The inMotion Data Platform
The inMotion Data Platform is the time-series engine behind inMotion Track and Studio, and it is available to you directly. From a weather station, an industrial sensor, a fleet of vehicles, or your own application, you can create activities and data streams, write time-series records, and read them back the same way.
Integration is through a RESTful API defined by the OpenAPI Specification, or the Python SDK. Requests are authenticated with a developer key or an API key, both created from your account settings; see Authentication below.
How Data Reaches inMotion
The main routes in, and where each one fits.
Logger Reads the Sensors Directly
Sensors Publish to a Local MQTT Broker

Data Model: Streams, Channels and Activities

  • Activities - Data is organised into Track activities (a moving path, e.g. a run, ride or flight) or Site activities (a fixed location, e.g. a weather station or load cell).
  • Data streams - Each activity is backed by one or more data streams, which are containers for the variables and dimensions you record.
  • Channels - Every stream separates data into channels: As-Acquired (the raw readings you upload), Quality-Controlled (flagged, corrected or interpolated values) and Processed (derived/aggregated values). Raw data is never overwritten — QC and processed views are computed from it.
  • Standard Data Types - Variables can be aligned to standard data types (e.g. air temperature, speed, load) so data from different sources and sensors can be compared consistently.

Authentication

  • Developer key - A key/secret pair tied to your account, used to sign requests with HMAC. Preferred when your integration authenticates on behalf of a logged-in user.
  • API key - Used for unattended devices and services (e.g. a sensor or gateway) that upload data without a user present. Created from the My Keys > API tab in Settings.
  • HMAC signing - all API requests are signed, so inMotion can confirm the request body has not been altered in transit.

Creating Your Keys

From the account dropdown menu, choose Settings, then My Keys and its Developer tab, to create a developer key/secret pair. Use the + button to add a new key, give it a name, optionally enable HMAC signing, and set an expiration date (or leave it as No expiration date for a long-lived key). Copy the key and secret using the icon alongside each field - the secret is only ever shown here.
The My Keys settings tab's Developer sub-tab
My Keys's API tab generates an account key and API key pair scoped to a specific access level (None, Consumer, Contributor, or Owner) for a third-party integration — useful for granting a device or service access without sharing your own login. Give the key a name, choose its access level and optional expiration, and save. Each settings tab links to the OpenAPI protocol definition, which documents how to use these keys in your own application.
The My Keys settings tab's API sub-tab

Application Programming Interface

inMotion Track and Studio use the same REST API, and it is available to you in full. Every endpoint, parameter and response is described in an OpenAPI Specification, which you can browse, call against your own account, or use to generate a client in your preferred language. Requests are JSON over HTTPS and HMAC-signed.
What it covers:
  • Activities - create and manage Track activities (a moving path) and Site activities (a fixed location), with their names, types, classification, tags and sharing.
  • Data streams & channels - define the streams that hold your variables and dimensions, write to the As-Acquired channel, and read back the Quality-Controlled and Processed views.
  • Time-series records - append readings as they arrive or backfill historic data, then query them by time range as raw records, statistics or intervals.
  • Batch upload - submit many records, across multiple variables or devices, in one request, for high-frequency sensors and multi-sensor sites.
  • Shapes, overlays & raster - create and retrieve routes, coverages and map overlays (see Uploads and Overlays).
  • Account - manage developer keys, API keys, members and their access levels.

Software Development Kit

The inMotion Python SDK wraps the REST API for scripts, data pipelines and IoT gateways — sessions, auth and HMAC signing, retries, and typed models for activities, streams and records. Install it from PyPI with pip install inmotion-sdk: package on PyPI, source and examples on GitHub, and the SDK reference for every class and method. Any language with an HTTP client can work against the API directly instead.
  • Weather stations - Import historical or live climatology readings as Site activities.
  • Industrial sensors - Stream high-frequency sensor data (e.g. load cells) and upload windowed statistics for long-running equipment monitoring.
  • Fleet & asset tracking - Push GPS and telemetry from vehicles or other moving assets as Track activities.

Data Logger

A Python application for running a station of sensors unattended — on a Raspberry Pi, a gateway, or a similar device — and publishing their readings to inMotion as a Site activity. Variables, sensors and publishing are declared in a single YAML configuration; support for new hardware is added as a plugin, without modifying the core package.
  • BLE profiles - Bluetooth sensors are described using the same Device Config format as My Device Configs, so one profile drives both the logger and inMotion Track's generic BLE reader - define a device once and read it from either.
  • MQTT sensors - devices that publish MQTT can report to a broker the logger hosts locally; it subscribes and drives a type: mqtt Device Config. See MQTT ingestion for this and the direct-to-cloud alternative.
  • Reliable publishing - a durable local retry queue holds readings on disk through an unreliable connection or a process restart, and an optional permanent local log keeps every reading for offline review.
  • Derived & windowed statistics - running totals and corrections are computed as each reading arrives, alongside periodic aggregates (mean, minimum, maximum, circular mean) over a rolling window.
The data logger is not yet published to a package index. Contact us for access.

MQTT Ingestion

Devices that use MQTT can reach inMotion in two ways. Both decode the payload against a Device Config of type: mqtt. The same file is used either way, so a configuration validated against a local broker transfers to the cloud broker without changes.
  • Local broker, via the Data Logger - the Data Logger hosts a broker on the gateway (a hardened Mosquitto is included). Devices on the LAN publish to it; the logger subscribes, decodes, aggregates at the edge, buffers through outages, and forwards over the SDK. Suited to sites with poor connectivity, or where several sensors should form a single Site activity.
  • inMotion Cloud MQTT Broker - the device publishes directly to a hosted broker over TLS, authenticating with a scoped, publish-only key. The device needs no gateway or SDK; inMotion decodes and aggregates server-side. Suited to a single well-connected device, such as an ESP32 or ESPHome node.
MQTT ingestion is being enabled per account on request. Contact us for access.

Uploads and Overlays

Some data is not a live feed. Existing files — a recorded route, a field boundary, a grid of samples — can be imported without code, through Studio's Upload screen or the API.
  • Formats - CSV, GPX, GeoJSON, KML and Shapefile. Each upload is previewed before it is committed, so you can set its nature, classification, title and tags first.
  • Tracks - a GPX or CSV trace becomes a Track activity, the same as one recorded on a phone, with the full time-series, statistics and interval views.
  • Shapes & coverages - polygons, routes and gridded data become Shapes: prescription maps, heatmaps and sampled coverages, each with its own variables and a colour ramp.
  • Overlays - field boundaries, exclusion zones, sanctuaries and other reference geometry, drawn directly on the map or imported, grouped by classification and shown beneath any activity.
See Uploading routes and overlays and Manage Overlays in the Studio guide.

MCP Server for LLM Clients

An MCP server is available for querying inMotion activity data from LLM clients such as Claude. It requires only an API key.