Apple Neural Engine
Object detection runs on the ANE, not your CPU or GPU. Lower latency, lower power draw, cooler fans. Bundled YOLOv9-tiny model out of the box; drop in your own ONNX model anytime, including Frigate+ models.
Fregata documentation
Local-first NVR on macOS — your cameras, your Mac, no cloud.
What is Fregata?
Section titled “What is Fregata?”Fregata is a private, local-first network video recorder for macOS, built on the open-source Frigate NVR. It runs object detection on the Apple Neural Engine via a custom Rust + CoreML detector, and decodes and encodes camera streams through VideoToolbox on the dedicated media engine — your CPU stays free for everything else.
One app — drag to Applications, done.
VideoToolbox decode
Hardware H.264 / HEVC decode and encode on the dedicated media engine. Multiple 4K streams without saturating cores.
Local-first
Recordings live on the Mac you choose. No mandatory cloud, no telemetry by default, no third-party access to your feeds.
One-time purchase
$10 unlocks a year of new versions. Already-released versions keep working forever, even after the licence expires — only future releases require a renewal.
Start here
Section titled “Start here” Installation System requirements, download, and the first launch.
Activation Enter your licence key (or start a 30-day trial) and bind Fregata to this Mac.
Add your first camera Point Fregata at an RTSP feed and watch the detection ratchet up on the menu-bar tray.