Metadata-Version: 2.5
Name: linecast
Version: 2.2.0
Summary: Weather, tides, the sun, the moon, and maps, drawn for the terminal. The Old Farmer's Almanac meets Minitel.
Project-URL: Homepage, https://github.com/ashuttl/linecast
Project-URL: Issues, https://github.com/ashuttl/linecast/issues
Author: Andrew Shuttleworth Fowler
License-Expression: MIT
License-File: LICENSE
Keywords: braille,cli,maps,moon,radar,solar,terminal,tides,true-color,weather
Classifier: Environment :: Console
Classifier: Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows
Classifier: Operating System :: POSIX
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
Classifier: Topic :: Utilities
Requires-Python: >=3.10
Requires-Dist: truststore; sys_platform == 'win32'
Requires-Dist: tzdata; sys_platform == 'win32'
Description-Content-Type: text/markdown

<div align="center">

# linecast

**Weather, tides, the sun, the moon, and maps, drawn for the terminal. The Old Farmer's Almanac meets Minitel.**

[![Tests](https://github.com/ashuttl/linecast/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/ashuttl/linecast/actions/workflows/test.yml)
[![PyPI](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/linecast)](https://pypi.org/project/linecast/)
[![Python](https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/linecast)](https://pypi.org/project/linecast/)
[![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-blue.svg)](LICENSE)

<a href="https://terminaltrove.com/linecast/" title="linecast on Terminal Trove, the $HOME of all things in the terminal"><img src="https://cdn.terminaltrove.com/media/badges/tool_of_the_week/svg/terminal_trove_tool_of_the_week_green_on_dark_grey_bg.svg" alt="Terminal Trove Tool of The Week" height="36"></a>

</div>

![linecast weather, sunshine, tides, and radar tiled on an Omarchy desktop](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/hero.png)

linecast turns free public data into six live, mouse-friendly terminal apps for macOS, Linux, and Windows. It is pure Python with no third-party dependencies (two on Windows), tries to match your terminal theme, and needs no accounts or API keys.

| Command | What it shows |
| --- | --- |
| `linecast weather` | Current conditions, an hourly braille temperature curve, a seven-day forecast, air quality, how today compares with a normal day, and official alerts |
| `linecast sunshine` | The sun on its daily arc, with the color of the sky, day length, and moon phase |
| `linecast moon` | The moon as seen from where you are, with illumination, altitude, rise and set times, and the next full and new moons |
| `linecast tides` | A tide curve shaded by daylight, the current water level, and the times of high and low tide |
| `linecast radar` | Animated radar or satellite imagery for the whole world, warning polygons, temperature, and wind |
| `linecast maps` | Street maps, terrain, and a globe you can spin, with live daylight and clouds, place search, and directions |

## Install

```sh
brew install linecast
```

Or with [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/):

```sh
uv tool install linecast
```

`pipx install linecast` and `pip install linecast` work too, and Arch has a community-maintained [AUR package](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linecast). linecast needs Python 3.10 or newer on macOS, Linux, or Windows.

To try it before installing anything:

```sh
uvx linecast weather
```

Or with nothing but curl — [`get.sh`](get.sh) runs linecast with whatever the machine has, down to plain `python3`:

```sh
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/get.sh | sh
```

It opens `weather`; name another tool with `sh -s sunshine`, or pass flags with `sh -s -- --metric`.

<details>
<summary><strong>On Windows</strong></summary>

Use Windows Terminal; Git Bash and mintty see a pipe rather than a terminal, so they get static output. The install adds two packages: `tzdata`, because Windows has no IANA time zone database, and `truststore`, for TLS verification through the OS certificate store. Icons default to emoji in Windows Terminal; with a Nerd Font installed and selected, `linecast icons nerd` switches to the full set.

</details>

## Using it

Every command opens in live mode when run in a terminal, set to where your IP address says you are unless you have [saved a location](#location).

```sh
linecast weather --location "Québec"
linecast radar --location 41.88,-87.63
linecast maps --view terrain --location "Innsbruck"
linecast maps --to "Portland Head Light" --profile bike
```

`--print` gives one static frame, and piped output gets one automatically. Weather, sunshine, moon, and tides also have `--json`, and a short `--oneline` for status bars.

