frigate-openclaw-notifier

Node.js + TypeScript service that listens to Frigate MQTT events and sends direct WhatsApp notifications through OpenClaw.

It sends with openclaw message send. It does not use chat completions, agents, LLM flows, Twilio, or the official WhatsApp Business API.

Features

• Listens to Frigate review MQTT events, normally frigate/reviews.
• Sends a fast WhatsApp alert with a snapshot when available.
• Downloads clips, transcodes them with ffmpeg, then sends the video as a second WhatsApp message when ready.
• Deduplicates repeated MQTT updates for the same Frigate event.
• Cleans temporary image/video files to avoid filling the disk.
• Provides MQTT on/off alert control, with retained state.
• Publishes Home Assistant MQTT Discovery switches:
  • one global alert switch;
  • one switch for each camera listed in ALLOWED_CAMERAS.

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or newer.
• pnpm.
• ffmpeg.
• Frigate with MQTT enabled and event media available through its HTTP API.
• OpenClaw installed on the host running this service.
• OpenClaw WhatsApp channel logged in, for example:

openclaw channels login --channel whatsapp

Install ffmpeg

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ffmpeg

macOS with Homebrew:

brew install ffmpeg

Docker/containers based on Debian or Ubuntu:

apt-get update
apt-get install -y ffmpeg

Verify that ffmpeg is available and includes libx264:

ffmpeg -version

The output should include --enable-libx264. The service uses FFMPEG_BIN=ffmpeg by default; set FFMPEG_BIN=/path/to/ffmpeg if it is installed somewhere else.

Configuration

Copy the example file and edit it:

cp .env.example .env

Required deployment values:

MQTT_URL=mqtt://<mqtt-host>:1883
MQTT_USERNAME=<mqtt-user>
MQTT_PASSWORD=<mqtt-password>
FRIGATE_BASE_URL=http://<frigate-host>:5000/api
OPENCLAW_TARGET=<E164_OR_GROUP_JID>
OPENCLAW_GROUP_ID=<GROUP_JID_OPTIONAL>
MEDIA_TMP_DIR=/tmp/frigate-openclaw

Camera controls are generated from:

ALLOWED_CAMERAS=<camera-1>,<camera-2>

Use the exact Frigate camera names, for example the value that appears in MQTT as "camera": "...".

OpenClaw destinations:

OPENCLAW_TARGET=<E164_OR_GROUP_JID>
OPENCLAW_GROUP_ID=<GROUP_JID_OPTIONAL>

If both are set, every alert and alert-control confirmation is sent to both destinations. At least one of OPENCLAW_TARGET or OPENCLAW_GROUP_ID must be set.

Run

Install dependencies:

pnpm install

Run in development:

pnpm dev

Build and run:

pnpm run build
pnpm start

Run checks:

pnpm run build
pnpm test

Run as a systemd Service

The repo includes a sample unit file:

systemd/frigate-openclaw-notifier.service

The unit expects:

WorkingDirectory=/opt/frigate-openclaw-notifier
EnvironmentFile=/etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /opt/frigate-openclaw-notifier/dist/src/index.js
User=frigate-openclaw
Group=frigate-openclaw

Install the service on Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo useradd --system --create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin frigate-openclaw
sudo mkdir -p /opt/frigate-openclaw-notifier
sudo cp -a . /opt/frigate-openclaw-notifier
sudo chown -R frigate-openclaw:frigate-openclaw /opt/frigate-openclaw-notifier

You can also run the service with the current user instead. This is useful when OpenClaw is already logged in for that user.

Create the environment file from the example:

sudo cp /opt/frigate-openclaw-notifier/.env.example /etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env
sudo nano /etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env
sudo chown root:frigate-openclaw /etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env
sudo chmod 640 /etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env

Install dependencies and build:

cd /opt/frigate-openclaw-notifier
sudo -u frigate-openclaw pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
sudo -u frigate-openclaw pnpm run build

Install and start the unit:

sudo cp /opt/frigate-openclaw-notifier/systemd/frigate-openclaw-notifier.service /etc/systemd/system/frigate-openclaw-notifier.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now frigate-openclaw-notifier

Check status and logs:

sudo systemctl status frigate-openclaw-notifier
sudo journalctl -u frigate-openclaw-notifier -f

Restart after configuration changes:

sudo systemctl restart frigate-openclaw-notifier

Edit locally and deploy

If you keep this repository as the editable working copy, update the installed service with:

pnpm deploy

The deploy command syncs this working copy to /opt/frigate-openclaw-notifier, skipping local-only files such as node_modules, dist, .git, and .env. It then installs dependencies, runs checks, builds the app, installs the systemd unit for the current user, and restarts frigate-openclaw-notifier.

The deploy command always uses local .env as the source of truth for service configuration. On every deploy it copies .env to /etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env, then applies safe permissions.

