RepeaterTastic

Many Meshtastic nodes, one LoRa modem. RepeaterTastic runs as many Meshtastic nodes as you like on a Raspberry Pi (or any Linux box) with a cheap LoRa board on USB. Every node is a real Meshtastic node, a meshtasticd RepeaterTastic starts and shares the radio between. One of them repeats; the rest are yours to chat, bridge and experiment with. Built and run by ScotMesh for Scottish mesh sites, and useful anywhere.

• Nodes ("identities") with their own key, node number, channels and app port, each running on its own meshtasticd. The official Meshtastic apps, the Python CLI and the web client connect to each one as if it were a radio.
• A proper repeater: one relay persona, itself a meshtasticd, does the repeating with a shared duty-cycle budget, so ten identities never mean ten repeats. Its role is a Meshtastic device role (client, client base, client mute, router, router late), or put the radio in Monitor (listen only) or Off from the top bar.
• A web GUI for everything: identities, chat (as any identity, the relay persona included), channels, a live node map, packets, statistics, logs, backups and configuration.
• Several radios on one host (LongFast, MediumFast, …) that take turns on shared frequencies.
• MQTT to one or more brokers (gateway, uplink-only, map reports, monitor, bridge), a fixed site position, device telemetry and an optional UDP multicast link to meshtasticd on the LAN.
• Plugins add uploaders, bots and dashboards: upload a .zip in the GUI or drop it in a folder, choose what each one may see, and cap how much it may send.
• One container, or one binary plus meshtasticd. The image includes meshtasticd; standalone, the installer sets it up. The top bar shows whether every node is running.

Status: running on a ScotMesh site on a Heltec V3, alongside Reticulum. Still young: expect changes. Needs meshtasticd 2.8.0 or newer. Verified on air with KISS modems, a CH341 stick and a board on Meshtastic firmware: channel messages, PKI DMs with ACKs, local DMs between identities, MQTT, and the official apps and CLI on the identity ports.

Quick start

You need a LoRa radio: a board flashed with the Mesh KISS modem firmware, a LoRa HAT or CH341 USB stick, or a board running Meshtastic firmware. See Hardware and modems for which boards work and how to flash them.

Run it on a Raspberry Pi

git clone https://github.com/ScotMesh/RepeaterTastic && cd RepeaterTastic
sudo ./deploy/install.sh

This installs meshtasticd and the latest RepeaterTastic release as a service. It works on Raspberry Pi OS, Debian and Ubuntu.

Or run it in Docker

docker run -d --name repeatertastic --restart unless-stopped --init --network host \
  --device /dev/ttyUSB0 --group-add "$(getent group dialout | cut -d: -f3)" \
  -v repeatertastic-data:/data ghcr.io/scotmesh/repeatertastic:latest

The image includes meshtasticd. The /data volume holds your keys and chats, so back it up. For Compose, HATs and USB sticks, see Docker.

Then open the browser

1. Go to http://<host>:8080 and choose an admin password. The setup wizard finds the radio and meshtasticd.
2. When the meshtasticd chip in the top bar turns green, every node is running.
3. Identities → New identity creates a node. In the Meshtastic app, add a network device at <host>:<port>.

Build it yourself

make ui                                  # web GUI → internal/web/dist (Node 22)
make build                               # bin/repeatertastic, bin/kisstool (run with meshtasticd 2.8+)
make dist                                # static binaries for Pi (arm64/armv7/armv6) and amd64
docker build -t repeatertastic .         # container image, meshtasticd included
./firmware/build.sh Heltec_v3_kiss_modem # modem firmware (PlatformIO)

Go 1.25+ is needed. MAP_API_KEY=… make build (or --secret id=map_api_key,env=CARTO_API_KEY for Docker) bakes in a default map tile key; see Configuration.

Documentation

Guide	What's in it
Hardware and modems	Supported boards, flashing Mesh KISS, stable device paths, permissions, Docker devices, kisstool, troubleshooting
meshtasticd nodes	How the relay persona and identities run on meshtasticd, the status indicator, and measured firmware behaviour
LoRa HATs and USB sticks	Driving a Pi HAT or CH341 stick directly (radio.driver: spi): supported boards, setup, and how to test one
Configuration	The config file section by section, environment variables, what applies live, backups
Using the web GUI	Identities, chat, channels, nodes and map, packets, statistics, configuration tabs
Several radios	Running LongFast and MediumFast side by side, moving identities between them, and the site airtime cap
MQTT	Broker connections, modes, channels, relaying and map reports
Plugins	Installing plugins (GUI, folder, CLI, Docker), permissions, attached plugins, and writing your own
Architecture and development	How it fits together, code layout, tests and interop
Plugin API	Reference for plugin authors: the gRPC session, calls, events, errors, manifest and settings
HTTP API	REST and event-stream API for scripts and integrations
Bench test	Step-by-step first test on a real radio
AGENTS.md	Rules and commands for coding agents and contributors

Licence

GPL-3.0-or-later. The Meshtastic protobufs are GPL-3.0. Parts of the web GUI are adapted from openHop Repeater UI (MIT, © Lloyd Newton).