MOSH Wiki

MOSH exists to allow individuals and developers to build reliable, private, and resilient IoT systems that function independently of the cloud, operate efficiently on resource-constrained hardware, and is fully modular and extensible.

Technology should work everywhere–from recreational vehicles, to remote cabins and farms, to urban homes–without requiring internet access, centralized control, or vendor lock-in.

MOSH's mission is to provide a protocol and ecosystem that enables smart devices to be transparent, decentralized, and build to last – whether you're on the grid, or off of it.

Most commercial smart home solutions make several embedded assumptions about the user and environment, which can limit flexibility, privacy, or reliability. These assumptions include:

• The user has 24/7 internet access, Wi-Fi, and a stable power grid
• Cloud servers (and vendors/manufacturers) are to be trusted
• Users are okay with vendor lock-in, and data collection/telemetry
• The environment is stable, permanent, and fixed

MOSH breaks these assumptions.

Many mainstream smart home platforms—such as Philips Hue, SmartThings, and others—rely heavily on proprietary hardware, cloud services, and firmware ecosystems. While these systems often provide convenience and polish, they come with a hidden cost: the consumer never truly owns the system.

A clear example of this is the deprecation of the Philips Hue v1 Bridge, which left functional smart bulbs and accessories unusable because the cloud-based service required to control them was shut down. The hardware was still physically capable—but the vendor chose to disable it.

This practice has two major consequences:

When vendors control updates, authentication, and connectivity through remote services, users are at the mercy of business decisions. If a vendor:

• Discontinues support
• Changes APIs
• Requires a new app or login
• Shuts down a cloud server

…then your system may stop working entirely, even though the hardware is still operational.

Perfectly functional hardware often becomes trash simply because the proprietary service it relies on has been disabled. These devices:

• Cannot be repurposed
• Cannot be locally controlled
• Cannot be updated or reconfigured without vendor tools

This creates avoidable electronic waste and undermines sustainability—especially frustrating for users who invested in expensive ecosystems expecting longevity.

MOSH is designed to put control back in the hands of users and developers:

• No cloud dependency—everything runs locally
• Open configuration and open transport layers
• Hardware is never bricked due to policy decisions
• Nodes can communicate peer-to-peer, even with mixed generations

If your MOSH device works today, it will still work tomorrow.
No subscription. No forced updates. No remote kill switch.

This approach supports long-term resilience, repurposing, and repairability—key principles for both privacy and sustainability. MOSH is developed to have no external dependencies in order to fully function – no internet, no hub, no cloud – no hardware other than your MOSH nodes.