Audience: Hub team building the cloud service / web app for AkiraConsole.
Status: Draft v1.0 — implements the OS Shell install flow.

Overview

AkiraHub is the optional cloud companion service for AkiraConsole devices.
It provides:

  • A catalogue of signed WASM apps that users can browse and push to their console.
  • Remote app management (install, update, uninstall) via WebSocket push.
  • Firmware OTA orchestration.
  • A device registry so one account can manage multiple consoles.

The device-side client is implemented in src/connectivity/cloud/ and enabled by CONFIG_AKIRA_CLOUD_CLIENT.

Package Format — .akpkg

Every app distributed through AkiraHub is packaged as a gzip-compressed tar archive with the .akpkg extension.

app.akpkg
├── app.wasm          # WASM binary (interpreter or AOT for target arch)
├── manifest.json     # App metadata (see below)
└── icon_32.bmp       # Optional — 32×32 BMP, shown in the launcher

manifest.json schema 

{
  "name": "my_app",
  "version": "1.2.0",
  "description": "A short description shown in the launcher.",
  "author": "Your Name",
  "capabilities": ["display.write", "gpio.read"],
  "memory_quota": 65536,
  "entry": "main",
  "target_arch": "xtensa"
}
Field Type Required Description
name string ✅ Unique app identifier (ASCII, no spaces)
version string ✅ Semantic version MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH
description string ✗ Max 128 chars, displayed in launcher
author string ✗ Publisher name
capabilities string[] ✅ Required capability list (see below)
memory_quota integer ✅ Max WASM heap in bytes
entry string ✅ WASM export to call as main()
target_arch string ✗ xtensa, arm, native or generic

Capability strings

Capability string Maps to Kconfig / security.h
display.write AKIRA_CAP_DISPLAY_WRITE
gpio.read AKIRA_CAP_GPIO_READ
gpio.write AKIRA_CAP_GPIO_WRITE
storage.read AKIRA_CAP_STORAGE_READ
storage.write AKIRA_CAP_STORAGE_WRITE
network.use AKIRA_CAP_NETWORK
ble.use AKIRA_CAP_BLE
app.control AKIRA_CAP_APP_CONTROL

REST API

Base URL: https://hub.akiraos.io/api/v1 (or self-hosted).

All endpoints require Authorization: Bearer <device_token> unless noted.

App Catalogue

Method Path Description
GET /catalog List all published apps (paginated)
GET /catalog/{id} Get metadata for one app
GET /catalog/{id}/download Download the .akpkg file
POST /catalog/publish Publish a new app (developer only)
PUT /catalog/{id} Update app metadata or binary
DELETE /catalog/{id} Retract an app (developer only)

GET /catalog response 

{
  "total": 12,
  "page": 1,
  "per_page": 20,
  "apps": [
    {
      "id": "hello_world",
      "name": "Hello World",
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "description": "Minimal demo app.",
      "author": "AkiraOS Team",
      "size_bytes": 4096,
      "icon_url": "https://hub.akiraos.io/icons/hello_world.png",
      "published_at": "2025-01-15T12:00:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

POST /catalog/publish request

Content-Type: multipart/form-data

Field Type Description
package file .akpkg archive
signature string Ed25519 signature of the package (hex)

Device Registry

Method Path Description
POST /devices/register Register a new device, returns device_token
GET /devices/me Get current device info
GET /devices/me/apps List apps installed on this device
POST /devices/me/apps/{id}/install Push install command
DELETE /devices/me/apps/{id} Push uninstall command

Firmware OTA

Method Path Description
GET /firmware/latest Get latest firmware metadata
GET /firmware/{version}/download Download signed firmware bundle

WebSocket Push Channel

The device keeps a persistent connection to:

wss://hub.akiraos.io/ws/device/{device_token}

Server → Device messages

All messages are JSON with a type field.

app.install 

{
  "type": "app.install",
  "app_id": "hello_world",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "download_url": "https://hub.akiraos.io/api/v1/catalog/hello_world/download"
}

