Openthread

Openthread is an open source implementation of the Thread IOT networking specification.

This implementation provides an openthread border router server and a small webui to monitor it. It can be used to setup a thread network on your server if it is equiped with a Thread radio device.

Popular Thread radio devices include Home assistant's connect ZBT-2 and SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB dongles among many other.

Once your thread network is established, you can use the Matter IOT standard to control various home automation devices adhering to the standard.

The most likely configuration for nixos users will be to use openthread in combination with the Home Assistant module and the Matter Server module.

Basic Setup

Make sure you have the required radio USB device connected to your server and note its device path which should look something like

/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Nabu_Casa_ZBT-2_xxxxxxxxx_ifxx
// OR
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Itead_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-ifxx-portx

of course these are merely examples for specific devices but you will want to use the by-id path to ensure it remains stable across configurations.

Then you can enable the open thread border router service in nixos using