Skip node DB fetch during --ota-update / --reboot-ota

[anton-vinogradov]

Problem

meshtastic --host <ip> --ota-update firmware.bin can silently fail to start the OTA on devices with a large node DB. The device never enters OTA mode (the WiFi OTA loader on :3232 never comes up) and the client ends with Connection refused.

Root cause

The OTA flow only needs the local node — to send the startOTA admin request — and then streams the firmware directly to the OTA loader over WiFi. It never reads the node DB. But the CLI still fetches the full node DB on connect.

On a device with a large node DB (e.g. ~250 nodes on an ESP32-S3 in a busy public mesh), that dump stalls and the firmware closes the API connection before it processes the OTA request:

[ServerAPI] TCP client write short (0/61 bytes), closing API service

So startOTA is never handled, the device doesn't reboot into the OTA loader, and --ota-update fails. Passing --no-nodes manually works around it.

Fix

Imply --no-nodes when --ota-update or --reboot-ota is used, since neither reads the node DB. No effect on other commands.

Verification

On a T-Beam 1W (ESP32-S3, ~250-node DB) with the unified WiFi OTA loader installed:

• Before: meshtastic --host <ip> --ota-update fw.bin → Connection refused; device log shows TCP client write short (0/61 bytes), closing API service and no OTA Requested.
• After (no --no-nodes needed): meshtastic --host <ip> --ota-update fw.bin → OTA update completed successfully!; device log shows OTA Requested → OTA partition contains combined BLE/WiFi OTA Loader → Rebooting to WiFi OTA → Listening on TCP port 3232.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved OTA updates and reboot-to-OTA commands by preventing unnecessary node database loading.
  • OTA-related requests now start more reliably without unwanted startup output or interference.

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ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: eaf37564-8c66-4e52-85ce-d08a419d5b03

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 19d0669 and ef9cdc3.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• meshtastic/__main__.py

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

OTA update and OTA reboot actions now disable node database fetching before the related administrative request.

Changes

OTA request preparation

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Skip node handling for OTA actions meshtastic/__main__.py	common() sets args.no_nodes = True when --ota-update or --reboot-ota is selected.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~5 minutes

Suggested reviewers: ianmcorvidae

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main change: skipping node DB fetching for OTA-related commands.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

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