Devices vs. gateways
- A gateway is hardware (e.g. an ESP32) that reads local sensors over RS485/Modbus/GPIO/I²C and forwards their data. Use it when your sensors can't reach the internet on their own.
- A direct MQTT device (
mqtt-direct) connects straight to our broker with its own credentials. Use it when the device has its own network stack.
Both show up under Devices; gateway-mediated devices are nested under their gateway. Which protocol you pick when adding a device decides which path it uses.