BLEA README
The full upstream README, mirrored here for reference. Install config, tool schemas, adoption signals, and an original overview live on the BLEA listing page.
BLEA
BLEA — Bluetooth Low Energy Automation — is a universal Agent Plugin for safe, deterministic BLE work. It gives AI agents a portable Skill, a machine-readable CLI, a local MCP server, guarded automation, and offline evidence capture, diff, and replay.
The project is designed for the BLE work agents repeatedly need: checking OS Bluetooth access, finding the right nearby device, discovering GATT services, preserving and comparing raw byte evidence, reading and subscribing before changing state, and making writes only after explicit authorization.
| Surface | Role |
|---|---|
| Agent Plugin 1.0.0 | Packages the portable identity, Skill, and MCP declaration. |
| Agent Skill | Teaches agents the BLE workflow, safety boundaries, and recovery rules. |
| CLI | Emits deterministic JSON/JSONL for scripts, terminals, and any agent with shell access. |
| MCP | Exposes the same runtime as local, structured tools with managed BLE sessions. |
The ble executable is the shared runtime. Regular subcommands use the CLI surface; ble mcp
starts the stdio MCP server. The MCP protocol is therefore a first-class interface, not a second
tool hidden inside an unrelated CLI product.
Install
BLEA requires Python 3.10 or newer. Bluetooth access is provided by the operating system through Bleak.
Quick install with an Agent prompt
Give this prompt to an Agent with shell access:
For manual installation, use the detailed paths below.
Install the latest published Python runtime from PyPI:
For Codex, install the public Git marketplace package after the runtime:
To install only the portable Agent Skill with the Skills CLI:
For OpenClaw, install the same portable Skill from its public ClawHub listing:
The Skill teaches the workflow and safety policy; it does not install the Python runtime. Install
blea from PyPI as shown above before asking an agent to access live Bluetooth hardware or start
the local MCP server. The source Skill is skills/ble/SKILL.md, and the
public ClawHub release is @nitmi/blea.
Start a new Agent task after installation. The marketplace package supplies the BLE Skill and MCP
declaration; it does not install the Python runtime or operating-system Bluetooth permissions. See
docs/installation.md for the release-tag, legacy 0.6.0 bridge, and update
procedure.
From a checkout, install the command runtime directly from the working tree:
For repository development:
Standalone Windows release
Starting with 0.6.5, each release includes blea-<version>-windows-x86_64.zip with a
single-file ble.exe and a manifest binding its SHA-256, version, target, and source commit. Python
is not required at runtime. The tag workflow builds twice on one GitHub-hosted Windows runner,
rejects unequal ZIP hashes, runs ble --version and an adapter-free evidence replay, and creates
GitHub artifact provenance. It does not run doctor, scan, or access Bluetooth hardware.
Verify the archive before use:
Attestation proves repository build provenance; it is not Windows Authenticode signing and does not prove a Bluetooth adapter, peripheral, or firmware identity.
The Python runtime and Agent Plugin are two related installation units: PyPI installs the ble
executable, while an Agent Plugins 1.0.0 client loads this repository directory to discover
plugin.json, mcp.json, and skills/ble. Install the runtime first so the plugin's local stdio
MCP server can find ble on PATH. See docs/installation.md for source,
plugin, update, permissions, and verification paths.
CLI
Device names are accepted only when exactly one observed device has that name. Prefer the
platform identifier returned by scan; on macOS this is normally a UUID rather than a MAC address.
Every binary value includes length, hex, base64, and replacement-safe UTF-8 representations.
JSON errors use stable reasons and exit codes suitable for agent recovery.
probe is paginated. Follow next_read_offset until it is null. Page counts and
characteristic-level failures live under read_page; ok=true means the page executed, while
read_page.has_failures tells you whether any characteristic failed. Every result includes a small
profile_summary. The CLI includes the full GATT profile by default and supports
--no-include-profile; the MCP tool omits it by default to keep repeated pages compact.
Connection commands report timeout_scope=per_backend_operation. Their timeout applies separately
to discovery, connection, and each GATT operation, rather than bounding the total command time.
GATT entries include uuid_namespace. BLEA reports library descriptions only for canonical
Bluetooth Base UUIDs, avoiding false standard names inferred from the leading bytes of custom
128-bit UUIDs.
observe discovers notify/indicate characteristics and watches them over one connection for a
bounded duration. Omit --characteristic to select all event-capable traits, or repeat it for
explicit selection. The result separates subscription failures, cleanup failures, and notification
events; a quiet window is evidence only for that sample window.
Save a complete read-only evidence package after diagnosis:
capture records the advertisement, normalized GATT profile, each readable-characteristic result,
bounded notifications, operation errors, and a validated final summary. It performs no writes,
pairing, or configuration changes and replaces the destination only after an atomic close. The
JSONL file is the authoritative artifact; the command's JSON result is a compact summary. The
Evidence Format v1 contract and deterministic validator live in
docs/evidence-format-v1.md.
Compare two complete evidence packages without a Bluetooth adapter or device:
diff validates both Evidence Format v1 inputs, projects them into stable BLE semantics, and emits
sorted JSON Pointer changes. It ignores capture IDs, timestamps, runtime metadata, sampling
duration, and RSSI movement within 5 dBm by default. Use --strict-rssi for exact RSSI comparison.
Device identifiers must match unless an intentional cross-device comparison uses
--allow-different-devices. Binary payloads are atomic changes, so one changed value does not
produce separate Hex, Base64, and UTF-8 noise. A normal difference exits successfully;
--fail-on-change returns code 3 after printing the complete result for CI. The contract lives in
docs/diff-format-v1.md.
Replay a complete evidence package without a Bluetooth adapter or physical device:
Replay reconstructs advertisements, GATT, reads, captured failures, subscription outcomes, and
the notification timeline through the same read-only backend interfaces used for live devices.
