Home Assistant with MQTT and Frigate Integration

A two-container stack for home automation and security camera integration

This is the advanced companion to our beginner Home Assistant guide. If you just want Home Assistant up and running, start there. This guide is for when you are ready to add an MQTT broker and connect Frigate NVR for camera-based object detection and recording.

What This Setup Includes

• Home Assistant - Smart home hub running in Docker with host networking
• Eclipse Mosquitto - MQTT broker for communication between Home Assistant and Frigate
• HACS - Home Assistant Community Store for installing the Frigate integration

Both containers are managed by a single Docker Compose file. Home Assistant uses host networking for device discovery, and Mosquitto runs on bridge networking with port 1883 published.

Architecture

+------------------------------------------+
|  Home Assistant Server                   |
|                                          |
|  +----------------+  +----------------+  |
|  | Home           |  | Mosquitto      |  |
|  | Assistant      |  | MQTT Broker    |  |
|  | :8123 (host)   |  | :1883 (bridge) |  |
|  +----------------+  +----------------+  |
|                             |            |
+-----------------------------+------------+
                              |
                              | MQTT (1883)
                              v
+------------------------------------------+
|  Frigate Server (separate machine)       |
|                                          |
|  +------------------------------------+  |
|  | Frigate NVR            :8971 HTTPS |  |
|  +------------------------------------+  |
+------------------------------------------+

Home Assistant and Mosquitto run on the same server. Frigate runs on a separate server and connects to Mosquitto over your LAN. When Frigate detects objects on your cameras, it publishes events to MQTT, and Home Assistant picks them up for automations and notifications.

Prerequisites

Server Requirements

You need Docker installed. If you need Docker installation steps, see our beginner Home Assistant guide or the official Docker docs.

Network Requirements

• A static IP for this server
• Port 8123 (Home Assistant web UI) available on your LAN
• Port 1883 (MQTT) available on your LAN so Frigate can connect

Throughout this guide, example IPs use 192.168.1.50 for the Home Assistant server and 192.168.1.100 for the Frigate server. Replace with your actual values.

Step 1: Create Directory Structure

mkdir -p ~/homeassistant/config
mkdir -p ~/homeassistant/mosquitto/config
mkdir -p ~/homeassistant/mosquitto/data
mkdir -p ~/homeassistant/mosquitto/log

The layout:

~/homeassistant/
+-- docker-compose.yml
+-- config/                     # Home Assistant configuration
|   +-- configuration.yaml      # (auto-generated on first run)
+-- mosquitto/
    +-- config/
    |   +-- mosquitto.conf      # Mosquitto configuration
    +-- data/                   # Persistent MQTT data
    +-- log/                    # Mosquitto logs

Step 2: Configure Mosquitto

nano ~/homeassistant/mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf

Add:

listener 1883
allow_anonymous true
persistence true
persistence_location /mosquitto/data/
log_dest file /mosquitto/log/mosquitto.log

Save and exit.

What These Settings Do

• listener 1883 - Listens on the standard MQTT port
• allow_anonymous true - No authentication required (secured by firewall to your LAN only)
• persistence true - Retains messages across restarts

# In mosquitto.conf:
allow_anonymous false
password_file /mosquitto/config/passwd

# Generate the password file:
# docker exec -it mosquitto mosquitto_passwd -c /mosquitto/config/passwd YOUR_USERNAME

Step 3: Create Docker Compose File

nano ~/homeassistant/docker-compose.yml

Paste the following:

services:
  homeassistant:
    container_name: homeassistant
    image: ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - /run/dbus:/run/dbus:ro
    environment:
      - TZ=YOUR_TIMEZONE
    restart: unless-stopped
    privileged: true
    network_mode: host
    depends_on:
      - mosquitto

  mosquitto:
    container_name: mosquitto
    image: eclipse-mosquitto:2
    volumes:
      - ./mosquitto/config:/mosquitto/config
      - ./mosquitto/data:/mosquitto/data
      - ./mosquitto/log:/mosquitto/log
    environment:
      - TZ=YOUR_TIMEZONE
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "1883:1883"

Replace YOUR_TIMEZONE with your timezone (e.g., America/New_York, America/Chicago, Europe/London). Save and exit.

