l5y
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* web: fix live-update DOM handling * web: live-update feedback upgrades (v2) * web: more live-update feedback * web: address review comments
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PotatoMesh — Product & Engineering Charter (SPEC)
Status: Draft for confirmation (Phase 0 of the kickoff protocol). Nature: This is a retrofit guardrail charter for a mature, shipping project (v0.7). It does not design new behavior — it codifies the intent and non-negotiable invariants that already hold, judged against current shipping behavior, so future work by Claude or contributors cannot drift from them. The numbered decisions in §6 must be re-verified at every later checkpoint (each build bucket, the independent review) to prevent drift.
Companion document: ACCEPTANCE.md turns every invariant and
decision below into a command-backed, zero-context pass/fail check.
1. Vision & Apex
PotatoMesh is a federated Meshtastic & MeshCore node dashboard for a local community. No MQTT clutter — just local LoRa aether.
It lets a community stand up its own dashboard fed only by radios its members actually operate, optionally federate as equals with other communities, and do so while respecting the privacy of operators and node owners.
Apex invariant — the line in the sand
Local LoRa only. PotatoMesh must never connect to, depend on, or ingest from an MQTT broker or any cloud message bus.
This is the project's identity and its differentiator: every other Meshtastic dashboard leans on MQTT/cloud. "Local aether only" is what makes PotatoMesh PotatoMesh. When any other invariant, feature, or convenience collides with this rule, this rule wins. Its loss would mean the project is no longer PotatoMesh.
Precision (so the rule is enforceable, not superstitious): the apex bans
PotatoMesh acting as an MQTT/cloud client or carrying such a dependency. It
does not ban recording Meshtastic's own via_mqtt / viaMqtt provenance
flag (data/mesh_ingestor/handlers/nodeinfo.py). That field is metadata about
how a foreign node was heard; surfacing it actually serves the invariant by
letting operators identify and reason about MQTT-bridged nodes. The acceptance
check targets dependencies and broker connections, not the substring mqtt.
2. The Four Hard Invariants (ranked)
All four are non-negotiable. They are listed in priority order: when two collide, the higher-ranked one wins. In practice they rarely conflict; the only conflict that occurs in the running system today (privacy vs. federation) is already resolved below and in code.
I. Local LoRa only — never MQTT/cloud (apex)
The dashboard is fed exclusively by ingestors attached to physical radios
(serial / TCP / BLE) that push data through the authenticated POST /api/*
routes. No component pulls from MQTT or a cloud broker, and no manifest carries
a broker client. See Apex.
II. Privacy & consent first
PRIVATE=1 hides the chat UI, disables the message APIs, and excludes hidden
clients from public listings. Node opt-out markers
(PotatoMesh::Config::NODE_OPT_OUT_MARKER) and data-retention policies
(web/lib/potato_mesh/application/retention.rb) are honored everywhere data is
read or exported. When privacy collides with federation, privacy wins —
PRIVATE=1 always disables federation regardless of FEDERATION. Any change
that increases exposure of operators or node owners loses to consent, retention,
and opt-out.
III. Decentralized, opt-in federation
Instances discover and crawl one another as peers (FEDERATION toggle, periodic
well-known refresh, staleness eviction). There is no central authority,
registry, or gatekeeper; any instance can run fully isolated (FEDERATION=0)
and remain fully functional. Federation publishes only signed, public metadata
and respects remote isPrivate peers (application/federation/crawl.rb).
IV. Protocol parity & pluggability
Meshtastic and MeshCore are both first-class; neither is privileged in the data
model or UI. New protocols (e.g. Reticulum) plug in behind the MeshProtocol
abstraction (data/mesh_ingestor/mesh_protocol.py) and the canonical wire
contract (data/mesh_ingestor/CONTRACTS.md) without changing the Ruby / DB /
UI read-side.
3. Cross-cutting decisions
3.1 Invariant priority / tie-break order
Local-LoRa (apex) → Privacy & consent → Federation → Parity. Higher wins on
collision. The documented PRIVATE > FEDERATION rule is the concrete instance
of Privacy > Federation and must remain true in code.
3.2 Fixed technology stack (per component)
The stack is a guardrail, not an implementation detail. It is fixed per component; a rewrite into another language/framework requires a fresh kickoff, not an incremental PR.
| Component | Stack (locked) |
|---|---|
web/ |
Ruby + Sinatra ~> 4, SQLite (sqlite3), Puma, Rackup, kramdown, sanitize, ferrum (headless Chromium for OG image), prometheus-client |
data/ |
Python ingestor — meshtastic, meshcore, bleak (BLE), protobuf; black + pytest |
matrix/ |
Rust — tokio, reqwest (rustls-tls), axum, serde, clap, tracing |
app/ |
Flutter / Dart — http, shared_preferences, flutter_local_notifications, workmanager |
3.3 The web app is data-in-by-POST only
The Sinatra app is never run attached to a radio. Its only data intake is the
authenticated POST /api/* surface; this is what allows many community ingestors
to feed one dashboard with no duplication (dedup by id). SQLite is the system of
record.
3.4 Stable data & API contract
- Canonical node id is
!%08x(lowercase 8-hex), treated as canonical system-wide; new protocols must map their native ids into this space. - The
POST/GETroute shapes and event schemas indata/mesh_ingestor/CONTRACTS.mdare the contract. They evolve backward-compatibly; a breaking change must be versioned (as the MeshCore dedup fingerprint already is:v1:prefix). POSTroutes requireAuthorization: Bearer <API_TOKEN>;GETcollection routes enforce server-side rolling-window floors that callers cannot widen.
3.5 Engineering quality bar (from CLAUDE.md, non-negotiable for new code)
- 100% unit test coverage — every line, branch, and path. Codecov target
100%, threshold 10%, enforced on both
projectandpatch. - 100% API documentation to the language standard (PDoc / RDoc / JSDoc / rustdoc / dartdoc), plus inline comments where logic is not self-evident.
- Apache v2 notice on every file, exact string
Copyright © 2025-26 l5yth & contributors— full header block for source files, 2-line notice for non-source files. - Formatters clean:
black(Python),rufo(Ruby). - All suites green:
pytest(data),rspec+npm test(web),cargo test(matrix),flutter test(app). - CI on every PR to
mainand every push tomain, covering each touched language; weekly Dependabot for every ecosystem. - Modularity: prefer small, single-purpose units; split modules that grow large.