![an animated version of the hero screenshot, showing the weather radar moving](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/hero.gif)

## A closer look

### Weather

The dashboard combines current conditions, hourly temperatures shaded by daylight, precipitation, daily ranges, air quality, and a line on how today compares with a normal day. Official alerts cover 45 countries; click one to read it in full, or press `o` to open it in your browser. In India, air quality is shown on the CPCB's National AQI scale.

![weather dashboard](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/weather.png)

### Sunshine and Moon

`sunshine` is inspired by the Apple Watch Solar face. The arc and sky move through dawn, day, dusk, and night, and the day length comes with how much longer or shorter it is than yesterday.

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/sunshine-day.png" width="49%" alt="sunshine at midday">
  <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/sunshine-dusk.png" width="49%" alt="sunshine at dusk">
</p>

`linecast sunshine --year` draws a whole year instead of one day. Each column is a day, running from midnight at the top to midnight at the bottom, and every point in it takes the color of the sky at that hour. Sunrise and sunset are not drawn as lines; they are where the night colors meet the day colors. Point at a day to see its sunrise, sunset and day length, along with the time and the sky under the pointer. In live mode, `y` switches between the day view and the year view. `--dst` plots each day in its own clock, so the clock changes show as steps.

![the year view for Westbrook, Maine, with the pointer on the December solstice](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/sunshine-year.png)

Near the poles the same chart turns into polar night and midnight sun. These are Longyearbyen and Vostok Station, at 78° north and 78° south.

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/sunshine-year-arctic.png" width="49%" alt="the year view for Longyearbyen, Svalbard">
  <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/sunshine-year-antarctic.png" width="49%" alt="the year view for Vostok Station, Antarctica">
</p>

`moon` draws the current phase as you would see it from your location, with the shadow falling where it really does, the maria shaded, and a halo around it. Scroll to move through time. `linecast moon --oneline` fits a status bar.

Point `sunshine` or `moon` somewhere across an ocean and the rise and set times come back in that place's local clock.

![full Moon](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/moon.png)

### Tides

The tide chart runs across several days and marks the highs, the lows, and the current predicted water level. Scroll to move through time.

Predictions come from the national services where they exist — NOAA in the US, the Canadian Hydrographic Service, Queensland Open Data, and the Hong Kong Observatory — and from Open-Meteo's global tide model everywhere else. An optional [TideCheck](https://tidecheck.com/) key adds more named stations. `linecast tides --nearby` lists the closest stations; `linecast tides --station <id or name>` pins one.

![tide chart](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/tides.png)

### Radar

Radar animates recent observations and an hour of forecast over a braille basemap.

Real radar exists only where open composites are published: North America, Europe, and parts of East and Southeast Asia. Elsewhere, LibreWXR fills in with a precipitation model, and it looks like one. US warning polygons are drawn too, along with optional temperature and wind layers and hourly infrared satellite imagery.

Rain is drawn in colors taken from your terminal theme; if the theme is monochrome, so is the rain. There are a few fixed themes as well — `dusk`, `ember`, `ink`, and `marangai` — plus LibreWXR's server-rendered ones. Press `t` to switch.

```sh
linecast radar --theme dusk
linecast radar --layers temp,wind
linecast radar --layer satellite
```

`--source librewxr`, `--source rainviewer`, or `--source iem` pins one frame source instead of routing by location, for comparing what each shows over the same spot.

![animated radar forecast over Glasgow](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/radar.gif)

### Maps

Maps draws the streets in braille over water, land, parks, and buildings filled in solid color.

In terrain view, the land is shaded by height and lit from one side, like a relief map. Coastlines, borders, water, and cities are drawn over it in braille; `l` toggles them and the labels.

Search with `/` and ask for directions with `d`. Directions open as a panel of turn-by-turn steps; arrow or click through them and the map flies along the route.

