Use when a task needs real, live data but the domain is vague or unstated - "I need real data for X", "is there a free API for this?", "pull actual data into this demo", "no mock data, use a real source", or picking a data source before building. Routes to the right Live Data skill (weather-climate, geo-places, finance-fx, space-earth-science, government-open-data, test-placeholder-data, language-reference, fun-content), every one backed by keyless liveness-verified APIs. Do NOT use when the domain is already explicit - a request naming weather, FX, earthquakes, or fake users goes straight to that skill; do NOT use for designing your own API - use api-design instead.
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name: Public Data API Picker
description: Use when a task needs real, live data but the domain is vague or unstated - "I need real data for X", "is there a free API for this?", "pull actual data into this demo", "no mock data, use a real source", or picking a data source before building. Routes to the right Live Data skill (weather-climate, geo-places, finance-fx, space-earth-science, government-open-data, test-placeholder-data, language-reference, fun-content), every one backed by keyless liveness-verified APIs. Do NOT use when the domain is already explicit - a request naming weather, FX, earthquakes, or fake users goes straight to that skill; do NOT use for designing your own API - use api-design instead.
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# Public Data API Picker
Route a vague "I need live data" request to the sibling skill whose APIs are liveness-verified - instead of deliberating over a directory or reaching for a key-walled API from training memory. This skill only routes; every URL template, response shape, and gotcha lives in the domain skill.
## Routing table
| The task needs | Route to |
|---|---|
| Forecast, current conditions, historical weather, air quality, US weather alerts | weather-climate |
| Geocoding, reverse geocoding, city→coordinates, postal codes, country facts (capital, currency, flag) | geo-places |
| FX rates (current or historical), currency conversion, crypto prices and market caps | finance-fx |
| Earthquakes, NASA imagery (APOD, Earth full-disk), near-Earth asteroids | space-earth-science |
| Country statistics over time - GDP, population, inflation, emissions; EU-official figures | government-open-data |
| Fake products/users/posts for a demo or tutorial, placeholder images, teaching CRUD | test-placeholder-data |
| Word definitions, pronunciation, synonyms; Wikipedia summaries and search | language-reference |
| Trivia/quiz questions, animal pictures, advice, random facts | fun-content |
## Tie-breakers
- "Weather in Paris" needing coordinates first → still weather-climate (it embeds the one city→lat/lon step); geo-places only when geography *is* the deliverable.… install to load the full skill