meshai/README.md

# MeshAI

**An LLM-powered assistant for LoRa mesh networks — on Meshtastic *and* MeshCore, at the same time.**

MeshAI connects to your mesh, watches network health and the world around it in real time, answers questions over the air, and broadcasts the alerts that matter — weather, wildfire, road, seismic, RF, and mesh-health — with a full web dashboard to drive it all.

> ### 🤖 Built with AI ("vibecoded")
> In the interest of transparency: **MeshAI was vibecoded** — designed, built, debugged, and documented in close collaboration with LLM coding assistants. The architecture, most of the implementation, and this README were produced that way. It's a real, running project on a live mesh, but expect the pragmatic style, opinionated shortcuts, and occasional rough edges that come with the territory. Issues and PRs are welcome.

![MeshAI dashboard](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zvx-echo6/meshai/main/docs/images/dashboard.png)

---

## Highlights

- **Dual-transport** — runs on **Meshtastic** and **MeshCore** simultaneously. Each mesh is first-class: independent connection, routing, and behavior, one shared brain.
- **Conversational bot** — DM it "how's the mesh?" or ask about weather, fires, roads, or a specific node, and get a data-driven answer over LoRa. The reply goes back on whichever mesh you asked from.
- **Per-mesh awareness** — it watches chat on each mesh separately (rolling short-term memory), so "what's happening on the mesh?" answers about *your* mesh. Private DMs stay private; curated knowledge stays separate.
- **Broadcast intelligence** — weather alerts, wildfire updates, road/traffic, seismic, RF/band conditions, and mesh-health notifications, formatted to fit LoRa and routed per-mesh, per-family.
- **Mesh health** — a 5-pillar health score with per-region breakdowns, infrastructure monitoring, coverage-gap analysis, and battery/solar tracking (Meshtastic).
- **Web dashboard** — a clean React UI to configure every transport, route every message type, watch a live activity feed, browse contacts, and tune the bot — no config-file spelunking required.
- **Knowledge base (RAG)** — optional hybrid retrieval over a large curated vector store for survival/comms/technical Q&A.
- **Multi-backend LLM** — Google Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, or any OpenAI-compatible local model (Ollama, LiteLLM, etc.).

---

## The dashboard

Everything is driven from the web UI, organized into **General**, **Meshtastic**, and **MeshCore** sections — each mesh mirrors the other so there's nothing to relearn when you add the second transport.

**Live activity log** — every broadcast, on both meshes, with per-mesh badges and Sent/Skip status:

![Activity Log](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zvx-echo6/meshai/main/docs/images/activity.png)

**Per-family routing** — decide exactly where each message type goes: broadcast vs. DM, which channel, which recipients — independently for each mesh:

![Routing](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zvx-echo6/meshai/main/docs/images/mt-routing.png)

**MeshCore contacts & companion** — the live roster from your MeshCore companion node, with names, types, last-heard, position, and optional telemetry polling:

![MeshCore Contacts](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zvx-echo6/meshai/main/docs/images/mc-contacts.png)

**Data feeds** — turn environmental sources on/off and tune thresholds in one place:

![Data Feeds](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zvx-echo6/meshai/main/docs/images/datafeeds.png)

**Nodes & health** — per-node infrastructure detail: battery, utilization, coverage, neighbors, hardware:

![Nodes & Health](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zvx-echo6/meshai/main/docs/images/nodes.png)

---

## Quick start

The dashboard is the primary way to configure MeshAI — connection, LLM backend, both transports, feeds, and routing. You shouldn't need to hand-edit YAML for a normal setup.

### Docker (recommended)

```bash
mkdir -p meshai/data && cd meshai
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zvx-echo6/meshai/main/work/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d
```

On first boot MeshAI writes a minimal starter config into the `meshai_data` volume (`/data/config.yaml`, plus an empty `/data/secrets/.env`) and starts the dashboard — nothing to pre-seed. Open **`http://localhost:8080`** and configure everything from there.

As you save settings, MeshAI persists them back into `/data` as focused per-domain YAML files (`llm.yaml`, `meshtastic.yaml`, `notifications.yaml`, `env_feeds.yaml`, …) alongside `config.yaml` — the same multi-file config system MeshAI uses in production; the dashboard is the intended way to drive it. API keys and other secrets you enter in the dashboard are written only to `/data/secrets/.env`, never into the YAML.