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/maps-street.png" width="49%" alt="street map of Portland, Maine">
  <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/maps-terrain.png" width="49%" alt="terrain map of the Alps around Innsbruck">
</p>

Zoom all the way out and either view becomes a globe you can rotate by dragging, or set spinning with `r`. Two keys switch on the sky as it is right now: `s` shades the planet into actual daylight, with a creeping terminator and cities glowing on the night side, and `c` lays the current global cloud cover over it from live satellite imagery. `linecast maps --view now` opens straight to the full picture.

![the globe as it is right now: live daylight and the terminator](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/maps-globe.png)

Everything is a single key — `?` shows this list in the app:

| Keys | |
|------|---|
| drag · wheel · hover | pan, zoom at the pointer, identify what's under the cursor |
| `+` `-` | zoom |
| `n` | back to the start view |
| `v` `l` | street ↔ terrain · toggle labels & lines |
| `s` `c` | daylight and night city lights · live cloud cover |
| `r` | spin the globe |
| `/` | search places and addresses |
| `d` `o` `p` | directions · set the origin · cycle travel mode |
| `q` | quit |

```sh
linecast maps --location "Portland, Maine" --zoom 0.01
linecast maps --view terrain --location 60.4,5.3 --zoom 8
linecast maps --view now
linecast maps --from "Gorham, Maine" --to "Portland Head Light" --profile foot
```

## Make it yours

Settings live in `~/.config/linecast/config.json`. For any of them, a command-line flag beats an environment variable, which beats the saved setting.

### Location

Save one location for every command:

```sh
linecast location set "Portland, Maine"
linecast location set "westbrook, maine"
linecast location set 44.54,-68.42
linecast location
linecast location auto
linecast location search fayette
```

`set` takes a place name or exact `lat,lng` coordinates. A name is looked up once, on the spot, and the first match is saved; `search` lists the candidates when the first match might not be the right one. A command's `--location` flag or `WEATHER_LOCATION` wins over the saved location.

With no location saved or passed, linecast falls back to IP geolocation: a single anonymous request to [ipinfo.io](https://ipinfo.io/) (or to ipwho.is or GeoJS if it doesn't answer), which returns the rough position of your network connection — usually the right city, sometimes the wrong one, and off by a lot on a VPN or corporate network. The answer is cached for an hour. Save a location, or set any override, and the request is not made at all.

### Units

Units follow the location: imperial in the United States, metric everywhere else. Either can be pinned for every command:

```sh
linecast units metric
linecast units imperial
linecast units
linecast units auto
```

Every view command takes `--metric` and `--imperial`; `weather` adds `--celsius` and `--fahrenheit` for the temperature alone. `LINECAST_UNITS` sets units for every command; `WEATHER_UNITS` and `TIDES_UNITS` override it for their one command.

### Clock

The clock tries to follow the country: 12-hour in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the other places that write 6:50 pm, 24-hour everywhere else. Pin either for every command:

```sh
linecast clock 12
linecast clock 24
linecast clock
linecast clock auto
```

The time-showing commands take `--12h` and `--24h` for one run, and `LINECAST_CLOCK` sets it in the environment.

### Language

Use `--lang` or `LINECAST_LANG` to pick the language. There are seventeen:

> English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Danish, Finnish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Indonesian

```sh
linecast weather --lang fr
linecast radar --lang zh
```

In India, alerts go one step further: SACHET publishes many of them in the state language, and `--lang hi`, `te`, `or`, `mr`, or another Indian language code shows that regional text where it exists, while the rest of the app stays in English.

### Color and icons

linecast asks the terminal for its palette so its colors belong in your theme. Set `LINECAST_COLOR` to `truecolor`, `256`, `16`, or `none` to choose the color mode yourself, or use the standard `NO_COLOR` variable.

Icons come in three sets: [Nerd Font](https://www.nerdfonts.com/) glyphs in terminals that bundle them (WezTerm, kitty, Ghostty), emoji in other terminals, and plain Unicode when output is piped. If you have installed a Nerd Font in Alacritty, foot, or iTerm2, linecast cannot tell, so say so once:

```sh
linecast icons nerd
linecast icons emoji
linecast icons plain
linecast icons
linecast icons auto
```

`--icons` and `LINECAST_ICONS` pick a set for one run, and `linecast doctor` shows a glyph from each so you can see what your font renders.

