See your whole mesh. Chat, map, probe, capture — and reach a friend a metro away.

Real screenshots, real mesh.

The big one is a live Perch install watching the St. Louis mesh through a $40 radio + community MQTT. The rest are the same build you can click around in right now (demo chats are fictional — real mesh conversations stay on the mesh).

Live install — 615 nodes and 75.8K captured packets across the metro, radio + MQTT combined

Map focus — positioned nodes, hop distribution, live activity

Chat — tapbacks, replies, delivery tracking

Node drawer — traceroute with per-hop SNR, both directions

Diagnostics — packet types, hop distribution, hardware mix, signal

Nodes — searchable roster, direct neighbors, signal

Live feed — every packet as it arrives, with SNR

Two programs, one job.

Perch is what you look at. Coop is what does the work. They install together and find each other automatically — you never configure the pair.

The app does the fiddly parts.

Perch ships a built-in control panel (the same one you see on the Welcome screen). It flashes a fresh board, names it, sets your region, joins your network, and exposes a clean API — no terminal required.

Set up a radio, guided

New to Meshtastic? Coop opens the official web flasher, tells you exactly which port and options to pick, then names the radio and sets your region so it starts transmitting.

• Plug in → flash → name & region → join, four clear steps
• Fixes the classic "TX off until a region is set" gotcha for you
• Reads GPS/fix status so you know when the radio is truly ready

Manage settings & build on the API

Coop is the only piece that can transmit, so all radio controls live there — region, channels, MQTT, reboot. It also serves a readable API reference at /api you can toggle on or off.

• Change radio & capture settings without leaving the dashboard
• REST + SSE — point a bot, a status display, or an automation at it
• Copy-ready curl examples; writes gated by a control key

Reach a friend a metro — or a state — away.

LoRa is line-of-sight-ish; your radio hears the neighborhood. MQTT is how Meshtastic reaches further, and Perch treats it as a good-citizen tool: observe by default, publish only when you choose, and never flood a public channel.

Observe your community read-only

Pick a community broker (or the public default) and Coop listens — it decodes far-away traffic and folds it into your map and history. It never publishes in observe mode, so you see the whole region without adding a single packet.

• One-click community presets, plus any broker host you like
• Duplicate packets from multiple gateways are de-duped by packet ID
• Links straight to the Meshtastic public-server policy so you play fair

Bridge a private channel to a friend off by default

Want to actually chat with someone across town? Create an encrypted private channel, share the link/QR with your friend, and each of you flips uplink on. Your wi-fi-less radio reaches the broker through Coop (MQTT Client Proxy) — messages hop the internet, stay end-to-end encrypted, and arrive on each other's radios.

• Private channels only — Coop refuses to uplink public/default-key channels that would flood the mesh
• Rate-limited and off until you enable it; the radio firmware still decides what actually goes out
• Share by link, QR, email or text; the key stays between you and your friend

On your desk, not in a cloud.

From zero to seeing your mesh in about 10 minutes.

Every detail, written down.

The complete manual — from "which radio do I buy" to the raw API. Also worth a look: the troubleshooting guide and FAQ.