meshcore-analyzer/README.md

CoreScope

High-performance mesh network analyzer powered by Go. Sub-millisecond packet queries, ~300 MB memory for 56K+ packets, real-time WebSocket broadcast, full channel decryption.

Self-hosted, open-source MeshCore packet analyzer. Collects MeshCore packets via MQTT, decodes them in real time, and presents a full web UI with live packet feed, interactive maps, channel chat, packet tracing, and per-node analytics.

⚡ Performance

The Go backend serves its packet and analytics API from an in-memory packet store with 7 indexes (hash, txID, obsID, observer, node, path hop, payload type). SQLite is for persistence only — reads never touch disk.

Metric	Value
Packet queries	< 1 ms (in-memory)
All API endpoints	< 100 ms
Memory (56K packets)	~300 MB (vs 1.3 GB on Node.js)
WebSocket broadcast	Real-time to all connected browsers
Channel decryption	AES-128-ECB with rainbow table
GOMEMLIMIT (memory-constrained hosts)	set to ≥1.5× working set (e.g. 1536 MiB on a 2 GB Pi for a ~1 GB store). Lower values trigger a GC death-spiral. Configure via the GOMEMLIMIT env var or runtime.maxMemoryMB in config.json; env wins. Applies to both server and ingestor. See #1010.

See PERFORMANCE.md for full benchmarks.

✨ Features

📡 Live Trace Map

Real-time animated map with packet route visualization, VCR-style playback controls, and a retro LCD clock. Replay the last 24 hours of mesh activity, scrub through the timeline, or watch packets flow live at up to 8× speed.

📦 Packet Feed

Filterable real-time packet stream with byte-level breakdown, Excel-like resizable columns, and a detail pane. Toggle "My Nodes" to focus on your mesh.

🗺️ Network Overview

At-a-glance mesh stats — node counts, packet volume, observer coverage.

📊 Node Analytics

Per-node deep dive with interactive charts: activity timeline, packet type breakdown, SNR distribution, hop count analysis, peer network graph, and hourly heatmap.

💬 Channel Chat

Decoded group messages with sender names, @mentions, timestamps — like reading a Discord channel for your mesh.

📱 Mobile Ready

Full experience on your phone — proper touch controls, iOS safe area support, and a compact VCR bar.

And More

• 17 Analytics Tabs — RF, topology, channels, hash stats, distance, route patterns, scopes, and more
• Node Directory — searchable list with role tabs, detail panel, QR codes, advert timeline
• Packet Tracing — follow individual packets across observers with SNR/RSSI timeline
• Observer Status — health monitoring, packet counts, uptime, per-observer analytics
• Hash Collision Matrix — detect address collisions across the mesh
• Scope Audit: per repeater, which declared regions show no forwarding and which scopes it forwards without declaring them
• Channel Key Auto-Derivation — hashtag channels (#channel) keys derived via SHA256
• Multi-Broker MQTT — connect to multiple brokers with per-source IATA filtering
• Dark / Light Mode — auto-detects system preference, map tiles swap too
• Theme Customizer — design your theme in-browser, export as theme.json
• Global Search — search packets, nodes, and channels (Ctrl+K)
• Shareable URLs — deep links to packets, channels, and observer detail pages
• Protobuf API Contract — typed API definitions in proto/
• Accessible — ARIA patterns, keyboard navigation, screen reader support

Optional Features

Off by default, enabled in config.json:

• User Accounts: registration with email activation, settings sync, an admin area, hashtag channel proposals, mail notifications for watched nodes, and a personal data export. The dashboard stays public. See docs/user-guide/accounts.md
• Mobile RX Coverage: crowdsourced coverage from phones connected to a companion radio, drawn as hex bins on the RX Coverage page and on each node's Reach page. See docs/client-rx-coverage.md

Quick Start

Pre-built Image (Recommended)

No build step required — just run:

docker run -d --name corescope \
  --restart=unless-stopped \
  -p 80:80 -p 1883:1883 \
  -v /your/data:/app/data \
  ghcr.io/kpa-clawbot/corescope:latest

Open http://localhost — done. No config file needed; CoreScope starts with sensible defaults.

For HTTPS with a custom domain, add -p 443:443 and mount your Caddyfile:

docker run -d --name corescope \
  --restart=unless-stopped \
  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -p 1883:1883 \
  -v /your/data:/app/data \
  -v /your/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro \
  -v /your/caddy-data:/data/caddy \
  ghcr.io/kpa-clawbot/corescope:latest

Disable built-in services with -e DISABLE_MOSQUITTO=true or -e DISABLE_CADDY=true, or drop a .env file in your data volume. See docs/deployment.md for the full reference.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/Kpa-clawbot/CoreScope.git
cd CoreScope
./manage.sh setup

The setup wizard walks you through config, domain, HTTPS, build, and run.

