[Epic] M2M API — keyed third-party data API + guest throttling

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
8/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
django, python
Domain
api, authorization, backend

Research direction

This is an epic with no code change of its own; the design lives in docs/features/m2m-api/README.md on the branch named in the body. Read that doc first, then the linked child issues, starting with pskillen/meshflow-api#417 (guest endpoint throttling), which the epic says ships independently. Done means the child issues close and the epic's listed deliverables exist, so a newcomer should pick up one child issue rather than this epic.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

enhancement

Summary

A read-only, versioned machine-to-machine API at /api/m2m/v1/ for third-party dashboards and analytics. It is separate from the bot ingest API (NodeAPIKey) and the web UI API (JWT).

  • Approved users (Django group m2m_api) mint their own API keys, several per user, after accepting versioned terms: acceptable use, good faith, non-commercial, attribution. Data is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.
  • Data is aggregates first (packets today, nodes heard, role mix, feeder counts, time series), plus infrastructure nodes with health metrics. Meshtastic and MeshCore are strictly split. No positions.
  • This epic also adds throttling to the existing guest-readable endpoints, which are currently unthrottled, so the M2M terms can't be bypassed by scraping.

Motivating request: a scotmesh-style dashboard (cf. https://meshcore.scotmesh.net/) for the Meshtastic side, linking back to Meshflow node pages.

Design doc: docs/features/m2m-api/README.md (on branch claude/elegant-ramanujan-llmcka until merged)

Key decisions

Topic Decision
Path /api/m2m/v1/ on the existing domain; key management at /api/m2m/keys/ (JWT)
Mint permission Django group m2m_api (or staff), checked only when minting
Request auth API key only: exists, hash matches, not revoked, owner.is_active. No group check per request.
Disabling a user Kills all their keys immediately and stamps them revoked
Group removal Stops new mints only; existing keys keep working
Withdraw One staff operation: remove from group and revoke all keys
Terms bump 90-day grace period, then 403 until re-accepted
"Today" UTC calendar day, documented in feature docs and OpenAPI
Infra roles (MT) nodes.constants.INFRASTRUCTURE_ROLES (ROUTER, ROUTER_CLIENT, REPEATER, ROUTER_LATE). Not CLIENT_BASE.
Infra types (MC) adv_type repeater, room
Feeders Aggregate counts only
Positions Omitted
Opt-out ObservedNode.m2m_opt_out, settable by claimant, managed-node owner or staff. Excluded from per-node output, still counted in aggregates.
Ingress Prod reaches Django only via Cloudflare Tunnel, so CF-Connecting-IP is trusted in prod (behind a setting)
Initial rates Guest 120/min/IP · guest expensive 10/min/IP · JWT user 600/min · M2M 60/min + 5000/day per key, same ceiling per owner

Breakdown (delivery order)

API (meshflow-api)

  • pskillen/meshflow-api#417 Guest endpoint throttling. Ships independently.
  • pskillen/meshflow-api#418 API keys: model, auth, terms, CRUD, throttles
  • pskillen/meshflow-api#419 Staff "withdraw M2M access" (needs #418)
  • pskillen/meshflow-api#420 Node opt-out flag
  • pskillen/meshflow-api#421 v1 Meshtastic data endpoints (needs #418, #420). Unblocks the requester.
  • pskillen/meshflow-api#422 Usage metering (needs #418)
  • pskillen/meshflow-api#423 v1 MeshCore endpoints (needs #421)
  • pskillen/meshflow-api#424 History: role-mix snapshots, infra health (later)

UI (meshflow-ui)

  • pskillen/meshflow-ui#362 Developer / API access page (with #418)
  • pskillen/meshflow-ui#363 Opt-out toggle (with #420)

Done when

  • Guest endpoints are throttled in prod with CF-aware client IPs, and ingest is untouched.
  • An approved user can mint a key in the UI, and the scotmesh-style dashboard can be built against /api/m2m/v1/meshtastic/*.
  • MeshCore endpoints reach parity.
  • openapi-m2m.yaml is published, and ENV_VARS.md, REDIS.md and permissions/README.md are updated.
Dominant language
Python
Stars
1
Forks
0
Avg merge
1d 20h
Merged PRs (30d)
5

Getting set up

  • Ships a Dockerfile or Docker Compose file
  • Has a pull request template
  • No contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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