For Agents
Query and ingest environmental sensor readings from the citizen-science openSenseMap platform — list boxes, fetch measurements, run statistics, and post new data with a bearer token.
Install Jentic One Beta
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the openSenseMap, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | shStep 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
What an agent can do with openSenseMap API.
List sensor boxes with location and tag filters via /boxes and inspect a single box with /boxes/{boxId}
Retrieve recent and historical measurements per sensor through /boxes/{boxId}/sensors/{sensorId}/measurements
Compute descriptive statistics or inverse-distance-weighted interpolation across boxes with /statistics/descriptive and /statistics/idw
GET STARTED
Use for: List all sensor boxes within 5km of a coordinate, Get the latest temperature reading from a specific box, Retrieve hourly PM2.5 measurements for the past week, Find all boxes tagged with 'air quality'
Not supported: Does not provide weather forecasts, satellite imagery, or commercial-grade calibrated readings — use for citizen-science environmental sensor data only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for openSenseMap, keeping it validated and agent-ready. openSenseMap is a citizen science platform for environmental sensor data — boxes (sensor stations) report measurements such as air quality, temperature, and humidity, and the API exposes them for both ingestion and analysis. Consumers can list and filter sensor boxes, query historical and recent measurements, retrieve descriptive statistics or interpolated values, and download data as JSON, CSV, or GeoJSON. Sensor owners can authenticate with a bearer token to register boxes, push measurements, and manage sensors.
Download datasets as JSON, CSV, or GeoJSON for offline analysis
Register and manage sensor boxes and individual sensors when authenticated
Post new measurements from a sensor box to contribute to the open dataset
Patterns agents use openSenseMap API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Air Quality Map and Alerts
Build a live air quality map by listing boxes within a bounding region via /boxes and pulling the latest measurements per sensor. Alerts can fire when a station reports PM2.5 above a threshold, drawing on /statistics/descriptive to contextualise the reading against recent baselines. The data is community-contributed, so coverage is densest in urban areas where citizen scientists have deployed boxes.
Fetch /boxes filtered by bounding box and tag 'particulate matter', read each box's latest sensor measurement, and flag boxes reporting PM2.5 above 35 µg/m³.
Historical Environmental Analysis
Pull long-running historical series for individual sensors via /boxes/{boxId}/sensors/{sensorId}/measurements with date filters, then export to CSV for analysis or modelling. Researchers can compare urban heat islands, study seasonal patterns, or build training datasets for environmental ML models. Inverse-distance-weighted interpolation through /statistics/idw is available where measurements need to be estimated between station locations.
Query /boxes/{boxId}/sensors/{sensorId}/measurements for the past 90 days with format=csv and save the result for analysis.
Citizen Science Data Contribution
Register a sensor box, configure its sensors, and post measurements from a Raspberry Pi, microcontroller, or other field hardware. Authenticated owners can manage their fleet of boxes, mark sensors active or inactive, and contribute to the open dataset. The platform handles ingestion, persistence, and exposure of the data back to the community.
Authenticate with a bearer token, POST a new measurement payload to the box's measurements endpoint, and verify it appears in the latest reading.
AI Agent Environmental Insights via Jentic
Power an agent that answers questions like 'how is air quality near me right now' or 'show humidity trends for sensor X over June'. Jentic returns the right openSenseMap operation per intent so the agent does not need to memorise the 38 endpoints, and the bearer token (when needed for ingestion) stays in the Jentic vault rather than the agent's prompt.
Search Jentic for 'find nearby sensor boxes', load the GET /boxes schema, execute with a bounding box derived from the user location, and summarise current readings for the closest box.
38 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for opensensemap, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
/boxes
List sensor boxes with filters
/boxes/{boxId}
Retrieve a sensor box
/boxes/{boxId}/sensors
List sensors on a box
/boxes/{boxId}/sensors/{sensorId}
Retrieve a single sensor
/boxes/data
Download box data in bulk
/statistics/descriptive
Descriptive statistics across boxes
/statistics/idw
Inverse-distance-weighted interpolation
/stats
Platform-level statistics
/boxes
List sensor boxes with filters
/boxes/{boxId}
Retrieve a sensor box
/boxes/{boxId}/sensors
List sensors on a box
/boxes/{boxId}/sensors/{sensorId}
Retrieve a single sensor
/boxes/data
Download box data in bulk
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
openSenseMap bearer tokens for ingestion are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Read-only operations require no credential. Agents performing both reads and writes never see the raw bearer token.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic with intents like 'find nearby sensor boxes' or 'get latest sensor measurement', and Jentic returns the matching openSenseMap operation along with its input schema.
Time to first call
Direct openSenseMap integration: 1-2 days to navigate the 38 endpoints and handle pagination plus auth. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search, load, execute.
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
Specific to using openSenseMap API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for openSenseMap?
openSenseMap does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call openSenseMap via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.
What authentication does the openSenseMap API use?
Read endpoints such as /boxes and /statistics/* are public. Mutating operations — registering boxes, posting measurements, managing sensors — require an HTTP bearer token. Through Jentic, the bearer token is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault and injected at execution time, so it never appears in agent prompts.
Can I download historical sensor measurements with the openSenseMap API?
Yes. Use /boxes/data for bulk per-box exports, or query individual sensors via the box and sensor endpoints with date filters. Multiple output formats (JSON, CSV, GeoJSON) are supported, which is useful for feeding analysis pipelines or geospatial tools.
What are the rate limits for the openSenseMap API?
The spec does not declare hard numeric limits. As the platform is community-funded, callers should batch requests, paginate /boxes results, and avoid scraping the same data repeatedly. Cache descriptive statistics and bulk exports rather than recomputing them on every call.
How do I find sensor boxes near a location through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'find nearby sensor boxes', load the GET /boxes schema, and execute it with a bounding box derived from your coordinates. With `pip install jentic` the call returns the matching boxes; you can chain a follow-up call to fetch their latest measurements.
Is the openSenseMap API free?
Yes. openSenseMap is an open citizen-science platform and the API is free to use. There are no paid tiers in the spec; please respect the platform's terms of use and consider contributing your own sensor data if you build something on top of it.
/statistics/descriptive
Descriptive statistics across boxes
/statistics/idw
Inverse-distance-weighted interpolation
/stats
Platform-level statistics