LOT Notebooks for VS Code — v0.8.13

LOT Notebooks is the official Visual Studio Code extension for the Language of Things (LOT) DSL by Coreflux. It turns .lotnb files into rich interactive notebooks that talk directly to your Coreflux MQTT broker — edit, upload, monitor, and manage your entire IoT system without leaving your editor.

What's in this release

Core features

1. LOT Language notebook

Create or open .lotnb files to get a notebook UI with full LOT syntax support.

• Code cells for DEFINE MODEL, DEFINE ACTION, DEFINE RULE, DEFINE ROUTE, DEFINE VISU, and Python scripts
• Markdown cells with a formatting toolbar (bold, italic, code, headings, tables, lists…)
• Syntax highlighting, code completions (Ctrl+Space), and clickable topic links

2. Broker sync — pull and push, not execute

Run (▶) on a cell downloads the entity code from the broker into that cell:

• If the cell already matches the broker, nothing changes (idempotent).
• If the broker doesn't have the entity yet, the output explains how to upload.

Per-cell upload button ($(cloud-upload) Upload to broker) in the cell status bar sends the cell content to the broker with -addModel / -addAction / -addRule / -addRoute / -addVisu / -addPython. It only appears when the cell differs from the broker.

Per-cell check ($(check) On broker) appears when the cell is in sync — no action needed.

3. Coreflux Explorer

A sidebar panel showing every entity on the connected broker in real time:

• Entities: Models, Actions, Rules, Routes, Python Scripts — with sync status vs notebook cells
• Broker: License info, active sessions, connected clients
• Configuration: Environment variables and secrets
• Projects: Broker-side project list with inline Run / Stop controls

Right-click any entity to: copy code, go to cell, push cell to broker, pull from broker, create a definition, remove from broker, or remove all of a category.

4. Data Viewer

Live MQTT topic tree in the sidebar — subscribes and shows payloads as they arrive, with a blink decoration on updates.

Click any topic value to open a rich payload viewer (JSON tree, image preview, HTML iframe, audio player, charts for numeric streams).

5. Project management

Broker-side projects (collections of .lotnb files stored on the broker) are managed directly:

After a zip upload-only upload, the project row appears in the explorer — click ▶ Run to start it.

6. Topic links

Every MQTT topic string in a LOT cell is underlined and clickable (opens a subscribe/publish menu):

• PUBLISH TOPIC "…"
• ON TOPIC "…", WITH TOPIC "…", KEEP TOPIC "…", GET TOPIC "…"
• WITH SOURCE_TOPIC "…" and WITH DESTINATION_TOPIC "…" (ROUTE keywords)
• INTERACTION_TOPIC "…" (agent routes)

SOURCE_TOPIC and DESTINATION_TOPIC are also syntax-highlighted as route keywords.

7. Octopus AI terminal

The Octopus terminal (sidebar or Coreflux: Open Octopus Terminal) connects to the broker's AI agent endpoint. It supports multi-session management and streams responses in real time with an animated octopus character.

8. FluxLoT visual editor

Open any LOT cell with Open FluxLoT Visual Editor ($(symbol-structure) in the cell toolbar) to see a visual node graph for that entity alongside the text editor.

9. Python scripting

Python cells are fully managed entities on the broker:

# Script Name: MyScript
def greet(name="World"):
    return f"Hello, {name}!"

The # Script Name: header is required. Run (▶) pulls from the broker; the upload button in the cell status bar pushes with -addPython.

Getting started

1. Install the extension and open (or create) a .lotnb file.
2. Connect to your Coreflux broker — click the status bar item or run Coreflux: Connect to MQTT Broker.
3. Write LOT code in a cell, e.g.:

   DEFINE ACTION Heartbeat
   ON EVERY 5 SECONDS DO
     PUBLISH TOPIC "system/heartbeat" WITH "alive"
   

4. Check the cell status bar: Missing + Upload to broker → click it to deploy.
5. Once deployed, the status becomes Synced $(check) On broker.
6. Press ▶ at any time to pull the latest broker version back into the cell.

MQTT credential configuration

Run LOT Notebook: Change Credentials from the command palette to set:

• Broker URL (e.g. mqtt://localhost:1883 or mqtts://…)
• Username / password
• Optional TLS/mTLS certificates

Credentials are stored in VS Code's secret storage.

Commands reference

Notebook & cells

Entity management

Data Viewer

Project management

Requirements

• VS Code 1.85.0 or later
• A running Coreflux MQTT broker (cloud or self-hosted)

Known issues

• Cells without a valid DEFINE … header show Invalid status — add the proper LOT definition to resolve.
• Python cells require the # Script Name: … first line; missing it shows a clear error in the cell output.
• Very large project folders may produce large zip64 MQTT payloads; broker payload size limits apply.

Further reading

• Coreflux.org
• Language of Things — overview
• LOT syntax reference
• LOT Actions
• LOT Models
• LOT Rules

Made by the Coreflux team with a LOT of love ❤️