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Particle Cloud

Now that your Tachyon is fully connected to the Particle Cloud and you’ve explored the Particle Console, it’s time to unlock the full potential of the platform. The Particle Cloud acts as the central hub for managing your devices, applications, and data.

With the Particle Cloud, you can:

  • Deploy applications to your device remotely, keeping your firmware up to date.
  • Monitor, control, and organize your devices in real time using the Particle Console and APIs.
  • Automate workflows through webhooks, third-party services, and cloud-based functions.
  • Leverage APIs and CLI tools for advanced management, debugging, and custom integrations.
  • Ensure secure communication with built-in authentication and encryption.

The following sections will guide you through using the Particle Cloud — from deploying your first application to managing device fleets and integrations.

Programming Your Device​

One of the core features of the Particle Cloud is the ability to build and deploy applications to your devices. Particle uses a flexible runtime called Particle Applications, which allows you to:

  • Deploy and update applications remotely (OTA).
  • Use pre-built blueprints to accelerate development for common use cases.
  • Run containerized workloads for consistent, secure, and isolated execution.
  • Develop locally or directly on the device (Desktop builds) using tools like Visual Studio Code.

Learn more about Particle Applications here.

Particle Applications
  • Applications are containerized for easy and reliable deployment.
  • They are automatically downloaded and run on your device after setup.
  • Custom configurations and dependencies are supported as part of the deployment process.
  • Applications start automatically after installation and can be updated over-the-air.

Security: Development vs. Production​

While development builds are designed for flexibility, production builds are locked down for security and reliability.

Development Builds:

  • Root access is enabled.
  • Particle services run with low-privilege users.

Production Builds:

  • Root access is disabled.
  • Only essential services are active.

🔹 In short: Development builds give you full flexibility, while production builds prioritize security.

Advanced Cloud Features​

Beyond application deployment, the Particle Cloud provides powerful management tools:

  • Event Streaming – Subscribe to real-time device events.
  • Cloud Functions – Trigger remote actions on your device.
  • Over-the-Air (OTA) Updates – Push firmware or application updates seamlessly.
  • Device Groups – Manage and control device fleets efficiently.

Coming soon: more details on integrations, webhooks, and fleet automation.

Tips & Best Practices
  • Don't forget your root password!
  • During setup, you were prompted to set a root password.
  • Root access is only available in development mode.
  • In production, root login will be disabled.
  • This password is also applied to the 'particle' user which is the default user on the board. This is needed as the desktop build does not support root login (good!) and so we've created this automatically.

Note that user setup and configuration will come soon to the Particle Console

Services differ between development and production

  • Some services auto-start in development but will not in production.
  • These services include debugging tools, remote access utilities, and certain system logs.

Accessing the Console

Next Steps​

With your Tachyon now online and visible in the Particle Console, it’s time to take a closer look at the device itself.
In the next section, we’ll dive into the hardware features of Tachyon — exploring its connectors, interfaces, and built-in components — so you can better understand its capabilities and how to use them effectively.