zone_name>/state. | | Restart | restart | restartPayload (optional) | Cause Frigate to exit so Docker restarts the container. No read-back. | | Publish to Custom Topic | any | customTopic, customPayload | Publish an arbitrary { topic, payload } envelope. Topic is sent bare. JSON strings parsed; scalars sent as-is. | | Wait for Next Topic Value | any | customTopic, timeoutMs (default 5000, range 0–600000) | Open /ws and return the next broadcast of a topic, then close. Frigate /ws does not replay current/retained state — a /state value only arrives when it next changes, so a quiet topic can time out even though the state exists. |

PTZ commands. The ptzCommand field offers MOVE_UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT, ZOOM_IN/OUT, STOP, FOCUS_IN/OUT, INIT, plus Preset and Relative Move options. For the latter two, fill the Preset / Relative Value override with the exact payload, e.g. preset_door, preset_1, or MOVE_RELATIVE_0.1_-0.2 (underscore-separated floats; optional trailing zoom: MOVE_RELATIVE_<pan>_<tilt>_<zoom>).

Example Workflows

1. Person detected → push notification

Notify yourself the moment a person is confirmed on the front door camera.

Frigate Trigger node:
- Event: Tracked Object Event (events).
- Leave the placeholders empty (this is a global feed).
IF node — keep only newly-confirmed people:
- Condition 1: {{$json.payload.type}} equals new.
- Condition 2: {{$json.payload.after.label}} equals person.
- Condition 3 (optional): {{$json.payload.after.camera}} equals front_door.
Notify node (Telegram / Slack / Pushover / Email) on the IF true branch:
- Message: Person detected on {{$json.payload.after.camera}} (score {{$json.payload.after.top_score}}).
- Optionally embed the snapshot: build the URL http://<host>:5000/api/events/{{$json.payload.after.id}}/snapshot.jpg and attach it.

Tip: snapshots are not delivered over /ws (Frigate sends snapshot bytes only over MQTT). Fetch the image over the HTTP API instead — by event id (/api/events/<id>/snapshot.jpg) or the latest best snapshot for a label (/api/<camera>/<label>/snapshot.jpg) — using n8n's HTTP Request node.

2. Toggle recording on a schedule

Record only during the day; pause overnight to save disk.

Schedule Trigger node — fire at 07:00 (start recording).
Frigate action node:
- Operation: Set Recordings.
- Camera: driveway (add one node per camera, or loop with a Code/Split node over a camera list).
- Value: ON.
- Await State Confirmation: true (optional) to confirm via driveway/recordings/state.
Duplicate the pair with a second Schedule Trigger at 22:00 and a Frigate node setting Value: OFF.

The same pattern toggles Set Detect, Set Snapshots, or Set Per-Camera Notifications on any schedule (e.g. arm/disarm with your alarm system).

3. PTZ control on a tracked object

Swing an ONVIF PTZ camera to a preset whenever a car enters the driveway, then return home after a delay.

Frigate Trigger node:
- Event: Tracked Object Event (events).
IF node:
- {{$json.payload.type}} equals new AND {{$json.payload.after.label}} equals car AND {{$json.payload.after.camera}} equals ptz_cam.
Frigate action node (true branch) — point at the driveway preset:
- Operation: PTZ Command.
- Camera: ptz_cam.
- Command: Preset (Use Custom Value).
- Preset / Relative Value: preset_driveway.
Wait node — e.g. 30 seconds.
Frigate action node — return home:
- Operation: PTZ Command, Camera: ptz_cam, Command: Init (or another preset_home).

PTZ is fire-and-forget — there is no /state confirmation. Requires onvif configured for the camera in Frigate.

Payload Handling

Inbound (trigger): structured topics arrive as a JSON-encoded string nested in the envelope and are parsed a second time, so payload is a ready-to-use object. Scalar topics (ON/OFF, integers, dBFS) pass through. The original envelope string is always available in raw. (Snapshot JPEG bytes are not delivered over /ws — Frigate publishes them only over MQTT; use the HTTP API for images.)
Outbound (action): ON/OFF, numbers, minutes, and PTZ commands are sent as bare strings. For Publish to Custom Topic, a value that looks like JSON ({…} or […]) is parsed and embedded as structured data; everything else is sent as a string.

Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Likely cause / fix | | --- | --- | | Trigger never fires | Confirm the topic actually publishes — add a temporary Subscribe to Custom Topic trigger with pattern # to see everything, or use the action node's Wait for Next Topic Value on a /state topic. Remember: count/state topics only fire on change. | | Listen for test event times out (30 s) | No matching message was published within the window. Trigger the event in real life (walk past the camera) or widen your pattern (blank placeholders → +). | | Connection refused / handshake timeout | Wrong Host/Port, or the reverse proxy isn't forwarding the WebSocket upgrade. Verify ws://<host>:<port>/ws is reachable from the n8n host. Set Path Prefix if Frigate is under a sub-path. | | 401 / login fails | With Frigate Auth Enabled, check username/password (the default admin password is printed to Frigate's logs on first start) or that your bearer JWT is valid and unexpired. Port 8971 requires auth; port 5000 does not. | | Credential Test passes but the socket won't open | Test does a real HTTP auth check (POST /api/login / authenticated GET /api/config), but the /ws upgrade can still fail behind a proxy that strips Upgrade/Connection headers — fix the proxy WebSocket config. | | Action publishes but nothing changes | The feature may be disabled in Frigate's config (e.g. recordings/audio/onvif must be enabled). Some setters are no-ops without the corresponding config block. Turn on Await State Confirmation to see whether the /state read-back changes. | | A preset/relative PTZ value is required | You chose Preset or Relative Move but left Preset / Relative Value blank. Fill it (e.g. preset_door). | | Wrong port | 5000 = internal unauthenticated. 8971 = authenticated. Using 8971 without enabling auth, or 5000 with auth on, will fail. |

Compatibility

Targets Frigate 0.14 / 0.15 / 0.16. Version-gated events and actions are marked 0.14+, 0.15+, or 0.16+ above and in the in-editor field hints. Requires Node.js >=18.10 and a self-hosted n8n instance.

A Note on n8n Verification

This package ships ws as a runtime dependency to hold a persistent WebSocket open — that is what makes the trigger node work. n8n's official verification program does not allow verified community packages to ship runtime dependencies, so this package is not eligible for official verification. It is fully suitable for self-hosted / private installs. If verification ever becomes a requirement, the socket logic would need to move behind a host-provided helper or a webhook/poll design.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at the project repository.

git clone https://github.com/nbetcher/n8n-nodes-frigate.git
cd n8n-nodes-frigate
npm install
npm run build      # tsc + gulp build:icons
npm run lint       # eslint (use `npm run lintfix` to auto-fix)
npm run dev        # tsc --watch

Please run npm run lint and npm run build before opening a PR. The node descriptions are kept lean by sharing option lists in nodes/Frigate/FrigateDescription.ts; URL construction, auth/login, and the socket primitives live in nodes/Frigate/GenericFunctions.ts and are shared by both nodes.

Published

Vulnerabilities

Links

Maintainers

Keywords

Readme

n8n-nodes-frigate

Table of Contents

Features

How It Works

Prerequisites

Installation

Via the n8n UI

Via npm (self-hosted)

Credential Setup

Write access for actions (admin role required)

Frigate Trigger Node

Trigger Event Catalog

Frigate Action Node

Action Operation Catalog

Example Workflows

1. Person detected → push notification

2. Toggle recording on a schedule

3. PTZ control on a tracked object

Payload Handling

Troubleshooting

Compatibility

A Note on n8n Verification

Related Documentation

Contributing

License