Moss Android Edge Node

Run a Moss / Holochain edge node natively on Android using Termux — no proot, no Docker, no laptop required.

Quick install

pkg install nodejs git curl netcat-openbsd
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/daniel-thisnow/moss-android-edge-node/main/install.sh) \
  --name "Your Name" --desc "My edge node"

Then start:

~/holochain-native/launcher.sh

What this is

An always-on Holochain peer for your Moss group, running directly on Android hardware. The Holochain binary is compiled from Rust targeting aarch64-linux-android (Android NDK), so it runs natively in Termux without any Linux compatibility layer.

The journey

This didn't start here. It started with a phone and a lot of problem-solving:

1. Claude Code on Termux — getting Claude Code running natively on Android required fixing the /tmp issue (Android's /tmp is root-owned, so we wrap the claude binary with proot -b $TMPDIR:/tmp)
2. npm on Termux — npm install was hanging non-deterministically inside proot-distro. Root cause: proot's ptrace event handler couldn't cope with Node.js's libuv thread pool firing 4 clone() syscalls at once. The PTRACE_EVENT_CLONE and SIGSTOP events arrive out of order, leaving threads permanently stuck. Fix: batch all pending waitpid() events and sort CLONE before SIGSTOP before processing. PR #337 → termux/proot
3. Tooling — git, ripgrep, pnpm, Node.js v25, dev stack
4. Ubuntu proot + MCP — ran an Ubuntu proot environment to host MCP servers (GitHub, Contentful, Cloudinary, Playwright headless)
5. Holochain on Ubuntu proot — proved the concept: Holochain + Moss working on Android hardware, inside Ubuntu proot
6. Native build — compiled Holochain v0.6.1-rc.1 from source via GitHub Actions (see holochain-android), moved everything off proot

The Ubuntu proot proved it worked. The native build was the upgrade.

Binaries

Pre-built for aarch64-linux-android (Android NDK r25b, API 28):

Binary	Download
holochain v0.6.1-rc.1	download
lair-keystore	download

Release page: holochain-android/releases/tag/holochain-0.6.1-rc.1

Built via GitHub Actions — source and workflow at holochain-android.

Stack

• Device: Android 13, any aarch64 phone
• Runtime: Termux + Node.js v25
• Holochain: v0.6.1-rc.1, built natively for aarch64-linux-android
• Transport: iroh (works natively — no netlink issues in 0.6.1-rc.1)
• Moss: group hApp v0.15.0-rc.7

Files

File	Purpose
install.sh	One-shot installer — downloads binaries, writes config, sets up boot hook
launcher.sh	Starts conductor + status server, monitors and auto-restarts
status-server.mjs	Web dashboard on :8889 with tabbed admin panel
etc/conductor-config.yaml	Conductor config template

Dashboard

Once running, open in a browser on the same device:

• http://localhost:8889 — status overview
• http://localhost:8889/admin — full tabbed panel (Dashboard, Apps, Peers, Chain, Storage, Logs, Profile)

Join a Moss group

After the node is running, paste a Moss invite link:

node ~/holochain-native/install-group.mjs "weave-0.15://invite/..."

Profile is set via the Profile tab in the admin panel, or:

node ~/holochain-native/set-profile.mjs "YourName" "Node description"

Auto-start on boot

Install Termux:Boot from F-Droid — install.sh sets up the hook automatically.

Ports

Port	Purpose
4445	Holochain admin websocket
4446	Holochain app websocket
8889	Status dashboard

Notes

• The binary uses /system/bin/linker64 (Android's native linker) — no termux-elf-cleaner needed
• iroh transport works natively in v0.6.1-rc.1 (earlier versions crashed with netlink permission errors on Android)
• wsClientOptions: { origin: 'http://localhost' } is required for admin websocket connections
• Conductor data lives in ~/holochain-native/data/ — back this up, it contains your keystore
• Wake lock is acquired on startup to prevent network sleep on screen-off (requires Termux:API)