Matter device development prerequisites

This page lists different prerequisites that you must meet if you are planning to develop an end product that supports Matter.

Connectivity Standards Alliance membership

The most important prerequisite is becoming member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which grants you access to a variety of Matter member resources, lets you contribute to the Matter Specification GitHub repository, and allows you to add information to the Distributed Compliance Ledger, among other things.

You can become a CSA member by applying on the CSA’s Become Member page. You need at least the Adopter membership level in order to use approved specifications to build products and certify them. Once you join CSA, you need to apply for membership in the Matter Working Group to get access to Matter resources and community.

Matter specifications and other documents

To develop products for Matter, you need to be familiar with several official documents, which you will gain access to after joining Matter Working Group. Most important of these documents are the following:

  • Matter Core Specification

  • Matter Device Library Specification

  • Matter Application Cluster Specification

These documents describe the Matter protocol and are available to CSA members from the CSA Specifications Download Request page.

Being familiar with the following documents is crucial for the success of your Matter certification procedure:

  • CSA Certification Policy and Procedures (“P&P”)

  • PKI Certificate Policy

Matter certification tool access

Matter GitHub repository is open-source, but after joining CSA, you will gain access to several certification tools. One of such tools is Matter Test Harness, which lets you pre-evaluate certification testing and prepare for the official certification process. Other tools include PICS tool or TEDS tool, also used for certification.

SDO membership for Matter certification

Because Matter is an application layer, it relies on proven technologies for network connectivity. These technologies come with their own certification processes governed by different Standard Development Organizations (SDOs).

If you are planning to create a Matter end product and certify it, you must join SDOs for the technologies you are planning to certify. See Dependent certification requirements for more information.