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Skywatch

Getting started

Requirements

Section titled “Requirements”
  • Ruby 3.2 or newer
  • No API keys needed for core functionality — all data comes from public FAA, NWS, and ADS-B endpoints

Install

Section titled “Install”
Terminal window
gem install skywatch

First commands

Section titled “First commands”

Confirm the install:

Terminal window
skywatch --help

Fetch an AIM 7-1-5 weather brief for Caldwell (KCDW):

Terminal window
skywatch brief KCDW

The brief is printed as JSON. Fields follow AIM section 7-1-5 order: adverse conditions, VFR-not-recommended flag, current conditions, destination forecast, winds aloft, area forecast discussion, and placeholder slots for NOTAMs and ATC delays (not yet available).

Optional: install the Claude Code subagent

Section titled “Optional: install the Claude Code subagent”

If you use Claude Code, you can install the Skywatch subagent so you can ask for briefs in plain English:

Terminal window
skywatch agent install

Then open (or restart) Claude Code and try:

Give me a weather brief for KCDW

The agent invokes the CLI, parses the JSON, and presents the brief in AIM 7-1-5 order. See the Claude Code agent page for details.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”