What These Settings Do

• network_mode: host - Home Assistant shares the host network stack. Required for mDNS discovery, Bluetooth, and other local protocols. UFW rules apply normally.
• privileged: true - Required for Home Assistant to access host devices
• /run/dbus:/run/dbus:ro - D-Bus access for Bluetooth integration
• depends_on: mosquitto - Ensures the MQTT broker starts before Home Assistant
• restart: unless-stopped - Both containers auto-restart on reboot or crash

Step 4: Configure Firewall

sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 22 proto tcp comment 'SSH from LAN'
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 8123 proto tcp comment 'Home Assistant Web UI from LAN'
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 1883 proto tcp comment 'MQTT broker from LAN'
sudo ufw enable

Replace 192.168.1.0/24 with your LAN subnet. Type y to confirm.

Verify:

sudo ufw status verbose

Port 1883 must be open so the Frigate server on the other machine can connect to the MQTT broker.

Step 5: Start the Stack

cd ~/homeassistant
docker compose up -d

Wait 2-3 minutes for Home Assistant to initialize on first startup.

Verify Containers

docker ps

You should see two containers: homeassistant and mosquitto, both with status Up.

Access Home Assistant

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8123

Complete the first-time setup wizard: create your admin account, set your location, and finish the onboarding.

Step 6: Install HACS

HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) is required to install the Frigate integration.

Install HACS Files

docker exec homeassistant bash -c "wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash -"

Restart Home Assistant to load HACS:

docker restart homeassistant

Wait 1-2 minutes for Home Assistant to come back up.

Activate HACS in the UI

1. Open Home Assistant in your browser
2. Navigate to Settings > Devices & Services
3. Click + Add Integration
4. Search for HACS
5. Check all the acknowledgment boxes
6. Click Submit
7. Follow the GitHub authorization prompt when it appears

HACS will appear in the left sidebar after activation.

Step 7: Add MQTT Integration

Connect Home Assistant to the Mosquitto broker running on the same server.

1. Navigate to Settings > Devices & Services
2. Click + Add Integration
3. Search for MQTT
4. Enter:
   • Broker: localhost
   • Port: 1883
   • Username: (leave blank)
   • Password: (leave blank)
5. Click Submit

Verify it shows as connected with no errors.

Step 8: Install Frigate Integration

1. Click HACS in the left sidebar
2. Click + Explore & Download Repositories
3. Search for Frigate
4. Click on the Frigate integration and click Download
5. Restart Home Assistant: Settings > System > Restart
6. After restart, go to Settings > Devices & Services > + Add Integration
7. Search for Frigate
8. Enter the URL: https://YOUR_FRIGATE_IP:8971
9. Click Submit

Replace YOUR_FRIGATE_IP with the actual IP of your Frigate server.

After Completing All Steps

Once everything is connected:

• Home Assistant is connected to the MQTT broker on localhost:1883
• Home Assistant is connected to Frigate NVR via HTTPS
• Frigate cameras (once added to Frigate's config) will automatically appear as devices in Home Assistant
• Object detection events from Frigate will be available for automations and notifications

Managing the Stack

Service Commands

Updating Services

# Update everything
cd ~/homeassistant
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Clean up old images
docker image prune -f

Troubleshooting

Home Assistant Will Not Start

docker logs homeassistant --tail 50

Mosquitto Will Not Start

docker logs mosquitto --tail 50

Also check the log file directly:

cat ~/homeassistant/mosquitto/log/mosquitto.log

MQTT Connectivity Test

sudo apt-get install -y mosquitto-clients

# Terminal 1 - subscribe
mosquitto_sub -h localhost -t "test/topic"

# Terminal 2 - publish
mosquitto_pub -h localhost -t "test/topic" -m "hello"

If the subscriber receives "hello", MQTT is working.

Frigate Cannot Connect to MQTT

• Verify Mosquitto is running: docker ps --filter name=mosquitto
• Verify UFW allows port 1883 from your LAN: sudo ufw status
• Test from the Frigate server: mosquitto_sub -h YOUR_HA_IP -t "frigate/#" -v

Container Uses Too Much Memory

docker stats --no-stream

Resources

• Home Assistant Website
• Home Assistant Documentation
• Eclipse Mosquitto
• HACS (Community Store)
• Frigate Documentation
• Beginner Home Assistant Guide
• Self-Hosted Frigate NVR with Docker