A real-time Chicago CTA transit integration providing live L train arrivals, bus predictions, and service alerts.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install cta
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install cta using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is CTA Chicago Transit?
The CTA Chicago Transit skill provides a robust interface for accessing live data from the Chicago Transit Authority directly through your AI agent. It allows users to query real-time arrival predictions for all L train lines and bus routes, as well as fetch current service alerts without needing a browser. By leveraging official CTA APIs, this addition to your Openclaw Skills library ensures that developers can build applications that provide accurate, up-to-the-minute transportation data for the Chicago area.
This skill bridges the gap between raw transit feeds and actionable intelligence, handling the complexities of API communication and GTFS data parsing. Using Openclaw Skills like this enables seamless transit planning, vehicle tracking, and station lookups within a unified developer-friendly environment.
CTA Chicago Transit Use Cases
- Requesting live arrival times for L train stations such as Clark/Lake, Belmont, or O'Hare.
- Checking for active service alerts, delays, or detours on specific lines like the Red or Blue Line.
- Finding the nearest bus stops or train stations based on specific geographic coordinates.
- Tracking the live positions of specific bus vehicles or train runs across the CTA network.
- Retrieving current CTA fare information and route details for trip planning in Chicago.
How CTA Chicago Transit Works
- The skill receives a transit-related query and executes the
cta.mjsscript to determine the required data source. - For station and route metadata, the skill references a locally cached GTFS static feed to ensure fast name-based lookups.
- Real-time requests are dispatched to the CTA Train Tracker, Bus Tracker, or Customer Alerts REST APIs using HTTPS.
- The script utilizes the provided API keys to authenticate and retrieve live arrival or position data.
- The raw JSON response is parsed and formatted into a concise, human-readable summary for the AI agent to present.
CTA Chicago Transit Setup
To get started with this skill, install the necessary dependencies and configure your API access:
npm install --prefix $SKILL_DIR
You must obtain free API keys from the CTA developer portal and set them as environment variables:
CTA_TRAIN_API_KEY: Required for L train arrivals.CTA_BUS_API_KEY: Required for bus predictions.
Finally, initialize the static schedule data:
node scripts/cta.mjs refresh-gtfs
CTA Chicago Transit Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill manages a combination of live API data and local static files to provide comprehensive transit info:
| Data Type | Source | Local Storage |
|---|---|---|
| GTFS Static Feed | transitchicago.com | ~/.cta/gtfs/ |
| Train Arrivals | CTA Train Tracker API | Volatile |
| Bus Predictions | CTA Bus Tracker API | Volatile |
| Service Alerts | Customer Alerts API | Volatile |
Station IDs are categorized in the 4xxxx range, while directional stop IDs are in the 3xxxx range, all cross-referenced against the GTFS database.
CTA Chicago Transit Advanced Features
- Geographic proximity search allowing users to find transit options within a specified radius of any coordinate.
- Integrated stop-search functionality that maps natural language station names to exact CTA map IDs.
- Live vehicle tracking capabilities for both rail runs and individual bus vehicle IDs.
- Keyless access for service alerts, maintaining core Openclaw Skills functionality even without API registration.
- Automated GTFS refreshing to ensure local schedule and stop data remains synchronized with CTA updates.
SKILL.md
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