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chumicro-mqtt

A non-blocking MQTT 3.1.1 client (QoS 0 + 1) that fits inside your runner tick. MQTT is the lightweight publish/subscribe protocol most IoT brokers speak.

Publish and subscribe at QoS 0 or QoS 1, set a last will, retain messages, and match wildcard topics. Messages published before the broker connection is up wait in a bounded queue and go out on connect, and inbound size limits keep one huge payload from exhausting a small heap. No threads, no async: the client does a bounded slice of work per tick, so a slow broker or a large message never stalls the rest of your loop. Built on chumicro-sockets (TCP + TLS) and chumicro-timing (ticks).


Part of the ChuMicro family: small, focused Python libraries for microcontrollers and laptops. Browse all libraries.

Install

# CircuitPython (after `circup bundle-add ChuMicro/ChuMicro-Bundle-Experimental`)
circup install chumicro_mqtt

# MicroPython
mpremote mip install github:ChuMicro/ChuMicro-Bundle-Experimental/chumicro_mqtt

# CPython
pip install chumicro-mqtt-experimental

For bundle setup, pre-compiled .mpy bundles, the experimental channel, and details on PyPI naming, see the chumicro INSTALL guide.

Quick example

from chumicro_timing import ticks_ms
from chumicro_mqtt import MQTTClient
from chumicro_wifi import WifiConfig, WifiService

wifi = WifiService(WifiConfig(ssid="home-wifi", password="s3cret"))

# On CircuitPython pass radio=wifi.adapter.radio (the WifiService's board
# radio); the kwarg is ignored on MP / CPython.  from_config builds the
# transport factory: the client dials the broker non-blocking (one connect
# phase per tick) and self-heals after drops.
client = MQTTClient.from_config(
    {"mqtt.broker.host": "broker.example.com", "mqtt.broker.port": 1883},
    radio=wifi.adapter.radio,
)

client.on_message = lambda topic, payload: print(topic, payload)
client.connect()

# Drive from a tick loop.
while True:
    now = ticks_ms()
    if client.check(now):
        client.handle(now)

QoS 0 + QoS 1 are implemented; QoS 2 raises UnsupportedQoSError. Last-will, retained messages, wildcard topic matching (topic_matches), and a structured oversized-message policy are all built in.

What's included

Symbol Purpose
MQTTClient(socket, *, client_id, ...) Main client. Runner-shaped (check(now_ms)/handle(now_ms)). Topics go on the wire exactly as written.
client.publish(topic, payload, *, qos=0, retain=False, on_publish=None) QoS 0 or 1. Before CONNECTED, the when_disconnected policy applies (queue / raise).
client.subscribe(topic, qos=0, *, on_subscribe=None) Single-topic subscribe. A declaration valid in any state: call it before connect() and the first CONNACK sends it (self-heal reconnects replay it); on_subscribe fires once on the granting SUBACK.
client.unsubscribe(topic, *, on_unsubscribe=None) Mirror of subscribe: retracts the declaration in any state, sends UNSUBSCRIBE when CONNECTED.
client.on_message + topic_matches(topic, pattern) Inbound routing: the catch-all callback plus the public wildcard matcher (+ one segment, # trailing tail).
client.connect() / .disconnect() Lifecycle.
MQTTClient(..., when_disconnected="queue", pre_connect_queue_size=8) Pre-connect publish policy ("queue" / "raise") and the queue bound.
WhenOversized.{DROP_SILENT,DROP_WITH_EVENT,DISCONNECT} Policy for inbound PUBLISHes larger than rx_buffer_size.
ProtocolState.{DISCONNECTED,AWAITING_TRANSPORT,CONNECTING,CONNECTED,FAILED} Lifecycle states. AWAITING_TRANSPORT appears while a transport_factory drives the transport up.
MQTTBackpressureError Raised when an outbound publish overflows max_tx_queue_size (or the pre-connect queue under "queue"). Drain via handle() and retry.
MQTTError / MQTTConnectError / MQTTProtocolError / UnsupportedQoSError Exceptions.
topic_matches(topic, pattern) Public wildcard matcher. Encoder + decoder primitives (encode_publish, encode_varlen, decode_varlen) stay internal to chumicro_mqtt._wire.

