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Get Started with the Ona Intelligence Layer

This guide provides a hands-on walkthrough to make your first API call and generate a 24-hour energy forecast. It is designed for Beginners and requires no prior knowledge of our APIs.

Your Goal: Get a Forecast in 5 Minutes

By the end of this guide, you will have:

  1. Sent a CSV file with historical energy data to our API.
  2. Received a complete 24-hour forecast.

Step 1: Prepare Your Data

You will need a simple CSV file with historical solar production data. The file must contain at least two columns: one for the timestamp and one for the power or energy reading.

Example sample.csv:

Timestamp,Power (kW)
2025-12-01T00:00:00Z,0
2025-12-01T01:00:00Z,0
2025-12-01T02:00:00Z,0
2025-12-01T03:00:00Z,0
2025-12-01T04:00:00Z,0
2025-12-01T05:00:00Z,10.5
2025-12-01T06:00:00Z,55.2
2025-12-01T07:00:00Z,120.7
...

Step 2: Make the API Call

You can use any tool that sends HTTP requests. We’ll use cURL for this example as it’s available on most systems.

Open your terminal, and execute the following command. Make sure to replace /path/to/your/sample.csv with the actual path to your file.

cURL Command

curl -X POST \
  -F "file=@/path/to/your/sample.csv" \
  -F "email=user@example.com" \
  -F "site_name=My First Solar Site" \
  -F "location=Durban" \
  https://api.asoba.co/v1/freemium-forecast

Step 3: View the Response

If successful, the API will return a JSON object containing your 24-hour forecast.

Expected JSON Response

{
  "status": "success",
  "forecast": {
    "site_name": "My First Solar Site",
    "location": "Durban",
    "manufacturer": "Huawei",
    "forecast_hours": 24,
    "generated_at": "2025-12-30T10:00:00Z",
    "model_type": "generic",
    "forecasts": [
      {
        "timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:00:00Z",
        "hour_ahead": 1,
        "kWh_forecast": 15.5,
        "confidence": 0.85
      },
      {
        "timestamp": "2025-12-30T12:00:00Z",
        "hour_ahead": 2,
        "kWh_forecast": 65.2,
        "confidence": 0.85
      },
      {
        "timestamp": "2025-12-30T13:00:00Z",
        "hour_ahead": 3,
        "kWh_forecast": 130.1,
        "confidence": 0.85
      }
      // ... 21 more hours
    ],
    "summary": {
      "total_kwh_24h": 28500.5,
      "peak_hour": "2025-12-30T14:00:00Z",
      "peak_kwh": 1850.2,
      "average_hourly_kwh": 1187.5
    }
  }
}

Congratulations!

You have successfully generated your first forecast using the Ona Intelligence Layer.

Next Steps

Now that you have a basic understanding of how to use the API, you can: