Accessory
Apple's term for a device paired to your Home app. HomeMapper uses "device" for everything it finds regardless of protocol; an accessory is that same device as HomeKit lists it. A bridge pairs as a single accessory, with the bulbs and sensors behind it as bridged accessories (see Bridged Accessory). However a device is discovered, it appears in HomeMapper as one Unified Device.
Active Connection
A Thread connection that is in use, drawn on the topology map as a solid orange line. It is either a device's link to the router it is joined through, or two routers reaching each other. Compare Backup Connection.
Backup Connection
A Thread connection a device is in radio range of but is not using, drawn on the topology map as a thinner dashed orange line. It is where that device would go if the router it is currently joined through stopped responding. A dashed line means a spare route, not a broken one.
Bluetooth
A short-range wireless protocol used by many smart-home devices to connect to a hub or to your phone. Home Assistant can manage Bluetooth devices through its Bluetooth integration; HomeMapper discovers them through Home Assistant.
Bonjour
Also called mDNS. A protocol where devices advertise themselves on a local network. HomeMapper picks up HomeKit, AirPlay, Google Cast, and other services this way; results appear under IP Network.
Border Router
A device that bridges between a Thread mesh network and your Wi-Fi/Ethernet network. Apple TV and HomePod (including HomePod mini) serve as Border Routers, and so do some third-party hubs.
Bridged Accessory
A device connected through a hub (bridge) rather than directly to your network. Examples: Hue bulbs through a Hue Bridge, Lutron switches through a Caseta bridge. Bridged accessories often have limited metadata, and HomeKit may categorize them as "Other."
Correlation
The process of merging device entries from multiple sources into one device. HomeMapper merges entries only when the devices themselves report something in common, such as a MAC address; names alone never merge two devices. See How Device Correlation Works.
CSV Export
A spreadsheet file format (Comma-Separated Values) used for exporting your device list. Opens in Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet app. Every column is included whether or not it is visible in the list. It holds the rows the list is showing, in the order it shows them, so the Place menu, the Protocol Bar and search all narrow it.
Detached
A Thread mesh role for devices that support Thread but aren't currently connected to any mesh. Common causes: no Border Router in range, stale credentials after a network change, post-reboot rejoin, or the device was never commissioned onto Thread.
Device Class
A Home Assistant classification for an entity's function: for example, motion, temperature, door, humidity. HomeMapper uses it to choose the icon for a Home Assistant device. See Icons.
Disabled
A Thread mesh role indicating Thread hardware is present on the device but not currently active. The device isn't participating in any Thread network.
Discovery Source
The protocol through which HomeMapper found a device: HomeKit, Home Assistant, IP Network, Thread, or Matter. Shown as a protocol badge on each device. See Icons.
Effective Room Name
The room name HomeMapper displays for a device when you have both HomeKit and Home Assistant connected. HomeMapper checks your primary platform's room assignment first; if the device has no room on that platform, it falls back to the other platform. This ensures every device shows a room name whenever one is available from either source.
End Device
A Thread mesh role for battery-powered devices that connect to a single Router (their "parent") and keep their radio off most of the time. They don't forward data for other devices. Examples: Eve Door & Window sensor, Eve Motion.
Failing Connection
A measured Thread connection that is losing many of the messages sent over it, even after the radio retries them. Named in the tap bubble with the percentage lost, and marked on the topology map with a red triangle when the Health tab lists it. Usually interference rather than distance. Compare Weak Connection and Stale Connection.
Field Settings
The configuration panel for choosing which columns are visible in the device list and how devices are sorted. See Icons for the Devices toolbar button that opens it.
Home Assistant
An open-source home automation platform that manages devices across many protocols: Zigbee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, MQTT, WiFi, and more. HomeMapper connects to your local Home Assistant instance to discover devices invisible to Apple's ecosystem. See Understanding Protocols for details.
Home Assistant Area
A location grouping in Home Assistant, equivalent to a "room" in HomeMapper and Apple Home. When you connect Home Assistant, your areas appear as rooms in HomeMapper's Rooms view. HomeMapper stores the area name as the device's Home Assistant room name.
Home Assistant Floor
A floor grouping in Home Assistant that organizes areas vertically. When Home Assistant is your Primary Platform, floors appear in the "Floor" column on the Devices tab. When HomeKit is primary, Home Assistant floors are still used as a fallback if no HomeKit zone is available.
Home Assistant Instance
A running Home Assistant server on your local network. HomeMapper can connect to more than one Home Assistant instance, each belonging to a Place, and reads each one's devices, areas, and floors. Manage the connection in Settings > Discovery.
