MATTER CHEF APP

The purpose of the chef app is to to:

1. Increase the coverage of device types in Matter
2. Provide a sample application that may have its data model easily configured.

Chef uses the shell app a starting point, but processes the data model defined on ZAP files during build time. This procedure is handled by its unified build script: chef.py.

As it incorporates the processing of ZAP files as part of the build process, it does not use zzz_generated, but rather places the auto-generated zap artifacts under its out temporary folder.

All device types available (.zap files) are found inside the devices folder.

Building your first sample

1. Make sure you have the toolchain installed for your desired target.
2. Run chef.py the first time to create a config.yaml configuration file. If you already have SDK environment variables such as IDF_PATH (esp32) and ZEPHYR_BASE (nrfconnect) it will use those values as default.
3. Update your the SDK paths on config.yaml. TTY is the path used by the platform to enumerate its device as a serial port. Typical values are:

    # ESP32 macOS

    TTY: /dev/tty.usbmodemXXXXXXX

    # ESP32 Linux

    TTY: /dev/ttyACM0

    # NRFCONNECT macOS

    TTY: /dev/tty.usbserial-XXXXX

    # NRFCONNECT Linux

    TTY: /dev/ttyUSB0

4. Run $ chef.py -u to update zap and the toolchain (on selected platforms).
5. Run $ chef.py -gzbf -t <platform> -d lighting. This command will run the ZAP GUI opening the devices/lighting.zap file and will allow editing. It will then generate the zap artifacts, place them on the zap-generated folder, run a build and flash the binary in your target.
6. Run chef.py -h to see all available commands.

Creating a new device type in your device library

1. Run $ chef.py -g -d <device> to open in the ZAP GUI a device to be used as a starting point.
2. Edit your cluster configurations
3. Click on Save As and save the file with the name of your new device type into the devices folder. This device is now available for the script. See chef.py -h for a list of devices available.

Folder Structure and Guidelines

• <platform>: build system and main.cpp file for every supported platform. When porting a new platform, please minimize the source code in this folder, favoring the common folder for code that is not platform related.
• common: contains code shared between different platforms. It may contain source code that enables specific features such as LightingManager class or LockManager, as long as the application dynamically identify the presence of the relevant cluster configurations and it doesn't break the use cases where chef is built without these clusters.
• devices: contains the data models that may be used with chef. As of Matter 1.0 the data models are defined using .zap files.
• out: temporary folder used for placing ZAP generated artifacts.
• sample_app_util: guidelines and scripts for generating file names for new device types committed to the devices folder.
• config.yaml: contains general configuration for the chef.py script. As of Matter 1.0 this is used exclusively for toolchain and TTY interface paths.
• chef.py: main script for generating samples. More info on its help chef.py -h.

CI

All CI jobs for chef can be found in .github/workflows/chef.yaml.

These jobs use a platform-specific image with base chip-build.

CI jobs call chef with the options --ci -t <PLATFORM>. The --ci option will execute builds for all devices specified in cicd_config["ci_allow_list"] defined in chef.py (so long as these devices are also in /devices) on the specified platform.