eddn-tail 0.2.0

A KinesisTail-like TUI for monitoring the EDDN live stream

EDDN Tail

A KinesisTail-like TUI for monitoring the Elite Dangerous Data Network (EDDN) live stream in your terminal.

Connects to EDDN's ZeroMQ PUB/SUB relay and displays all messages flowing through the network in real-time — useful for verifying your own submissions or just watching the galaxy's data flow.

Installation

pip install eddn-tail

Or install from source:

pip install .

Or run directly without installing:

python eddn_tail.py [options]

Usage

# Watch all EDDN messages
eddn-tail

# Filter to Scan events only
eddn-tail -f Scan

# Filter by system name
eddn-tail -s Sol

# Filter by station name
eddn-tail -t Jameson Memorial

# Filter by schema
eddn-tail -S commodity/3

# Combine filters (AND logic)
eddn-tail -f FSDJump -s Sol

# Connect to beta EDDN
eddn-tail --beta

# Connect to dev EDDN
eddn-tail --dev

Keybindings

Key	Action
/	Focus filter input (regex supported)
Esc	Clear filter
p	Pause/resume stream
d	Toggle detail pane
e	Export selected message JSON to file
Ctrl+L	Clear all received events
↑/↓	Navigate rows
Enter	Show full message detail
q	Quit

How it works

EDDN is a publish/subscribe message relay. When tools (like EDMC, EDDI, or Decky plugins) upload data to https://eddn.edcd.io:4430/upload/, the EDDN Gateway validates the message and broadcasts it over a ZeroMQ PUB socket on port 9500. This tool subscribes to that stream, decompresses the zlib-encoded JSON, and displays it in a scrollable, filterable TUI.

Service	Upload URL	Listener (ZMQ)
Live	https://eddn.edcd.io:4430/upload/	tcp://eddn.edcd.io:9500
Beta	https://beta.eddn.edcd.io:4431/upload/	tcp://beta.eddn.edcd.io:9510
Dev	https://dev.eddn.edcd.io:4432/upload/	tcp://dev.eddn.edcd.io:9520

About the uploaderID column

EDDN relays do not broadcast the original uploaderID. The relay hashes it with a rotating nonce every 3 minutes (SHA-1(nonce + "-" + uploaderID)) before broadcasting, so the values shown in the Uploader column are 40-character hex strings — not commander names. Because the hash changes every 3 minutes, there is no reliable way to filter by uploader from the CLI. Use the in-app live filter (/) for short-term substring matching on any visible column value.

To inspect a message's full JSON payload, select a row and press Enter, or press e to export it to a file.

EDDN message format

Messages on the wire are zlib-compressed JSON with this structure:

{
  "$schemaRef": "https://eddn.edcd.io/schemas/journal/1",
  "header": {
    "uploaderID": "<40-char SHA-1 hash, rotates every 3 min>",
    "softwareName": "...",
    "softwareVersion": "...",
    "gameversion": "...",
    "gamebuild": "...",
    "gatewayTimestamp": "2026-05-10T22:36:19.745292Z"
  },
  "message": {
    "event": "Scan",
    "StarSystem": "Sol",
    ...
  }
}

Supported schemas: journal/1, commodity/3, outfitting/2, shipyard/2.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

License

MIT © AwaNoodle