Add a first-class Network topology page using the existing ha-network-graph provider model

[rz467fzs7d]

Feature request: first-class network topology visualization

Summary

Home Assistant already has excellent device, entity, and area views, but there is no central place to understand the home network topology itself.

I would like Home Assistant to provide a first-class, read-only Network topology view where integrations can show how network devices are connected: routers, gateways, access points, switches, mesh nodes, wired clients, wireless clients, and unknown devices seen by the network controller.

The goal is not to create a router-management UI. The goal is to make network topology visible in a consistent Home Assistant way.

User problem

Modern smart homes often depend on network infrastructure that is invisible in the normal device list:

• A device may be connected to a specific AP or mesh node.
• Some devices are wired, while others are wireless.
• Some devices are known to Home Assistant, while others are only visible to the router or controller.
• A device may be online but attached to the wrong AP or room.
• Users may have multiple network-related integrations, each with partial knowledge.

Today, users usually solve this with custom dashboards or integration-specific pages. Those pages tend to have different layouts, different visual semantics, and duplicated graph logic.

Automation value

If a vendor integration can provide near real-time attachment data, Home Assistant could also use that topology as better automation context.

For example, an integration may know which AP a phone, tablet, camera, speaker, or IoT device is currently connected to. That can be more precise than only knowing that the device is somewhere on the LAN.

This could enable better automations over time, such as:

• room-aware presence based on AP attachment
• alerts when an important device roams to an unexpected AP
• diagnostics when a camera or IoT device connects through a weak or wrong node
• network-aware troubleshooting for devices that are online but behaving poorly

This does not need to be part of the first UI-only MVP. But it is one reason a shared topology provider model would be useful beyond visualization.

Existing Home Assistant precedent

Home Assistant already has a good visual pattern for this kind of information:

• ZHA exposes a topology visualization at /config/zha/visualization.
• Bluetooth and Z-Wave JS also have network visualization pages.
• These views use the existing ha-network-graph style and interaction model.

This feature request is asking whether that existing graph approach can be generalized for IP/LAN network topology, instead of every router/AP/mesh integration building its own custom visualization.

Proposal

Add a central read-only Network topology view in Home Assistant, for example under Settings:

Settings -> Network

The page would render topology data using the same visual language as the existing ZHA/Bluetooth/Z-Wave network visualizations.

Integrations would provide topology data. Home Assistant would own:

• the page location
• the common graph rendering
• the basic node/link schema
• mapping to existing Home Assistant devices when possible
• consistent handling of unknown devices

Integrations would own:

• how data is collected from the actual network system
• how controller-specific concepts are translated into topology nodes and links

For example, different integrations could collect data from TP-Link AC/AP controllers, UniFi, OpenWrt, FRITZ!Box, ASUS routers, managed switches, mesh systems, or other network controllers. They would all render through the same Home Assistant graph model.

Suggested abstraction

The provider API could stay deliberately small at first:

• nodes: network objects such as router, AP, switch, service, device, or unknown device
• links: relationships such as wired connection, wireless attachment, upstream link, or service relationship
• metadata: optional IP, MAC, hostname, RSSI, band, SSID, manufacturer, model, area, or Home Assistant device ID

This should build on the existing ha-network-graph / NetworkData model where possible. The important point is not the exact schema in the first proposal, but that integrations can provide normalized topology data while Home Assistant provides the shared visualization.

Proof of concept

As a proof of concept, I built a read-only TP-Link AC/AP topology panel that converts router/AP client data into a graph:

• the AC/router is the root node
• APs are topology nodes
• wired clients and wireless clients are linked differently
• known Home Assistant devices can use friendly names
• unknown network clients are still visible without becoming HA devices

This is only an example provider. The request is not TP-Link-specific.

MVP scope

A reasonable first version could be small:

1. Provide a read-only network topology page.
2. Reuse or generalize the existing ha-network-graph rendering pattern.
3. Allow one integration to provide topology data.
4. Show known and unknown devices clearly.
5. Keep router/AP configuration management out of scope.

Non-goals

• Replacing the device registry.
• Managing router, AP, firewall, DNS, VLAN, or routing configuration.
• Creating a new graph style unrelated to existing Home Assistant topology views.
• Requiring every network integration to support this immediately.

Open questions

• Should this start as a reusable frontend graph pattern before becoming a central Settings page?
• Should multiple providers be merged automatically, or shown as separate topology layers?
• Should unknown network clients remain topology-only, or become discoverable diagnostics/suggestions?
• What is the smallest provider contract that fits current ZHA/Bluetooth/Z-Wave style graph data?

[rz467fzs7d]

This would be a helpful way to bring the network side of home infrastructure services into Home Assistant for visualization. I hope this can get support.

[rz467fzs7d]

A practical demo implemented with dashboards and custom components