MeshDash

Open-source self-hosted Meshtastic Command & Control dashboard
Manage, monitor, and automate your mesh network locally

Website · Documentation · REST API · Plugins

What is MeshDash?

MeshDash is a self-hosted command and control platform for Meshtastic mesh radio networks. It runs entirely on your hardware — Raspberry Pi, Linux server, or WSL2 — and connects to your Meshtastic radios via Serial, TCP, BLE, MQTT, MeshCore, or WebSerial. No cloud dependency. No port forwarding required for remote access. Your data stays on your network unless you choose otherwise.

It provides a real-time web dashboard with instant Server-Sent Events (SSE) updates — no polling lag — and a comprehensive REST API with 100+ endpoints for integrations, automation, and scripting.

Installation

Option 1 — C2 Setup Wizard (recommended)

The fastest way to get MeshDash running. The setup wizard generates a personalised one-liner installer configured for your radio connection, network, and preferences.

1. Go to https://meshdash.co.uk and use the Setup Wizard
2. Enter your radio connection details and preferences
3. Copy the generated install command
4. Run it on your machine

# Example — your command will be customised by the wizard
curl -sL https://meshdash.co.uk/versions/R3.1.9/install.sh | bash

The wizard handles:

• Radio connection type selection (Serial, TCP, BLE, MQTT, MeshCore, WebSerial)
• Network configuration and web server port
• Automatic Python venv setup and dependency installation
• systemd service creation for auto-start on boot
• Migration from existing R2.x installations with timestamped backups
• C2-provisioned flag for seamless first login

Option 2 — Manual Installation

Clone the repository and set up MeshDash yourself. Full control, no wizard dependencies.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ruspea/MeshDash.git
cd MeshDash

# Create a Python virtual environment
python3 -m venv mesh-dash_venv
source mesh-dash_venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run the initial setup
python3 meshtastic_dashboard.py

Then open http://localhost:8181/setup in your browser to complete the first-time configuration.

Requirements: Python 3.9+, a Meshtastic radio (or MQTT observer mode), Linux / Raspberry Pi / WSL2.

Docker is supported via the official rusjpmd/meshdash-runner image — see Docker setup below.

Docker

Cloud Setup (with MD_SETUP_KEY)

Generate your install command at meshdash.co.uk and run it:

docker run -d \
  --name meshdash \
  --restart always \
  --network host \
  --privileged \
  --log-opt max-size=10m --log-opt max-file=3 \
  -v /dev:/dev \
  -v meshdash_data:/app/data \
  -e MD_SETUP_KEY="MD-YOUR-KEY-HERE" \
  -e MD_SETUP_URL="https://meshdash.co.uk/setup" \
  rusjpmd/meshdash-runner:latest

The container auto-downloads the latest MeshDash version, installs dependencies, fetches your config, and starts the dashboard. Updates happen automatically on restart.

Standalone (no account needed)

No setup key? No problem. Just run the container and configure everything through the built-in web wizard:

docker run -d \
  --name meshdash \
  --restart always \
  --network host \
  --privileged \
  --log-opt max-size=10m --log-opt max-file=3 \
  -v /dev:/dev \
  -v meshdash_data:/app/data \
  rusjpmd/meshdash-runner:latest

Then open http://localhost:8000/setup in your browser to configure your radio connection and create an admin account. The runner defaults to port 8000; C2-provisioned installs use 8181.

Required flags

CARTO basemap API key

Map views that use CARTO raster tiles can load an API key from either the CARTO_BASEMAP_API_KEY environment variable or a file named by CARTO_BASEMAP_KEY_FILE. For Docker, mounting a read-only key file keeps the key out of the Compose environment:

-v /path/to/carto_basemap_key:/run/secrets/carto_basemap_key:ro

The default key-file path is /run/secrets/carto_basemap_key.

Core Features

Live Node C2

Real-time node monitoring updated instantly via Server-Sent Events — no polling lag.

• Battery level, SNR, RSSI, GPS coordinates, and signal quality bars
• Source detection (RF / MQTT / LOCAL) with confidence scoring
• Node cards with online/offline status and last-seen timestamps
• Link quality scoring and fleet overview

Interactive Mapping

Leaflet-based GPS map with rich visualisation options.

• Node positions with live GPS tracking
• Trajectory paths and movement history
• RF neighbour link overlays showing mesh topology
• Multiple tile styles (street, satellite, topographic)
• Polar grid overlay with azimuth lines and range rings (via plugin)
• Geofencing with unlimited zones — circle, polygon, corridor, node-relative triggers (via plugin)
• ISS tracker overlay (via plugin)

Messaging

Full mesh messaging from the dashboard.

