Got all my hardware upgraded, so now for installing Frigate. It says in the documents that MQTT is required. When I first started installing HAOS and didn’t have a clue what I was doing, I was trying to mess with MQTT and some other devices and could never get it working. I just use ZHA and all my zigbee devices are just fine.
Now, I’m just wondering if mqtt is actually required (mind you, I honestly don’t even know wtf it is or does lol). Is it actually required? And what for? I guess I just don’t get it.
MQTT is a lightweight messaging protocol. for a lightbulb the lightbulb could send ON/OFF message and a subscriber could receive the message
For frigate, various messages are sent over mqtt that HA will use for automations, to receive images, or as sensors.
Mqtt IS required to use Frigate with HA. (same link, but I’ll quote the important bit.
but is required for the Home Assistant integration. If using Home Assistant, Frigate and Home Assistant must be connected to the same MQTT broker.
There are plenty of articles on the internet describing what MQTT is.