Filter policy playground

Design and test policies for the proposed ground-up MeshCore forwarding engine. The playground models phased evaluation, immutable receive-time matches, explicit priority and stop behavior, ACL ownership, compact typed conditions, and accumulated forwarding decisions.

Everything runs locally in this browser. Channel keys, packet facts, and policy drafts are not uploaded anywhere.

Engine design preview

This page targets the new policy-engine idea, not today's FPF7 file or existing set flood.* commands. Its readable policy language, JSON, and Base64 bundle are a prototype for design testing. Current firmware cannot install these policies yet.

Build a policy

The presets below reproduce common examples from Flood Filtering and Moderation in the proposed rule model.

Remote login and direct routes

This policy controls flood retransmission only. Direct packets carry a supplied route and stay outside the filter, matching today's firmware. Local packet delivery also happens independently of the relay decision. Rules that can limit relayed REQ, RESPONSE, TXT_MSG, ANON_REQ, or PATH traffic receive a prominent warning because they can still reduce multi-hop remote-login reach. The analyzer warns instead of silently exempting those floods, because an exemption would make the documented high-traffic rules behave differently.

Drop-in replacements for documented settings Choose one to load its proposed-engine equivalent.

Scope all authenticated #rgdata set flood.channel.scope #rgdata scope=BlackHole86 Scope unscoped #rgdata after hop 3 type=grp_data hops=4+ channel=#rgdata in=none scope=BlackHole86 Rewrite #usa to #BlackHole86 channel=#rgdata in=scope:usa scope=BlackHole86 Rate-limit source path 860C type=any prefix=860C rate=10/min Stop lower rules for short-hop #rgdata hops=0-2 channel=#rgdata priority=200 stop Six-rule high-traffic mesh preset req 3+ | response 9+ | grp_data 3+ | login paths 9+ Limit a Public display name public "Noisy User" rate=5/min Drop a passive-blacklist path set flood.filter any all path=blacklist Factory OTA and #wardriving rows ota suspend=tempradio | #wardriving hops=5+ Login and other wildcard scopes login:* | other:* path=bucket:2

Rule builder

Create a policy rule

Reset form

Common match settings

Payload type or class Any payload type Class: group text and data Class: login/admin family Class: every other payload REQ RESPONSE TXT_MSG ACK ADVERT GRP_TXT GRP_DATA ANON_REQ PATH TRACE MULTIPART CONTROL OTA Reserved type 13 Reserved type 14 RAW_CUSTOM Received hops Authenticated channel (optional) Original incoming scope Path matcher No path condition Ordered 1/2/3-byte pbyte prefix Passive blacklist Path bucket 1 Path bucket 2 Path bucket 3 Path bucket 4 Path bucket 5 Path bucket 6 Own-ID loop: strict Own-ID loop: moderate Own-ID loop: minimal Ordered pbyte prefix Decrypted sender (optional) Temporary-radio state Either state Inactive Active

Common actions

Choosing a phase-specific action automatically selects a compatible phase and ACL owner. Open the advanced section to inspect or override those choices.

Forwarding verdict No verdict change Drop / do not retransmit Region-gate decision Leave global gate unchanged Require original allowed region Bypass global gate for this packet Scope rewrite target Do not rewrite scope Regionless public scope Configured region Target name Token rate per minute (optional) Burst tokens Rewrite timing Inherit normal behavior Fast-track rewrite Normal queue timing Slow receive/transmit timing Queue priority Inherit High Normal Low Retry path bucket No retry action Bucket 1 Bucket 2 Bucket 3 Bucket 4 Bucket 5 Bucket 6 Retry attempts Decision tag (optional)

Advanced execution, ownership, and flood route

Direct packets already carry a supplied path and are intentionally outside this engine. The route condition below only distinguishes unscoped floods from transport-scoped floods.

Stable rule ID Processing phase 1 - Incoming scope gate 2 - Scope rewrite 3 - Forwarding decision 4 - Decrypted content 5 - Scheduling and retry Rule owner / capability ACL 4 - Region/scope manager ACL 5 - Filter manager Administrator Firmware-managed system rule Priority Mode Active Shadow - observe only Disabled Stop behavior after a match Continue processing Stop this phase Stop later policy phases Flood route Either flood route Unscoped flood only Transport-scoped flood only

Readable policy definition

Add rule to policy Copy definition

Policy draft

Rules in execution order

Clear policy

Approximate target budget Compact STM32 - 2 KB nRF52 - 8 KB Classic ESP32 - 16 KB Roomy ESP32 - 64 KB

Rules match the same immutable packet facts. Ordering is phase, then descending priority, then stable rule ID. Drop decisions are sticky.

Add a rule or load an example to start exploring.

Immutable packet simulator

Explain an evaluation

Reset packet

Read a raw MeshCore packet

Paste an on-air packet as hexadecimal. The decoder follows the MeshCore wire format, displays its header, route, pbyte path, and clear payload envelope, then loads only facts actually present on the wire into the simulator.

Runs locally

Raw packet hex 014e912ceebb98918b86772df5dacf1bcba9e4127ffffaa8665596aa3e2903a3b1901fdc53497dfca6b5d7df2d771bea68de

Decode and load packet

Received route Unscoped flood Transport-scoped flood Payload type REQ RESPONSE TXT_MSG ACK ADVERT GRP_TXT GRP_DATA ANON_REQ PATH TRACE MULTIPART CONTROL OTA Reserved type 13 Reserved type 14 RAW_CUSTOM Received hops Authenticated channel Received pbyte path Original scope status Unscoped Allowed region Unknown or denied scope Original scope name Resolved region name Decrypted sender Passive blacklist result No match Matched Matching path buckets Own-ID loop result No loop match Strict only Moderate and strict Minimal, moderate, and strict Temporary radio is active

Run policy simulation

Import and explain

Paste readable policy or a saved draft

Accepts one-line policy set ... when ... do ... definitions, playground JSON, or a playground Base64 bundle.

Explain input Load into builder

Export

Move or save this design

Readable policy Policy JSON Playground Base64

Proposed human-readable definition. Current firmware does not accept it yet.

Copy visible export Download JSON

Proposed evaluation contract

The simulator uses these rules:

1. Only flood retransmission enters the policy. Direct routing and local packet delivery remain outside it.
2. Every matcher reads the same immutable receive-time packet facts.
3. Rules run by phase, descending priority, then stable rule ID.
4. A drop decision is sticky and cannot be undone by a later rule.
5. The first matching scope, timing, queue, and retry action in execution order wins.
6. All matching token-bucket rate constraints remain attached to the decision.
7. stop=phase skips later rules in that phase. stop=policy skips later configurable rules, but never mandatory packet validation or radio safety.
8. Shadow rules report what they would do without changing the decision or stopping other rules.
9. Expensive facts such as channel authentication, decryption, and path-table lookup are resolved once per packet and reused by every matching rule.

The byte-budget display is deliberately approximate until the packed firmware codec exists. It demonstrates why simple mappings should not reserve a maximum- sized structure for every possible condition and action.