nzta-traffic

What This Skill Does

The nzta-traffic skill provides a direct interface for the Waka Kotahi NZTA Traffic and Travel API, enabling OpenClaw users to access real-time status updates for New Zealand's state highway network. By querying live data from the national traffic management system, the agent can report on road closures, traffic incidents, planned roadworks, and current travel conditions. It supports geographic filtering by region, specific highway identification, and even retrieves traffic camera feeds, offering a comprehensive view of road conditions from Northland to Southland without the need for authentication or API keys.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your environment, use the OpenClaw package manager. Execute the following command in your terminal:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/bobwattienz/nzta-traffic

Ensure that your system environment has the necessary execution permissions to run shell scripts provided by the skills directory.

Use Cases

This skill is essential for daily commuters, logistics managers, and travelers across New Zealand. It is highly effective for planning trips around major roadworks, checking if a mountain pass is closed during adverse weather, or identifying traffic bottlenecks before heading out. Because it supports specific bounding box queries and camera lists, it is also useful for integrating real-time traffic visuals into monitoring dashboards or reporting workflows.

Example Prompts

1. "Check the current traffic status for SH1 heading out of Wellington; are there any closures?"
2. "List all active roadworks in the Canterbury region and check if there are any major delays on SH7."
3. "Show me the traffic camera feeds near the Auckland Harbour Bridge and report any incidents in the area."

Tips & Limitations

• Understanding Output: The API returns an empty response if there are no active events for a requested region or highway—treat this as "All clear."
• Specificity: Always use --list-regions and --list-journeys to get the correct IDs, as names may vary slightly in the database compared to common parlance.
• Geometries: The default setting suppresses heavy geometry data for faster response times. If you require mapped routes, remember to adjust the --zoom parameter, though this will increase payload size.
• API Stability: As this pulls from public Waka Kotahi services, ensure you are not flooding the endpoint with rapid-fire, high-frequency requests, as it may lead to rate limiting.