Reticulum Community Hub (RCH)

Reticulum Community Hub (RCH) is a shared coordination point for mesh networks. It allows people and groups to exchange messages, share situational updates, and distribute files in a structured and reliable way, even across intermittent or low-connectivity environments, while remaining independent from centralized internet services.

What it does

• One-to-many and topic-scoped message fan-out over LXMF.
• Telemetry collection and on-demand telemetry responses.
• File and image attachment storage with retrieval by ID.
• Northbound REST + WebSocket API for operators and the admin UI.
• Optional TAK/CoT bridge for chat and location updates.

What it looks like

Quickstart (from source)

1. Clone and enter the repo.

   git clone https://github.com/FreeTAKTeam/Reticulum-Community-Hub.git
   cd Reticulum-Community-Hub

2. Create and activate a virtual environment.

   python -m venv .venv
   # Linux/macOS
   source .venv/bin/activate
   # Windows (PowerShell)
   .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

3. Install dependencies.

   python -m pip install --upgrade pip
   python -m pip install -e .

4. Prepare a storage directory and config.
   • Copy RCH_Store/config.ini into your storage directory.
   • Adjust paths in the [hub], [files], and [images] sections.
5. Start the hub.

   python -m reticulum_telemetry_hub.reticulum_server \
       --storage_dir ./RCH_Store \
       --display_name "RCH"

For configuration, services, and client usage details, see docs/userManual.md.

Install from PyPI

1. Create and activate a virtual environment.

   python -m venv .venv
   # Linux/macOS
   source .venv/bin/activate
   # Windows (PowerShell)
   .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

2. Install the package.

   python -m pip install --upgrade pip
   python -m pip install ReticulumCommunityHub

3. Start the hub (point at your storage directory).

   python -m reticulum_telemetry_hub.reticulum_server --storage_dir /path/to/RCH_Store

Northbound API and admin UI

The northbound FastAPI service exposes REST + WebSocket endpoints used by the admin UI.

• Run the hub + API together (recommended for chat/message sending):

  python -m reticulum_telemetry_hub.northbound.gateway \
      --storage_dir ./RCH_Store \
      --api-host 0.0.0.0 \
      --api-port 8000

• Run only the API server (read-only unless you provide a message dispatcher):

  uvicorn reticulum_telemetry_hub.northbound.app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

• Protect admin endpoints by setting RCH_API_KEY (accepts X-API-Key or Bearer token).

• The UI lives in ui/:

  cd ui
  npm install
  npm run dev

  Set VITE_RCH_BASE_URL when the UI should target a different hub.

Documentation

• docs/README.md (documentation map)
• docs/userManual.md (user and operator guide)
• architecture.md (system overview and references)
• API/ReticulumCommunityHub-OAS.yaml (REST/OpenAPI reference)

Contributing

We welcome and encourage contributions. Please include appropriate tests and follow the project coding standards.

Linting

RCH uses Ruff for linting with a 120-character line length and ignores E203 to align with Black-style slicing.

• With Poetry (installs dev dependencies, including Ruff):

  poetry install --with dev
  poetry run ruff check .

• With a plain virtual environment:

  python -m pip install ruff
  ruff check .

License

This project is licensed under the Eclipse Public License (EPL). For more details, refer to the LICENSE file in the repository.

Support

For issues or support, open a GitHub issue

Support Reticulum

You can help support the continued development of open, free and private communications systems by donating via one of the following channels to Mark, the original Reticulum author:

• Monero: 84FpY1QbxHcgdseePYNmhTHcrgMX4nFfBYtz2GKYToqHVVhJp8Eaw1Z1EedRnKD19b3B8NiLCGVxzKV17UMmmeEsCrPyA5w
• Ethereum: 0xFDabC71AC4c0C78C95aDDDe3B4FA19d6273c5E73
• Bitcoin: 35G9uWVzrpJJibzUwpNUQGQNFzLirhrYAH
• Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/markqvist