OpenNeato

Open-source replacement for Neato's discontinued cloud and mobile app. An ESP32 bridge communicates with Botvac robots (D3-D7) over UART and exposes a local web UI over WiFi — no cloud, no app, no account required.

Note

This is an early beta - things may break, rough edges are expected, and the API may change. If you run into problems, a Discussion or issue is always welcome.

Important

Now in development: Guided Clean - zone cleaning, no-go lines, and map-based navigation.

Select zones on a previously recorded map, draw no-go lines, and let the robot clean exactly where you want. Follow the issue for progress updates and sub-task tracking.

Tip

Want to get a feel for OpenNeato without hardware? Open the live demo. Demo states can be selected with ?scenario=...; see mock scenarios.

Dashboard	Manual Drive	Cleaning History

Clean Map	Schedule	Settings

Motivation

Neato shut down their cloud services and mobile app, leaving perfectly functional robot vacuums without remote control or scheduling. OpenNeato brings them back to life with a small ESP32 board wired to the robot's debug port, giving you a local web interface that works without any external dependencies.

Features

• Dashboard with live robot status, battery level, cleaning state, WiFi signal, and storage usage
• House and spot cleaning with pause/resume/stop/dock controls that adapt to the current state
• Manual driving mode with a virtual joystick, live LIDAR map visualization, motor toggles (brush, vacuum, side brush), bumper/wheel-lift/stall safety warnings
• Live cleaning map — watch the robot's path during an active cleaning session in the History view, rendered on a canvas with coverage overlay
• 7-day cleaning scheduler with two slots per day, managed entirely on the ESP32 (doesn't use the robot's built-in schedule commands)
• Cleaning history with recorded robot paths rendered as coverage maps, session stats like duration, distance, area covered, and battery usage; individual session import/export for backup and restore
• Push notifications via ntfy.sh; get notified when cleaning is done, an error occurs, a maintenance alert triggers, or the robot docks; fully optional, configurable per event
• OTA firmware updates from the browser with SHA-256 download verification (against published checksums.txt), MD5 transfer integrity, dual-partition layout with auto-rollback, and automatic new version notifications when a release is available on GitHub
• Settings page for hostname, timezone, motor presets, notification topics, UART pins, theme (dark/light/auto), battery diagnostics (cycle count, voltage, temperature, and a "New Battery" calibration trigger), and more
• Event logging with configurable log levels (off/info/debug), compressed JSONL files on SPIFFS, browsable and downloadable from the UI; optional remote syslog (UDP) for long-running diagnostics without flash wear; logging is off by default
• Factory reset via 5-second button hold on the ESP32 or from the settings page
• Robot clock sync — pushes NTP time to the robot automatically, re-syncs every 4 hours
• Flash tool — standalone CLI that auto-detects the USB port, downloads the correct firmware from GitHub Releases, and flashes with zero prerequisites
• Safety watchdog — auto-stops wheels in manual mode if the browser disconnects; task and heap watchdogs restart the ESP32 on hangs
• Crash recovery — orphaned cleaning sessions after unexpected reboots are automatically recovered with full stats

The frontend is a lightweight SPA that gets gzipped and embedded directly into the firmware binary, so a single OTA update covers both firmware and UI. Mobile-friendly, dark theme by default.

Supported Robots

Neato Botvac D3 through D7. D8/D9/D10 are NOT supported (different board, password-locked serial port).

Installation

Requirements

• ESP32-C3, ESP32-S3, or original ESP32 board with 4 MB flash (any dev board with USB and exposed GPIOs)

Quick Start

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page
2. Flash the ESP32 using the flash tool (auto-detects your chip type):

   openneato-flash

3. Configure your home WiFi via the serial menu (opens automatically after flashing)
4. Wire the ESP32 to your robot's debug port
5. Open the web UI at http://neato.local or the IP shown in the serial monitor

For detailed instructions and troubleshooting, see the User Guide.

Building from Source

Requires Node.js 22+, PlatformIO CLI, and Go 1.26+.

git clone https://github.com/renjfk/OpenNeato.git
cd OpenNeato

# Build frontend (generates web_assets.h)
cd frontend && npm ci && npm run build && cd ..

# Build firmware
pio run -e c3-release

# Build flash tool
cd flash && go build -o openneato-flash . && cd ..

Contributing

OpenNeato is open to contributions and ideas! Whether you're a developer wanting to add features or a user with suggestions, your input is valuable.

The most useful contributions are testing prereleases on your hardware, filing clear bug reports, and opening PRs. If you'd rather just say thanks, there's a Ko-fi. Optional, doesn't influence the roadmap, the project stays free and community-driven either way.

Tip

Before opening an issue, consider starting a Discussion first — many questions, setup troubles, and ideas are easier to resolve through conversation.

Important

For anything beyond a small bug fix, please open an issue or Discussion first to align on the design before writing code. This is an embedded project with tight resource constraints (single-core MCU, 320 KB RAM, 1.6 MB flash per OTA slot) and strict architectural rules (non-blocking event loop, zero external dependencies). A quick design conversation upfront avoids large rewrites during review.

Issue Conventions

When creating issues, please follow our simple naming convention:

Format: type: brief description

Issue Types

• feat: - New features or functionality
• fix: - Bug fixes
• enhance: - Improvements to existing features
• chore: - Maintenance tasks, dependencies, cleanup
• docs: - Documentation updates
• build: - Build system, CI/CD changes

Examples

• feat: add CSV export functionality
• fix: app crashes when importing large files
• enhance: improve data loading performance
• chore: update dependencies to latest versions
• docs: update README with installation instructions
• build: update Xcode project settings

Guidelines

• Use lowercase for the description
• Be specific and actionable
• Keep under 60 characters
• No period at the end

Development

For frontend development without hardware, use the mock API scenarios documented in docs/mock-scenarios.md. The same ?scenario=... URLs work in local Vite dev and the Cloudflare demo.

Release Process

Manual releases via opencode; see RELEASE_PROCESS.md.

Prereleases can be triggered from any PR by commenting /prerelease (collaborators only).

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.