You can also create it manually:

sudo cp .env.example /etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env
sudo nano /etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env
sudo chown root:$(id -gn) /etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env
sudo chmod 640 /etc/frigate-openclaw-notifier.env

To deploy with a different service account, set SERVICE_USER and SERVICE_GROUP:

SERVICE_USER=frigate-openclaw SERVICE_GROUP=frigate-openclaw pnpm deploy

The service user must be able to run openclaw message send with the WhatsApp session you intend to use. If OpenClaw stores session data in a user home directory, run the OpenClaw WhatsApp login as the same service user or adjust OPENCLAW_BIN and OpenClaw configuration paths accordingly.

MQTT Topics

Frigate input topic:

frigate/reviews

Configured through:

MQTT_TOPICS=frigate/reviews

Home Assistant direct-to-OpenClaw topic:

frigate-openclaw-notifier/openclaw/send

Configured through:

HOME_ASSISTANT_OPENCLAW_TOPIC=frigate-openclaw-notifier/openclaw/send

Expected payload:

{
  "message": "Alerta Home Assistant: porton abierto"
}

Recommended MQTT publish settings:

QoS: 1
Retain: false

Home Assistant direct-to-OpenClaw control topics:

frigate-openclaw-notifier/openclaw/set
frigate-openclaw-notifier/openclaw/state

Configured through:

HOME_ASSISTANT_OPENCLAW_CONTROL_COMMAND_TOPIC=frigate-openclaw-notifier/openclaw/set
HOME_ASSISTANT_OPENCLAW_CONTROL_STATE_TOPIC=frigate-openclaw-notifier/openclaw/state
HOME_ASSISTANT_OPENCLAW_DEFAULT_ENABLED=true

Accepted control payloads:

on
off
true
false
1
0
enabled
disabled
{"enabled":true}
{"enabled":false}

Global alert command topic:

frigate-openclaw-notifier/alerts/set

Global alert retained state topic:

frigate-openclaw-notifier/alerts/state

Per-camera command topics are derived from ALLOWED_CAMERAS:

frigate-openclaw-notifier/alerts/cameras/<camera-slug>/set

Per-camera retained state topics:

frigate-openclaw-notifier/alerts/cameras/<camera-slug>/state

Accepted command payloads:

on
off
true
false
1
0
enabled
disabled
{"enabled":true}
{"enabled":false}

The service publishes retained JSON state payloads:

{
  "enabled": true,
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-14T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": "command"
}

Camera state payloads include camera.

Home Assistant

MQTT Discovery is enabled by default:

HOME_ASSISTANT_DISCOVERY_ENABLED=true
HOME_ASSISTANT_DISCOVERY_PREFIX=homeassistant
HOME_ASSISTANT_DEVICE_ID=frigate_openclaw_notifier
HOME_ASSISTANT_DEVICE_NAME=Frigate OpenClaw Notifier

Home Assistant should show one MQTT device named Frigate OpenClaw Notifier with switches like:

Frigate OpenClaw Alerts
Frigate OpenClaw <camera-1>
Frigate OpenClaw <camera-2>

Discovery config topics:

homeassistant/switch/frigate_openclaw_notifier/alerts/config
homeassistant/switch/frigate_openclaw_notifier/camera_<camera-slug>/config

WhatsApp Confirmations

When alert control is changed through MQTT, the service also confirms over WhatsApp:

Alertas Frigate OpenClaw: ON
Alertas Frigate OpenClaw: OFF
Alertas Frigate OpenClaw <camera>: ON
Alertas Frigate OpenClaw <camera>: OFF

Retained state restored on startup does not send WhatsApp confirmations, to avoid spam.

Media Flow

For frigate/reviews:

1. The service logs the review.
2. It sends a snapshot alert immediately when available.
3. If SEND_CLIP=true, it downloads the clip for the review detection id with retries.
4. It transcodes the clip with ffmpeg for WhatsApp compatibility.
5. It sends the processed video as a second WhatsApp message.
6. It removes the original and processed clip files after the send attempt.

Temporary media is stored in:

MEDIA_TMP_DIR=/tmp/frigate-openclaw

Old media files are cleaned after:

MEDIA_RETENTION_SECONDS=600

OpenClaw Commands Used

Text:

openclaw message send --channel whatsapp --target <TARGET> --message <TEXT> --json

Media:

openclaw message send --channel whatsapp --target <TARGET> --media <FILE_OR_URL> --message <CAPTION> --json

Security Notes

• Do not commit .env.
• Use .env.example as the public template.
• The repository ignores .env, .env.*, local logs, build output, dependencies, and local planning notes.
• MQTT credentials, Frigate URL, OpenClaw target, camera names, and local paths should be supplied through environment variables.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.