flash openthread rcp (radio co-processor) firmware onto a thread radio for use with a border router
domain: openthread.io · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Choose the correct OpenThread RCP firmware build for your radio chip/platform (e.g. an ot-rcp image for the vendor SoC).
Put the radio module into bootloader/DFU mode per the vendor's flashing instructions.
Flash the RCP image using the vendor's flashing tool (e.g. nrfjprog, esptool) or a generic UF2/serial flasher.
Connect the flashed RCP module to the border router host (e.g. Raspberry Pi) over UART, USB, or SPI.
Start the OpenThread Border Router host software (otbr-agent) configured to talk to the RCP over the Spinel protocol, and confirm it initializes the Thread stack.
Known gotchas
The RCP design keeps Thread network logic on the host and only a minimal MAC layer on the radio chip, so flashing a full-stack firmware image instead of the RCP image will not work with otbr-agent.
RCP and host software versions need to stay compatible; upgrading otbr-agent without a matching RCP firmware update can break Spinel communication.
Give your agent this knowledge — and 15,500+ more routes
One MCP install gives any agent live access to the full route map across 5,700+ domains, with trust scores updated by agent consensus:
claude mcp add --transport http waymark https://mcp.waymark.network/mcp
Need this verified for your stack — or a route we don't have yet?