Try running 'meshmonitor'. It'll keep a history for you.
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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As far as I can tell my RAK stores them. Feels like it stores more than 30 but I'm unsure.
The radio will store a small amount of packets (around 30) in its memory for when it's not connected to a client app. If it's full, it will replace the oldest packets with newly incoming text messages only.
https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/
And yes, they persist if you restart the node. Not sure what you mean by “terminal”, there are a couple of CLI tools for meshtastic, including a practically complete chat app.
This is from memory and anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt.
On firmwares below 2.7, I think it only stored the last-received message on the node itself. 2.7+ may store the latest message from up to a few different contacts, but not more than that (if even that). Either way, it's not really meant to operate as a "mailbox" where you can retrieve the messages later; they basically need to go somewhere as they're received.
There's a store-and-forward mode that can be enabled, but it stores all messages for everyone and is more of an infrastructure node role. It also requires hardware that has PSRAM which the Heltec V3's don't have.
it’s not really meant to operate as a “mailbox” where you can retrieve the messages later
Why not, where's bottleneck? Internal memory is too small? Packets are 255 bytes each, doesn't seem like there's much to store.
AFAIK, yes, memory. There are a lot more packets than just text messages. Telemetry, node info, positions/waypoints, etc.
There are standalone devices with integrated keyboard for typing messages. I'd expect them to be able to store a lot of messages, regardless of firmware version. Imagine someone sent 7 "test" messages to Primary channel and thus wiped your DM's. Doesn't feel right.
What about MeshCore, can it operate as a mailbox? Mailbox mode will be extremely convenient.
Hmm maybe this is what I want: https://github.com/brad28b/meshtastic-cli-receive-text But I can't install it currently, I get python stack trace instead...
UPD. Fail. I've managed to launch it, but it is same as "listen", it receives only new messages in real time.