HomeKit
Apple's smart home framework. HomeMapper's HomeKit scan queries the same database as your Home app, reading device names, rooms, categories, reachability, and battery status.
HomeKit Accessory Protocol (HAP)
The protocol HomeKit devices use to communicate. HomeMapper scans for HomeKit services via Bonjour/mDNS to discover devices at the network level.
HomeKit Bridge Integration
A Home Assistant feature that exposes Home Assistant devices to Apple Home as if they were HomeKit accessories. Each exposed device shows up in both HomeMapper's Home Assistant scan and its HomeKit scan, with no shared identifier between the two, so they appear as separate rows.
HomeKit Controller Integration
A Home Assistant feature that lets Home Assistant control a real HomeKit accessory. When you use this integration, HomeMapper can match the Home Assistant entry to the HomeKit accessory automatically.
HomeKit Zone
A location grouping in Apple Home that organizes rooms (e.g., "Upstairs," "Downstairs," "Garage"). When HomeKit is your Primary Platform, zones appear in the "Zone" column on the Devices tab. When Home Assistant is primary, HomeKit zones are still used as a fallback if no Home Assistant floor is available.
Integration
In Home Assistant, an integration connects Home Assistant to a specific protocol, service, or device family: for example, ZHA (Zigbee), Z-Wave JS, Matter, or Cast. HomeMapper shows the integration type for each Home Assistant device, helping you understand which protocol manages it.
Keychain
Apple's encrypted, hardware-backed storage for passwords and other secrets on your device. HomeMapper stores Home Assistant OAuth tokens in the Keychain, never in its database, preferences, or logs.
Leader
A Thread mesh role. One device per Thread network is elected Leader. It manages the network's routing table and assigns addresses. If the Leader goes offline, another Router is automatically elected.
Let's Encrypt
A free certificate authority that issues HTTPS certificates. If you've put a real HTTPS certificate on your Home Assistant instance, it most likely came from Let's Encrypt.
MAC Address
A hardware address assigned to a network interface (e.g., AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF).
Matter
A cross-platform smart home standard supported by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung (among others). Many HomeKit devices are also Matter devices. HomeMapper shows a Matter badge on devices that report Matter support.
mDNS
Multicast DNS. The underlying network protocol that powers Bonjour service discovery. Devices respond to multicast queries on the local network to advertise their services without a central DNS server.
MQTT
A lightweight messaging protocol commonly used in home automation. Devices and software (like Zigbee2MQTT) publish updates to a central broker that Home Assistant subscribes to.
Nabu Casa Cloud
A paid service from the Home Assistant team that provides remote access and a secure HTTPS endpoint for your Home Assistant instance without configuring your own certificates or router.
OAuth Tokens
A pair of credentials (access + refresh) that Home Assistant issues after you sign in once. HomeMapper uses these tokens to call your Home Assistant instance on later scans so you don't have to sign in again. Stored only in the Keychain.
OpenThread
An open-source implementation of the Thread protocol, maintained by Apple, Google, and others. The Thread Version HomeMapper shows is the Thread protocol version a border router reports, not an OpenThread build number.
Partition
A piece of a Thread network whose devices can reach each other but not the rest of the network. A healthy network is one partition. When a router in the middle goes offline or moves, the network can split, and the topology map shows this in the box title: Thread - MyHome8 (split into 2 partitions). It normally heals itself once that router is back. The tap bubble on a connection also counts partition changes as part of a device's stability.
Primary Platform
A setting that sets which discovery source (Apple Home or Home Assistant) is your primary system. When a device is found by both platforms, the primary platform's data takes priority for room assignment, naming, and display ordering. Configure in Settings > Discovery.
Protocol Badge
A marker on a device showing which protocol discovered it. See Icons.
QR Code
The square barcode on a smart home device's sticker or box. It carries the device's setup code in machine-readable form. When saving a setup code, you can scan the QR with the camera (iPhone and iPad), pick a photo that contains it, or paste its text. If the sticker shows only the printed HomeKit number with no QR, the camera and photo paths read that too. See Setup Codes.
Reachable
A device that was discovered during the most recent scan. For a device missing from it, the device detail popover lists which sources are stale under "Reachability Issue" and offers a trash button if you want to remove the device. See Icons for how a missing device looks.
Reverse Proxy
A server (like Nginx or Caddy) that sits in front of your Home Assistant instance and handles HTTPS for it. People run a reverse proxy when they want HTTPS without configuring it inside Home Assistant itself.