The default --speed 0 mode is immediate and deterministic; place a positive --speed before the
operation to preserve recorded notification gaps at that multiplier. Missing observations return
the stable replay_miss reason instead of an invented value or success. Replay never accesses a
real adapter and never sends or simulates writes or exchanges. The full contract lives in
docs/replay-format-v1.md.
Guarded writes
A write requires both --allow-write and an exact confirmation of the resolved identifier:
YAML writes and exchanges add two more guards: the workflow must enable writes and each state-changing
step must declare dangerous: true plus successful prerequisite steps. The policy must also carry an
exact confirm_device identifier. See examples/guarded-write.yaml and
examples/esp32-burst-exchange.yaml.
For protocols where a write triggers notifications, use exchange. It enables the notification
subscription before performing the guarded write, then collects events for a bounded duration.
The write and notify characteristics may be the same or different. This avoids the race created by
launching standalone session subscribe and write operations concurrently.
For repeatable checks, an exchange step can assert the exact notification count, UTF-8 or Hex
content, the final notification, and subscription cleanup. Run a guarded YAML workflow with the
independent invocation gate:
Replace the example's device identifier and confirmation with the exact value returned by a fresh scan before running it.
MCP and Agent Plugin
Start the local stdio server directly:
The MCP surface includes one-shot tools, the offline ble_diff comparator, the offline
ble_replay runner, and stateful session tools. Sessions let an agent connect
once, inspect, read, observe, subscribe, perform a guarded request/notification exchange or write,
and then disconnect. ble_exchange and ble_session_exchange atomically subscribe before writing.
ble_session_list exposes active leases and ble_session_close_all provides explicit recovery.
The server disconnects all sessions when the MCP client exits and reaps an inactive session after
120 seconds by default. Set BLEA_SESSION_IDLE_SECONDS to another positive duration, or 0 to
disable idle reaping while retaining shutdown cleanup.
Close a known session with ble_session_close. Reserve ble_session_close_all for recovering an
unknown session ID, a failed explicit close, or confirmed leaked state.
To expose the normal MCP BLE tools against one capture instead of hardware, launch a dedicated replay server:
Every replay-backed BLE operation result identifies the evidence and carries
replay.read_only=true. Even if a client invokes an existing write or exchange tool with
live-device authorization fields, the ReplayBackend rejects it.
This repository is itself an Agent Plugins 1.0.0 package:
The plugin configuration expects the ble executable to be installed on PATH. The portable
specification distributes Skill and MCP metadata; native Bluetooth runtime installation and OS
permissions remain platform responsibilities.
The repository also carries server.json, the official MCP Registry package
metadata for the PyPI distribution. It declares a local stdio server and the mcp package
argument; it does not advertise a hosted or remote BLE service. Releases publish this metadata to
the official MCP Registry with short-lived GitHub OIDC
credentials after the matching PyPI version succeeds. The namespace preserves the GitHub login's
canonical casing because Registry authorization and package ownership markers are case-sensitive.
The root Dockerfile is a registry sandbox for MCP protocol introspection and
adapter-free tools. It builds the version-aligned release checkout and starts ble mcp, which lets
release-candidate CI run before that version exists on PyPI. It does not claim that a container can
access the host's Bluetooth adapter; use the native host installation above for live BLE work.
The OpenAI Plugins Directory submission uses the portable Skill only. BLEA's MCP server stays local
because live BLE requires the user's native host and adapter; it is not represented as a public
remote MCP endpoint. Submission copy, limitations, starter prompts, and review cases are recorded
in docs/openai-plugin-submission.md.
The public Codex distribution is registered at the immutable Git ref shown in the install section
and installed with codex plugin add blea@blea. A pinned ref does not advance to another release
when a marketplace snapshot is refreshed. To change releases, remove the configured marketplace,
add it again at the new v<version> tag, reinstall the Plugin, and start a new Agent task. Do not
treat installing the Python package alone as installing the Agent Skill or MCP declaration.
Platform status
Windows 11 is hardware-verified with the ESP32-S3 BLEA test server, including discovery, GATT,
notifications, guarded exchange, capture, and replay. macOS and Linux currently pass the unit suite
and replay the same real-device evidence in CI, but their native Bluetooth adapter paths have not
been tested on physical hosts. Treat those two platforms as CI + replay verified; native BLE hardware unverified until a published acceptance report says otherwise.
See docs/platform-acceptance.md for the exact support tiers,
privacy requirements, hardware acceptance procedure, and current evidence matrix.
Development
Unit tests use a fake BLE backend and do not require nearby hardware. CI runs on Windows, macOS,
and Linux. Each CI job also runs examples/replay-read-only.yaml against the checked-in complete
evidence fixture, providing an end-to-end CLI and Workflow smoke test with no adapter.
The root .codex-plugin, .mcp.json, and skills paths are the Codex Plugin source of truth. After
changing them, run uv run python scripts/sync_codex_plugin.py; CI uses --check to reject drift.
The repository-local Agent package checker validates both Codex Plugin roots, their MCP declaration,
Skill metadata, and agents/openai.yaml without relying on a maintainer's personal Skill directory.
The distribution checker also rejects missing marketplace files in the sdist and Plugin metadata in
the Python wheel.
Real adapter support is tracked separately from CI; CI success is not a native hardware support claim.
Release history lives in CHANGELOG.md. Maintainers should follow
docs/releasing.md for artifact, Trusted Publishing, Plugin, and
post-publication gates.
Companion project
For serial, UART, COM-port, USB-to-TTL, and firmware-console workflows, see
baud-cli. It provides an agent-friendly baud CLI and
portable Skill with guarded YAML automation, structured output, and archived raw-byte evidence.