If you run Home Assistant, HomeMapper can show the Thread devices it manages on the Topology map, and fill in Stability, Channel and Signal for its devices. Most of that depends on a few settings on the Home Assistant side. This page lists them.
Two places feed it:
- Home Assistant's Thread map. For a Thread device paired to Home Assistant, this fills Thread Role, Thread Network, Connected via (its parent router) and Signal (the link to that router), and puts the device on the Topology map. It needs the first two settings below and Thread Topology Scan.
- Diagnostic sensors. These fill Signal for Zigbee and Wi-Fi devices, and Stability and Channel for Matter devices. Home Assistant ships them switched off, so each one is a setting you turn on.
Use an administrator account
HomeMapper reads your Thread mesh through Home Assistant, and Home Assistant only accepts that request from an administrator account. If the account you connected with isn't one, the Topology screen shows "Home Assistant Thread topology needs an administrator account." In Home Assistant, go to Settings → People, open the user HomeMapper signs in as, and turn on Administrator. Then scan again.
Keep Home Assistant and the Matter Server up to date
Thread topology needs Home Assistant 2026.9 or later and the Matter Server add-on 9.2 or later. Older versions don't have the request HomeMapper uses, so the Topology screen shows which one to update.
If you run Home Assistant Container or Core, there are no add-ons. Update the Matter Server you run yourself to a release that includes network topology.
Right after Home Assistant restarts, it can take a minute before it responds. If you scanned during that minute, scan again.
Turn on the diagnostic sensors
Home Assistant creates a set of diagnostic sensors for each device and ships them switched off. HomeMapper can only show what Home Assistant reads, so a sensor that's off leaves Channel or Stability showing a dash. With a signal sensor off, Signal shows the device's round-trip time if HomeMapper measured one, and a dash if it didn't. A few Wi-Fi integrations switch their signal sensor on themselves; if Home Assistant already shows a value for it, there's nothing to do.
These are every sensor HomeMapper reads:
- Reboot count (Matter devices, on Thread or Wi-Fi): the Stability column, and the Stability row in the device details
- Uptime (Matter devices, on Thread or Wi-Fi): the Stability column, and the Stability row in the device details
- Boot reason (Matter devices, on Thread or Wi-Fi): why the device last started, in the Stability row of the device details
- Thread channel (Matter over Thread devices): the Channel column, as "Thread 25"
- RSSI (Zigbee devices in the ZHA integration): the Signal column, as bars and "-70 dBm Zigbee"
- LQI (Zigbee devices in the ZHA integration): the Signal column, as "Zigbee LQI 180" next to the RSSI
- A Wi-Fi signal sensor measured in dBm (any integration that has one, ESPHome and Shelly among them): the Signal column, as bars and "-55 dBm Wi-Fi"
The Wi-Fi signal sensor goes by different names depending on the integration, such as Signal strength, WiFi signal or RSSI. Whatever the sensor is called, HomeMapper uses it, so you don't need to rename it.
Turn a sensor on
1. In Home Assistant, go to Settings → Devices & services → Devices and open the device. 2. In the Diagnostic card, tap + N entities not shown to list the sensors that are switched off. 3. Tap the sensor, then the gear. 4. Turn on Enabled and tap Update.
Home Assistant starts reading the sensor within a minute or so. Your next scan in HomeMapper picks it up.
Turn a sensor off
Follow the same steps, turn Enabled off, and tap Update. Your next scan in HomeMapper picks up the change. Channel and Stability go back to a dash, and Signal goes back to round-trip time, or a dash if HomeMapper has no round-trip time for the device.
Reboot count and Uptime
These two fill the Stability column, the same way they do for a device in Apple Home. Turn on both: a restart count on its own doesn't show whether the device is restarting right now. Uptime is what shows "up 342d", and together they're what switches the cell to "63 restarts" when a device keeps restarting.
When a Matter device has either sensor switched off and Stability has nothing to show, the device details show Turn on Reboot count and Uptime for this device in Home Assistant to see its stability. under the Stability row. Tap it to come back to this page.
Boot reason
Why the device last restarted, for example after a power cut or a software update. It shows in the Stability row of the device details, not in the column.
Thread channel
The Thread channel a Matter over Thread device is on, for the Channel column. Without it, a Home Assistant device's Channel shows a dash, even if an earlier scan read a channel.
RSSI and LQI (Zigbee)
Signal for a Zigbee device in the ZHA integration. RSSI is the signal strength in dBm and sets the bars, graded the same way as Thread and Wi-Fi. LQI is Zigbee's link quality, on a scale of 0 to 255, where higher is better. That's a different scale from the 0 to 3 link quality a Thread device shows, so HomeMapper labels it "Zigbee LQI" to keep the two apart. LQI shows only next to an RSSI reading, so turn on RSSI first.
Wi-Fi signal
The device's own Wi-Fi signal strength in dBm. HomeMapper shows it in the Signal column, labelled "Wi-Fi".
Use HTTPS if you can
HomeMapper connects to Home Assistant over your network. With HTTPS, your login and everything Home Assistant sends back are encrypted on the way. Home Assistant's own documentation covers setting it up.
Turn on Thread Topology Scan
In HomeMapper, Settings → Discovery → Thread Topology Scan has to be on for the Thread map. It works with IP Network off too, but then only Home Assistant Thread devices are mapped, not your Apple Home ones. Thread topology is part of HomeMapper Pro.
Zigbee on the Topology map
Zigbee topology comes from Home Assistant's built-in Zigbee integration, ZHA, and nothing else. Zigbee2MQTT, deCONZ and Hue bridges aren't mapped. Settings → Discovery → Zigbee Topology Scan has to be on, and it's part of HomeMapper Pro.
With an administrator account, each scan gets fresh Zigbee readings from Home Assistant. Without one, the map shows what Home Assistant last collected on its own schedule.
If reading the network fails, for example because Home Assistant took too long to respond, the Topology tab shows that the Zigbee network couldn't be read for that server rather than showing it as empty. The next scan reads it again.