CoT inbox
Embedded Files
Cursor-on-Target (CoT) is a standard messaging format used by ATAK and similar field tools to share locations between teams. Pathfinder Copilot listens for incoming CoT messages over UDP and surfaces them as detections you can drop into your mission.
What is a CoT?
A CoT message is an XML packet describing a "thing at a place at a time" — typically a target spotted by another sensor or operator. Each message has:
A unique ID.
A type code (e.g. a-h-G-U-C-I for a hostile ground unit).
A latitude / longitude.
An optional callsign.
An optional fileshare attachment — typically a mission-package ZIP containing an image of the target.
Pathfinder Copilot's CoT inbox displays every message it has received, lets you import the locations as waypoints, and (when images are attached) lets you import them into the classifier as reference templates.
Find the CoT Inbox card
On the Plan tab, the right-hand column above the Tile Cache card is CoT Inbox.
Start the Listener
The CoT listener is off by default. To start receiving messages:
The badge in the top-right turns green and reads LISTENING · :4242. The button changes to Stop listener. The backend's UDP socket is now bound to 0.0.0.0:4242, ready to receive messages from any source on your network.
Receiving messages
Once the listener is running, every CoT message that arrives at port 4242 appears in the list within ~2 seconds. Each entry shows:
A small color-coded square (the marker that will appear on the map for this detection).
The callsign (or message ID truncated, if no callsign).
The lat/lon.
The timestamp.
A +wp button to import as a waypoint.
Add CoT detections as a waypoint
Click the +wp button on any detection. The detection's lat/lon is added to your mission's waypoint list as a sock-drop. The detection card stays in the inbox; you can add it again or delete it later.
Alternatively, you can manually copy the lat/lon and type it into the Mission Setup card's manual lat/lon entry — the result is the same, but you control the drop / no-drop mode.
Detections as images
Some CoT messages arrive with a fileshare attachment — a mission-package ZIP that contains an image of the target. The backend automatically fetches the ZIP, extracts the image, and stores it in backend/cot_images/<uid>.<ext>.
Detections with fetched images can be imported into the classifier as reference templates — see Classifier > Import from CoT.
Stopping the listener
Click Stop listener. The badge returns to idle and incoming messages are no longer accepted. Existing detections in the inbox stay — stopping the listener doesn't clear the list.
Clearing detections
The clear-detections button (the small round arrow next to the Start/Stop button) wipes the entire inbox and the backend's detection database. There's no per-detection delete. Use sparingly during active operations — clearing also removes any CoT-imported template originals from disk.
Persistence
The backend persists every received detection to detections_db.json so they survive a backend restart. The frontend mirrors them to local storage too, so a page reload paints the last-known list instantly instead of flashing empty.
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