4. Per-component scope
4.1 web/ — Sinatra dashboard (mature)
The only public surface and the system of record. Serves the map + chat UI and
the read APIs; accepts ingest via authenticated POST; performs federation
(well-known doc, peer crawl, staleness eviction), Prometheus /metrics,
OG-image generation, and custom Markdown pages. Enforces invariants II & III.
4.2 data/mesh_ingestor — Python ingestor (mature)
The only component that touches radios and the only data source. Connects
over serial / TCP / BLE, normalizes Meshtastic and MeshCore packets to the
canonical contract, and POSTs them. Multiple ingestors per instance are
supported. Embodies invariants I & IV; honors ALLOWED_CHANNELS /
HIDDEN_CHANNELS and sentinel-position normalization.
4.3 matrix/ — Matrix bridge (WIP, read-only)
A one-way reader bridge: it reads messages from a PotatoMesh instance's
public API and forwards them to a configured Matrix channel. No radio. It is a
consumer of the public API and must not introduce any new ingest path; it
respects PRIVATE (no messages to forward when message APIs are disabled).
4.4 app/ — Flutter mobile app (WIP, read-only)
A read-only mobile reader of messages on the local aether. GET-only client;
no posting, no radio. Respects PRIVATE.
WIP boundary: the Matrix bridge and mobile app are feature-bounded as readers above, but are held to the same engineering bar (§3.5) as the mature components — 100% test/doc/license/CI applies to all code regardless of maturity.
5. Non-goals (explicit)
- No MQTT/cloud ingest path — ever. (Apex.)
- No central federation authority, registry, or gatekeeper. Federation is peer-to-peer and opt-in.
- No analytics, tracking, or phone-home. The only outbound traffic is opt-in federation of signed public metadata.
- The web app is never radio-attached — data arrives only via authenticated
POST. - No privileging of one mesh protocol over another in the data model or UI.
6. Key decisions (confirmation checklist)
Per the kickoff protocol, every item below must be confirmed explicitly
before I proceed to ACCEPTANCE.md. Confirm all, or call out any D# to change.
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| D1 | This SPEC is a retrofit guardrail charter, judged against current shipping behavior — not a design for new features. | interview |
| D2 | Apex invariant = Local-LoRa-only / never MQTT or cloud, and it wins every collision. The ban targets broker dependencies & connections, not recording Meshtastic's via_mqtt provenance flag. |
interview + code |
| D3 | The four hard invariants (all non-negotiable): I Local-LoRa-only, II Privacy & consent, III Decentralized opt-in federation, IV Protocol parity & pluggability. | interview |
| D4 | Priority / tie-break order: Local-LoRa → Privacy → Federation → Parity. PRIVATE > FEDERATION is preserved as the concrete Privacy > Federation rule. |
proposed |
| D5 | Doc layout: two root files — SPEC.md + ACCEPTANCE.md — each opening with vision + ranked invariants, then per-component sections. |
interview |
| D6 | ACCEPTANCE.md enforces four layers, each as a command-backed, zero-context check: (a) invariant conformance, (b) the restated engineering bar, (c) API & event contracts, (d) operator-facing behavior. |
interview |
| D7 | Stack is fixed per component (web=Ruby/Sinatra 4+SQLite, data=Python, matrix=Rust, app=Flutter); a language/framework rewrite needs a new kickoff. | proposed |
| D8 | Data/API contract is stable & backward-compatible: canonical !%08x ids, the CONTRACTS.md shapes, POST auth, GET window floors; breaking changes must be versioned. |
proposed + code |
| D9 | Engineering quality bar (§3.5) is part of acceptance and applies to all new code: 100% tests, 100% docs, Apache headers, linters, CI on PR+push, weekly Dependabot, Codecov 100%/10% on project and patch. | CLAUDE.md |
| D10 | Component scope/status: web + ingestor are mature (full feature acceptance); matrix bridge = one-way reader, mobile app = read-only reader (both WIP, no radio, no new ingest path) — all held to the same engineering bar. | README + interview |
| D11 | Non-goals (§5) are in force: no MQTT ingest, no central federation authority, no analytics/phone-home, web never radio-attached, no protocol privileging. | proposed |
Feature: Chat channel test-deprioritization
Pushes throwaway "test"/"ping"/"bot" channels to the end of the chat channel
tabs so a community's real channels lead. Presentation-only; integrates solely
with the channel-ordering sort in
web/public/assets/js/app/chat-log-tabs.js (buildChatTabModel).
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| F1 | Three-tier channel-tab ordering in the dashboard and /chat: (1) default/primary channels (channel index 0 — e.g. Public, MediumFast, "0"); (2) custom channels (index > 0, e.g. hashtag channels); (3) test channels last. Within each tier the existing ordering is preserved unchanged: 7-day message-count descending, then label alphabetical. |
interview |
| F2 | Test-channel detection is by the channel's resolved display label: the label contains the standalone word ping, test, or bot, case-insensitive, matched at word boundaries. So "Camping", "Robotics", "Contest", "Botswana" are not test channels; concatenated forms ("MyBot", "test2") are intentionally not matched either — the rule favors zero false positives over catching every variant. |
interview |
| F3 | Default/primary channels are never demoted. Test classification only reorders custom (index > 0) channels; an index-0 channel always leads even if its name matches a keyword, so the primary community feed is never hidden. | interview |
| F4 | Presentation-only & protocol-neutral. Reorders tabs only — no change to channel membership, message contents/counts, the default-active tab (still the primary), or any data/API surface. Detection is by channel name and identical for MeshCore and Meshtastic, so the change extends Invariant IV (protocol parity) without privileging either protocol. | interview |
Feature: /api/stats activity counts (messages & telemetry)
Extends GET /api/stats from active-node counts only to a uniform
{ scope: { metric: { hour, day, week, month } } } tree covering nodes,
messages, and telemetry, each as a grand total and a per-protocol
breakdown. The response shape changes incompatibly, so the change is a
versioned breaking change released as 0.7.0 with one-way federation
compatibility (new instances read old peers; old instances reading a new peer
degrade gracefully to their existing node-list fallback). Integrates with
web/lib/potato_mesh/application/queries/node_queries.rb
(query_active_node_stats), the GET /api/stats route in
application/routes/api.rb, the federation consumer in
application/federation/crawl.rb, PotatoMesh::Config.version_fallback, and
data/mesh_ingestor/CONTRACTS.md.
