weather-pollen_skill

Overview

This skill provides weather and pollen reports for any configured location using free public APIs. It returns current conditions, short-term forecasts, and pollen levels so users can plan outdoor activities and manage allergies. The skill is lightweight and designed to be called with a single tool invocation for quick results.

How this skill works

The skill calls Open-Meteo for weather data (current conditions and forecast) and a free pollen data source for allergy information. You invoke the weather_report tool with optional parameters to include pollen and specify a location; coordinates can also be set via environment variables. The tool aggregates both sources and returns a concise, human-readable summary including temperature, precipitation forecast, wind, and pollen counts.

When to use it

• Check current weather and allergy risk before going outside or exercising.
• Fetch a quick forecast for travel or event planning.
• Provide location-specific weather and pollen summaries in a chat or assistant flow.
• Include in daily briefings or health-monitoring routines for allergy sufferers.
• Verify conditions when no API key is available or a free solution is preferred.

Best practices

• Set WEATHER_LAT and WEATHER_LON environment variables for a default location to avoid passing coordinates each call.
• Use includePollen=false when you only need weather and want faster responses.
• Cache responses for short intervals (e.g., 10–15 minutes) to reduce API usage and latency.
• Validate location strings if accepting free-form user input to improve matching accuracy.
• Present pollen data alongside context (e.g., low/medium/high) to make it actionable for users.

Example use cases

• A virtual assistant that gives a morning briefing with weather and pollen for the user's city.
• A mobile bot that warns users with allergies when pollen is forecast to be high this afternoon.
• An event planner that checks weather and allergy risk before confirming outdoor weddings.
• A fitness app that suggests indoor workouts when pollen or poor air conditions are predicted.
• A travel chatbot that summarizes weather and pollen for a destination before booking.