Files
MeshTerm/docs/README.md
T
Jean-Pierre MartineauandClaude Opus 5.5 58909d1373 meshterm emulate shows either handheld's display in a window
`meshterm emulate cardputer-zero --mock` and `meshterm emulate picocalc-lyra --mock`
open a desktop window drawing MeshTerm as that device's own screen draws it. An
EmulatedDevice (emulator/devices.py) holds what differs per handheld: the panel, a
Linux console's top-left grid and bold-as-bright 4-bit palette for the PicoCalc, the
lane keys drawn under the Cardputer's panel, and how each keyboard spells Shift with
an F-key (the PicoCalc's F6-F10, the Cardputer's xterm-shifted F4-F8).

It is not a strict emulator, and the docs say so wherever they offer it: MeshTerm runs
on the desktop as itself, and the window mimics the display's and keyboard's
constraints, never the CPU or the OS. Inside it the platform resolves with own_display
(platforms.drawn_by_meshterm), so nothing offers to move to another terminal.

Global options typed anywhere (--mock, --port, --db...) reach the emulated MeshTerm.
The command refuses --json like specimen. The Terminus fetch moved into the package as
`meshterm emulate --fetch-fonts` (with --archive for a copy fetched another way),
replacing scripts/cardputer-zero/fetch-terminus.py. A build without Tk says to install
with pip or pipx instead of failing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-04 14:19:22 -04:00

3.9 KiB

MeshTerm documentation

Everything that didn't belong on the front page. The README is the front door — what MeshTerm is, how to install it, and enough to get a first session running. This folder is the rest, in four parts:

Folder What's in it
guide/ Using MeshTerm: what each screen does, configuring it, connecting a companion, terminals.
cli/ The command line manual, and a cookbook of one-liners.
devices/ Running MeshTerm on a handheld's own screen, one manual per device.
development/ How the code is laid out, and a historical survey.

Using MeshTerm

Read For
What MeshTerm does Every screen the menu offers, grouped the way the menu groups them, with the command that does the same job without it.
Configuring MeshTerm Preferences versus config, device profiles, and everything kept under ~/.meshterm.
When a companion won't connect Bluetooth pairing on each system, finding the PIN, and every connection error MeshTerm reports, with what to do about it.
Terminals, icons, and the Windows console Why the icons and charts draw on some terminals and not others, and what MeshTerm does about it on Windows.

The command line

Read For
The command line The manual. Every subcommand and option, what each prints on the plain and JSON faces, the exit statuses, and recipes built on jq.
The CLI cookbook Common one-liners by task, for when you want the shape of a command rather than its specification.

Running it on a handheld

Only if you want MeshTerm running on a handheld's own screen. A MeshCore companion on USB, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi needs none of this.

Read For
MeshTerm on hardware Start here — which manual below is yours, and what the device-side scripts do.
MeshTerm on the PicoCalc A stock ClockworkPi PicoCalc to a Linux handheld with a LoRa radio soldered inside: the shopping list, the swap to a Luckfox Lyra core, Calculinux, and the radio.
MeshTerm on the uConsole A uConsole (CM4 or CM5) with the hackergadgets AIO LoRa board, whose SX1262 sits on the computer's own SPI bus — MeshTerm drives it directly with --spi, or a small bridge fronts it as a companion for an always-on node.
MeshTerm on the Cardputer Zero ⚠️ Not supported yet. What exists for M5Stack's Linux Cardputer, and how to try it in the desktop emulator.

Reading the code

Read For
How the code is laid out The layering, and where a new feature goes.
CLAUDE.md The actual style guide — terminology, UX standards, and the reusable building blocks. Written for AI assistants, and the house rules for everyone.
CONTRIBUTING.md How to propose a change, the rules on AI use, the dev install, the three checks a change must pass, and what happens to your contribution's licensing.

Historical record

A survey of the code, kept because a project that writes down its own problems is easier to trust than one that doesn't — but it is a snapshot of a date, not a to-do list. Some of what it describes has been fixed since, and it does not mark which.

Read For
UI consistency survey Everything else in the CLAUDE.md UX standard — six sweeps found nothing, which is the useful part.

Also here

screenshots/ holds the captures the README shows and the ones meshterm.net builds its landing page from, so a file in there is referenced from more than one place.