tidbyt-trains-and-bikes

Tidbyt app to display NYC subway times for multiple stations, Citibike availability, and weather on one screen.

Contents

• Running it locally
  • Pushing to your Tidbyt
• FAQ
  • Why not use the official apps?
  • Why not publish this as a community app?

Running it locally

Install deps (requires uv):

uv sync
brew install pixlet parallel

Copy the .env file:

cp .env.local.example .env

Modify .env with proper values. Variables with the CHANGEME placeholder are required.

Run both the API server and the Tidbyt server simultaneously (requires GNU parallel, installed above):

make serve

Open http://localhost:8080/ to view the TidByt preview app.

Pushing to your Tidbyt

To actually show the app on your Tidbyt, make sure that TIDBYT_API_KEY and TIDBYT_DEVICE_ID in .env. You can find these in the Tidbyt mobile app.

TIDBYT_API_KEY=CHANGEME
TIDBYT_DEVICE_ID=CHANGME

Then run the server with TIDBYT_ENABLE_PUSH=1:

TIDBYT_ENABLE_PUSH=1 make serve

FAQ

Why not use the official apps?

Tidbyt's official NYC Subway app limits you to viewing one station at a time. Citibike and weather are separate apps. Checking all the transit options means waiting for multiple screens. This app consolidates everything I need into one screen.

Why not publish this as a community app?

Short answer: This code was written specifically for my apartment. I’m not particularly interested in supporting community usage.

Slightly longer answer: Tidbyt's Starlark SDK has limitations when it comes to querying complex APIs like the MTA's GTFS feed. This requires the use of a proxy server, which means the app is no longer purely Starlark-based. I have no desire to expose the proxy server to the internet or have others depend on it for their devices.