High Desert Institute

Cyberpony Express

The Cyberpony Express is a free, encrypted, public mesh network based on Meshtastic. It is designed to be a free, open-source, digital postal service for the people. The idea is to create a network of nodes that can send and receive messages, files, and other data without relying on traditional internet infrastructure.

This project is currently stewarded by the Pathfinders’ Guild, focusing on resilient communications and long-range connectivity between outposts.

Why build off-grid mesh networks?

Off-grid mesh networks are infrastructure you can own and operate locally. Different people come to this work for different reasons:

• Community resiliency: mutual aid, local coordination, and keeping communities connected when everything else is unreliable.
• Disaster communications: redundancy when cell/internet goes down, and a backbone for situational awareness.
• Privacy and security: minimizing centralized control, hardening comms, and learning practical opsec.

How to build off-grid mesh networks

Start with the basics, then iterate in the field:

• Workshops: recorded sessions + notes on hardware strategy, siting/outreach, BBS/Librarian, and opsec.
• Build List v0.1: concrete parts lists for minimal, simple, and advanced nodes.
• Deploy and test: get a small number of nodes working end-to-end, then expand coverage based on real-world measurements and community stewardship.

Current Projects Include

• Deploying New Nodes - A project to deploy nodes in the wild and test the network. This is what the GoFundMe pays for.
• BBS - A simple, dumb system that works like a phone operator. It can send and receive messages with users, solve the backhaul problem of long-distance messaging between distant parts of the network, enable access to MUDs and chatbots like the Librarian, and provide a framework for extending the functionality of the Cyberpony Express in the future.
• Flying Robots - Low-cost quadcopters, UAVs, rovers, and electric boats coordinated over the mesh to handle tasks like observation, logistics, planting, weeding, and maintenance.
• Meshtastic-LLM - A toolchain for connecting local large language models to the mesh so every outpost can run its own librarian, concierge, or alerting agent without internet access.

Useful Tools

• Flash Your Firmware From The Web Requires chrome!
• Plan Your Mesh