Add the framed BLE mOTA transport and companion control path, complete the full-profile build and runtime fixes, and document and test the OTA workflow.
Expose the Full Companion terminal over TCP and add an authenticated, replay-resistant host command service with documented CPU temperature, reboot, and allowlisted program examples.\n\nImprove LoRa OTA diagnostics and persistent CLI handling, reduce clock correction drift to ten minutes, and make mOTA stream flush behavior an explicit transport policy with regression coverage.
The host-side build/verify/inspect/serve CLI now lives as a standalone Rust
project at https://github.com/vk496/motatool. Remove the in-tree C++ copy
(tools/motatool/) and repoint the docs (ota_protocol.md, ota_user_guide.md,
tools/mota/README.md) at the standalone repo.
No cross-dependency either direction: MeshCore's firmware build never invoked
motatool (only tools/mota/ Python glue runs in the build), and motatool depends
only on the shared .mota wire spec in docs/ota_protocol.md. tools/mota/
(pio_endf.py EndF hook, motalib.py reference lib, gen_targets.py) is unchanged.
The EndF post-build stamper read the version via _cppdef('FIRMWARE_VERSION'), which only sees -D build flags — but MeshCore authors FIRMWARE_VERSION as a header #define in each example, so the stamper found nothing and defaulted fw_version to 0. Every .mota / OTA advert then reported v0.0.0 while `ver` (which reads the header at runtime) showed the real version.
Read the header value as a fallback WITHOUT moving where MeshCore authors it: honor a -D override first (the header's #ifndef guard invites it, for release builds), else read the #define from the example this env builds (via build_src_filter), falling back to the repo-wide value when unambiguous. Purely additive to our own EndF tooling — no MeshCore source changed.
HW-verified: RAK4631 now reports `fw v1.17.0` in ota stats/ls (was v0.0.0), matching `ver`.
Protocol: OTA_REQ and OTA_GET_MANIFEST now carry a want_mask bitmap, so a fetcher asks for specific fragments (all on the first request, only the still-missing holes on a retry) instead of a whole block/manifest window. The WANT_MANIFEST and FETCHING retry loops re-ask only on a no-progress tick, so a lost fragment costs one fragment to recover and a re-request can't collide with an in-flight multi-fragment burst on half-duplex radios.
Warm-start (motatool folder-capture only): new OTA_GET_LEAVES/OTA_LEAVES let `ota pull <#> folder validate` bulk-fetch the target's merkle leaves, authenticate them against the manifest root, diff a similar seed build already staged in the destination, and pull DATA over LoRa only for the blocks that differ. Leaves are bitmap-fragmented + no-progress retry-gated like the manifest, capped at OTA_DIFF_MAX_BLOCKS so the want_mask stays a fixed uint16, and the diff runs a bounded batch per loop tick so it never starves the mesh loop. motatool `serve --seed <build.mota>` injects the seed payload into the destination .part on OP_BEGIN.
Document `ota pull <#> <dest>` (flash|folder, destination mandatory), the folder
pull that captures a device's exact firmware to the host as <mid>.mota (for
delta-building), the paused/resume-on-reconnect behaviour, and that a `motatool
serve` link doubles as the pull-to-folder store. (protocol §10, user guide,
motatool README)
Add the device->host WRITE half of the mota-seeder link so a device can capture
a .mota it is fetching off-mesh into the host folder (the same --dir used for
serving), stored as <mid>.mota — e.g. to grab an exact copy of a device's
firmware to build a delta against firmware you don't otherwise have.
- MotaSeederProto: OP_STAT / OP_BEGIN / OP_WRITE / OP_SREAD / OP_FIN (keyed by
mid). Resume needs no host bookkeeping: BEGIN 0xFF-fills the file; on reconnect
the device SREADs the leaves and re-requests only missing blocks (same as flash
resume). Partial = <midhex>.mota.part, published to <midhex>.mota on FIN.
- motatool `serve --dir <folder>` now also handles the storage ops on the same
folder/connection (SeederCore gains the store dir; serve_loop frames the
variable-length WRITE). Host round-trip test added.
Firmware side (FolderMotaStore + `ota pull <#> <dest>` + pause/resume) follows.
mikecarper
Valentin Kivachuk Burda