Matter in Home Assistant: server, commissioning, multi-admin and Thread

Home Assistant is a full Matter controller: it can commission Matter devices, control them over the local network and share them with other platforms. The Matter software runs as a separate service, the Matter Server app, and devices are added from the Home Assistant Companion app on a phone, which supplies the Bluetooth connection used during setup. Thread devices also need a Thread border router, which can be Home Assistant itself with the right radio or a speaker or hub you already own.

The integration works well for the common device types, but it has rough edges that the official documentation is open about: it is supported only on Home Assistant OS, it depends on a clean IPv6 network, and it cannot turn existing Home Assistant devices into Matter devices. This guide walks through the setup, the multi-admin model, Thread, and the limits worth knowing before you buy.

What do you need before adding a Matter device?

Home Assistant talks to Matter devices through a controller that runs in its own process, the Matter Server app (apps were called add-ons until release 2026.2). The Matter integration documentation states that Home Assistant OS with this app is currently the only supported option; other installation types work at your own risk, and the app is not available on 32-bit platforms. If you run Home Assistant Container, plan for an unsupported setup.

The network matters more than with most integrations. Matter relies on local IPv6 and mDNS, so the documentation asks that IPv6 multicast traffic reach the Home Assistant host freely and that IPv6 be set to automatic or static in Home Assistant’s network settings. An IPv6 internet connection is not needed. VLANs, multicast filtering and misbehaving IGMP snooping are the usual causes of trouble, and the advice is to keep Home Assistant, Wi-Fi devices and Thread border routers on the same flat network. Matter devices on Wi-Fi often use the 2.4 GHz band only.

How does commissioning work?

Commissioning is the step that gives a new device its network credentials and its first controller. In Home Assistant it starts in the Companion app on iOS or Android (the documentation names iOS 16 and Android 8.1 as minimums), under Settings, Connectivity, Matter. You scan the QR code or type the setup code printed on the device, and the phone then talks to the device over Bluetooth Low Energy, so it has to be close to the device and have Bluetooth turned on. On Android, location access set to “allow all the time” lets the process continue in the background.

For a Wi-Fi device, the phone hands over the Wi-Fi credentials, which is why the phone should be on the same 2.4 GHz network the device will use. For a Thread device, the phone hands over the Thread network credentials, which means Home Assistant and the phone must agree on which Thread network is preferred (see below). When it finishes, the device appears in Home Assistant with its entities like any other.

How does multi-admin work?

Matter lets one device belong to several controllers at once. Each controller has its own fabric, a set of credentials on the device, and the Home Assistant documentation notes that the standard expects every device to support at least five fabrics. In practice that means a light can be in Home Assistant, Apple Home and Google Home together, and each platform controls it directly over the local network.

Sharing works in both directions. To add a device that is already in another platform, choose “Yes, it’s already in use” in the Companion app and follow the prompts; the other platform generates a temporary pairing code. To share a device from Home Assistant, open the device page and select Share device, then scan the code in the other app. No button press on the device is needed. Each device page also lists its fabrics, so you can remove a platform you no longer use. The choosing a smart home hub guide covers why this matters when a household uses more than one platform.

Where does Thread fit?

Many Matter devices use Thread rather than Wi-Fi, and a Thread device reaches Home Assistant only through a border router. The Matter documentation lists examples: Nest Hub (2nd gen), Nest Wifi Pro, HomePod mini and HomePod (2nd gen), Apple TV 4K, and Home Assistant running the OpenThread Border Router app with a suitable radio. The Connect ZBT-2 can serve as that radio, but it runs Zigbee or Thread, not both, so a home with both protocols needs two adapters.

The Thread integration keeps track of the Thread networks it can see and their credentials. Different vendors tend to create separate Thread networks, and devices cannot roam between them, so a Thread device commissioned into Apple’s network will not use Google’s border router as a backup. The Companion app can sync the phone’s preferred Thread network to Home Assistant, and you can make the Home Assistant border router join an existing Apple or Google network instead of creating its own. The documentation still describes the Thread integration as a work in progress, and it reminds readers not to assume Matter support from a Thread logo, since some Thread devices use other application protocols.

What are the current limits?

The documentation lists several, and they are worth reading before buying hardware:

No bridging out. Home Assistant controls Matter devices but cannot expose its other devices, such as Zigbee sensors, as Matter devices to another platform. For Apple Home, the separate HomeKit Bridge integration fills part of that gap.
Fewer features than native integrations. Matter covers a common set of functions per device type. The documentation uses Philips Hue as the example: the Hue integration exposes more than the same lights do over Matter.
Early-adopter stage. The documentation describes Matter support as being at an early stage, with compatibility gaps between devices.
Firmware updates. Updates over the air are optional in Matter. Home Assistant checks the CSA’s Distributed Compliance Ledger every 12 hours and offers an update only where the device maker publishes one there. The documentation notes that these updates do not currently work for Thread devices on a Thread network that contains any Apple border router.

None of this makes Matter a bad choice in Home Assistant. It does mean that for a device with a mature native integration (Hue or Shelly, for example), the native route may expose more features today, while Matter is the better route for a device that has no other local integration.

Where to go next

Matter explained covers the data model, commissioning and fabrics at the standard level.
Thread explained covers the mesh, border routers and sleepy end devices.
Home Assistant explained covers installation types and why apps need Home Assistant OS.
ZHA vs Zigbee2MQTT covers the Zigbee side of the same home.

Topics: Matter, Thread, Home Assistant, smart home, commissioning