Esko Dijk
d732acc6c6
This fixes the issue that some required Python modules were missing in pyproject.toml. To avoid Python version conflicts with the cryptography module, the minimum Python version is raised to 3.10. Also, the name, version and description of the project are updated. Module versions are updated to recent (2025) versions. For Windows, a platform-specific import of pyreadline3 is added. Due to this conditional dependency, the poetry.lock file is removed from the repository: it is now necessarily specific to each platform and has to be locally generated.
TCAT Commissioner (BBTC) Client
Overview
This is a Python implementation of a Bluetooth-Based Thread Commissioning (BBTC) client, based on Thread's TCAT (Thread Commissioning over Authenticated TLS) functionality.
Installation
If you don't have the poetry module installed (check with poetry --version), install it first following the official installation instructions.
For example, if pipx is available:
pipx install poetry
If pipx is not available, it can be installed for Linux/Windows/MacOS following the pipx installation instructions.
Then, install this project using Poetry:
poetry install --no-root
This will install all the required modules to a virtual environment, which can be used by calling poetry run <COMMAND> from the project directory.
Note: Installation on Windows requires that Build Tools for Visual Studio C/C++ be installed first.
Usage
To see the supported commandline arguments of BBTC client, use:
poetry run python3 bbtc.py --help
In order to connect to a TCAT device, run:
poetry run python3 bbtc.py {<device specifier> | --scan}
where <device specifier> can be:
--name <NAME>- name advertised by the device--mac <ADDRESS>- physical address of the device's Bluetooth interface
Using the --scan option will scan for every TCAT device and display them in a list, to allow selection of the target.
For example:
poetry run python3 bbtc.py --name 'Thread BLE'
The application will connect to the first matching device discovered and set up a secure TLS channel. The user is then presented with the CLI.
Usage with a specific TCAT Commissioner identity
The TCAT Commissioner's certificate specifies what permissions it has obtained for specific features of managing a TCAT Device. By default, the identity in the auth directory is used. In order to use a different TCAT Commissioner certificate (identity), use the --cert_path argument, as follows:
poetry run python3 bbtc.py --cert_path <certs-path> {<device specifier> | --scan}
where <certs-path> is the directory where the private key, certificate, and CA certificate(s) of the TCAT Commissioner are stored.
For example to use a pre-configured identity CommCert2 (related to Thread certification tests):
poetry run python3 bbtc.py --cert_path ./auth-cert/CommCert2 --name 'Thread BLE'
The auth-cert directory contains some other identities too, for testing purposes. Refer to Thread TCAT test plan documents for details.
See GENERATING_CERTIFICATES.md for details on generating own certificates.
TCAT Commissioner CLI Commands
The application supports the following interactive CLI commands:
help- Display available commands.commission- Commission the device with current dataset.thread start- Enable Thread interface.thread stop- Disable Thread interface.hello- Send "hello world" application data and read the response.exit- Close the connection and exit.dataset- View and manipulate current dataset. Usedataset helpfor more information.