MQTT Camera

The mqtt camera platform allows you to integrate the content of an image file sent through MQTT into Home Assistant as a camera. Every time a message under the topic in the configuration is received, the image displayed in Home Assistant will also be updated. Messages received on topic should contain the full contents of an image file, for example, a JPEG image, without any additional encoding or metadata.

This can be used with an application or a service capable of sending images through MQTT.

Configuration

To enable this camera in your installation, add the following to your configuration.yamlThe configuration.yaml file is the main configuration file for Home Assistant. It lists the integrations to be loaded and their specific configurations. In some cases, the configuration needs to be edited manually directly in the configuration.yaml file. Most integrations can be configured in the UI. [Learn more] file:

# Example configuration.yaml entry
mqtt:
  - camera:
      topic: zanzito/shared_locations/my-device

The sample configuration above can be tested by publishing an image to the topic from the console:

mosquitto_pub -h <mqtt_broker> -t zanzito/shared_locations/my-device -f <camera_imaga.jpg>

Configuration Variables

availability list (Optional)

A list of MQTT topics subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability_topic.

payload_available string (Optional, default: online)

The payload that represents the available state.

payload_not_available string (Optional, default: offline)

The payload that represents the unavailable state.

topic string Required

An MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates.

value_template template (Optional)

Defines a template to extract device’s availability from the topic. To determine the devices’s availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available.

availability_mode string (Optional, default: latest)

When availability is configured, this controls the conditions needed to set the entity to available. Valid entries are all, any, and latest. If set to all, payload_available must be received on all configured availability topics before the entity is marked as online. If set to any, payload_available must be received on at least one configured availability topic before the entity is marked as online. If set to latest, the last payload_available or payload_not_available received on any configured availability topic controls the availability.

availability_template template (Optional)

Defines a template to extract device’s availability from the availability_topic. To determine the devices’s availability result of this template will be compared to payload_available and payload_not_available.

availability_topic string (Optional)

The MQTT topic subscribed to receive availability (online/offline) updates. Must not be used together with availability.

device map (Optional)

Information about the device this camera is a part of to tie it into the device registry. Only works when unique_id is set. At least one of identifiers or connections must be present to identify the device.

configuration_url string (Optional)

A link to the webpage that can manage the configuration of this device. Can be either an http://, https:// or an internal homeassistant:// URL.

connections list (Optional)

A list of connections of the device to the outside world as a list of tuples [connection_type, connection_identifier]. For example the MAC address of a network interface: "connections": [["mac", "02:5b:26:a8:dc:12"]].

hw_version string (Optional)

The hardware version of the device.

identifiers list | string (Optional)

A list of IDs that uniquely identify the device. For example a serial number.

manufacturer string (Optional)

The manufacturer of the device.

model string (Optional)

The model of the device.

model_id string (Optional)

The model identifier of the device.

name string (Optional)

The name of the device.

serial_number string (Optional)

The serial number of the device.

suggested_area string (Optional)

Suggest an area if the device isn’t in one yet.

sw_version string (Optional)

The firmware version of the device.

via_device string (Optional)

Identifier of a device that routes messages between this device and Home Assistant. Examples of such devices are hubs, or parent devices of a sub-device. This is used to show device topology in Home Assistant.

enabled_by_default boolean (Optional, default: true)

Flag which defines if the entity should be enabled when first added.

encoding string (Optional, default: utf-8)

The encoding of the payloads received. Set to "" to disable decoding of incoming payload. Use image_encoding to enable Base64 decoding on topic.

entity_category string (Optional)

The category of the entity.

entity_picture string (Optional)

Picture URL for the entity.

icon icon (Optional)

Icon for the entity.

image_encoding string (Optional)

The encoding of the image payloads received. Set to "b64" to enable base64 decoding of image payload. If not set, the image payload must be raw binary data.

json_attributes_template template (Optional)

Defines a template to extract the JSON dictionary from messages received on the json_attributes_topic.

json_attributes_topic string (Optional)

The MQTT topic subscribed to receive a JSON dictionary payload and then set as sensor attributes. Implies force_update of the current sensor state when a message is received on this topic.

name string (Optional)

The name of the camera. Can be set to null if only the device name is relevant.

object_id string (Optional)

Used instead of name for automatic generation of entity_id

topic string Required

The MQTT topic to subscribe to.

unique_id string (Optional)

An ID that uniquely identifies this camera. If two cameras have the same unique ID Home Assistant will raise an exception. Required when used with device-based discovery.