# Episode 867 - Pangolin: People Can Lie

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/floss-weekly/episode-867-pangolin-people-can-lie
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/floss-weekly/episode-867-pangolin-people-can-lie.md
Podcast: [FLOSS Weekly](https://stenobird.com/podcast/floss-weekly)
Published: 2026-03-25T17:09:00+00:00
Episode link: https://b27a1a7a-dbb9-4922-ac3e-601e2d6ca1e1.libsyn.com/episode-867-pangolin-people-can-lie
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/b27a1a7a-dbb9-4922-ac3e-601e2d6ca1e1/FLOSS-867.mp3?dest-id=4272468
Processing state: processed
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/floss-weekly/episodes/episode-867-pangolin-people-can-lie
Duration seconds: 3797

## Resource

Pangolin offers an open-source tunneling solution designed to solve connectivity and management challenges in IoT and OT environments. The discussion explores how it differentiates from existing tools like Wireguard and Cloudflare tunnels.

## Highlights
- Main idea: Pangolin provides a specialized tunneling alternative for managing large-scale IoT and OT device fleets
- Practical takeaway: Users can deploy Pangolin on low-cost VPS instances to create a cost-effective alternative to Cloudflare tunnels
- Failure mode: Managing hardware inventory and device provisioning remains a significant complexity in IoT deployments
- Licensing insight: The AGPL license is used effectively to prevent cloud providers from incorporating the code into network services without contributing back
- Technical preference: Modern development workflows are shifting from traditional editors like Vim toward high-performance tools like Neovim and Zed

## Topics

Open Source, IoT, OT, Network Tunneling, AGPL License, Cloudflare Tunnels, Software Engineering, Device Provisioning

## Chapters
- 1:00 — Defining IoT and OT: An introduction to the difference between Information Technology and Operational Technology in the context of physical device connectivity.
- 5:40 — The Problem with Existing Tunnels: Milo discusses the specific connectivity gaps that led to the creation of the Pangolin tunneling solution.
- 10:30 — Abstracting the Network: A look at the implementation process and how Pangolin focuses on application-level connectivity rather than just network layers.
- 15:25 — The Challenges of Hardware: A discussion on why software-centric approaches are often preferred over the complexities of managing physical hardware inventory.
- 20:20 — Protocol and Infrastructure: An exploration of the custom protocol used by Pangolin and its similarities to STUN/TURN architectures.
- 25:10 — The Power of AGPL Licensing: How the AGPL license closes the 'cloud loophole' and prevents large providers from exploiting open-source code.
- 44:20 — Cost-Effective Deployment: How to run a private Pangolin instance using a cheap VPS to replace expensive commercial tunneling services.
- 49:05 — IoT Fleet Management: Addressing the pain points of provisioning and managing software updates across large-scale device fleets.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/floss-weekly/episodes/episode-867-pangolin-people-can-lie/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/floss-weekly/episode-867-pangolin-people-can-lie.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.