magistrala/README.md

Magistrala

A Modern IoT Platform Framework for Scalable IoT

Made with ❤ by Abstract Machines

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Introduction 🌍

Magistrala is an open-source IoT platform built for engineers who need full control over their messaging, device management, and data pipelines.

It is built on top of FluxMQ, a modern message broker designed for both messaging and event streams. Magistrala provides everything around it: identity, access control, device provisioning, data processing, and observability.

IoT systems usually involve brokers, databases, rule engines, and custom services. Magistrala does not pretend those pieces disappear. It provides a coherent framework for integrating them into a single system with a consistent model for identity, access control, messaging, and observability.

What it is:

• An event-driven IoT middleware platform
• A unified control plane for devices, users, and data
• A foundation for building scalable IoT systems

What it is not:

• Not just an MQTT broker
• Not a black-box SaaS
• Not tied to a single cloud or vendor

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🧩 IoT Platform Framework

We call Magistrala a framework, not just a platform.

It is extremely flexible and lets you build systems the way you want — from simple prototypes to complex, large-scale deployments — without forcing you into rigid patterns.

At the same time, it avoids the typical complexity of many IoT platforms, where you need to learn an entirely new set of concepts before you can even get started.

Magistrala is built around a small number of main concepts:

• users
• clients (devices)
• channels
• messages
• policies

Most engineers are already familiar with these ideas, so you can start building immediately.

You can keep things simple:

• connect devices
• send messages
• store data

Or you can go deeper:

• define complex access control policies
• build event-driven pipelines
• integrate custom processing and automation

Magistrala scales with your needs — simple when you want it, powerful when you need it.

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🚀 Key Benefits

• A Coherent System, Not a Mess of Integrations Build IoT systems from multiple components without ending up with fragmented security, messaging, and operations.

• Event-Driven at the Core Everything is built around events — enabling real-time processing, streaming, and scalable data flows.

• Protocol-Native, Not Forced Abstractions MQTT, HTTP, WebSocket, and CoAP are treated as first-class citizens, each with their own semantics.

• Security Built Into the Model Identity, authentication, and authorization are part of the system design — not bolted on later.

• Flexible by Design Start simple or build complex systems — without changing platforms or rewriting your architecture.

• Runs Where You Need It Cloud, edge, or hybrid — no vendor lock-in, no hidden dependencies.

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✨ Features

Magistrala provides a complete set of building blocks for IoT systems — from device connectivity to data processing and observability — without forcing a rigid architecture.

🔐 Identity & Access

• Multi-tenant domains for isolating environments
• Users, roles, and organizational hierarchies
• Fine-grained access control (ABAC + RBAC)
• Mutual TLS (X.509) and JWT-based authentication
• Personal Access Tokens (PATs) with scoping and revocation

🔌 Connectivity

• Native support for MQTT, HTTP, WebSocket, and CoAP
• Consistent authentication and authorization across protocols
• Designed for both cloud services and constrained devices

📦 Device & Application Model

• Device (client) provisioning and lifecycle management
• Channels for grouping and controlling message flow
• Application-level grouping and sharing of clients
• Simple but flexible communication model

⚙️ Processing & Automation

• Rules engine for message processing and routing
• Alarms and triggers for reacting to events
• Scheduled actions for time-based workflows
• Event-driven architecture as the foundation

📊 Observability

• Audit logs for tracking system activity
• Metrics and tracing via Prometheus and OpenTelemetry
• Built-in visibility into system behavior and data flows

🚀 Deployment & Operations

• Container-native (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Designed for cloud, edge, and hybrid deployments
• Works with external storage and processing systems
• Scales from small setups to production environments

🧑‍💻 Developer Experience

• CLI and SDKs for fast integration
• Straightforward APIs and concepts
• Documentation focused on getting you running quickly

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Atom Integration Model

Magistrala uses Atom as the backend for identity, authorization, and the catalog.

Atom is the source of truth for:

• domains
• users
• clients
• channels
• groups
• roles
• access policies

Magistrala services such as rules, alarms, and reports remain Magistrala services, but they use Atom for identity and authorization.

Core Entity Mapping

Magistrala concept	Atom concept	Meaning
Domain	Tenant	Isolation boundary for one organization, project, or environment
User	Entity with kind human	A person who logs in and uses the UI/API
Client	Entity with kind device	A device or application that sends/receives data
Channel	Resource with kind channel	A messaging/data path that clients can publish or subscribe to
Group	Group	A collection of users, clients, channels, or other grouped objects

In simple terms:

MG Domain  = Atom Tenant
MG User    = Atom Human Entity
MG Client  = Atom Device Entity
MG Channel = Atom Channel Resource
MG Group   = Atom Group

Actions, Permission Blocks, Roles, and Assignments

Atom access control has these basic parts:

Atom word	Simple meaning	Example
Action	One permission verb	read, write, delete, role.manage, policy.manage
Permission Block	Where actions apply	all channels in domain d1 can read, publish
Role	A bundle of permission blocks	tenant-admin bundles domain, role, and member access
Role Assignment	Who gets a role	give user1 the tenant-admin role

Read an assignment like this:

Give <who> this <role>.
The role contains permission blocks that say where and what.

Example:

Give user1 the tenant-admin role on domain d1.

That means:

user1 can use the tenant-admin permissions inside domain d1.

How MG Roles Work With Atom

MG UI shows actions such as:

• read
• update
• delete
• manage roles
• add/remove members
• publish
• subscribe

These are mapped to Atom actions:

MG action	Atom action
view/read	read
create/update/edit/connect	write
delete/remove	delete
manage roles	role.manage
add/remove members or access	policy.manage
channel publish	publish
channel subscribe	subscribe

So when MG UI checks:

Can user1 manage roles for client1?

Atom checks:

Does user1 have role.manage on client1, or on the domain that contains client1?

When MG UI checks:

Can user1 add a member to channel1?

Atom checks:

Does user1 have policy.manage on channel1, or on the domain that contains channel1?

Practical Rule

If a user is domain admin, they usually receive a tenant-scoped role in Atom.

That tenant-scoped role can allow them to manage objects inside the domain:

• clients
• channels
• groups
• rules
• alarms
• reports

For narrower access, create object-scoped roles. For example:

Give user2 a reader role only on channel1.

Then user2 can read only that channel, not the whole domain.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/absmach/magistrala.git
cd magistrala
make run_latest

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Usage

make cli
./build/cli health <service>

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License

Apache-2.0