Frequently asked questions

Why might the graph omit a Border Router or look incomplete?

Apple doesn't let third-party apps query its Border Routers at the Thread level. That access sits behind the approval-only Manage Thread Network Credentials entitlement, which Apple grants to companies that ship Border Router hardware — not to diagnostic apps.

So Thread Doctor does the next best thing: it asks every Matter accessory in your home what it can see — its neighbors, its routes, its link quality — and rebuilds the mesh from those reports. This works well, but the map is only as complete as your devices' answers. A router the app can't read shows up as an unnamed gray square, and a home with few readable devices gets a partial map. It's a picture of what your mesh reports about itself, not a radio scan.

Older HomeKit-over-Thread accessories — Eve devices on pre-Matter firmware, for example — are the most common gray squares. They route traffic on the same mesh, but they only speak HomeKit, so the app sees them through their neighbors' eyes only. If the vendor offers a Matter firmware update, installing it and re-pairing gives them names and full diagnostics like everything else.

Fullscreen topology graph from a home full of pre-Matter Thread accessories — one scanned Matter router drawn as a green circle at the center with a Water Leak Sensor child as a blue dot, a cyan Border Router square parenting a Garage Door Contact, and six gray squares for Thread routers the app can see in the mesh but cannot read, one half-purple because it is the Thread Leader.
A real home full of pre-Matter Thread devices: the one Matter router the app can read (green) reports every router around it — the app knows the gray ones exist, just not what they are.
Why does a scan show no Thread mesh?
  • The map is built from what Matter-over-Thread accessories report. Border Routers alone — a HomePod, an Apple TV — can't be asked, so a home without readable Thread accessories has nothing to draw.
  • Matter accessories on Wi-Fi are still checked (reachability, Wi-Fi signal), but they never appear in the Thread mesh — they're not part of it.
The app says “No Matter accessories found”
  • Check that Thread Doctor is allowed to use HomeKit: iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → HomeKit → Thread Doctor.
  • If all your accessories are older HomeKit-only ones with no Matter support, there's nothing for the app to inspect yet.
How much does AI Diagnose cost?

There's no subscription and no markup: you bring your own API key and pay your provider directly. Each Analyze tap is a single request — a few thousand tokens of your mesh data in, a short answer back — which on most current models costs a cent or two. See Anthropic's, OpenAI's, or Google's pricing for exact rates, and pick your model in AI Diagnose → Provider → Model.