MQTT is to connected devices what HTTP is to web applications. It is a publish-subscribe protocol specifically designed for devices with limited bandwidth and CPU. MQTT is widely used in home automation, industrial automation, remote monitoring, and everywhere else where machines talk to each other or to a server.

This talk is an introduction to MQTT for Pythonistas. I’ll start with a brief overview of basic concepts of the protocol. The rest of the presentation will be a sequence of code examples in CPython and Micropython/CircuitPython, building up to a demo with several devices publishing data to each other. Along the way, you will see a few of the most common tools for debugging MQTT communications.

After attending this talk you will have a high level idea of Python use cases in automation, seen some examples of coding Python for microcontrollers, and know a whole lot more about four letters that look like an acronym but aren’t actually one. No prior experience with automation or microcontrollers is assumed.