The device downloads the .akpkg, verifies the Ed25519 signature, extracts to /lfs/apps/, and calls app_manager_install_from_path().

app.uninstall 

{
  "type": "app.uninstall",
  "app_id": "hello_world"
}

firmware.update 

{
  "type": "firmware.update",
  "version": "1.2.0",
  "download_url": "https://hub.akiraos.io/api/v1/firmware/1.2.0/download",
  "signature": "<ed25519-hex>"
}

Device → Server messages

device.status

Sent on connect and every 60 seconds:

{
  "type": "device.status",
  "firmware_version": "1.0.0",
  "free_heap_bytes": 131072,
  "running_apps": ["hello_world"],
  "wifi_rssi": -55
}

app.install.result 

{
  "type": "app.install.result",
  "app_id": "hello_world",
  "success": true,
  "error": null
}

Authentication

Device token

Each device generates a unique UUID v4 at first boot stored in NVS under akira/hub/device_token. The token is bound to the device’s MAC address via HMAC-SHA256 at registration time to prevent token theft.

HMAC-SHA256(key=wifi_mac_bytes, data=uuid_string)

Package signature verification (Ed25519)

Each .akpkg is signed by the publisher’s Ed25519 private key. The device verifies using the publisher public key embedded in the certificate chain stored at /lfs/hub/trusted_keys.pem (updated via OTA bundles only).

Verification steps on device:

  1. Compute SHA-256 of the raw .akpkg archive bytes.
  2. Verify the Ed25519 signature provided in the HTTP response header X-Akira-Signature: <hex> or in the POST /catalog/publish form field.
  3. Reject the package if verification fails — log at LOG_ERR level.

Device Discovery

AkiraConsole advertises itself via mDNS when on a local network:

Service: _akira._tcp.local
Instance: AkiraConsole-<last4ofMAC>._akira._tcp.local
Port: 8080
TXT records:
  fw = 1.0.0
  api = v1

The Hub web app can use mDNS to discover consoles on the same LAN for direct (cloud-bypass) installs. The same REST API is exposed locally at http://<device-ip>:8080/api/v1.

Firmware Bundle Format

A signed firmware bundle (.akfw) is a binary file with the following layout:

 Offset  Size  Field
 ------  ----  -----
      0     4  Magic: 0x414B4657 ("AKFW")
      4     2  Format version: 0x0001
      6    64  Ed25519 signature (signs bytes 70..end)
     70     4  Firmware image length (LE uint32)
     74     4  CRC32 of firmware image
     78     n  Raw firmware image (MCUboot slot0 binary)

The device checks magic, format version, Ed25519 signature, and CRC32 before handing the image to ota_manager.

Self-Hosted Hub

Hub is a stateless REST/WebSocket service. Minimum stack:

  • HTTP server: Any (nginx, Caddy, Node.js express, Go net/http).
  • WebSocket broker: Any (socket.io, ws, gorilla/websocket).
  • Storage: File system or S3-compatible object store for .akpkg files.
  • DB: SQLite or PostgreSQL for device registry and catalogue metadata.

Environment variables:

Variable Description
AKIRA_HUB_SECRET HMAC secret for token validation
AKIRA_HUB_ED25519_PRIVATE_KEY Publisher signing key (PEM)
AKIRA_HUB_STORAGE_PATH Path to .akpkg file store
AKIRA_HUB_PORT HTTP/WS listen port (default 8080)

Minimum Viable Integration Checklist

For the initial AkiraConsole launch the Hub team must implement:

  • POST /devices/register — device token issuance
  • GET /catalog + GET /catalog/{id}/download — app browsing
  • POST /catalog/publish — developer upload with Ed25519 signing
  • WebSocket /ws/device/{token} — app.install + app.uninstall push
  • mDNS _akira._tcp.local for local network discovery
  • Ed25519 key distribution via /lfs/hub/trusted_keys.pem in OTA bundles

Copyright © 2025-2026 AkiraOS Project. Licensed under GNU GPL v3.