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NodeMCU is an open source [Lua](https://www.lua.org/) based firmware for the [ESP8266 WiFi SOC from Espressif](https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp8266) and uses an on-module flash-based [SPIFFS](https://github.com/pellepl/spiffs) file system. NodeMCU is implemented in C and is layered on the [Espressif NON-OS SDK](https://github.com/espressif/ESP8266_NONOS_SDK).
The firmware was initially developed as is a companion project to the popular ESP8266-based [NodeMCU development modules]((https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-devkit-v1.0)), but the project is now community-supported, and the firmware can now be run on _any_ ESP module.
In July 2018 support for a Lua Flash Store (LFS) was introduced. LFS allows Lua code and its associated constant data to be executed directly out of flash-memory; just as the firmware itself is executed. This now enables NodeMCU developers to create **Lua applications with up to 256Kb** Lua code and read-only constants executing out of flash. All of the RAM is available for read-write data!
The NodeMCU programming model is similar to that of [Node.js](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Node.js), only in Lua. It is asynchronous and event-driven. Many functions, therefore, have parameters for callback functions. To give you an idea what a NodeMCU program looks like study the short snippets below. For more extensive examples have a look at the [`/lua_examples`](lua_examples) folder in the repository on GitHub.
The entire [NodeMCU documentation](https://nodemcu.readthedocs.io) is maintained right in this repository at [/docs](docs). The fact that the API documentation is maintained in the same repository as the code that *provides* the API ensures consistency between the two. With every commit the documentation is rebuilt by Read the Docs and thus transformed from terse Markdown into a nicely browsable HTML site at [https://nodemcu.readthedocs.io](https://nodemcu.readthedocs.io).
Due to the ever-growing number of modules available within NodeMCU, pre-built binaries are no longer made available. Use the automated [custom firmware build service](http://nodemcu-build.com/) to get the specific firmware configuration you need, or consult the [documentation](http://nodemcu.readthedocs.io/en/release/build/) for other options to build your own firmware.
This project uses two main branches, `release` and `dev`. `dev` is actively worked on and it's also where PRs should be created against. `release` thus can be considered "stable" even though there are no automated regression tests. The goal is to merge back to `release` roughly every 2 months. Depending on the current "heat" (issues, PRs) we accept changes to `dev` for 5-6 weeks and then hold back for 2-3 weeks before the next snap is completed.
A new tag is created every time `dev` is merged back to `release`. They are listed in the [releases section here on GitHub](https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-firmware/releases). Tag names follow the \<SDK-version\>-release_yyyymmdd pattern.
