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JasperNode JasperNode

Why JasperNode

JasperNode is an AI-assisted industrial automation runtime that puts your whole system — I/O, control logic, configuration and system state — into one live tree of tags, configured through a browser IDE with a built-in AI agent. It runs locally on commodity Linux hardware, talks the fieldbuses and cloud protocols you already use, and adds a test-and-sign-off gate in front of any change that affects the running process. The result: less to learn, faster to build and troubleshoot, and no vendor lock-in — without giving up control of what reaches the field.

The problem it solves

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Traditional automation stacks fragment your system across silos: the PLC program in one vendor IDE, the HMI tags in another, a separate historian, separate config files, and a protocol gateway bolted on to reach IT and the cloud. Each silo has its own data model, its own tooling and its own lock-in, and stitching them together — then changing them safely — is slow and opaque.

JasperNode removes the silos. There is one data model (the tag tree), one tool (the browser IDE), and one change workflow (test → sign-off → atomic deploy). If you can read and write tags, you can see and change the entire node.

The benefits

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  • One model to learn — total visibility. Sensor readings, setpoints, computed values, connector configuration and system metrics are all tags in one tree. No separate I/O image, data store or config format to reconcile. → Everything is a tag
  • Reactive logic, written in JavaScript. Attach a small script to a tag; it runs only when one of its declared inputs changes — event-driven, not a fixed scan — so data flow is explicit and cheap to reason about. → Logic & the Logic Cycle
  • AI-assisted engineering with a safety gate. A built-in agent can explore the tree, write logic and configure connectors through chat, while a runtime Deploy Gate tests and requires human sign-off before any process-affecting change goes live — speed and control. → The AI agent & Deploy Gate
  • Open, software-defined connectivity — no lock-in. Connectors are software modules you add, configure and remove at runtime: fieldbuses (Modbus, EtherCAT, Siemens S7, Serial, LiDAR), networks and clouds (MQTT incl. Sparkplug B, InfluxDB, a Modbus slave server, an HMI server, email) and built-in services. → Connector catalog
  • Observable by default. Every value supports MQTT-style wildcard subscriptions (factory/+/temperature), optional per-tag history, and a dependency graph you can walk in the UI to see what drives a value and what it affects. Your data is one subscribable, exportable tree — not locked inside a proprietary runtime.
  • Runs on commodity Linux. A single runtime on an ARM edge gateway, an industrial PC or a server — not dedicated PLC hardware — which lowers cost and eases integration with IT systems.
  • Local-first, cloud-assisted. Connectors and logic execute on the device and keep running even if the link drops; the cloud (JasperX) adds the AI agent, secure remote browser access, updates and backup.

Who it’s for

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  • System integrators and OEMs who want to build, commission and hand over machines and lines faster, with AI assistance and an auditable change trail.
  • Plant and process engineers who need supervisory control, data collection and protocol bridging without standing up three separate products.
  • IIoT and data teams who want field data as a clean, subscribable tree feeding dashboards, historians and cloud services.

Typical jobs: supervisory and reactive control, data acquisition and historisation, protocol bridging/gateway duty, edge logic and analytics, and integrating existing machines into a unified data layer.

When a traditional PLC is still the right tool

Section titled “When a traditional PLC is still the right tool”

JasperNode is a development release and is honest about its boundaries:

  • Hard real-time control. The shipping Logic Cycle is event-driven and soft real-time. A deterministic, time-driven High Performance Cycle is on the roadmap but not in the current release — keep fast, jitter-sensitive loops on a PLC or dedicated hardware.
  • Safety-rated functions. JasperNode is not yet safety-certified; it does not replace a safety PLC for SIL-rated functions today.

The full, honest comparison is in JasperNode vs. a traditional PLC.

Next steps

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