./manage.sh status       # Health check + packet/node counts
./manage.sh logs         # Follow logs
./manage.sh backup       # Backup database
./manage.sh update       # Pull latest + rebuild + restart
./manage.sh mqtt-test    # Check if observer data is flowing
./manage.sh help         # All commands

Configure

Copy config.example.json to config.json and edit:

{
  "port": 3000,
  "mqtt": {
    "broker": "mqtt://localhost:1883",
    "topic": "meshcore/+/+/packets"
  },
  "mqttSources": [
    {
      "name": "remote-feed",
      "broker": "mqtts://remote-broker:8883",
      "topics": ["meshcore/+/+/packets"],
      "username": "user",
      "password": "pass",
      "iataFilter": ["SJC", "SFO", "OAK"]
    }
  ],
  "channelKeys": {
    "public": "8b3387e9c5cdea6ac9e5edbaa115cd72"
  },
  "defaultRegion": "SJC"
}

Field	Description
port	HTTP server port (default: 3000)
mqtt.broker	Local MQTT broker URL ("" to disable)
mqttSources	External MQTT broker connections (optional)
channelKeys	Channel decryption keys (hex). Hashtag channels auto-derived via SHA256
defaultRegion	Default IATA region code for the UI
dbPath	SQLite database path (default: data/meshcore.db)

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
DB_PATH	Override SQLite database path
GOMEMLIMIT	Go soft memory limit, wins over runtime.maxMemoryMB

The HTTP port is set with port in config.json or the server's -port flag.

Architecture

                           ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
                           │              Docker Container               │
                           │                                             │
Observer → USB →           │  Mosquitto ──→ Go Ingestor ──→ SQLite DB   │
  meshcoretomqtt → MQTT ──→│                    │                        │
                           │              Go HTTP Server ──→ WebSocket   │
                           │                    │               │        │
                           │              Caddy (HTTPS) ←───────┘        │
                           └────────────────────┼────────────────────────┘
                                                │
                                             Browser

Two-process model: The Go ingestor handles MQTT ingestion and packet decoding. The Go HTTP server loads all packets into an in-memory store on startup (5 indexes for fast lookups) and serves the REST API + WebSocket broadcast. Both are managed by supervisord inside a single container with Caddy for HTTPS and Mosquitto for local MQTT.

MQTT Setup

1. Flash an observer node with MESH_PACKET_LOGGING=1 build flag
2. Connect via USB to a host running meshcoretomqtt
3. Configure meshcoretomqtt with your IATA region code and MQTT broker address
4. Packets appear on topic meshcore/{IATA}/{PUBKEY}/packets

To decode a single raw hex packet without storing it, use POST /api/decode.

Project Structure

corescope/
├── cmd/
│   ├── server/              # Go HTTP server + WebSocket + REST API
│   │   ├── main.go          # Entry point
│   │   ├── routes.go        # 40+ API endpoint handlers
│   │   ├── store.go         # In-memory packet store (5 indexes)
│   │   ├── db.go            # SQLite persistence layer
│   │   ├── decoder.go       # MeshCore packet decoder
│   │   ├── websocket.go     # WebSocket broadcast
│   │   └── *_test.go        # Server tests
│   └── ingestor/            # Go MQTT ingestor
│       ├── main.go          # MQTT subscription + packet processing
│       ├── decoder.go       # Packet decoder (shared logic)
│       ├── db.go            # SQLite write path
│       └── *_test.go        # Ingestor tests
├── proto/                   # Protobuf API definitions
├── public/                  # Vanilla JS frontend (no build step)
│   ├── index.html           # SPA shell
│   ├── app.js               # Router, WebSocket, utilities
│   ├── packets.js           # Packet feed + hex breakdown
│   ├── map.js               # Leaflet map + route visualization
│   ├── live.js              # Live trace + VCR playback
│   ├── channels.js          # Channel chat
│   ├── nodes.js             # Node directory + detail views
│   ├── analytics.js         # Analytics dashboard
│   └── style.css            # CSS variable theming (light/dark)
├── docker/
│   ├── supervisord-go.conf  # Process manager (server + ingestor)
│   ├── mosquitto.conf       # MQTT broker config
│   ├── Caddyfile            # Reverse proxy + HTTPS
│   └── entrypoint-go.sh     # Container entrypoint
├── Dockerfile               # Multi-stage Go build + Alpine runtime
├── config.example.json      # Example configuration
├── tests/                   # Node.js test suite: unit/ (test-all.sh) and e2e/ (Playwright)
├── test-all.sh              # Runs every suite in tests/unit
└── tools/                   # Generators, E2E tests, utilities

For Developers

Building

make build        # all four binaries for your machine, into dist/
make build-server # just one
make crossbuild   # static linux/amd64 + linux/arm64 binaries

The SQLite driver is mattn/go-sqlite3, which is cgo, so a plain GOOS=linux go build from a Mac will not work: cross-compiling needs a C compiler that can target the other platform. make crossbuild uses zig as that compiler (install it and it just works) and links statically against musl, so the result is one self-contained file that runs on Alpine or scratch. The container build does the same thing — see Dockerfile.

Test Suite

Go tests cover the backend, Node.js unit tests in tests/unit/ cover the frontend logic, and Playwright tests in tests/e2e/ validate the UI in a browser.

# Go backend tests
cd cmd/server && go test ./... -v
cd cmd/ingestor && go test ./... -v

# Or across all 16 modules at once
make test

# Node.js frontend + integration tests
npm test

# Playwright E2E (requires running server on localhost:3000)
node tests/e2e/test-e2e-playwright.js

Generate Test Data

node tools/generate-packets.js --api --count 200

Migrating from Node.js

If you're running an existing Node.js deployment, see docs/go-migration.md for a step-by-step guide. The Go engine reads the same SQLite database and config.json — no data migration needed.

Contributing

Contributions welcome. Please read AGENTS.md for coding conventions, testing requirements, and engineering principles before submitting a PR.

Live instance: analyzer.on8ar.eu: all read endpoints are public, no auth required.

API Documentation: CoreScope auto-generates an OpenAPI 3.0 spec. Browse the interactive Swagger UI at /api/docs or fetch the machine-readable spec at /api/spec.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later