### From source (pip)

```bash
git clone https://github.com/zvx-echo6/meshai.git
cd meshai/work
cd dashboard-frontend && npm ci && npm run build && cd ..   # builds the web dashboard — required, see note
pip install -e .
cp config.example.yaml config.yaml   # minimal starting point, not exhaustive — see note below
meshai
```

> **The frontend build step is required.** `meshai/dashboard/static/` is no longer
> committed to the repo, so skipping it means no dashboard UI is served (the bot and
> API still run fine). Docker users don't need this — the image builds the frontend
> automatically. Requires Node.js/npm.

Unlike Docker, `meshai` won't create a config file for you — it needs one to exist before it will start. `config.example.yaml` bootstraps the basics (connection, LLM backend, bot behavior); once it's running, open `http://localhost:8080` and use the dashboard for everything else.

> **Note on `config.example.yaml`:** it documents the legacy single-file schema and is no longer complete — it predates `coverage`, `danger_zones`, `generic_sources`, `meshcore_context`, `commands`, and the current 8-family notification-routing model (`notifications.toggles` / `destinations` / `region_routes`). The legacy single-file loader still works and is fully supported, but the dashboard — backed by the full config schema — is the authoritative way to reach every setting. Don't treat this file as a complete reference.

### Advanced: the split `/data/config/` layout

Production and multi-operator deployments typically move to a fully split config directory — `/data/config/config.yaml` plus one file per domain, `local.yaml` for operator-identifying values, and `!include` orchestration — instead of the single flat file above. MeshAI loads this layout automatically whenever it's present. To convert an existing single-file install:

```bash
docker compose exec meshai python -m meshai.scripts.migrate_config_v03
```

This backs up the original `config.yaml`, splits it into `/data/config/`, extracts secrets to `/data/secrets/.env`, and verifies the new layout loads identically before finishing — restart the container afterward to pick it up. It's optional: the dashboard is fully functional against either layout. (Templates for building a split layout from scratch also ship in the repo's `work/config/` directory: `local.yaml.example`, `.env.example`.)

---

## Transports

MeshAI speaks two mesh protocols. **Meshtastic is always the base transport.** **MeshCore turns on automatically the moment you set a MeshCore host** — there's no separate on/off toggle to forget.

### Meshtastic

Connect over TCP (recommended) or serial:

```yaml
connection:
  type: "tcp"           # or "serial"
  tcp_host: "192.168.1.100"
  tcp_port: 4403
  # serial_port: "/dev/ttyUSB0"
```

### MeshCore

MeshAI attaches to a MeshCore **companion** (the pyMC / MeshCore companion frame server) over TCP and acts as a node on the MeshCore mesh:

```yaml
connection:
  meshcore_host: "192.168.1.253"   # blank = MeshCore off
  meshcore_port: 5050
```

Once connected, MeshCore gets its own **Connection**, **Routing**, **Scheduled Broadcasts**, **Contacts & Companion**, and **Danger Zones** pages in the dashboard — the same capabilities as Meshtastic, using MeshCore's own idioms (channels by name, contacts by pubkey). Messages are sized to fit whichever mesh they go out on.

---

## The conversational bot

DM MeshAI on either mesh and it answers with the LLM, using live mesh data, environmental feeds, and (optionally) a knowledge base. A few things it's careful about:

- **Answers on the mesh you asked from.** A MeshCore DM gets a MeshCore reply; a Meshtastic DM gets a Meshtastic reply. Each mesh's "answer DMs" switch is independent.
- **Per-mesh chat memory.** It keeps a short rolling window of recent channel chatter *per mesh* (configurable retention, default 14 days) so "what's happening on the mesh?" reflects the mesh you're on. Ask about the other mesh by name to cross over.
- **Three separate lanes.** Shared channel context, your private DM history, and the curated knowledge base never bleed into each other.
- **LoRa-fit replies.** Responses are chunked to a per-mesh character budget with sentence-aware splitting and continuation prompts.