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| S1 | Breaking, versioned response shape. /api/stats returns { <scope>: { <metric>: { hour, day, week, month } }, sampled } where <scope> ∈ {total, meshcore, meshtastic, reticulum} and <metric> ∈ {nodes, messages, telemetry}. This breaks the prior flat shape (active_nodes / flat meshcore / flat meshtastic) and is therefore a versioned break per D8: it ships under a minor bump to 0.7.0, applied in lockstep across the five language manifests that tests/test_version_sync.py keeps in sync (data.VERSION, Config.version_fallback, web/package.json, app/pubspec.yaml, matrix/Cargo.toml + Cargo.lock), plus the maintainer's git tag v0.7.0 release. Explicitly amends D8's "evolve backward-compatibly" expectation for this route; the apex (I) and privacy (II) invariants are untouched. |
interview (D8 amendment) |
| S2 | total is unfiltered; protocol scopes are subsets. total.<metric> counts all rows regardless of protocol; meshcore / meshtastic / reticulum are WHERE protocol = ? subsets (so total ≥ Σ named protocols). total.nodes reproduces the prior active_nodes, and meshcore.nodes / meshtastic.nodes reproduce the prior flat per-protocol node counts — identical values, relocated. |
interview |
| S3 | telemetry is an umbrella metric. The telemetry count aggregates positions + telemetry + neighbors + traces (every non-message, non-nodeinfo packet record), counted by each table's rx_time. messages counts the messages table by rx_time; nodes counts nodes by last_heard (unchanged from today). |
interview |
| S4 | Activity windows unchanged. Every count uses the existing cutoffs — hour (3600s), day (86 400s), week (week_seconds), month (four_weeks_seconds) — so no count can surface activity beyond the 28-day API visibility floor (preserves C4 / MAX_QUERY_LIMIT reasoning). |
interview + code |
| S5 | Privacy: messages zeroed in private mode (Invariant II). When private_mode?, every messages count (in total and all protocol scopes) is 0, mirroring the PRIVATE=1 message-API 404 (A2a) so stats never leak message volume that privacy hides. Node counts keep the CLIENT_HIDDEN exclusion; all metrics honor the node opt-out marker via the per-table opt-out filter (opt_out_self_filter for nodes; opt_out_node_id_filter / opt_out_node_num_filter for the message and telemetry-umbrella tables, matching the existing list endpoints). Telemetry/positions/neighbors/traces are not gated by PRIVATE, so those counts remain reported. |
interview |
| S6 | reticulum is a forward-looking zero stub. A reticulum scope is always emitted with all-zero counts and an in-code # stub comment, so the shape extends to future protocols without another break. It adds no ingest path (Invariant I), privileges no protocol (Invariant IV), and does not enter KNOWN_PROTOCOLS (which still gates the ?protocol= query param at meshcore + meshtastic). |
interview |
| S7 | One-way federation compatibility (new reads old). Federation consumers (crawl.rb) try the new shape first (total.nodes[window], meshcore.nodes.day, meshtastic.nodes.day) then fall back to the old shape (active_nodes[window], meshcore.day, meshtastic.day), then to the existing node-list fallback. Detection is structural (key presence/shape) — no in-band version field. New instances read both old and new peers; old instances reading a new peer degrade gracefully (the accepted one-way limit). |
interview |
Bugfix: API casing consistency
Removes two casing inconsistencies on the HTTP API, shipped within the same
versioned 0.7.0 break. Background: every read collection (/api/nodes,
/api/messages, /api/positions, …) and /api/stats already emit snake_case;
the lone camelCase read response was /version, and POST /api/nodes was the
lone camelCase ingest input (Meshtastic-shaped). PotatoMesh is multi-protocol
and no longer bound to the Meshtastic JSON convention, so the contract is amended
to standardise on snake_case while preserving compatibility where it is load-bearing.
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| BF1 | /version response is snake_case. Top-level last_node_update and the config block (site_name, map_center {lat,lon}, private_mode, instance_domain, contact_link, contact_link_url, max_distance_km, refresh_interval_seconds) replace the prior camelCase keys. A versioned breaking change (0.7.0); consumers are the Flutter app and external clients. |
interview |
| BF2 | POST /api/nodes additionally accepts snake_case node fields (last_heard, user.short_name/long_name/hw_model, device_metrics.battery_level, position.location_source, …) via a nil-aware pick_alias (a false camelCase value is never overridden by a snake_case alias). Additive — the Python ingestor's camelCase output keeps working, so no ingestor change is required. |
interview |
| BF3 | The signed federation wire is unchanged (Invariant III). /.well-known/potato-mesh and /api/instances keep their camelCase keys (isPrivate, lastUpdateTime, nodesCount, …) because those keys are inside the instance signature (federation/signature.rb); renaming them would break cross-version signature verification bilaterally. Superseded by FS1–FS6 (next release): the wire is deliberately migrated to snake_case v2 with a signature_version marker and v1-backward-accept, so the break is one-way and versioned rather than silent. |
code |
| BF4 | Out of scope (deferred). The Flutter app's /version reader (app/lib/main.dart) and the server→frontend data-app-config DOM channel (frontend_app_config) keep camelCase for now and are tracked as separate follow-ups; the frontend dashboard is unaffected (it reads data-app-config, not /version). |
interview |
| BF5 | POST /api/instances accepts snake_case aliases for its optional fields (contact_link, nodes_count, meshcore_nodes_count, meshtastic_nodes_count) in addition to camelCase (third-party / cross-version compat); id/lastUpdateTime/isPrivate were already dual-keyed. The signed canonical payload (camelCase) is unchanged. (I6) Superseded by FS1 (the signed canonical and announced payload are now snake_case v2; the dual-key acceptance remains as the v1-backward path). |
interview |
| BF6 | Position time is exposed only as position_time (unix int) on GET responses; the redundant ISO twin (pos_time_iso on /api/nodes, position_time_iso on /api/positions) is removed — clients format it themselves. (I2) |
interview |
| BF7 | All POST /api/* ingest routes return 201 Created (was 200), matching /api/instances. The Python ingestor accepts any 2xx (queue.py urlopen); the matrix bridge is GET-only. (I3) |
interview |
| BF8 | List POST routes validate the top-level payload. /api/messages, /positions, /telemetry, /neighbors, /traces reject a non-Array/non-Hash body with 400 {"error":"invalid payload"}, matching /api/nodes strictness. (I5) |
interview |
Bugfix/Migration: Federation signature v2 (snake_case wire, signed counts)
Migrates the federation wire (instance announcement, GET /api/instances,
/.well-known/potato-mesh) from camelCase to snake_case and closes the
unsigned-field gap, as a deliberate, versioned break to Invariant III with
receiver-side backward compatibility. The two signed surfaces keep distinct roles
(well-known = fetched-from-origin identity anchor; announcement = relayable
attribute bundle) but share one snake_case canonicalizer, one signature_version
marker, and one fallback chain (option U0).
