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Features

OpenCrate is a full-featured Building Management System. This page maps every capability to the workflow it supports. Detailed coverage lives in the linked pages.

Device onboarding

Getting field devices into the system and verifying they work correctly.

  • Discovery -- Protocol-agnostic scanning for BACnet and Modbus devices. Devices move through Discovered, Accepted, and Ignored states. Scans are always user-initiated and re-discovery preserves prior state. Auto-naming heuristics and equipment grouping suggestions speed up large sites. Details
  • Commissioning -- Per-device sessions with per-point checklists (ReadVerify, WriteVerify, AlarmVerify, ScheduleVerify). Sessions progress from not_started through in_progress and completed to signed_off. Details

Day-to-day operations

Monitoring, responding to events, and controlling equipment.

  • Alarms -- Full lifecycle management: raised, cleared, acknowledged. Shelving with automatic expiry. EventBus-driven flag sync with periodic stale checks. Active and history views with export. Details
  • Schedules -- Weekly and exception schedules with point assignments. BACnet schedule synchronization reads and writes schedules, calendars, and exceptions directly from field devices. Details
  • History -- Time-series sample collection in interval and COV modes. Query by time range and export to CSV. Details

Automation

Custom control logic and fault detection running continuously in the background.

  • Logic Engine -- Visual block programming with 19+ block types compiled to sandboxed Rhai scripts. Runs on a 1-second tick, on value change, or on a custom period. Details
  • FDD (Fault Detection & Diagnostics) -- Rule-based fault detection with threshold, stuck value, short-cycling, schedule deviation, and demand-sensitive conditions. EventBus subscriber with 30-second periodic evaluation. Details

Analysis and reporting

Turning operational data into insight.

  • Reporting -- 7 section types, 4 built-in templates, scheduled SMTP delivery. Queries across history, alarms, points, and nodes. Inline-CSS HTML output that works in any email client. Details
  • Energy Analytics -- Consumption calculation, demand profiling, degree-day analysis, cost modeling, and automated daily/monthly rollups. Background scheduler runs every 15 minutes. Details

Integration

Connecting OpenCrate to external systems.

  • Webhooks -- Outbound HTTP notifications for alarm and device events. Provider-specific formatters for Slack, Teams, PagerDuty, and ntfy. HMAC-SHA256 signing, retry logic, and per-endpoint event toggles. Details
  • MQTT -- Publishes point values, alarms, and device status to one or more MQTT brokers. Configurable topic templates with hot-reload. Details
  • Notification routing -- Alarm-driven dispatch to webhooks, email (SMTP), and SMS (Twilio). Rule-based filtering by severity, device, and alarm type with tiered escalation and retry. Details
  • Export -- Continuous or backfill export to InfluxDB and PostgreSQL. Per-connector event toggles and status tracking. Details

Administration

Security, audit, and system maintenance.

  • Auth -- Argon2 password hashing, JWT tokens. Three roles (Admin, Operator, Viewer) with 16 granular permissions. First-run setup flow. Details
  • Audit -- Every operator action logged with timestamp, user, action, and details. Details
  • Weather -- Pluggable weather providers (OpenWeatherMap, custom HTTP). Forecast models with auto-geocoding. Details
  • Backup -- Scheduled backups with configurable interval and retention. API-triggered or automatic. Details