### Commands

Alongside natural-language questions, a set of `!` commands are available (all toggleable, so they can defer to another service like MeshMonitor):

| Category | Commands |
|----------|----------|
| Mesh | `!health` · `!mesh` · `!status` · `!region [name]` · `!neighbors [node]` |
| Weather / RF | `!wx-alerts` · `!solar` · `!hf` · `!satpass` |
| Fire | `!fire` · `!hotspots` · `!ignitions` |
| Hazards | `!avalanche` · `!roads` / `!traffic` · `!rivers` / `!gauges` |
| Utility | `!help` · `!clear` |

---

## Mesh intelligence (Meshtastic)

MeshAI continuously aggregates mesh data and computes a **5-pillar health score**:

| Pillar | Weight | Measures |
|--------|--------|----------|
| Infrastructure | 30% | Router/repeater uptime |
| Utilization | 25% | Channel busyness / RF congestion |
| Coverage | 20% | How many monitoring sources see each node |
| Behavior | 15% | Traffic patterns (noisy/misconfigured nodes) |
| Power | 10% | Battery health of infrastructure nodes |

Infrastructure nodes are tracked individually (battery, offline alerts, coverage, neighbors, hardware); client nodes coming and going is normal and ignored. Regions are fully configurable — local names, aliases, cities, and radius — with no hardcoded geography.

Data comes from one or more **Meshview** instances and a **MeshMonitor** instance, polled on a staggered schedule with built-in rate-limiting:

```yaml
mesh_sources:
  - name: "meshview"
    type: meshview
    url: "http://192.168.1.100:8080"
    enabled: true
  - name: "meshmonitor"
    type: meshmonitor
    url: "http://192.168.1.100:3333"
    api_token: "your-bearer-token"
    enabled: true
```

---

## Environmental & hazard feeds

MeshAI pulls real-time situational data and turns it into LoRa broadcasts and query answers. Sources include **NWS weather alerts**, **NIFC wildfire perimeters**, **NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections**, **USGS earthquakes**, **USGS stream gauges**, **road/traffic (511 / TomTom)**, **NOAA space weather**, and **avalanche/RF-propagation** feeds.

Everything is switched on/off and tuned from the dashboard's **Data Feeds** page — enable a source, set thresholds and geography, and route its output per-mesh on the **Routing** page. Broadcast wording is tightened to fit a single LoRa packet without dropping the important details (e.g. affected towns on a weather alert).

### Native adapters vs. Central

Each hazard feed can get its data one of two ways, chosen per-feed with a `feed_source` switch:

- **`native`** — MeshAI fetches the source's public API **directly** (api.weather.gov, NIFC, USGS, NOAA SWPC, NASA FIRMS, TomTom, 511, avalanche centers). Self-contained — no extra infrastructure. This is the default and the original data path.
- **`central`** — MeshAI subscribes to **Central**, a companion service that pre-aggregates the same hazard data and republishes it as a **NATS JetStream** firehose, so many bots/nodes can share one set of upstream API calls and geo/severity filtering instead of each hammering the source APIs.

```yaml
environmental:
  central:
    enabled: true
    url: "nats://central.echo6.mesh:4222"   # NATS server (tailnet-gated, no auth)
    durable: "meshai-consumer"              # durable consumer name prefix
    region: "us.id"                         # server-side subject filtering
    connect_timeout: 10
  nws:   { feed_source: central }           # this feed comes from Central …
  fires: { feed_source: native }            # … this one is fetched directly
  # …one feed_source per hazard adapter
```

Native and Central are **mutually exclusive per feed** — flip any adapter between them independently. Two special cases: **`satpass`** is Central-only (there's no native predictor), and **`ducting`** (VHF tropo) is native-only (no Central equivalent). MeshAI keeps running whether or not Central is up: a **runtime** drop auto-reconnects (durable consumers resume where they left off), and a **startup** outage is logged and retried in the background rather than blocking boot — the LLM bot, both transports, mesh-health, and any `native` feeds all come up regardless; only the Central-sourced hazard feeds wait for Central to return. Feeds set to `native` don't depend on Central at all.

---

## Knowledge base (RAG)

Optional hybrid retrieval for survival, comms, medical, and technical Q&A.

