janas-flights

janas-flights [--config FILE]

janas-flights is a Janas service: an MCP server over standard input and output that answers questions about flights. janas-chat starts it by itself when the binary sits in `services/` beside the packaged program, or in the same directory. Any other MCP client can start it the same way.Tools:- flight_status — one flight by number (`VY1595`) or callsign. With a key: scheduled, estimated, and actual times (each airport's local time and UTC), delay, terminal, gate, and baggage belt. In the air: altitude, speed, climb or descent, a place in words, the route, and an arrival estimated from speed- flights_between — today's flights from one airport to another, with times and, if airborne, where each is now. Needs the key- flights_over — aircraft over a sea now, by its English or Italian name. Open data only- flights_nearby — aircraft near an airport (IATA, ICAO, or a name people use), a city, or a point. With no place, near where the user isAirports match IATA or ICAO codes, a city, or everyday names. Lists use open data only. AviationStack is asked only for one flight or one route.Positions come from adsb.lol (Open Database License), with adsb.fi if that does not answer. Routes without a key come from adsbdb.com. Airport, city, and sea names are built in from OurAirports, GeoNames, and Natural Earth. Routes on record are often wrong for airlines that reuse callsigns (Ryanair, Wizz Air): a route that does not fit the position is marked probably wrong, or left out of a list.janas-chat shows the long lists from a layout and gives the model a short brief. The server speaks both eras of the protocol, as janas-mcp does. Logs go to standard error.

--config FILE

File that holds `aviationstackkey = KEY`. Default: `$XDGCONFIGHOME/janas/flights.conf`, or `~/.config/janas/flights.conf`. **JANASFLIGHTSCONFIG** names another file. **JANASAVIATIONSTACK_KEY** wins over the file.

Print usage and exit 0. Any other argument exits 2.

~/.config/janas/flights.conf

One setting, `aviationstack_key`. A misspelled name is reported at startup.

The same key. Overrides the file.

City name, `lat,lon`, or `off`. Used when flights_nearby is asked with no place. Otherwise the connection's position (GeoJS, then ipwho.is), then the time zone's city. janas-chat passes its environment through.

This is an MCP server, not a prompt. A client must spawn it. --no-services or --no-mcp on janas-chat skips it. An `mcpServers` entry named `flights` in `~/.config/janas/mcp.json` replaces the automatic start.The free AviationStack plan is 100 calls a month and today's flights only. Each question about a number or a route is one call; answers are kept for ten minutes. Without a key, flight_status says where a flight is, not its times. AviationStack marks times as `+00:00` while they are local, and its status string lags the actual times: the reported state comes from the actual times. A live position is attached to a flight only when the aircraft is on that route or on the ground at the right airport. Codeshares are folded into the number that was asked.

janas-flights ships with Janas, written by Maurizio "camauri" Cammalleri (GNU GPL 3 or later). The first public Janas-LLM release was in September 2026.

janas-chat(1), janas-weather(1), janas-maps(1), janas-mcp(1), claude(1)

Source code · Documentation