weatherfeeder/docs/config.md

Configuration Reference

Config File

weatherfeeder reads exactly one YAML file named config.yml from the current working directory. There is no config path flag and no search path.

YAML decoding is strict for config struct fields: misspelled fields such as sources[].drviver fail startup. Driver-specific params maps are validated by the source or sink constructor that consumes them.

The top-level file contains:

sources:
  - name: NWSObservationKSTL
    mode: poll
    driver: nws_observation
    every: 10m
    kinds: ["observation"]
    params:
      url: "https://api.weather.gov/stations/KSTL/observations/latest"
      user_agent: "Example weatherfeeder operator (ops@example.com)"

sinks:
  - name: stdout
    driver: stdout
    params: {}

routes:
  - sink: stdout
    kinds: ["observation"]

sources and sinks must each contain at least one entry. routes is optional. When routes is omitted, every configured sink receives every event kind. Maintained copyable configs are available under examples/.

Production-Oriented Shape

A typical deployment uses multiple polling sources and sends the same canonical event stream to a broker or database:

sources:
  - name: NWSAlertsLocal
    mode: poll
    driver: nws_alerts
    every: 1m
    kinds: ["alert"]
    params:
      url: "https://api.weather.gov/alerts?point=38.6239,-90.3571&limit=20"
      user_agent: "Example weatherfeeder operator (ops@example.com)"

sinks:
  - name: nats_weather
    driver: nats
    params:
      url: nats://nats:4222
      subject: weatherfeeder

  - name: pg_weather
    driver: postgres
    params:
      uri: postgres://weatherdb:5432/weatherdb?sslmode=disable
      username: weatherdb
      password: <database_password>
      prune: 3d

routes:
  - sink: nats_weather
    kinds: ["observation", "forecast", "forecast_discussion", "weather_story", "alert", "outlook"]

  - sink: pg_weather
    kinds: ["observation", "forecast", "forecast_discussion", "weather_story", "alert", "outlook"]

Do not commit real API keys, database passwords, or personal contact addresses in copyable configs.

Top-Level Fields

Field	Required	Description
sources	yes	List of configured input sources.
sinks	yes	List of configured output sinks.
routes	no	List of sink routing rules. If omitted, all sinks receive all kinds.

Source Fields

Field	Required	Description
name	yes	Unique source name. Used as the event source identifier.
driver	yes	Source driver name.
mode	no	poll, stream, or omitted for auto. Current weatherfeeder drivers are polling drivers.
every	yes	Poll interval for current weatherfeeder source drivers.
kinds	no	Expected event kinds. If present, startup verifies they match the source driver.
params	driver-specific	Driver parameters. See the source-specific sections below.

Current event kinds are observation, forecast, forecast_discussion, weather_story, alert, and outlook.

Source Drivers

Driver	Kind	Upstream product
nws_observation	observation	NWS station latest observation.
nws_alerts	alert	NWS alerts collection.
nws_forecast_hourly	forecast	NWS hourly gridpoint forecast.
nws_forecast_narrative	forecast	NWS narrative gridpoint forecast.
nws_forecast_discussion	forecast_discussion	NWS forecast discussion HTML product.
nws_weatherstories	weather_story	NWS office weather stories.
openmeteo_observation	observation	Open-Meteo current conditions.
openmeteo_forecast	forecast	Open-Meteo hourly forecast.
openweather_observation	observation	OpenWeather current weather.
spc_convective_outlook	outlook	SPC Day 1-3 convective outlooks.

HTTP Source Params

Most source drivers use the shared HTTP polling helper.

Param	Required	Description
url	yes	Full upstream request URL. URL is also accepted by the helper.
user_agent	yes	User-Agent sent to the upstream provider. userAgent is also accepted by the helper.
conditional	no	Boolean. Defaults to true; enables ETag and Last-Modified conditional requests.
http_timeout	no	Positive duration for the HTTP client timeout.
http_response_body_limit_bytes	no	Positive integer response body limit in bytes.

When conditional is enabled and the upstream returns 304 Not Modified, the source emits no events for that poll.

OpenWeather observation URLs must include units=metric. Startup fails if the URL omits it or sets another unit system.

SPC Convective Outlook Params

spc_convective_outlook fetches the twelve required Day 1-3 GeoJSON outlook products and the three required Day 1-3 print pages as one atomic bundle.

Param	Required	Description
latitude	yes	Location latitude in decimal degrees.
longitude	yes	Location longitude in decimal degrees.
user_agent	yes	User-Agent sent to SPC. userAgent is also accepted.
location_id	no	Operator-defined location identifier copied into canonical outlook runs.
location_name	no	Human location label copied into canonical outlook runs.
geojson_urls	no	Map of product key to override URL. Used for tests and upstream URL changes.
discussion_urls	no	Map of day key to override print-page URL. Used for tests and upstream URL changes.
rss_url	no	Optional RSS URL. RSS is not fetched unless this is configured.
http_timeout	no	Positive duration for the HTTP client timeout.
http_response_body_limit_bytes	no	Positive integer response body limit in bytes.

GeoJSON product keys are day1_categorical, day1_tornado, day1_hail, day1_wind, day2_categorical, day2_tornado, day2_hail, day2_wind, day3_categorical, day3_tornado, day3_hail, and day3_wind. Discussion keys are day1, day2, and day3.

sources:
  - name: SPCConvectiveOutlookSTL
    mode: poll
    kinds: ["outlook"]
    driver: spc_convective_outlook
    every: 30m
    params:
      latitude: 38.6239
      longitude: -90.3571
      location_id: "stl"
      location_name: "St. Louis, MO"
      user_agent: "Example weatherfeeder operator (ops@example.com)"

Sink Fields

Field	Required	Description
name	yes	Unique sink name. Routes refer to this value.
driver	yes	Sink driver name.
params	driver-specific	Sink parameters.

Sink Drivers

stdout

Prints each event as JSON to stdout.

sinks:
  - name: stdout
    driver: stdout
    params: {}

nats

Publishes each event as JSON to a NATS subject.

Param	Required	Description
url	yes	NATS server URL, such as nats://localhost:4222.
subject	yes	Subject to publish events to.

postgres

Writes supported canonical weather events to Postgres using weatherfeeder's registered schema mapping. The table contract is documented in Postgres integration.

Param	Required	Description
uri	yes	PostgreSQL connection URI.
username	yes	Database username.
password	yes	Database password.
prune	no	Retention window. If set, rows older than the window are pruned on each write transaction.

prune accepts Go duration strings such as 72h, plus day and week suffixes such as 3d and 2w.

Routes

Routes connect event kinds to sinks:

routes:
  - sink: stdout
    kinds: ["observation", "alert"]

Field	Required	Description
sink	yes	Name of a configured sink.
kinds	no	Event kinds to send to that sink. Omit or use an empty list to match all kinds.

Route kinds values are trimmed and lowercased by the dispatcher. Blank entries are rejected.

Duration Formats

Top-level source every accepts:

• Go duration strings such as 30s, 10m, or 1h;
• integer values, interpreted as minutes;
• numeric strings such as "15", also interpreted as minutes.

HTTP param durations such as http_timeout accept Go duration strings. Numeric values and numeric strings are interpreted as seconds.

Postgres prune must be a string duration.

Secrets

The config file is read directly from disk and has no built-in secret expansion. Keep real credentials out of repository-tracked configs. Use deployment tooling to render config.yml with the needed secret values before starting the daemon.

Maintained Examples

• Minimal stdout config
• NATS publishing config
• Postgres persistence config