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| FS1 | Snake_case federation wire via one shared canonicalizer: public_key (was publicKey/pubkey), last_update (was lastUpdate/lastUpdateTime), is_private, contact_link, nodes_count, meshcore_nodes_count, meshtastic_nodes_count, reticulum_nodes_count, signature_algorithm, signed_payload, signature_version. Single-token keys (id, domain, name, version, channel, frequency, latitude, longitude, signature) unchanged. DB columns (pubkey, last_update_time) stay internal, mapped at the wire boundary. |
interview |
| FS2 | Every announced count is signed — the announcement canonical includes nodes_count, meshcore_nodes_count, meshtastic_nodes_count, and a forward-compat reticulum_nodes_count (0 until a Reticulum ingestor exists); no unsigned attribute remains in the announcement. Counts are still recomputed from the peer's live /api/nodes on receipt — the signature authenticates the sender's snapshot (integrity), the recompute keeps the displayed figure fresh. |
interview |
| FS3 | signature_version is stamped inside the signed canonical (not only the envelope), so the format cannot be silently downgraded. Current version = 2; legacy payloads without it are treated as v1. |
interview |
| FS4 | Send-snake, accept-both (U0). Instances sign and send v2 (snake). verify_instance_signature and the well-known validator try the v2 snake canonical, then fall back to the v1 camel canonical, each composed with the existing contact_link-strip and domain-casing fallbacks. One canonicalizer + fallback chain is shared by both signers (their field sets differ; the mechanism/casing/marker/fallback are shared). |
interview |
| FS5 | Versioned one-way break (amends Invariant III, mirrors S7): old peers cannot verify a v2 signature and stop accepting this instance until upgraded (accepted cost); new instances accept old peers' v1 signatures, so a mixed fleet converges. | interview |
| FS6 | last_update is the sole wire name for the instance update time across both signed surfaces. |
interview |
| FS7 | Flutter /api/instances reader deferred (extends BF4). app/lib/main.dart MeshInstance.fromJson still reads isPrivate/lastUpdateTime (camelCase) and is intentionally not migrated, consistent with the standing decision to defer all Flutter work. Low impact: GET /api/instances never serves an is_private: true entry (private instances 404 the endpoint via federation_enabled?; remote private peers are rejected at registration/crawl), so privacy stays enforced server-side — the stale reads only blank the app's last_update/is_private display until the client is updated. |
review |
Feature: Frontend persistent data cache
Persists the dashboard's read-side data in the browser so a reload or revisit paints instantly from cache and only cache misses (absent or stale rows) hit the API. Frontend-only (vanilla JS, existing stack); no API/DB/ingestor change.
Conflict check against existing decisions. Apex I (local LoRa) —
consistent: storage is the local browser only, no broker/cloud, no new
dependency. Invariant IV (parity) — extends: the cache is keyed by the
canonical !%08x id uniformly across protocols, privileging neither. D8
(contract + GET window floors) — consistent/extends: no API change, the
client TTL is bounded by the server's visibility window, and the cache schema is
versioned in D8's spirit. §3.3 (SQLite is the system of record) —
consistent: the cache is a read-side performance layer that defers to the
server for freshness (hence the 24 h node TTL). Invariant II (privacy & consent)
— contradicts as-is (persisting messages and node positions to disk is new
on-disk retention) and is therefore explicitly amended for this read-side
cache by FC4; the apex is untouched.
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| FC1 | Persistent, id-keyed client cache. Every dashboard GET collection — nodes, messages (incl. encrypted), positions, telemetry, neighbors, traces — is cached in the browser via IndexedDB (chosen over localStorage because a busy instance's rows exceed the ~5 MB synchronous-string budget), keyed by the canonical record id; neighbors use their existing composite (node_id, neighbor_id) key. The cache survives reload and revisit. |
interview |
| FC2 | Seed-then-delta refresh (reconciles "only misses fetch" with a live view). On load the UI paints from cache and each collection's since high-water mark is seeded from the newest cached row; the existing auto-refresh then fetches only rows newer than the cache and merges by id (the established since/mergeById model). A cache miss = a row/collection absent or past its TTL → fetched. The auto-refresh cadence is unchanged. |
interview |
| FC3 | Two-tier lifetime — staleness (refetch) ≠ eviction (delete), per collection. A cached entry becomes stale (a fresh fetch is preferred over the cached copy) after its staleness TTL; it is evicted (deleted) only after its longer retention window, and nothing younger than 7 days is ever evicted — so an inactive node stays cached and displayed up to 7 days instead of vanishing at its 24 h staleness (we must not lose inactive nodes). Per collection: nodes → stale 24 h (metadata mutates), evict 7 d; traces & neighbors → stale + evict 28 d; messages, positions, telemetry → stale + evict 7 d. No window exceeds the server's own visibility floor (7-day bulk list; 28-day per-id node & trace windows = four_weeks_seconds / TRACE_MAX_AGE_SECONDS), so the cache never surfaces rows the API would no longer return (C4). |
interview |
| FC4 | Privacy safeguards — amends Invariant II. New client-side persistence is permitted only bounded: (i) when the instance reports PRIVATE mode the cache is disabled and any existing cache is wiped; (ii) only data the API already returns is stored (opt-out / CLIENT_HIDDEN rows are server-excluded; a node opt-out propagates to clients within the 24 h node TTL); (iii) TTL caps per FC3; (iv) a clear-cache operation (clearDataCache) that empties the store on demand — the action behind a "clear cached data" control; the visible UI control is a tracked follow-up (deferred), the capability ships and is tested now. This explicitly amends Invariant II for the dashboard read-side cache; consent/retention/opt-out remain authoritative and the apex (I) is untouched. |
interview (II amendment) |
| FC5 | Bounded size. The FC3 retention windows (evict oldest-first beyond each collection's window) together with the API's own row caps (NODE_LIMIT, snapshot limits) bound the store, so it cannot grow without bound. |
interview |
| FC6 | Versioned cache schema. The cache carries a schema-version tag; a version bump — or a change of instance identity (e.g. instance_domain) — discards the cache, so a data-shape change can never serve mis-shaped entries. Mirrors D8 ("breaking changes are versioned"). |
proposed |
| FC7 | Read-side only, graceful degradation. The cache never feeds any POST/ingest path and never alters API responses (§3.3, Apex I). If browser storage is unavailable, quota-exceeded, or throws, the app silently falls back to today's network-only behavior. | proposed |
Feature: Asset cache-busting (versioned static assets)
After a deploy, browsers must run fresh JS/CSS without a manual hard-refresh.