Router
A Thread mesh role for devices that forward data packets for other devices in the mesh. Any mains-powered Thread device can become a Router. Routers make the mesh more reliable and extend its range.
Serial Number
A manufacturer-assigned identifier for a physical device.
Service Type
A Bonjour/mDNS service identifier: the label a device uses to advertise what it offers (HomeKit, AirPlay, Google Cast, and so on).
Setup Code
The pairing code printed on a HomeKit, Matter, or Z-Wave device's sticker or box. You need it to pair the device, and again if you ever reset it or move it to a new home. Setup codes never travel over the network, so a scan can't find one for you. Saving codes with your devices is a Pro feature. See Setup Codes.
Signal
Connection strength, shown as bars in the Signal column on the Devices tab. Four readings can appear, and the one closest to the connection the device depends on wins: a Thread device's signal to its parent router (RSSI and link quality), then the device's own Wi-Fi signal, labelled "Wi-Fi" so you can tell them apart, then a Zigbee device's signal from Home Assistant, labelled "Zigbee" (its link quality runs from 0 to 255, unlike Thread's 0 to 3), then how quickly the device responds over IP (round-trip time); faster responses get more bars. Devices with none of the four show a dash. For Home Assistant devices, the Wi-Fi and Zigbee readings come from sensors you switch on in Home Assistant; see Getting more from Home Assistant. A device that is probably getting radio interference turns red and shows "interference suspected".
SSDP
Simple Service Discovery Protocol. A network protocol used by UPnP devices (routers, media servers, smart TVs, Hue bridges) to advertise themselves on the local network.
Stale Connection
A measured Thread connection where the device on one end still lists the other as a neighbor but hasn't heard from it recently, marked on the topology map with a red triangle when the Health tab lists it. The far device is likely powered off, out of range, or stuck. This is different from a stale device (see Reachable): a gray line means a device at one end of it was missing from the most recent scan, while a red triangle is about the connection itself. A line can be both. Compare Weak Connection and Failing Connection.
Subnet Scan
An IP Network discovery technique that probes your local subnet for devices that don't advertise via Bonjour/mDNS: typically routers, printers, and NAS boxes.
Thread
A mesh networking protocol for smart home devices. Thread devices relay data for each other, forming a self-healing network.
Thread Network Name
The name of a Thread mesh network (e.g., "Home Thread Network"). A device that doesn't report one shows the network the Topology map places it in.
Thread Role
A device's function in the Thread mesh: Leader (manages the network), Router (forwards data), End Device (connects through a parent router), End Device (sleepy) (turns its radio on only to check in, saving battery), End Device (router-eligible) (can promote itself to Router if the mesh needs one), Border Router (bridges to Wi-Fi), Disabled (Thread inactive), or Detached (lost connection). Router (observed) and Leader (observed) mean the device didn't report its own role, so the role shown comes from other devices' readings. A Router (observed) is a device other devices in the mesh route through; a Leader (observed) is the device the rest of the network names as its leader. A device that routes for others also shows how much of the mesh it reaches, as "Router (reaches 21)". Border Router values, including Border Router (spare), come from an advertisement the device broadcasts about itself; see Thread Roles & Mesh Networking for what that means for how current they are.
Unified Device
The merged device record that HomeMapper creates after correlating discoveries from multiple protocols. One unified device per physical device, containing data from all sources.
UPnP
Universal Plug and Play. A set of networking protocols that allows devices to discover each other and establish services. HomeMapper finds UPnP devices through SSDP.
Weak Connection
A measured Thread connection whose signal is too faint to be reliable, marked on the topology map with a red triangle when the Health tab lists it, and named in the tap bubble with its signal reading. Moving the two devices closer, or adding a mains-powered Thread device between them, is the usual fix. Compare Failing Connection and Stale Connection.
Zigbee
A low-power mesh networking protocol used by many smart-home devices (Hue, IKEA Tradfri, Aqara, SmartThings). Zigbee devices connect to a hub or coordinator; HomeMapper discovers them through whichever hub manages them.
Zone/Floor
A unified device column that shows either HomeKit zones or Home Assistant floors, depending on your Primary Platform setting. When HomeKit is primary, the column is labeled "Zone" and shows HomeKit zone names (with Home Assistant floors as fallback). When Home Assistant is primary, the column is labeled "Floor" and shows Home Assistant floor names (with HomeKit zones as fallback).
Z-Wave
A low-power mesh networking protocol used by many smart-home devices, similar in role to Zigbee. Z-Wave devices connect to a Z-Wave hub or USB stick; HomeMapper discovers them through whichever hub manages them (typically Home Assistant).