API capability for weather skips?

[lnjustin]

I am considering buying a Rachio v3. But I want to make sure it can do what I want via the API. Does the API provide info that will enable me to:
(1) identify if the next originally scheduled run was skipped due to weather; and
(2) identify if the last originally scheduled run was skipped due to weather

The main use case is for having a dashboard showing this info. That way, if i wake up and see that the irrigation system didn’t run as it usually does, I can know it was because of weather. A more elaborate dashboard would show scheduled days on a calendar and indicate whether they were skipped or not.

[Gene]

Rachio public API is primarily designed to control the irrigation. You can find, and control schedules and zones that are setup within the account. In lieu of polling for data, such as what you are describing, status updates on running schedules and/or skips are supported via webhooks, meaning that somewhere in your development cycle, you’d need to setup a publicly accessible server which can handle post requests.

The kind of calendar you are considering to develop, is already available via Rachio app:

In addition, notifications about why the schedule was skipped can be received via an app and/or by email.
Clicking on the day within the calendar, will bring up the details on the schedules which ran or were skipped that day.

[lnjustin]

Yes, I saw the web hook documentation. It just wasn’t immediately clear, without access to the data itself, what the notifications indicate. For example, does the web hook WEATHER_INTELLIGENCE_SKIP indicate that an upcoming run will be skipped due to weather? If so, that’d be great, since I can easily point web hooks to my Hubitat Elevation. My goal is to recreate something akin to that picture on the app, but on my own smart home dashboard (could be as simple as indicating last run and next run, and the impact of weather on that)

[Gene]

Here is an example of the type of data you can expect for WI skip over webhook:

API - Rain Skip Alert

We do not support water budget notifications in V3. Rain Delay is working: { “summary” : “No scheduled waterings will run on controller Rachio-DB6769 until Thursday, September 27 11:07 AM (MDT).”, “routingId” : “ab821917-17d1-47f0-b775-c327844f3d71”, “icon” : “SCHEDULE”, “timeZone” : “America/Denver”, “eventType” : “RAIN_DELAY_EVENT”, “type” : “RAIN_DELAY”, “title” : “Delay Watering ON”, “deviceId” : “ab821917-17d1-47f0-b775-c327844f3d71”, “deviceName” : “Rachio-DB6769”, “dateTimeFo…

[lnjustin]

Ok, so with date info couples to the skip, it seems like the webhooks provide the info needed to recreate the same sort of calendar view on my smart home dashboard, right?

[Gene]

It provides all the info you need (and more, such as technical info on how much current your zone solenoid has used) to recreate all of the past events.

Future events, such as when the schedule will water next, are not technically available via the documented API, though they can be calculated from the schedule settings.