• Direct P2P messages to any node
• Channel broadcasting to all listeners
• Live ACK delivery tracking and unread counters
• 230-character message limit enforcement
• Emoji picker integration (via plugin)

MeshShark Analyser

Wireshark-style packet capture and analysis — built directly into the dashboard.

• BPF syntax filtering for targeted packet inspection
• Three-pane detail view: packet list, decoded metadata, raw JSON
• Packet type filtering (all types, or filter by protocol)
• Source evidence scoring (RF / MQTT / LOCAL attribution)
• Live capture mode with real-time packet ingestion

Network Diagnostics

Live traceroute and mesh health tools.

• Hop-by-hop bidirectional SNR measurement
• Traceroute results plotted on the map
• Historical traceroute log
• Path statistics and analysis

Analytics

Comprehensive telemetry charting across your entire mesh.

• 9 telemetry metrics: Battery %, SNR dB, Channel Utilisation %, Voltage, Position, Routing, Neighbour count, Power, Temperature
• Time ranges from 1 hour to 30 days
• Network-wide averages
• Side-by-side comparison for up to 4 nodes with linked Y-axes

Automation & Rules

Event-driven automation engine — no scripting required.

• Task Scheduler: Cron-based message broadcasts with 3-retry logic and web sensor ingress
• Auto-Reply Engine: Regex-powered matching with 20+ dynamic placeholders, per-sender cooldowns, and hierarchical menu trees
• Telemetry Threshold Alerts: Battery, voltage, SNR, temperature, and uptime triggers with configurable thresholds
• Web Telemetry Ingress: Extract data from websites and broadcast over mesh

Radio Management

Direct radio configuration from the dashboard — no CLI needed.

• Full protobuf config read/write to radio flash memory
• Up to 16 simultaneous radio slots with isolated databases
• Each slot has its own SQLite database, SSE stream, and connection config
• Mix Serial, TCP, BLE, MQTT, and MeshCore on one dashboard
• Radio slot switching from the topbar
• Automatic reboot after config write

Extensibility — Plugin System

Drop-in plugin architecture. Add features without touching core code.

• FastAPI router integration for custom API endpoints
• Static file server for plugin UI assets
• Sidebar navigation hooks
• Plugin lifecycle management (install, enable, disable, remove)
• 30+ community plugins available in the built-in store

Connectivity

MeshDash supports every way to talk to a Meshtastic radio:

Remote Access

Access your MeshDash dashboard from any network — no port forwarding, dynamic DNS, or VPN required. Your server polls meshdash.co.uk for queued commands using HMAC-signed outbound-only connections.

Five configurable access tiers (default: off):

Security

MeshDash implements a layered security model:

• JWT tokens stored in HttpOnly, SameSite cookies — not accessible to JavaScript
• Bcrypt password hashing with automatic salt generation
• CSRF double-submit cookie protection on all state-changing requests
• TOTP two-factor authentication (optional, via pyotp)
• HMAC-signed remote access with rate limiting
• API key authentication for programmatic access with per-key node-ID locking
• Automatic IP blocking after repeated authentication failures
• Rate limiting with configurable windows and block durations
• Request body size limits (2MB default)
• Prepared statement caching to prevent SQL injection

Data never leaves the local network unless you explicitly enable remote access or community features.

REST API

100+ endpoints across 8 API groups:

Full documentation: meshdash.co.uk/docs/?page=api-core

# Example — get all nodes
curl -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  https://your-meshdash-host/api/nodes

# Example — broadcast a message
curl -X POST -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"message": "Hello mesh"}' \
  https://your-meshdash-host/api/broadcast

Plugin Ecosystem

Core Plugins (included)

Build Your Own

Plugins are self-contained Python packages dropped into the plugins_core/ directory. Each plugin gets:

• A FastAPI router for custom API endpoints
• A static file server for UI assets
• Sidebar navigation entries
• Lifecycle management (install, enable, disable, remove)

Plugin Development Guide →

C2 Admin Dashboard

MeshDash includes a full admin dashboard for managing your C2 infrastructure:

• Node registry — active nodes, path analysis, activity logs
• API key management — create, rotate, toggle, and delete API keys from the UI
• Command queue — add, cancel, and monitor pending commands and outbox
• Auth logging — all authentication attempts with IP blocking and rate limit stats
• Security overview — real-time security posture dashboard
• Heartbeat monitoring — trend analysis and reset controls
• Data dumps — request and result management with volume analytics
• Server stats — live system metrics

Technology Stack

Documentation

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• OS — Linux (Debian/Ubuntu), Raspberry Pi OS, or WSL2
• Radio — Any Meshtastic-compatible radio, or MQTT observer mode (no physical radio needed)
• Network — Local network access to the radio

License

MeshDash is licensed under GPL-3.0-only. It is free to use, modify, and distribute under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.

Built for operators who run their own infrastructure.