How to use environment variables (password, etc.) with Home Assistant addon?

[itlists]

Hello, I'm confused and unsure how to use Frigate environment variables with the Home Assistant addon.
I have Frigate (Full Access) installed and want to use the "{FRIGATE_MQTT_USER}" etc variables instead of entering passwords directly into Frigate config.
I'm running Home Assistant OS 2026.2.3 on a RPi 5 and Frigate 0.16.4.

BTW, the AI reply below is not helpful. I've looked through the docs already. Thanks

[inkeep-ai-assistant[bot]]

For Home Assistant OS Add-on installations, the config file should be at /addon_configs/<addon_directory>/config.yml, where <addon_directory> is specific to the variant of the Frigate Add-on you are running(1). Since you're using Frigate (Full Access), your configuration directory is /addon_configs/ccab4aaf_frigate-fa(1).

You can access this directory using the VS Code Add-on by clicking File > Open folder... and navigating to /addon_configs/ccab4aaf_frigate-fa(1). Alternatively, you can use the built-in file editor in the Frigate UI to edit the configuration file(1).

For environment variable substitution with the Home Assistant Add-on, Frigate supports the use of environment variables starting with FRIGATE_ where specifically indicated in the reference config(1). You can use them in your config.yml like this:

mqtt:
  user: "{FRIGATE_MQTT_USER}"
  password: "{FRIGATE_MQTT_PASSWORD}"

(1)

For camera streams:

- path: rtsp://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USER}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD}@10.0.10.10:8554/unicast

(1)

For ONVIF:

onvif:
  host: 10.0.10.10
  port: 8000
  user: "{FRIGATE_RTSP_USER}"
  password: "{FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD}"

(1)

The environment variables themselves need to be set in your system environment where the Frigate container runs. The documentation shows these are substituted at runtime(1).

Regarding your missing /addon_configs directory - this is the standard location for Home Assistant OS 10.2 and later(2)(3). If you cannot see this directory, you may need to check your file browser's permissions or use the Terminal add-on to verify the directory exists.

📚 Sources:

1. Frigate Configuration
2. Installation
3. Migrate database and config from Home Assistant /config to addon's /config

---

Have another question? Just tag @inkeep.

[itlists]

Hello, I'm confused and unsure how to use Frigate environment variables with the Home Assistant addon. I have Frigate (Full Access) installed and want to use the "{FRIGATE_MQTT_USER}" etc variables instead of entering passwords directly into Frigate config. I'm running Home Assistant OS 2026.2.3 on a RPi 5 and Frigate 0.16.4.

BTW, the AI reply below is not helpful. I've looked through the docs already. Thanks

Hoping someone can provide an answer. I can't find in the docs, where to configure the variables.

[NickM-27]

To be clear entering arbitrary env vars to move the data out of the config file is not supported with the add-ons.

[itlists]

Where do I enter this?
"environment_vars:
VARIABLE_NAME: variable_value"

The doc doesn't say what file to enter the variables into. Is it in the HA global config.yaml file?

[itlists]

All I want to accomplish here is not have username/pass in cleartext in the frigate config file; instead, want to use the frigate_ env variables. But don't know where to define these variables (ie: which file).

[NickM-27]

That's not possible currently when running as an addon, it's only possible when running in docker directly.

It would be great if home assistant enabled this capability with addons

[itlists]

That's not possible currently when running as an addon, it's only possible when running in docker directly.

It would be great if home assistant enabled this capability with addons

Oh, that's too bad indeed! Thank you for the quick reply.