Nerves Gate SDK

A pure Elixir application API. It has no Nerves or Linux dependencies. Gateway firmware implements NervesGateSDK.Backend; on a workstation, calls return {:error, :backend_not_configured}. Run applications on real firmware, including the QEMU gateways of nerves_gate_sim.

alias NervesGateSDK.{CAN, Events, Network, Storage, System}

{:ok, info} = System.info()
{:ok, interfaces} = Network.interfaces()
:ok = Events.subscribe(:network)
{:ok, directory} = Storage.data_dir(:my_app)
:ok = CAN.subscribe("can0")
:ok = CAN.send("can0", %CAN.Frame{id: 0x123, data: <<1, 2>>})

Subscriptions deliver %NervesGateSDK.Events.Event{topic: topic, value: value} to the calling process. Backends monitor subscribers and RS485 claim owners; resources are released when their owner exits. SDK structs are the public contract, not firmware status maps. Commands return :ok, {:ok, value} or {:error, reason}. A timeout means an unknown outcome, not cancellation or permission to retry.

The runtime selects the backend with config :nerves_gate_sdk, backend: Module. Applications should not select a device backend themselves. SDK APIs do not configure networks, manage Tailscale, SSH, apps or firmware, expose cookies, or reboot/reset the device.

Applications on a device are trusted same-BEAM OTP applications, not sandboxed.

Application packages

mix nerves_gate.package builds production code into a standard <app>-<version>.ez OTP archive. Declare env: [nerves_gate_sdk_requirement: "~> 0.1.0"] in application/0 and def cli, do: [preferred_envs: ["nerves_gate.package": :prod]] to select production before dependency discovery on a clean checkout.

Bundled applications contain ordinary <app>-<version>/ebin/*.app, BEAM files and optional priv/ directories. There is no custom manifest or dependency solver. OTP, Elixir, the SDK, Jason, Telemetry and Phoenix PubSub are supplied by the platform, never bundled. The packager records exact versions of referenced common libraries in the main application's :nerves_gate_platform environment; the installer checks them and the SDK requirement against the running platform. Other runtime dependencies are included and must not conflict with platform or other installed application names/modules. Native code must be built for the device architecture; this task does not cross-compile it.

An optional :nerves_gate_health_check environment entry contains an MFA that must return :ok within five seconds after startup. A failed upgrade restarts the previous version without changing its persisted selection. The administrative NervesGate.Apps lifecycle API belongs to firmware, not the SDK.