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Fregata

Installation

System requirements

Section titled “System requirements”
  • macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. Older versions don’t expose the CoreML / Apple Neural Engine surface Fregata’s detector targets.
  • Apple Silicon (M1 or newer). Intel Macs aren’t supported — Fregata’s detection path runs on the ANE, which Intel chips don’t have.
  • About 2 GB free disk space for the app itself and the bundled detection model. Camera recordings live wherever you point Fregata (default ~/Fregata/media/); size depends on your retention policy — see Recordings & retention.
  • A wired or strong-wireless network path to your cameras. RTSP over Wi-Fi works but is sensitive to packet loss; Ethernet to the cameras is the boring, reliable choice.

Download

Section titled “Download”

The latest version is at:

https://releases.fregata.app/Fregata-latest.dmg

This URL always serves the most recent release. Specific versions are kept at https://releases.fregata.app/Fregata-X.Y.Z.dmg if you need to pin or re-download a known build.

Install

Section titled “Install”
  1. Open the downloaded .dmg.
  2. Drag Fregata.app to the Applications folder.
  3. Eject the disk image.
  4. Launch Fregata from Applications (or Spotlight, or Launchpad).

The first launch will show a Gatekeeper prompt — Fregata is signed and notarised by 3rd Bit Labs, so the standard “Open” confirmation is the only gate. The app is not distributed through the Mac App Store; the App Store sandbox forbids spawning the helper processes (ffmpeg, nginx, go2rtc) Fregata relies on.

What happens on first launch

Section titled “What happens on first launch”

You’ll see a small menu-bar icon (the Fregata mark in the top-right of the macOS menu bar) and a welcome wizard that walks you through:

  1. Granting local-network access — required so Fregata can reach your cameras over RTSP.
  2. Choosing where data lives — the config file, recordings, and cache. Defaults are ~/Fregata/config/, ~/Fregata/media/, and ~/Fregata/temp/. You can change these later from the tray’s Settings → Folders menu.
  3. Activation — entering a licence key or starting a 30-day trial. See Activation for the walkthrough.

Fregata's first-launch welcome wizard

Fregata does not run as a system daemon; it runs as a regular menu-bar application. Quitting it via the tray menu stops recording and detection cleanly. If you want the app to launch on login, toggle Settings → Launch at Login in the tray menu.