Achieved by stamping ?v=<APP_VERSION> on every template-written asset URL and
injecting one <script type="importmap"> that remaps every served
/assets/js/**/*.js module to its versioned URL — so the entire ES-module graph
is invalidated each release, not just the entry points. Presentation/delivery-layer
only; integrates with web/lib/potato_mesh/application/helpers/ (new asset_url
helper + import-map builder) and the asset references in views/layouts/app.erb,
views/charts.erb, views/federation.erb, views/node_detail.erb.
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| AV1 | Version is the cache key. Busting is keyed to PotatoMesh::Application::APP_VERSION (the existing git describe --tags --long --abbrev=7 value, or Config.version_fallback when git metadata is absent). When the version changes, every asset URL changes and browsers refetch. Documented limitation: a build with no git metadata yields a constant fallback version, so an untagged redeploy won't change the buster — the limitation inherent in reusing APP_VERSION, accepted here. |
interview |
| AV2 | asset_url(path) helper. A helper under web/lib/potato_mesh/application/helpers/ appends ?v=<APP_VERSION> to an absolute asset path. It is applied to every template-written JS <script src>, CSS <link href>, and the inline ES-module import … from '…' specifiers in charts.erb, federation.erb, node_detail.erb. |
interview |
| AV3 | Full module-graph busting via import map. Because ?v= on an entry-point URL does not propagate to that module's relative import './x.js', the layout <head> emits exactly one <script type="importmap"> (before any module loads) mapping every served production /assets/js/**/*.js module (excluding __tests__) to its ?v=<APP_VERSION> URL. This invalidates the whole transitive graph (e.g. main.js + its 33 imports), not just the entry points. Safety property: a module absent from the map degrades to today's unversioned-but-working load — a missing entry can never break a working import. Browsers without import-map support degrade to today's behavior (entry points still busted via AV2). |
interview |
| AV4 | Scope = JS + CSS only; native, no new egress. Only executable/style assets are versioned (all JS + base.css). Images, favicons, and SVG icons keep today's Last-Modified/ETag revalidation (a stale logo is cosmetic, not behavioral). The mechanism uses the native browser import-map feature — no new dependency, build step, external host, or analytics param — so apex (I), privacy (II), federation (III), parity (IV), fixed-stack (D7), contract (D8), and no-phone-home (D11) all hold unchanged. The version query is not part of any /api/* contract (D8): Sinatra serves the same static file regardless of query string. |
interview |
| AV5 | Engineering bar (D9). The helper and import-map builder ship with 100% unit tests + RDoc, Apache headers, rufo-clean; all existing suites stay green. View/app specs that assert exact asset markup are updated to the versioned form, not removed. |
CLAUDE.md |
Feature: Uniform backward pagination (?before=) for bulk collection APIs
Generalizes the /api/messages backward-pagination cursor (issue #796, C7) to
the other five bulk collection GETs so a client can page backward through the
visibility window instead of stalling at the newest MAX_QUERY_LIMIT (1000) rows.
Motivated by an external consumer (l5yth/meshint) that could not retrieve more
than 1000 nodes from GET /api/nodes. Read-side only; integrates with the GET
routes in web/lib/potato_mesh/application/routes/api.rb, the query helpers in
web/lib/potato_mesh/application/queries/ (node_queries.rb,
telemetry_queries.rb, federation_queries.rb; common.rb already provides the
coerce_positive_or_nil cursor coercion), and the GET-window documentation in
data/mesh_ingestor/CONTRACTS.md.
Conflict check against existing decisions. D8 (stable contract + GET window
floors) — extends: before is a new optional, additive parameter (absent ⇒
today's behavior) and only ever narrows, so it needs no version bump and no
federation-compat fallback (unlike the 0.7.0 /api/stats break, S1). C4
(floors cannot be widened) / C7 (messages before) — extends: the proven
#796 keyset cursor is applied uniformly; the MAX(since, floor) clamp and
MAX_QUERY_LIMIT cap are untouched. Invariant I (apex) — consistent:
read-side query param, no broker/dependency/egress. Invariant II (privacy) —
consistent: opt-out / CLIENT_HIDDEN / private-mode gates are unchanged and a
narrowing upper bound can never surface a hidden row; no new on-disk retention.
Invariant IV (parity) — extends: the cursor is protocol-neutral and composes
with the existing ?protocol= filter. No invariant is contradicted, so this
feature adds new decisions without amending any prior one.
