Configure your observer from a browser

Every MeshCore observer build carries a small configuration panel. Join its WiFi on first boot, or open its address on your network, and you get the whole node — radio, MQTT brokers, WiFi, live stats, and now a full command line — without a serial cable or a terminal app.

wifiWorks on the setup hotspot smartphonePhone or laptop terminalNew: built-in CLI

http://192.168.1.42/

What's in the panel

Once you're signed in, the node is split across five tabs. Click through them in the demo above — the tips panel follows along.

settings_input_antennaRadio

Node name, position, and the LoRa parameters — frequency, bandwidth, spreading factor, coding rate, TX power. These must match your mesh exactly, so the panel warns before a change that would take the node off the air.

cloud_uploadMQTT

Which brokers to publish to, chosen from built-in presets, plus what to send: status, packets, raw frames, neighbours. Secrets are write-only — the panel will set a token, never show you one back.

wifiWiFi

Network name and password, with a scan button so you don't have to type an SSID from memory. Changing it reboots the node onto the new network, so the page warns you it's about to disappear.

monitoringStats

Live health: free heap, noise floor, RSSI and SNR, airtime, packet counts, and per-broker connection state. Useful for answering "is this node actually working" without going to a dashboard.

terminalCLI new

The whole serial command surface, in the browser. Autocomplete over every command, command history, and paste-a-script support. Covered in detail below.

First boot

A freshly flashed observer has no WiFi credentials, so it raises its own hotspot and walks you through setup. You need nothing but a phone.

Join the MeshCore-Setup network. It's open — no password. Most phones pop the sign-in sheet automatically; if not, browse to http://192.168.4.1.
Work through the four steps. WiFi, then radio preset and a new admin password, then MQTT, then a review screen before anything is written.
Save. The node reboots onto your WiFi. Find it again at the address your router gives it, or run start webconfig over serial to bring the panel back.

The sign-in sheet is not a browser. On iOS especially it closes when the screen locks and takes your progress with it. The panel offers a "open in your browser" link on that first screen — worth taking.

Press First-boot setup above to see the wizard exactly as it appears on a new node.

Coming back later

Once a node is on your network the panel isn't running — it would be a needless open port on a device that spends months unattended. Start it when you want it, from the serial console or over the mesh with remote admin:

# binds to the node's LAN address, asks for the admin password
start webconfig

# or force the setup hotspot, e.g. when the node has fallen off WiFi
start webconfig ap

# and when you're finished
stop webconfig

In LAN mode the panel requires the admin password you set during setup. It stops on its own if left idle on the hotspot, so a node can't be left broadcasting.

The command line

The forms cover what most people need. The CLI covers everything else — every command the serial console accepts, from a phone, over WiFi.

Autocomplete that knows the commands

Start typing and the panel offers matching commands with a one-line description each. Tab completes as far as the matches agree, the way a shell does. Once a command needs a value, the list switches to offering values — broker presets read from the node itself, packet-type names, on/off.

It knows the slots your board actually runs, so a node with five active broker slots offers mqtt1 through mqtt5 and no more.

Paste a prepared config

This is the part worth knowing about if you run more than one node. Copy a block of commands, paste it into the prompt, and the panel lists them back numbered and waits for you to confirm before a single one runs.

# comments and blank lines are ignored
set mqtt.iata DEN
set mqtt1.preset analyzer-us
set mqtt2.preset cascadiamesh
set mqtt.neighbors on
reboot

Commands run in order and results stream back as each completes. A leading > from a pasted transcript is stripped, so you can copy straight out of someone's notes.

A trailing reboot is held back if anything failed. If one of those set lines is rejected, the node tells you and stays up rather than restarting into a half-applied config — which, over WiFi you're about to change, you might not get a second shot at.

What it won't do

A few commands work over serial but cannot work here, and the panel says so instead of failing obscurely:

get wifi.pwd, get prv.key and other secrets answer ******** (serial only). The panel can set them; it will not read them back over a network.
start ota needs the port the panel is already using.
clock sync takes its time from the caller, which a web request has no way to supply — use time <epoch>.
log streams to the serial console and stalls the radio while it does.

Availability. The CLI is in the dev channel now and lands on the release channel with v1.17.0. The console banner tells you which channel a node is running — a build with -dev in its version is a dev build, and one with no build number at all was compiled locally and cannot update itself.

Getting the firmware

The panel ships in every MeshCore observer build. Flash one from the browser, or read the setup guide for the MQTT side of things.

flash_onFlash an observer build menu_bookRead the setup guide