Chapter 10b

Host CLI (b0rd)

The b0rd workstation tool discovers signs on your LAN and posts product Events — including notification overlays — over the LAN HTTP control path. Use it when the sign is already on home Wi‑Fi and you prefer a terminal over USB. USB remains the sure path when Wi‑Fi is missing or wrong; seeUSB control plane.

Install

Obtain the b0rd workstation tool from your organization’s product release or distribution channel. Place the binary on your PATH, then confirm it runs:

b0rd --help

Source builds and developer packaging stay with your internal release process — not this operator manual.

Commands

List — discovery

b0rd list probes the LAN for reachable signs (health fingerprints) and prints a table: identity, hostname, version, IP, scene, status, reachable. With no signs found it still succeeds and prints:

No B0rd signs on this network.
Know the address? Use `-d <ref>` or set B0rd_DEVICE.

• --json — machine-readable inventory for scripts and automation. With no signs found, stdout is [] and the command still succeeds.
• --timeout <secs> — discovery wait (default 5).

b0rd list
b0rd list --json
b0rd list --timeout 2

Event

b0rd event posts a named product Event over the LAN HTTP control path. Optional --scalar supplies a numeric payload when the Event expects one.

b0rd event scene.idle_clock.ripple
b0rd event effect.ring.pulse --scalar 8 -d B0rd-FEF8

On success, stdout prints a one-line confirmation:

B0rd-FEF8 ← scene.idle_clock.ripple

Notify

b0rd notify is sugar for notification Events on the same LAN HTTP control path as event — title, optional body, optional timed dismiss. Clear dismisses the overlay. Overlay behavior matchesNotifications.

b0rd notify "Hello" "World" --duration-ms 5000 -d b0rd-fef8
# → B0rd-FEF8 ← notify.show "Hello"

b0rd notify clear -d b0rd-fef8
# → B0rd-FEF8 ← notify.clear

Device selection

Target a sign with -d / --device, or set theB0rd_DEVICE environment variable. Accepted refs:

• SoftAP id — B0rd-FEF8
• Hostname — b0rd-fef8
• IP address — 192.168.1.115
• LAN name — b0rd-fef8.local

Selection rules for event and notify:

• 0 reachable devices → error (needs a ref or a live sign).
• 1 reachable device → auto-selected.
• Many → require -d or B0rd_DEVICE (no silent pick).

Selection and device-resolution failures exit with code 3(no devices, ambiguous many, or ref not found).

When a device ref is set, discovery probes that ref only (subnet scan skipped).list without a ref scans the local subnet; with a ref it probes that target. See Networking modes for SoftAP, STA, and .local.

export B0rd_DEVICE=b0rd-fef8
b0rd event scene.idle_clock.ripple
b0rd notify "Launch" -d 192.168.1.115

Channel

--channel is a root flag: it must appearbefore the subcommand. Default is http (LAN HTTP, cleartext — trusted LANs only); you can omit the flag.

MQTT publish

With --channel mqtt, event and notifypublish EventSet JSON to a generic broker. You need a broker host; discovery is not used. Unicast targets require a SoftAP id (B0rd-…); use--mqtt-broadcast for the shared topic. Full topic and settings detail: MQTT Events.

b0rd --channel mqtt --mqtt-host 192.168.1.10 -d B0rd-FEF8 event effect.ring.pulse
b0rd --channel mqtt --mqtt-host broker.local --mqtt-broadcast notify "Hello" "World"

Unsupported on MQTT

list over MQTT is not implemented. It exits with code2 and a clear message:

b0rd --channel mqtt --mqtt-host broker.local list
# → MQTT list unsupported; use --channel http

Related: MQTT Events ·USB control plane ·Networking modes ·Notifications ·Get started ·Glossary