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| BP1 | Uniform ?before= on the six bulk collections. GET /api/{nodes, positions, telemetry, neighbors, traces, ingestors} accept an optional ?before=<unix_seconds> upper-bound cursor, mirroring the existing GET /api/messages behavior (C7). before is an inclusive (<=) ceiling on each route's primary sort column — the column it already ORDER BY … DESC: rx_time for positions/telemetry/neighbors/traces, last_heard for nodes, last_seen_time for ingestors. The per-id routes (/api/.../:id) and /api/instances are out of scope. |
interview |
| BP2 | Narrows only — never widens (preserves C4/D8). before composes with the existing server-side window floor as an additional upper bound: the effective window is MAX(since, floor) ≤ t ≤ before. Because before only removes newer rows, no value can reach past the 7-day / 28-day floor (a before older than the floor simply yields fewer/zero rows; a before in the future is a no-op). It therefore needs no clamp of its own (unlike since, which is clamped up to the floor). A non-positive or non-integer before is ignored as absent via the existing coerce_positive_or_nil, identical to messages. MAX_QUERY_LIMIT per request is unchanged — before pages through the window, not beyond it. |
interview + code |
| BP3 | Keyset mechanics identical to messages (#796). The caller walks newest → oldest: each page is ORDER BY <sort_col> DESC LIMIT n, then the oldest <sort_col> value of the page becomes the next before, de-duplicating by the collection's id client-side. The inclusive boundary deliberately overlaps consecutive pages by any rows sharing the boundary second so none is skipped; client dedup collapses the overlap. This is the established C7 / PL-A2 walk applied uniformly. |
interview + code |
| BP4 | Additive & backward-compatible — no version bump. before is a new optional query parameter; when absent every route behaves exactly as today, and existing consumers (including the federation crawl) are unaffected. Unlike S1, this is not a breaking change: no manifest version bump and no old/new shape fallback are required. Extends D8's backward-compatibility rule rather than amending it. |
interview |
| BP5 | Protocol-neutral (Invariant IV). The cursor is identical for all rows regardless of protocol and composes with the existing ?protocol= filter; neither Meshtastic nor MeshCore is privileged. |
interview |
| BP6 | Apex & privacy untouched (Invariants I/II). Read-side only — no broker, dependency, or egress (I). The existing opt-out, CLIENT_HIDDEN, and private-mode behaviors are unchanged, and because before only narrows it can never expose a row a route would otherwise hide (II). No new on-disk retention is introduced. |
interview + code |
| BP7 | Cache-bypass parity with messages. A request carrying before (like one carrying since > 0) bypasses the shared ApiCache response cache, which only memoises the default newest-page feed; the cache key for the cached (no-before, no-since) path is unchanged, so history pages never pollute or evict the hot newest-page entry. |
code |
| BP8 | Engineering bar (D9). Ships with 100% unit tests across the route and query layers (mirroring the existing messages-before specs), RDoc on every edited method, Apache headers intact, rufo-clean; all existing Ruby/JS/Python suites stay green. |
CLAUDE.md |
| BP9 | Out of scope (deferred, tracked). This feature ships the server capability only. (a) Wiring the browser data cache / JS data-fetchers to backfill collections via before (beyond the existing messages pager) is a tracked follow-up — the capability is unblocked, not wired. (b) The lone camelCase query params windowSeconds / bucketSeconds on GET /api/telemetry/aggregated and (c) the missing limit / since / protocol params on GET /api/instances are recorded here as known API-handling inconsistencies and tracked as separate follow-ups, deliberately excluded to keep this feature compartmentalized. |
interview |
Feature: Live updates (SSE change pub/sub)
Replaces the dashboard's fixed 60-second refresh poll with immediate,
change-driven updates. An in-process, in-memory publish/subscribe registry
inside the Sinatra app emits a thin "this collection changed" event whenever an
ingest POST writes; browsers subscribe over Server-Sent Events (GET /api/events, native EventSource) and react by running their existing
delta-fetch against the legacy /api endpoints. No row data crosses the push,
no new dependency, and no broker or cloud bus — the pub/sub is a local,
single-process fan-out. Integrates with the six POST /api/* ingest routes and
their existing ApiCache.invalidate_prefix calls
(web/lib/potato_mesh/application/routes/ingest.rb), a new
application/pubsub.rb registry + GET /api/events route, application.rb
(lifecycle wiring), config.rb / helpers/config_helpers.rb (private_mode?,
toggle, intervals, data-app-config), and on the frontend main.js (the
setInterval(refresh, REFRESH_MS) loop), main/data-fetchers.js, settings.js,
a new main/ SSE-client module, main/data-cache.js (seed-then-delta), and
main/data-merge.js (merge-by-id). The event shape is documented in
data/mesh_ingestor/CONTRACTS.md.
Conflict check against existing decisions. Apex I (local LoRa / no
MQTT/broker) — consistent: the pub/sub is in-memory and in-process, carries
no broker dependency, and SSE is plain HTTP on the existing app (guard-edits.py
would block a broker manifest entry regardless). Invariant II (privacy) —
consistent (+ safeguard): events are thin (no rows) and the client re-fetches
through the already-filtered /api, so opt-out / CLIENT_HIDDEN never traverse
the push; messages events are additionally suppressed under PRIVATE, mirroring
A2a. Invariant III (federation) — consistent: local browser↔server only, no
peer push. Invariant IV (parity) — consistent/extends: events name the
collection, never the protocol; both protocols fetch identically. §3.3
(POST-only intake) — extends: GET /api/events is outbound, read-only, never
an ingest path; SQLite stays the system of record. D7 (fixed stack) —
consistent: SSE needs no gem (Sinatra streaming + native EventSource); the
in-memory fan-out is per-process (current single-process ruby app.rb deploy), a
documented limitation covered by the PS5 safety poll. D8 (stable contract) —
extends: additive endpoint, no existing /api/* shape change. FC2 / FC-A2 /
FC-R1 (cache "auto-refresh cadence unchanged") — amended, not silently
overridden by PS7: the seed-then-delta mechanism is untouched; only the
trigger changes from a 60 s timer to event-driven + safety poll. The apex (I) is
untouched.
