Frigate-Telegram

This project is a Telegram bot integration for Frigate, an open-source NVR (Network Video Recorder) software. It allows users to receive real-time alert notifications from their Frigate instance directly in Telegram.

Table of Contents

• About
• Features
• Getting Started
  • Environment Variables
  • Volumes
  • Docker Compose Configuration
• Usage
• Development
• License

About

The application is written in Node.js and polls the Frigate API to fetch new events. When a new event is detected, it is forwarded to Telegram, including event details, a clickable video link with 30 seconds padding, a static thumbnail, and an animated preview GIF.

This project aims to retrieve events from Frigate using its API without relying on external tools like Home Assistant. MQTT is not supported.

The application polls Frigate every 60 seconds -by default- to fetch new alerts. The GET request to the Frigate API retrieves events from the last 60 seconds, filtered by the parameters specified in the docker-compose file (label, camera, and zones). You can customize it with POLLING_INTERVAL: it will set the same value for both application polling interval and frigate after.

Docker hub

https://hub.docker.com/r/lucad87/frigate-telegram

Features

• Real-time Notifications: Receive instant alerts on your Telegram chat when Frigate detects specified objects.
• Rich Media: Each notification includes:
  • Event details (ID, timestamps)
  • Clickable video link with 30 seconds padding before/after the event
  • Static thumbnail image
  • Animated preview GIF
• Authentication Support: Secure access to Frigate API using username and password.
• Notification Toggle: Enable or disable notifications directly via Telegram commands (/enable_notifications and /disable_notifications).
• Customizable: Configure the bot to monitor specific cameras, zones, and object labels.
• Retry Logic: Automatically retries fetching media if not immediately available.
• Debugging: Enable debug logging for troubleshooting and development purposes.
• Media URL Support: Optionally set a public URL for accessing Frigate media files.

Getting Started

To get the Frigate-Telegram bot up and running, follow these steps:

Environment Variables

These variables are essential for the bot's operation and should be configured in your docker-compose.yml file:

• FRIGATE_URL: The URL of your Frigate instance (e.g., http://192.168.1.7:5000).
• FRIGATE_MEDIA_URL: (Optional) The public URL of your Frigate media files (e.g., https://your-media-frigate-instance.com).
• FRIGATE_USERNAME: (Optional) Username for Frigate authentication. Required if your Frigate instance has authentication enabled.
• FRIGATE_PASSWORD: (Optional) Password for Frigate authentication. Required if your Frigate instance has authentication enabled.
• TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN: The token for your Telegram bot.
• TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID: The chat ID where notifications will be sent.
• CAMERA: The name of the frigate camera to monitor.
• ZONES: The frigate zones to monitor for object detection (e.g., front,back,street).
• LABEL: The frigate object label to monitor (e.g., person).
• TIMEZONE: Your time zone, Europe/Rome is the default
• LOCALES: Your locales language according the timezone, it-IT is the default
• POLLING_INTERVAL: Interval in seconds to poll Frigate for new events (default: 60 seconds).
• DEBUG: (Optional) Set to true to enable debug logging.

Volumes

• ./logs:/app/logs: Mounts the logs directory to persist log files.

Docker Compose Configuration

Below is an example docker-compose.yml configuration. Replace the placeholder values with your actual settings.

services:
  app:
    image: lucad87/frigate-telegram:latest
    environment:
      - FRIGATE_URL=<your-frigate-instance-url>
      - FRIGATE_MEDIA_URL=<your-public-media-frigate-instance-url> # (optional) It fallbacks on FRIGATE_URL if not specified
      - FRIGATE_USERNAME=<your-frigate-username> # (optional) Required if Frigate has authentication enabled
      - FRIGATE_PASSWORD=<your-frigate-password> # (optional) Required if Frigate has authentication enabled
      - TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=<your-telegram-token>
      - TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=<your-telegram-chat-id>
      - CAMERA=<frigate-camera>
      - ZONES=<frigate-zones>
      - LABEL=<frigate-label>
      - TIMEZONE=<you_timezone> # (optional) Set to the timezone to use for the date and time in the messages, Europe/Rome is the default
      - LOCALES=<locales> # (optional) Set to the locale to use for the date and time in the messages, it-IT is the default
      - POLLING_INTERVAL=<seconds> # (optional) Set to the interval in seconds to poll Frigate for new events, 60 seconds is the default
      - DEBUG=false # (optional) Set to true to enable debug logging
    volumes:
      - <your-logs-volume-path>:/app/logs
    restart: unless-stopped

Usage

1. Pull the Docker image:

   docker pull lucad87/frigate-telegram:latest

2. Run the container using Docker Compose: Navigate to the directory containing your docker-compose.yml file and run:

   docker compose up -d

3. Control Notifications via Telegram: Once the bot is running, you can enable or disable notifications by sending commands directly to your bot in Telegram:

   • /enable_notifications: To enable event notifications.
   • /disable_notifications: To disable event notifications.

Development

To set up the project for local development:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/lucad87/frigate-telegram.git
   cd frigate-telegram

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Run the application: You will need to set up environment variables (e.g., in a .env file or directly in your shell) as described in the Environment Variables section.

   node app/index.js

License

This project is licensed as MIT.