Axon Pulse

Axon Pulse is a lightweight network quality sensor for the edge of a subscriber's network. It continuously measures gateway and internet latency, jitter and loss, DNS, HTTPS reachability, captive portals, local link health, throughput and responsiveness (bufferbloat), and scores the result.

It runs on its own with no account, no controller and no uploads: all measurements stay on the device. Optionally, it can connect to an Axon controller and upload per-minute aggregates over outbound HTTPS.

The always-on service is pure Go with a bounded, crash-safe SQLite spool and a 20 MiB binary size budget. The desktop app adds a tray icon and a small native viewer in the same executable.

Requirements: Go as pinned in go.mod. The desktop build on Linux also needs libgtk-4-dev and libwebkitgtk-6.0-dev; macOS needs the Xcode command line tools.

Build and run the headless sensor locally:

git clone https://github.com/Taurine-Technology/axon-pulse-foss.git
cd axon-pulse-foss
make build                       # bin/axon-pulse
bin/axon-pulse run &             # start the measurement service
bin/axon-pulse local             # keep everything on this machine
bin/axon-pulse status
bin/axon-pulse test --profile household

Build the desktop app instead with make build-desktop. On first launch choose Use Pulse locally.

Other useful commands: logs, pause, resume, support-bundle, version and help. Cross-compile every headless target with make build-all, and run the checks with make test and make lint. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full build and review process.

Taurine builds, signs and maintains packages of this code.

Ubuntu and Debian (APT). The signed repository provides both the headless service and the desktop app, and keeps them updated with apt:

curl --fail --show-error --location --output install-apt.sh \
  https://dist.taurinetech.com/pulse/apt/install-apt.sh
sh install-apt.sh --channel main --package headless   # or --package desktop

See docs/apt.md for supported systems, channels and optional unattended upgrades.

macOS and Windows. Signed installers (a notarized macOS DMG and Windows installers) are published per release stream. The easiest way to get them is through an Axon controller: your provider sends a claim link, which offers the download for your platform and connects the sensor with one click. Ubuntu users can also download a portable AppImage the same way.

Connecting is optional. Desktop users open the claim link and click Connect Pulse. Headless installs use the command shown in the controller under Network → Sensors → Invite, or connect by hand:

axon-pulse connect --url https://controller.example --token spt_...

Switch back with axon-pulse local or from Settings in the desktop app. Connected sensors only ever make outbound HTTPS requests and never inspect subscriber traffic; see docs/privacy.md.

• Architecture boundary
• Measurement methodology
• Operations and release contract
• Shared Axon packages carried in-tree

Contributions are welcome under CONTRIBUTING.md and the code of conduct. Report vulnerabilities privately as described in SECURITY.md, never in a public issue.

Axon Pulse is free software licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. Bundled components under other licenses are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md. The Axon and Taurine names and logos are trademarks of Taurine Technology (Pty) Ltd and are not covered by the software license.