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PS1 | In-process, broker-free pub/sub (apex-safe). Change notifications are delivered by an in-memory, in-process publish/subscribe registry inside the Sinatra app — no MQTT, no external broker, no new dependency or cloud bus (Invariant I). Delivered to browsers over SSE (text/event-stream) via the browser-native EventSource, served by Sinatra streaming under the existing single-process Puma. Documented limitation: in-memory fan-out is per-process; a clustered multi-worker deployment would not fan out across workers — out of scope, covered by the PS5 safety poll. |
interview + apex |
| PS2 | New read-side GET stream; never an ingest path. A single new endpoint GET /api/events (SSE) is the subscribe surface. It is outbound/read-only: it accepts no body, writes nothing, and is not an ingest route; SQLite remains the system of record (§3.3). Additive to the API contract (D8): no existing /api/* shape changes. |
interview + §3.3/D8 |
| PS3 | Thin per-collection 'go-fetch' events. Each event names only the collection that changed — one of nodes, messages, positions, telemetry, neighbors, traces — optionally with the newest rx_time/last_heard as a skip-hint. No row data is carried. The client reacts by running its existing delta fetch (since=<cached high-water>) against the legacy /api endpoints and merging by id through the FC2 cache — reusing every current privacy gate, window floor (C4), and merge path; privileges no protocol (Invariant IV). |
interview |
| PS4 | Publish-on-change at the existing write points, coalesced. The six POST /api/* ingest routes publish their collection's change event after a successful write, co-located with the existing ApiCache.invalidate_prefix calls in routes/ingest.rb. Rapid bursts are coalesced/throttled per collection (a short debounce window) so a flood of message POSTs yields a bounded ping rate, not one event per row. |
interview + code |
| PS5 | Push replaces the 60 s poll; reconnect-resync + slow safety poll. The frontend's fixed 60 s refresh timer is removed as the primary driver. SSE pings trigger the matching delta fetch immediately. On every SSE (re)connect the client runs a full delta resync to recover anything missed during a gap. A slow background safety poll (default 5 min, configurable) remains as a fallback for environments where SSE is blocked, buffered, or silently dead, and for any non-fan-out deployment (PS1). | interview |
| PS6 | Privacy: no messages events when PRIVATE (Invariant II). Under PRIVATE=1 the server emits no messages change events and the GET /api/events stream carries none, mirroring the /api/messages 404 (A2a). Because events are thin (no row data) and the client re-fetches through the already-filtered /api endpoints, opt-out / CLIENT_HIDDEN rows never traverse the push. Defense-in-depth; Invariant II is preserved. |
interview + Invariant II |
| PS7 | Amends FC2/FC-A2/FC-R1 cadence wording (named, not silent). The seed-then-delta cache mechanism is unchanged (still since=<high-water>, only-misses-fetch, merge-by-id). Only the trigger changes: from a fixed 60 s cadence to event-driven (SSE ping / reconnect resync / slow safety poll). FC-A2 and FC-R1's "auto-refresh cadence is unchanged" clause is explicitly amended to "the fetch trigger is event-driven with a slow safety-poll fallback; the delta/merge/cache contract is unchanged." |
interview (FC2 amendment) |
| PS8 | Graceful degradation & engineering bar (D9). If EventSource is unavailable, the stream errors, or a config flag disables it, the client silently falls back to the safety poll (today's network-only behavior) — the push is never load-bearing. All new code (the pub/sub registry, the GET /api/events route, the frontend SSE client) ships with 100% unit tests, full API docs (RDoc/JSDoc), the exact Apache header, and rufo-clean formatting; all existing suites stay green. |
D9 + proposed |
Feature: Live-update visual feedback (flash + control cleanup)
Builds on the SSE pub/sub feature (PS1–PS8) to make live updates visible: when a
change arrives over SSE the affected element briefly flashes white, so a watching
operator sees where an update landed without scanning. The poll-era controls
(the "Refresh" button and the "last updated" timestamp) are removed, since push
makes them redundant; the play/pause toggle stays. Frontend-only (vanilla JS +
base.css) except one additive server change: POST /api/messages also publishes
a nodes change event (because a message ingest already touches the author node's
last_heard, #822). Integrates with views/layouts/app.erb (control removal),
web/public/assets/js/app/main.js (refresh/runLiveRefresh wiring, node-table +
map-marker + chat render paths), chat-tabs.js (tab header), node-rendering.js
(data-node-id rows), a new flash helper under web/public/assets/js/app/main/
(+ __tests__), web/public/assets/styles/base.css (the highlight keyframe), and
web/lib/potato_mesh/application/routes/ingest.rb (the nodes-on-message publish).
Conflict check against existing decisions. PS5 (push replaced poll) —
realizes: removing the Refresh button + "last updated" field is PS5's UI
consequence. PS4 (publish-on-change) — extends: the messages route now also
publishes nodes (the table it already writes via #822). PS6 / Invariant II
(privacy) — consistent: in PRIVATE the message route 404s before publish, so
no messages/nodes event fires from a message; node events are not privacy-gated.
CR-A1/CR-A2/CR-A3 (incremental render) — consistent (guarded): the flash
touches only already-rendered/cached DOM after render, never re-materializing, so an
idle tick still materializes 0 entries. FC-A2 / PS-A7 (seed-then-delta) —
consistent: flashing is gated to SSE-ping deltas, so cold/warm seed, resync, and
the safety poll never flash (no strobe). Apex I / §3.3 / Invariant IV / A4c / D1 —
consistent: read-side visual + one in-process publish call; protocol-neutral; no
ingest path, no /version change. No invariant is contradicted.