- **Primary** — queries a **Qdrant** hybrid store (dense `bge-m3` + sparse, Reciprocal Rank Fusion) over a large curated vector set, via a networked TEI embedding service. Nothing is copied locally.
- **Fallback** — a local **SQLite** knowledge base (FTS5 keyword + `bge-small-en-v1.5` vectors) if the vector service is unreachable.

```yaml
knowledge:
  enabled: true
  backend: auto          # qdrant | sqlite | auto
  qdrant_host: "192.168.1.150"
  qdrant_port: 6333
  qdrant_collection: "recon_knowledge_hybrid"
  tei_host: "192.168.1.150"
  tei_port: 8090
  top_k: 5
```

The curated channel chatter your bot observes is used only as short-term *context* — it is never written into the knowledge base.

---

## LLM configuration

```yaml
llm:
  backend: "google"          # google | openai | anthropic
  api_key: "your-api-key"
  model: "gemini-3.1-flash-lite"
```

Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint works for local models — point `base_url` at Ollama (`http://localhost:11434/v1`), LiteLLM (`http://localhost:4000/v1`), or Open WebUI.

---

## Architecture

```
                       ┌─────────────────────────────┐
   Meshtastic ────────▶│                             │◀──────── MeshCore
   (TCP / serial)      │      CompositeTransport      │     (companion / pyMC TCP)
                       │   per-mesh routing + sizing  │
                       └──────────────┬──────────────┘
                                      │
        ┌─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┐
        ▼                             ▼                             ▼
  ┌───────────┐              ┌─────────────────┐            ┌──────────────┐
  │  Router   │              │  Notification    │            │  Mesh Data   │
  │ LLM / cmd │              │  Pipeline        │            │  Store +     │
  │ DM gating │              │  weather · fire  │            │  Health      │
  │ per-mesh  │              │  road · seismic  │            │  Engine      │
  │ context   │              │  RF · mesh-health│            │  5-pillar    │
  └─────┬─────┘              └────────┬─────────┘            └──────┬───────┘
        │                            │                              │
   ┌────▼─────┐   ┌──────────────┐   │        ┌──────────────┐      │
   │   LLM    │   │  Knowledge   │   │        │ Env / Central │◀─────┘
   │ backend  │   │  Qdrant/FTS5 │   │        │ feed adapters │
   └──────────┘   └──────────────┘   ▼        └──────────────┘
                                ┌──────────┐
                                │ Responder│  ACK-paced, LoRa-fit,
                                │ + Chunker│  routed per mesh
                                └──────────┘
                                      │
                              Web Dashboard (React) ── configure everything
```

---

## Running as a service

```ini
# /etc/systemd/system/meshai.service
[Unit]
Description=MeshAI
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=your-user
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/meshai
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 -m meshai
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
```

```bash
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now meshai
```

Every deployment is designed to survive a reboot; the dashboard's connection settings drive both transports.

---

## Playing nice with other services

- **advBBS** — MeshAI coexists on the same Meshtastic node; BBS protocol traffic (sync, RAP, mail) is auto-filtered (`bot.filter_bbs_protocols: true`).
- **MeshMonitor** — MeshAI reads MeshMonitor's auto-responder patterns to avoid duplicate replies, and uses its API as a mesh-intelligence data source.
- **MeshCore companion** — MeshAI attaches as its own companion identity so it can share the radio without evicting other companion clients.

---

## Acknowledgments

- [Meshtastic](https://meshtastic.org/) — the mesh platform it started on
- [MeshCore](https://meshcore.io/) & [pyMC](https://github.com/rightup/pyMC_core) — the second transport
- [MeshMonitor](https://github.com/Yeraze/meshmonitor) by Yeraze — monitoring integration & data source
- [advBBS](https://github.com/zvx-echo6/advbbs) — coexistence design
- [Qdrant](https://github.com/qdrant/qdrant) · [sqlite-vec](https://github.com/asg017/sqlite-vec) · [fastembed](https://github.com/qdrant/fastembed) — retrieval stack
- The LLM coding assistants that vibecoded most of this

## License

MIT

## Author

K7ZVX — matt@echo6.co