canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/noaa.gov/tidesandcurrents

# Noaa Gov NOAA Tides and Currents CO-OPS Data Retrieval API

The NOAA Tides and Currents CO-OPS Data Retrieval API provides observed and predicted coastal data from NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services stations. A single data endpoint returns water levels, tide predictions, currents, and meteorological observations such as wind, air pressure, and temperature, selected by station, product, and date range. Output is available in JSON, XML, or CSV with metric or English units.

## For AI agents

Retrieve tide predictions, observed water levels, currents, and meteorological readings for a NOAA CO-OPS station by product and date range. Public access with no API key.

## Scope

Does not handle marine forecasting, routing, or weather alerts. Use for retrieving CO-OPS station tide, current, and meteorological observations only.

## Capabilities

- Retrieve observed water levels and tide predictions for a CO-OPS station
- Pull meteorological observations such as wind, air pressure, and air and water temperature
- Query current speed and direction observations and predictions for a station
- Request data for a date, a date range, or the latest and recent windows
- Return results in JSON, XML, or CSV with a chosen datum and metric or English units

## Use cases

### AI Coastal Conditions Agent

An AI agent connected through Jentic answers questions about coastal conditions by requesting the right product from a CO-OPS station, so a user asking for today's high tide at a harbour gets a sourced prediction without the developer wiring the station parameters by hand. The agent sets the station, product, and date window and reads the response.

Example prompt: Request tide predictions for a named station for today in English units and return the high and low tide times

### Boating and Scheduling

A boating, port, or event app shows upcoming tides and water levels by querying a station's prediction product over a date range. Choosing the datum and time zone keeps the figures aligned to the local reference, and JSON output drops straight into a schedule view.

Example prompt: Query a station's tide predictions over the next seven days with a chosen datum and return the timed values as JSON

### Meteorological Observations Feed

A monitoring tool pulls live station weather by requesting wind, air pressure, or temperature products for a CO-OPS station at the latest or recent window. Because every reading comes from a fixed sensor station, the feed is consistent for alerting and trend tracking across a coastline.

Example prompt: Retrieve the latest wind and air pressure readings for a CO-OPS station and return them in metric units

## Key resources

- **Water Levels and Tides** — Observed water levels, tide predictions, and tidal datums by station
- **Meteorological Observations** — Wind, air pressure, air and water temperature, humidity, and related readings by station
- **Currents** — Observed and predicted current speed and direction by station

## AI readiness

This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.

- **Score:** 68 / 100
- **Maturity:** AI-Aware
- **Dimensions:**
  - Foundational Compliance: 100 / 100
  - Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility: 64 / 100
  - AI-Readiness & Agent Experience: 49 / 100
  - Agent Usability: 94 / 100
  - Security: 100 / 100
  - AI Discoverability: 50 / 100
- **View full report:** https://jentic.com/apis/noaa.gov/tidesandcurrents/scorecard
- **How the score is calculated:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/overview/
- **More about the dimensions:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/specification/#dimensional-model-overview

### Score it yourself

Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.

- **Score your own API:** https://jentic.com/scorecard.md
- **Scoring CLI agent skill:** https://github.com/jentic/jentic-api-scorecard/blob/main/skills/jentic-api-scorecard/SKILL.md

```sh
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>
```

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** NOAA Tides and Currents needs no API key, but wiring it by hand means learning its station ids, product codes, date ranges, and datum and unit options. Through Jentic you install once, import it from the API Directory, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** The service is read-only, so a rule can keep your agent to just the data-retrieval operation. You choose which operations it may call, and there is no write path to NOAA's observations.
- **Credential handling:** Tides and Currents is public, so there is no key to manage. When you add APIs that do require credentials, your own Jentic One instance keeps them encrypted and injects them at execution time, never placing them in the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'get today's tide for a station' or 'read water levels', and Jentic returns the matching Tides and Currents operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **NOAA ERDDAP API** — Broad oceanographic and atmospheric dataset search and query service.
- **OpenWeatherMap API** — Current, forecast, and historical weather data by location.
- **WeatherAPI** — Weather, marine, and astronomy data through a simple REST interface.

## FAQ

### What authentication does the NOAA Tides and Currents API use?

The NOAA Tides and Currents API is public: its OpenAPI spec declares no authentication, so data requests need no API key. Through Jentic it is still called from your own self-hosted instance, with every call logged.

### Can I get tide predictions with the NOAA Tides and Currents API?

Yes. The data endpoint returns tide predictions, observed water levels, currents, and meteorological readings for a CO-OPS station, selected by a product code and a date, date range, or the latest window. You pick the datum, units, and an output format of JSON, XML, or CSV.

### What are the rate limits for the NOAA Tides and Currents API?

The OpenAPI spec does not define rate limits for the NOAA Tides and Currents API. NOAA documents usage guidance at https://api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/api/prod/, so check there before polling a station at high frequency.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the NOAA Tides and Currents API?

Yes. The service exposes one read-only data operation, so a rule that allows only that operation lets the agent retrieve observations and nothing else. There is no write path to the station data, and every call the agent makes is logged.

### How do I retrieve station data through Jentic?

Search by intent in Jentic with a query like 'get a NOAA tide reading', add the NOAA Tides and Currents API from the Jentic API Directory, and your agent sets the station, product, and date window and reads the response. To run it on your own infrastructure, install Jentic One from its GitHub repo.