If Matter is a supposedly local protocol, why does home assistant contact Google to add devices

[orange-assistant]

@Fanful

Matter products run locally and always allow local control, with device control done without the need for any internet connection or cloud services.

Emphasis on run or control. No word about provisioning or commissioning

@Fanful

From a technical perspective, you can use a Matter-compatible device with Home Assistant without connecting to a vendor-specific cloud.

That could be right. The DCL (Distributed Compliance Ledger) shouldn’t be vendor specific, actually the distributed should define quite the opposite.

Distributed Compliance Ledger (DCL)

@Fanful

However, some vendors may require you to set up an account before you can enable Matter support for some products

And that is allowed in the matter specification!

The matter standard does allow vendors/manufactures to cook their own soup and have for example only basic functions available exposed to HA and full functionalities only with vendor app/cloud.

Sad that csa/matter just repeats (or even worsen) the wrongdoings of zigbee