decode_meshcore_packet, the path processor, the path chunkers, format_path_string and the route/payload type-name tables are now plain functions in packet_decode.py. MessageHandler keeps every old method as a delegate that supplies the configured prefix width and its logger, so callers and tests that patch decode_meshcore_packet on a handler still work. The existing quirk is preserved: path_info uses the configured width while path/path_hex follow the packet's own bytes-per-hop.
Parity: decoding a sample of 4,009 real packets from the dev database (plus malformed inputs) at prefix widths 2 and 4, with the path and format helpers, produces byte-identical output before and after. A handler built with no bot attribute now decodes path_info at width 2 instead of falling into the error branch; only bare test objects can hit that.
Five copies split a hex path into node IDs of N characters and fell back to one-byte nodes when the path did not divide evenly. They now call split_path_hex; the one caller that wanted uppercase nodes upper-cases the result. The observed-path parser that drops an incomplete trailing node instead of falling back keeps its own loop.
agessaman