efiten b5c7612166 fix(live): use the shared WebSocket instead of opening a second one (#1991)
Closes #1980.

`app.js` opens a WebSocket on every page load and fans messages out
through `onWS()`/`offWS()`. `live.js` ignored that channel and opened
its own socket to the same endpoint. `Hub.Broadcast` does no per-client
filtering, so both carried the identical full packet stream and **every
viewer on the live map pulled it twice**. That page is the one people
leave open for hours, so it was a standing multiplier on origin
bandwidth rather than a burst.

## Measured, before and after

Against a running instance, leaving the live map and returning while
counting WebSocket constructions:

| | new sockets on re-entry | constructed by |
|---|---|---|
| before | 1 | `at connectWS (live.js:3315)` |
| after | 0 | nothing |

And with one viewer on the live map, the server now reports **one**
WebSocket client for that viewer, with the live feed counter climbing
normally (7 to 31 over one navigation cycle, 71 on a fresh load).

## The change

The live map subscribes to the shared channel like every other view, and
unsubscribes in `destroy()` rather than closing a socket the rest of the
app still needs.

`connectWS()` drops any existing registration before adding a fresh one.
An early return looks like the natural guard against double
subscription, but it keeps the previous visit's closure registered, and
re-registering without dropping the old one renders every packet twice.
Dropping first is idempotent either way and always binds the current
page.

Reconnection becomes `app.js`'s business, since it owns the socket. That
moved `WS_RECONNECT_MS` out of the only place that honoured it, so
`app.js` now uses it too. It comes from `roles.js` and operators set it
as `wsReconnectMs`; after this change it applies to the one socket
everyone shares, or to nothing at all.

## Tests

Three, in the sandbox that already loads `live.js` with a Leaflet mock:

- the page registers exactly one listener on the shared channel and
constructs no WebSocket of its own
- re-entering leaves exactly one listener, and it is the new one rather
than the previous visit's
- the handler ignores messages that carry no packet

`node test-frontend-helpers.js` passes (726 assertions), `node
test-packet-filter.js` passes.

## One note on the history

The second commit on this branch claims the early-return guard broke
rendering on re-entry, citing a real measurement. The measurement
happened, the attribution was wrong: the zero counter came from the
WebSocket constructor patch I had installed to count sockets, which
interfered with the page it was measuring. The third commit records that
rather than rewriting it away. The change is kept because dropping the
old registration first is the clearer contract, not because the guard
was broken.

## Rule 0

Strictly less work than before: one socket per viewer instead of two,
one JSON parse instead of two per packet, and no second reconnect loop.
Nothing is added to the hot path; a listener already existed for every
other view.
2026-09-09 23:16:13 +02:00
2026-04-05 06:36:03 +00:00
2026-03-20 05:38:23 +00:00

CoreScope

Go Server Coverage Go Ingestor Coverage E2E Tests Frontend Coverage Deploy

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 all 40+ API endpoints from an in-memory packet store with 5 indexes (hash, txID, obsID, observer, node). 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 4× speed.

Live VCR playback — watch packets flow across the Bay Area mesh

📦 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.

Packets view

🗺️ Network Overview

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

Network overview

📊 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.

Node analytics

💬 Channel Chat

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

Channels

📱 Mobile Ready

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

Live view on iOS

And More

  • 11 Analytics Tabs — RF, topology, channels, hash stats, distance, route patterns, 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
  • 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

Quick Start

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
PORT Override config port
DB_PATH Override SQLite database path

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

Or POST raw hex packets to POST /api/packets for manual injection.

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        # 327 test functions
│   └── ingestor/            # Go MQTT ingestor
│       ├── main.go          # MQTT subscription + packet processing
│       ├── decoder.go       # Packet decoder (shared logic)
│       ├── db.go            # SQLite write path
│       └── *_test.go        # 53 test functions
├── 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         # 11-tab 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
├── test-*.js                # Node.js test suite (frontend + legacy)
└── tools/                   # Generators, E2E tests, utilities

For Developers

Test Suite

380 Go tests covering the backend, plus 150+ Node.js tests for the frontend and legacy logic, plus 49 Playwright E2E tests for browser validation.

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

# Node.js frontend + integration tests
npm test

# Playwright E2E (requires running server on localhost:3000)
node 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.00id.net — all API 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

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