### Short names

If you'd rather type `weather` than `linecast weather`, `linecast link` makes `weather`, `sunshine`, `moon`, `tides`, `radar`, and `maps` as links beside the `linecast` binary, skipping any name something else already owns; `linecast link --remove` takes them away. A shell alias does the same job.

### Shell completion

```sh
# Bash
source <(linecast completion bash)

# Zsh
source <(linecast completion zsh)

# Fish
linecast completion fish | source

# Nushell
linecast completion nu | save -f ~/.config/nushell/completions/linecast_completions.nu
# in config.nu:
use ~/.config/nushell/completions/linecast_completions.nu *
```

Completion covers `linecast <command>` and the short names, for anyone who aliased or linked them.

### When something looks wrong

```sh
linecast doctor
linecast doctor --offline
linecast doctor --json
```

`linecast doctor` reports the build, the settings and cache paths, what the terminal advertised, which settings are in force and where each came from, and whether each data provider answered. Secrets show as "(set)", never their value. `--offline` skips the probes; `--json` is the thing to paste into a bug report.

The six view commands and `linecast doctor` take `--debug`, which prints a line on stderr for each fallback taken along the way — a provider that did not answer, a tile that would not decode — and what was shown instead.

<details>
<summary><strong>Environment variables</strong></summary>

| Variable | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `WEATHER_LOCATION` | Default location for location-aware commands, as `lat,lng` or a place name; overrides the saved location |
| `WEATHER_UNITS` | `metric` or `imperial` for the weather command; overrides `LINECAST_UNITS` and the saved units |
| `TIDE_STATION` | Default tide station ID |
| `TIDES_UNITS` | `metric` or `imperial` for tide heights; overrides `LINECAST_UNITS` and the saved units |
| `LINECAST_UNITS` | `metric` or `imperial` for every command; overrides the saved units |
| `LINECAST_CLOCK` | `12` or `24`; overrides the saved clock |
| `LINECAST_TIDECHECK_KEY` | Optional TideCheck API key for global tide coverage |
| `LINECAST_TIDECHECK_PAID` | Set to `1` on a paid TideCheck plan; the request tally then drops the 50-a-day free-tier cap |
| `LINECAST_LANG` | UI language code: `en`, `fr`, `es`, `de`, `it`, `pt`, `nl`, `pl`, `no`, `sv`, `is`, `da`, `fi`, `ja`, `ko`, `zh`, or `id` |
| `LINECAST_RADAR_THEME` | Default radar color theme |
| `LINECAST_RADAR_SOURCE` | Pin the radar frame source: `librewxr`, `rainviewer`, or `iem` |
| `LINECAST_RADAR_LAYER` | `radar` (default) or `satellite`, the imagery `radar` opens with |
| `LINECAST_RADAR_LAYERS` | Overlays `radar` opens with, `temp`, `wind`, or both comma-separated |
| `LINECAST_SUNSHINE_YEAR_PALETTE` | `dial` (default) for the Solar Dial colors in `sunshine --year`, or `graph` for the day view's own sky |
| `LINECAST_LIBREWXR_URL` | Base URL of a self-hosted LibreWXR instance |
| `LINECAST_VECTOR_TILES_URL` | TileJSON URL of a self-hosted street tile server, used instead of OpenFreeMap with no fallback |
| `LINECAST_ELEVATION_URL` | Elevation tile source for `maps`: a bucket root holding `terrarium/{z}/{x}/{y}.png`, or a full tile URL template containing `{z}`, `{x}`, and `{y}` |
| `LINECAST_ICONS` | icon set: `nerd`, `emoji`, or `plain`; overrides the saved icons (default: `nerd` where the terminal bundles the glyphs, `emoji` on other interactive terminals, `plain` when piped) |
| `LINECAST_COLOR` | `auto`, `truecolor`, `256`, `16`, or `none` |
| `LINECAST_THEME` | `auto` (default), or `classic` / `legacy` / `off` for the fixed palette |
| `LINECAST_THEME_TIMEOUT_MS` | Terminal palette query timeout in milliseconds (default `100`) |
| `LINECAST_THEME_POLL` | Seconds between re-reading the terminal palette in live views, so a theme switch re-inks the view in place (default `2`; `0` disables) |
| `LINECAST_THEME_WATCH` | A file whose modification marks a desktop theme change, prompting an immediate re-read (default: Omarchy's current-theme marker; empty disables) |
| `LINECAST_CACHE_DIR` | Directory for cached data, used exactly as given |
| `LINECAST_MAPS_CACHE_MB` | Size the map tile cache is swept back to when `maps` starts (default `256`) |
| `LINECAST_CONFIG_DIR` | Directory for `config.json`, used exactly as given |
| `NO_COLOR` | Any non-empty value disables ANSI colors |
| `CLICOLOR` / `CLICOLOR_FORCE` | `CLICOLOR=0` disables color; a non-zero `CLICOLOR_FORCE` keeps it on when output is not a terminal |

