RemoteTerm for MeshCore

Backend server + browser interface for MeshCore mesh radio networks. Connect your radio over Serial, TCP, or BLE, and then you can:

• Send and receive DMs and channel messages
• Cache all received packets, decrypting as you gain keys
• Run multiple Python bots that can analyze messages and respond to DMs and channels
• Monitor unlimited contacts and channels (radio limits don't apply -- packets are decrypted server-side)
• Access your radio remotely over your network or VPN
• Search for hashtag room names for channels you don't have keys for yet
• Visualize the mesh as a map or node set, view repeater stats, and more!

Warning: This app has no auth, and is for trusted environments only. Do not put this on an untrusted network, or open it to the public. The bots can execute arbitrary Python code which means anyone on your network can, too. If you need access control, consider using a reverse proxy like Nginx, or extending FastAPI; access control and user management are outside the scope of this app.

Disclaimer

This is developed with very heavy agentic assistance -- there is no warranty of fitness for any purpose. It's been lovingly guided by an engineer with a passion for clean code and good tests, but it's still mostly LLM output, so you may find some bugs.

If extending, have your LLM read the three AGENTS.md files: ./AGENTS.md, ./frontend/AGENTS.md, and ./app/AGENTS.md.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Node.js 18+
• UV package manager: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
• MeshCore radio connected via USB serial, TCP, or BLE

Finding your serial port

#######
# Linux
#######
ls /dev/ttyUSB* /dev/ttyACM*

#######
# macOS
#######
ls /dev/cu.usbserial-* /dev/cu.usbmodem*

######
# WSL2
######
# Run this in an elevated PowerShell (not WSL) window
winget install usbipd
# restart console
# then find device ID
usbipd list
# attach device to WSL
usbipd bind --busid 3-8 # (or whatever the right ID is)

Quick Start

This approach is recommended over Docker due to intermittent serial communications issues I've seen on *nix systems.

git clone https://github.com/jkingsman/Remote-Terminal-for-MeshCore.git
cd Remote-Terminal-for-MeshCore

# Install backend dependencies
uv sync

# Build frontend
cd frontend && npm install && npm run build && cd ..

# Run server
uv run uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

The server auto-detects the serial port. To specify a transport manually:

# Serial (explicit port)
MESHCORE_SERIAL_PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0 uv run uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

# TCP (e.g. via wifi-enabled firmware)
MESHCORE_TCP_HOST=192.168.1.100 MESHCORE_TCP_PORT=4000 uv run uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

# BLE (address and PIN both required)
MESHCORE_BLE_ADDRESS=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF MESHCORE_BLE_PIN=123456 uv run uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Access at http://localhost:8000

Note: WebGPU cracking requires HTTPS when not on localhost. See the HTTPS section under Additional Setup.

Docker Compose

Warning: Docker has intermittent issues with serial event subscriptions. The native method above is more reliable.

Note: BLE-in-docker is outside the scope of this README, but the env vars should all still work.

Edit docker-compose.yaml to set a serial device for passthrough, or uncomment your transport (serial or TCP). Then:

docker compose up -d

The database is stored in ./data/ (bind-mounted), so the container shares the same database as the native app. To rebuild after pulling updates:

docker compose up -d --build

To use the prebuilt Docker Hub image instead of building locally, replace:

build: .

with:

image: jkingsman/remoteterm-meshcore:latest

Then run:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

The container runs as root by default for maximum serial passthrough compatibility across host setups. On Linux, if you switch between native and Docker runs, ./data can end up root-owned. If you do not need that compatibility behavior, you can enable the optional user: "${UID:-1000}:${GID:-1000}" line in docker-compose.yaml to keep ownership aligned with your host user.

To stop:

docker compose down

Development

Backend

uv sync
uv run uvicorn app.main:app --reload # autodetects serial port

# Or with explicit serial port
MESHCORE_SERIAL_PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0 uv run uvicorn app.main:app --reload

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev      # Dev server at http://localhost:5173 (proxies API to :8000)
npm run build    # Production build to dist/

Run both the backend and npm run dev for hot-reloading frontend development.

Code Quality & Tests

Please test, lint, format, and quality check your code before PRing or committing. At the least, run a lint + autoformat + pyright check on the backend, and a lint + autoformat on the frontend.

But how?

# python
uv run ruff check app/ tests/ --fix  # lint + auto-fix
uv run ruff format app/ tests/       # format (always writes)
uv run pyright app/                  # type checking
PYTHONPATH=. uv run pytest tests/ -v # backend tests

# frontend
cd frontend
npm run lint:fix                     # esLint + auto-fix
npm run test:run                     # run tests
npm run format                       # prettier (always writes)
npm run build                        # build the frontend

Configuration

Variable	Default	Description
MESHCORE_SERIAL_PORT	(auto-detect)	Serial port path
MESHCORE_SERIAL_BAUDRATE	115200	Serial baud rate
MESHCORE_TCP_HOST		TCP host (mutually exclusive with serial/BLE)
MESHCORE_TCP_PORT	4000	TCP port
MESHCORE_BLE_ADDRESS		BLE device address (mutually exclusive with serial/TCP)
MESHCORE_BLE_PIN		BLE PIN (required when BLE address is set)
MESHCORE_LOG_LEVEL	INFO	DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR
MESHCORE_DATABASE_PATH	data/meshcore.db	SQLite database path

Only one transport may be active at a time. If multiple are set, the server will refuse to start.

Additional Setup

HTTPS (Required for WebGPU room-finding outside localhost)

WebGPU requires a secure context. When not on localhost, serve over HTTPS:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes -subj '/CN=localhost'
uv run uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --ssl-keyfile=key.pem --ssl-certfile=cert.pem

For Docker Compose, generate the cert and add the volume mounts and command override to docker-compose.yaml:

# generate snakeoil TLS cert
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes -subj '/CN=localhost'

Then add the key and cert to the remoteterm service in docker-compose.yaml, and add an explicit launch command that uses them:

    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/data
      - ./cert.pem:/app/cert.pem:ro
      - ./key.pem:/app/key.pem:ro
    command: uv run uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --ssl-keyfile=/app/key.pem --ssl-certfile=/app/cert.pem

Accept the browser warning, or use mkcert for locally-trusted certs.

Systemd Service (Linux)

Assumes you're running from /opt/remoteterm; update commands and remoteterm.service if you're running elsewhere.

# Create service user
sudo useradd -r -m -s /bin/false remoteterm

# Install to /opt/remoteterm
sudo mkdir -p /opt/remoteterm
sudo cp -r . /opt/remoteterm/
sudo chown -R remoteterm:remoteterm /opt/remoteterm

# Install dependencies
cd /opt/remoteterm
sudo -u remoteterm uv venv
sudo -u remoteterm uv sync

# Build frontend (required for the backend to serve the web UI)
cd /opt/remoteterm/frontend
sudo -u remoteterm npm install
sudo -u remoteterm npm run build

# Install and start service
sudo cp /opt/remoteterm/remoteterm.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now remoteterm

# Check status
sudo systemctl status remoteterm
sudo journalctl -u remoteterm -f

Edit /etc/systemd/system/remoteterm.service to set MESHCORE_SERIAL_PORT if needed.

Testing

Backend:

PYTHONPATH=. uv run pytest tests/ -v

Frontend:

cd frontend
npm run test:run

E2E:

Warning: these tests are only guaranteed to run correctly in a narrow subset of environments; they require a busy mesh with messages arriving constantly. E2E tests are generally not necessary to run for normal development work.

cd tests/e2e
npx playwright test # headless
npx playwright test --headed # show the browser window

API Documentation

With the backend running: http://localhost:8000/docs