Support

Frequently asked

• How do I install the sidecar? On the machine that runs Frigate: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pingnestapp/kestrel/main/install.sh | sudo sh (Linux or macOS, amd64/arm64). It verifies the download's SHA-256 checksum, installs to /usr/local/bin, sets up a systemd/launchd service, and prints the pairing QR / 6-digit code (also available any time via kestrel-sidecar pair). A Docker image (build from source for now) and a one-tap Pingnest app-market entry are the alternatives — see the home page.
• Which Frigate versions are supported? Frigate 0.15+ over the authenticated port 8971 (HTTPS). Port 5000 is unauthenticated and should never be exposed.
• Remote access? Use Tailscale/WireGuard or your own reverse proxy; the app supports self-signed certificates for hosts you configure.
• How do notifications work? The optional sidecar runs on your own hardware, filters events by your rules, and the app fetches them directly over your LAN or your own VPN (Tailscale/WireGuard) — fully local, and the default. Without cloud push, delivery on iOS is best-effort while the app is in the background. Paid users can additionally opt in to cloud push (off by default): only the alert payload — camera name, zone names, object labels, severity, event time and identifiers, server display name, one snapshot — transits the relay; snapshots are kept at most 1 day and messages carry a 1-day delivery expiry. See the privacy policy.
• Is there a limit on how many push notifications I get? Yes, on cloud push — to keep the shared relay healthy it is rate-limited to about 60 notifications per hour per device and 300 per hour across all your devices on one server. Normal use stays comfortably under this; during an unusual burst (an event storm) some cloud alerts may be delayed or dropped, with the newest still delivered. These limits apply only to the optional cloud relay — local notifications from your own sidecar over LAN/VPN are not capped by us.