Tuning for tick-latency vs throughput

handle() does one recv_into and one packet send per tick (plus, on ticks that dispatched inbound QoS-1 publishes, a single coalesced PUBACK batch), so each call yields back to the runner after a bounded slice of socket work. Three MQTTClient(...) constructor knobs let you trade tick fairness for throughput:

Knob Default What it bounds
recv_budget_per_tick 1024 (bytes) Cap on the single per-tick recv_into call. It binds only when rx_buffer_size exceeds it (each recv is already limited to the RX buffer's free space); with a large RX buffer it keeps a multi-KB inbound PUBLISH arriving across several ticks instead of one long syscall.
max_tx_queue_size 20 packets Hard cap on pending outbound packets. Sized for the runner-shaped sensor profile (publish every N seconds; queue stays near zero). Appending past the cap raises MQTTBackpressureError; protocol-internal traffic (PUBACK responses, retransmits, PINGREQ) bypasses the cap so QoS-1 / keepalive contracts hold. Failed QoS-1 publishes roll back the packet_id allocation cleanly so the id pool isn't leaked on backpressure. Raise for bursty publishers; each slot pins ~8 bytes long-lived on MP / CP.
send_timeout_seconds inherits ack_timeout_seconds (5 s) Maximum time the socket can stay non-writable with a packet queued before the client transitions to FAILED. Re-arms on every successful send: a steady drip of small sends never trips it, only a stalled socket does. Catches NAT-style silent-drops on the outbound path that would otherwise let the queue grow until MQTTBackpressureError.

Where this fits

Depends on chumicro-sockets (TCP + TLS) and chumicro-timing for ticks. Used directly in app code; no other ChuMicro library depends on it.

Platform support

Works on CPython, MicroPython, and CircuitPython.

Examples

Example What it shows
telemetry.py Periodic QoS-1 publish on a real CP/MP board. Brings wifi up, connects to a broker, subscribes to a command topic, publishes a synthetic reading every N seconds while an LED-blink counter verifies the publish never blocks waiting for PUBACK. Reads wifi and broker config from runtime_config.msgpack (chumicro-workspace) with a constants fallback. Broker host and port must be set explicitly; the library refuses to silently dial a third-party broker. Cross-runtime (CP + MP).
bench.py Self-driving validation bench. Deploy it and watch serial: the device runs the scenarios end-to-end (steady inline, oversized drain, oversize-topic, QoS-1 round-trip, sustained burst, keepalive) against a real broker and prints a pass/fail summary table. Used to confirm the library's heap-bounded oversize handling and the two-tier inbound model behave as advertised on a 256 KB-RAM-class board. Optional companion bench_host.py (host-side, needs pip install paho-mqtt) captures the verdict from the broker and can publish a 64 KB hostile payload for extra oversized-tier stress.

Wiring wifi and broker config for the examples

The hardware-facing examples need wifi credentials and a broker host and port. The telemetry example reads [wifi] for credentials and [telemetry] for the broker host, port, and topic, from a runtime_config.msgpack (chumicro-workspace) with a constants fallback in the file. The library itself never reads TOML. It takes a chumicro-sockets socket and goes, so config wiring stays in the application layer.

Memory and leak testing

A host-side suite uses tracemalloc to verify the client doesn't leak across its hot paths: QoS 0 and QoS 1 publish, inbound recv, and subscribe/unsubscribe cycles.

Contributing

Issues, bug reports, and pull requests are welcome, and so is "I ran it on this board and here's what happened", some of the most useful feedback a hardware project can get. Development happens in the ChuMicro repository, whose contributing guide covers setup and the test workflow.

Docs

📖 Stable docs · Experimental docs

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License

MIT

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