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NovaSDR Documentation

NovaSDR

NovaSDR is a WebSDR server that streams waterfall/spectrum data and demodulated audio to a browser UI.

The docs/ directory is the canonical documentation and is synced into the GitHub wiki for publishing.

Quick start (typical workflow)

1. Build backend (recommended): cargo build -p novasdr-server --release --features "soapysdr,clfft" (omit soapysdr for stdin-only mode; omit clfft for CPU-only)

2. Build frontend: cd frontend && npm install && npm run build

3. Configure (recommended): ./target/release/novasdr-server setup -c config/config.json -r config/receivers.json

4. Run:

   • Recommended (SoapySDR): ./target/release/novasdr-server -c config/config.json -r config/receivers.json
   • stdin example (RTL-SDR): rtl_sdr -g 48 -f 100900000 -s 2048000 - | ./target/release/novasdr-server -c config/config.json -r config/receivers.json

5. Open: http://localhost:9002

Example device commands

# SoapySDR (recommended):
# - build with `--features "soapysdr,clfft"` (or omit `clfft` for CPU-only)
# - run `novasdr-server setup` to scan devices and generate receivers

# RTL-SDR
rtl_sdr -g 48 -f 100900000 -s 2048000 - | ./target/release/novasdr-server -c config/config.json -r config/receivers.json

# HackRF
hackrf_transfer -r - -f 100900000 -s 8000000 | ./target/release/novasdr-server -c config/config.json -r config/receivers.json

What to read next

• Installation and runtime prerequisites: Building
• How configuration maps to runtime behavior: Configuration
• All configuration keys: Configuration Reference
• Wire contract between UI and backend: Protocol
• Chat UI behavior (username, tokens, URL params): Chat
• How the backend is structured: Architecture
• Signal processing details: DSP, Audio, Waterfall
• Deployment guidance: Operations
• Known issues and fixes: Troubleshooting
• Licensing and attribution: Licensing, Third-party
• Contributing (fork-first): Contributing

System overview

Startup sequence (browser)

sequenceDiagram
  participant UI as Browser UI
  participant A as audio
  participant W as waterfall
  participant E as events

  UI->>A: WS connect
  A-->>UI: settings JSON
  UI->>W: WS connect
  W-->>UI: settings JSON
  UI->>E: WS connect
  E-->>UI: initial state JSON

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Documentation publishing

The repository docs/ directory is synced into the GitHub wiki using:

• Linux/macOS: tools/publish_wiki.sh Steven9101/NovaSDR
• Windows (PowerShell): powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tools/publish_wiki.ps1 -RepoSlug Steven9101/NovaSDR