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| VF1 | Remove poll-era controls. The #refreshBtn button and the #status "last updated" field are removed from the dashboard (along with their main.js handlers, the refreshing…/updated <time> status writes, and the .refresh-timestamp style). The #autorefreshToggle play/pause control is kept — it still pauses both the live stream and the safety poll (PS5). Manual refresh and a timestamp are redundant once push delivers updates. |
interview |
| VF2 | Flash only on SSE-ping deltas. The white highlight fires only for rows delivered by an SSE-ping-driven targeted refresh (runLiveRefresh). The initial load (cold or warm-cache catch-up), the reconnect resync, and the slow safety poll do not flash — so the screen never strobes on load and a flash unambiguously means "this changed live while you were watching." Accepted limit: a change recovered only by resync or the safety poll updates without a flash. |
interview |
| VF3 | What flashes, per collection. A nodes / positions / telemetry ping flashes the affected node's map marker and node-table row (the changed node ids are read from the ping's delta rows by node_id). A messages ping flashes the message row (the whole row) and the channel tab header; because the message ingest also touches the author node (#822), POST /api/messages additionally publishes nodes (extends PS4), so the author node's marker + table row flash too, with a freshly-updated "last seen". Detection is by id/collection, identical for both protocols (Invariant IV). Scope: neighbors / traces updates do not flash (they update silently) — a deliberate, documented boundary, deferrable to a follow-up. |
interview |
| VF4 | Render before flash. The highlight is applied after the affected DOM is rendered and positioned in the same update tick — the node-table row + map marker, and the chat message row + channel tab, are materialized/placed first, then flashed (a post-render requestAnimationFrame/microtask step). This guarantees the flash lands on the final, placed element and is never applied to a not-yet-rendered element or an element still at its old position/offscreen. |
interview |
| VF5 | Brief, accessible highlight. The flash is white, lasts <100 ms, and is a one-shot CSS highlight with no layout shift (e.g. background/overlay only). It respects prefers-reduced-motion: when the user has reduce-motion enabled the highlight is suppressed via an @media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) guard — the data still updates live, only the animation is withheld. Amended by LV1/LV2/LV5 (Feature: Live-update feedback v2): the <100 ms one-shot white flash is replaced by a ~1.2 s role-colour fade with per-element stacked timers, plus a map-marker wave; the white onset and reduced-motion suppression are retained. |
interview |
| VF6 | Preserve render & cache invariants (read-side only). The flash is applied to already-rendered/cached DOM nodes (the chat entry cache, existing table rows, existing markers); it never re-materializes chat entries or issues per-node fetches, so an idle tick still materializes 0 entries (CR-A1) and the seed-then-delta cache (FC-A2) is untouched. The only non-frontend change is the additive nodes publish on message ingest, which is moot under PRIVATE (the message route 404s first), preserving Invariant II / PS6. |
proposed |
| VF7 | Engineering bar (D9). The flash-trigger logic (changed-id selection, after-render ordering, SSE-ping-only gating, message⇒node fan-out) ships with 100% unit tests, JSDoc, and the exact Apache header; the ingest.rb nodes-on-message publish is covered by a Ruby spec; existing view/app specs that assert the removed controls are updated to assert their absence (not deleted). CSS keyframes have no gating command, so the criterion is the trigger logic + a view assertion; all existing suites stay green. |
D9 + proposed |
Feature: Live-update feedback v2 (fade, stacking, map wave, dedup, full log)
Reworks the live-update visual feedback shipped as VF1-VF7. The <100 ms white
strobe read as a glitch; this replaces it with a slower, legible fade and closes
the remaining live-update UX gaps. Deliberately amends VF2/VF3/VF5 (the
flash's duration/colour/scope) while keeping their invariants (SSE-ping gating,
render-before-flash, reduced-motion). Frontend-only except one server change: a
per-collection publish cooldown in application/pubsub.rb.
Conflict check. Apex I / privacy II / parity IV - consistent: read-side
visuals + one in-process cooldown (no broker, no row data on the push); messages
still 404 under PRIVATE so message fades/log are moot there; role colours come
from getRoleColor for both protocols. VF2 (SSE-ping gating) / VF4
(render-before-flash) / CR-A1 (idle materialises 0) - retained. PS4
(coalesced/throttled) - realised: LV6 adds the actual time-window the structural
coalescing lacked.
| # | Decision | Source |
|---|---|---|
| LV1 | Fade replaces strobe (amends VF5). The highlight is a ~1.2 s animation: the element flashes white, then fades through its role colour with increasing transparency back to its normal appearance. Applies to node-table rows and chat message rows. The white onset, no-layout-shift, and prefers-reduced-motion suppression of VF5 are retained; only the duration (<100 ms -> ~1.2 s) and the white->role-colour fade are new. |
interview |
| LV2 | Per-element stacked timers. Each highlighted element runs its own ~1.2 s clock; many elements updating within the window each fade independently, and re-updating the same element restarts its clock cleanly (the prior removal timer is cancelled, so a re-flash never truncates early). No shared/global flash clock. | interview |
| LV3 | Role-colour stamped at render. The fade's role colour is getRoleColor(role, protocol), written as a CSS custom property (--flash-role-color) onto the element at render time, so the keyframe needs no per-element JS and the flash helper only toggles a class. Protocol-neutral (Meshtastic + MeshCore palettes via getRoleColor), preserving Invariant IV. |
interview + code |
| LV4 | Message fades its row + only its own channel tab (fixes VF3 in practice). A messages ping fades the message row wherever rendered and highlights only the message's own channel-tab header, never merely the active tab; the message->tab map drives it. The author-node row + marker also fade via the existing message->nodes publish (#822). |
interview |
| LV5 | Map-marker wave. On a node highlight the marker emits an expanding wave ring (start ~12 px radius, grow to a bounded radius, fade transparency toward the role colour over ~1.2 s) in addition to the marker's own white->role fade. The wave is a transient, non-interactive overlay removed after the animation (no layout shift). neighbors/traces still emit nothing (VF3 boundary kept). |
interview |
| LV6 | Publish settle window (server-side dedup). The in-process pub/sub holds a brief settle window (default 1 s, env-tunable) when a change lands, coalescing a burst so N ingestors relaying one packet yield one client refresh/flash, not N; each changed collection still emits at most once per window (structural pending-map coalescing). Server-side, in-process (apex-safe, no broker); realises PS4's "short debounce" with an actual time window. | interview |
| LV7 | Log tab logs every live-event class. The chat Log tab gains an entry for every live collection, closing today's gaps: plaintext chat messages now appear in the Log (previously only encrypted did); every one of nodes/messages/positions/telemetry/neighbors/traces has a Log representation. Presentation-only, protocol-neutral; honours the hidden-protocol and PRIVATE gates already applied to the chat. | interview |
| LV8 | Channel-tab dropdown selector. A compact selector control (a downward triangle) lists all channel tabs and jumps to a chosen one, independent of the (now-preserved, LD-A2) horizontal scroll. Presentation-only; does not change tab order, the default-active tab, or any data surface. | interview |
| LV9 | Engineering bar / invariants (D9). All new code ships with 100% unit tests, JSDoc/RDoc, the exact Apache header, and clean linters; existing suites stay green. Apex (I), privacy (II - messages still 404 under PRIVATE; the LV6 cooldown is in-process), and parity (IV) are untouched. prefers-reduced-motion suppresses all new motion (fade + wave). |
D9 + proposed |