Install MeshChatX (meshchatx.com). It bundles Reticulum, configures itself, runs on everything, and does messaging, files and voice. If you are new, stop reading and install that.

The rest of this page is for when you want something different, or something more. There are two kinds of client: out of the box apps that bundle Reticulum and configure themselves (MeshChatX, Sideband, the iPhone apps), and tools for a full installation where you have installed Reticulum yourself and want to use it from a terminal (Nomad Network, the command-line tools). You can mix them: a graphical app for daily use and the tools for when something breaks.

MeshChatX

Runs on: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android

Good for: Everything, from a graphical app

Bundles Reticulum?: Yes

Sideband

Runs on: Android, Windows, macOS, Linux

Good for: Messaging on a phone, especially with a radio attached

Bundles Reticulum?: Yes

Retichat, Columba

Runs on: iPhone

Good for: Messaging on an iPhone

Bundles Reticulum?: Yes

Nomad Network

Runs on: Anywhere Python runs

Good for: Terminal use, browsing and hosting pages

Bundles Reticulum?: No — uses your config

Command line tools

Runs on: Anywhere Python runs

Good for: Diagnosing, scripting, file transfer

Bundles Reticulum?: No — ships with Reticulum

The most complete client, and the one under most active development. Messaging, file and image sharing, voice calls, pages, and an interface editor that means you never open a config file. Installers for Windows (installer and portable), macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Linux (deb, rpm, AppImage, Flatpak) and Android.

It is a fork of the original Reticulum MeshChat and has moved well ahead of it. If you find guides referring to plain “MeshChat”, the instructions usually still apply.

Written by the author of Reticulum itself, so it tracks the stack closely. Best on Android, particularly if you have an RNode paired over Bluetooth — that combination gives you a genuinely off-grid messenger in your pocket, with no phone network involved at all.

Narrower than MeshChatX in scope: it is a messaging client rather than an everything client. Windows, macOS and Linux builds are on the releases page (github.com/markqvist/Sideband/releases) as well as the Android one.

Until recently there was nothing for iPhone. Retichat (apps.apple.com/us/app/retichat/id6762225314) (App Store) and Columba (github.com/torlando-tech/Columba-iOS) are LXMF messaging clients that bundle Reticulum, so they message MeshChatX and Sideband users directly and work with our propagation node. Both are newer and less proven than the others, and we have not used them ourselves yet; reports welcome.

A terminal application, and something slightly unusual: as well as messaging, it browses and hosts pages served entirely inside Reticulum, with no DNS, certificates or hosting provider involved. Our own node serves its pages this way.

Best on a machine you leave running. If you want to publish something to the mesh rather than only read it, this is the one. See Nomad Network for how to host.

These ship with Reticulum and are worth knowing even if you live in a graphical client, because they are how you find out what is actually happening.

rnstatus

What it does: Shows every interface, whether it is up, and its traffic. The first thing to run when something is wrong.

rnpath

What it does: Shows or requests the path to a destination. Answers “can I even reach this?”

rnprobe

What it does: Sends a probe to a destination and reports the round trip.

rncp

What it does: Copies files over Reticulum.

rnx

What it does: Runs a command on a remote node you have access to.

rnodeconf

What it does: Flashes and configures RNode hardware.

• New, on a laptop or phone — MeshChatX.

• Android with an RNode — Sideband.

• iPhone — Retichat or Columba.

• You want to publish pages to the mesh — Nomad Network, alongside whatever else you run.

• Running a node with no screen — the command line tools, and Nomad Network if you want it to serve something.

You can run several at once. They all talk to the same Reticulum instance, so there is no cost to having a graphical client for daily use and the tools available when something breaks.