Cached data lives in `~/Library/Caches/linecast` on macOS and `~/.cache/linecast` elsewhere; settings in `~/.config/linecast/config.json`. Both honor the `XDG_*` variables, and the `LINECAST_*_DIR` variables above override everything.

</details>

<details>
<summary><strong>Data sources and coverage</strong></summary>

- **Location** — [ipinfo.io](https://ipinfo.io/) for IP geolocation when no location is saved or passed, with [ipwho.is](https://ipwho.is/) and [GeoJS](https://www.geojs.io/) as fallbacks; place names are geocoded by Open-Meteo, with Photon as a fallback.
- **Weather** — [Open-Meteo](https://open-meteo.com/) for forecasts, geocoding, and air quality. Alerts come from the US National Weather Service, Environment Canada, China Meteorological Administration, DWD via Bright Sky, Hong Kong Observatory, Met Éireann, Japan Meteorological Agency, MET Norway, MetService New Zealand, MeteoAlarm, and SACHET (India's national alert aggregator).
- **Sunshine and Moon** — computed on your device from the astronomical equations; the Moon's face is a vendored grayscale of NASA SVS's [CGI Moon Kit](https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4720) (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, public domain).
- **Tides** — NOAA CO-OPS, Canadian Hydrographic Service, Queensland Open Data, Hong Kong Observatory, Open-Meteo's tide model as a global fallback, and optionally TideCheck.
- **Radar** — [LibreWXR](https://librewxr.net/), with NEXRAD via Iowa Environmental Mesonet and RainViewer as fallbacks; warning polygons come from the US National Weather Service via IEM. The basemap is derived from Natural Earth.
- **Maps** — terrain from AWS/Mapzen elevation tiles; streets and inland water from [OpenFreeMap](https://openfreemap.org/) vector tiles (© OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors), with the [OpenStreetMap US Tileservice](https://tiles.openstreetmap.us/) as a fallback (Tiles by OSM US); search from Photon and Nominatim; directions from FOSSGIS OSRM (© OpenStreetMap contributors); globe cloud cover from [LibreWXR](https://librewxr.net/) (CC BY 4.0) satellite imagery; terrain color picks its ramp from a vendored [Köppen-Geiger climate grid](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21789074) (Beck et al. 2023, CC BY 4.0).

</details>

## Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. [ARCHITECTURE.md](ARCHITECTURE.md) is the map of the code. The suite runs with `uv run --with pytest pytest tests -q` and the lint with `uvx ruff check src tests scripts`; both are meant to run without the network and without touching your home directory.

## Lineage

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashuttl/linecast/main/screenshots/minitel-terminatel-258.jpg" width="380" alt="3615 LINECAST">
</p>

<p align="center"><em>Prior art.</em></p>

A Telic-Alcatel videotex terminal draws the weather, circa 1990. Photograph from the collection at
[minitel-alcatel.fr](https://www.minitel-alcatel.fr/).

## License

[MIT](LICENSE)
