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NodeMCU is an [eLua](http://www.eluaproject.net/) based firmware for the [ESP8266 WiFi SOC from Espressif](http://espressif.com/en/products/esp8266/). The firmware is based on the [Espressif NON-OS SDK 1.5.1](http://bbs.espressif.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&p=5315) and uses a file system based on [spiffs](https://github.com/pellepl/spiffs). The code repository consists of 98.1% C-code that glues the thin Lua veneer to the SDK.
The NodeMCU *firmware* is a companion project to the popular [NodeMCU dev kits](https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-devkit-v1.0), ready-made open source development boards with ESP8266-12E chips.
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 mainted 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/dev/en/build/) for other options to build your own firmware.
This projects uses two main branches, `master` and `dev`. `dev` is actively worked on and it's also where PRs should be created against. `master` thus can be considered "stable" even though there are no automated regression tests. The goal is to merge back to `master` 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 `master`. They are listed in the [releases section here on GitHub](https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-firmware/releases). Tag names follow the \<SDK-version\>-master_yyyymmdd pattern.
The following sections explain some of the options you have if you want to [build your own NodeMCU firmware](http://nodemcu.readthedocs.io/en/dev/en/build/).
Disable modules you won't be using to reduce firmware size and free up some RAM. The ESP8266 is quite limited in available RAM and running out of memory can cause a system panic. The default configuration is designed to run on all ESP modules including the 512 KB modules like ESP-01 and only includes general purpose interface modules which require at most two GPIO pins.