SmartShift vs DIY Automation — How to Access Forecasts?

[Jaywatts]

Hi all — I’m working on a smart battery automation using Home Assistant and Amber’s API, and I’ve hit a bit of a wall.
I’ve enabled Developer Mode and generated an API token, but I’m getting a error when trying to access and . From what I can tell, these endpoints are restricted unless SmartShift is active.
So I’ve got two questions for anyone who’s been down this road:

1. Is it possible to access extended forecast data (e.g. 12+ hours ahead) via the API without SmartShift enabled?
2. If I temporarily enable SmartShift and give Amber control of my inverter, can I later disable SmartShift and still retain access to the forecast endpoints for my own automations?
   I’m trying to build a predictive charge scheduler that uses Amber’s price forecasts but keeps local control over the inverter logic. Any insights or workarounds would be hugely appreciated.

[rcruikshank]

Im this Amber but never used smartshift because my battery is not supported by them however I can still use the Amber integration. But I no longer use that integration. I've moved to amber2mqtt.

[madpilot]

That error implies your API key is invalid… maybe generate a new one?

[Jaywatts]

Thats exactly what is was, the incorrect api key thank you

[Jaywatts]

That helped slightly however now i can get some data but if i want to get current data or forecast it fails. like below
➜ ~ curl -X GET
'https://api.amber.com.au/v1/sites'
-H 'accept: application/json'
-H 'Authorization: Bearer psk_e7ec5dbff7de17a37e5727a0ecaab149'
[{"id":"01K4Y2ZC9VK7S57MVRJXQAHEDY","nmi":"QB13858521","channels":[{"identifier":"E1","type":"general","tariff":"6970"},{"identifier":"E2","type":"controlledLoad","tariff":"9170"},{"identifier":"B1","type":"feedIn","tariff":"9850"}],"network":"Energex","status":"active","activeFrom":"2025-09-12","intervalLength":5},{"id":"01K4Y43K444M7VF2GH5MV8ST78","nmi":"3114239507","channels":[{"identifier":"E1","type":"general","tariff":"6970"},{"identifier":"E2","type":"controlledLoad","tariff":"9170"},{"identifier":"B1","type":"feedIn","tariff":"9870"}],"network":"Energex","status":"active","activeFrom":"2025-09-12","intervalLength":5}]#
➜ ~ curl -X GET
"https://api.amber.com.au/v1/sites/YOUR_SITE_ID/prices/current"
-H "accept: application/json"
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
{"message":"User is not authorized to access this resource with an explicit deny"}#

[loadx]

I think i see the problem here @Jaywatts. The URL used to fetch your prices is a bit wonky, you need to replace the
"YOUR_SITE_ID" with your actual siteID.. in this case: 01K4Y2ZC9VK7S57MVRJXQAHEDY

Given that the API key here should be private. I will paste an example for your reference but i'd highly recommend that you remove this key after and create a new one to protect this.

curl -X GET "https://api.amber.com.au/v1/sites/01K4Y2ZC9VK7S57MVRJXQAHEDY/prices/current" -H "accept: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer psk_e7ec5dbff7de17a37e5727a0ecaab149"

Cheers :)

[Jaywatts]

Thanks so much—that did the trick! Just one final question: if I wanted to pull data from this API and feed it into forecast sensors (similar to how the Amber integration works), but with a 12-hour forecast window instead of the default, what would be the best approach?

[madpilot]

@Jaywatts The API isn't restricted to Smartshift users.

Can you run this cURL command swapping out your-api-key with the key you generated? What gets returned?

curl -X 'GET' 'https://api.amber.com.au/v1/sites' -H 'accept: application/json' -H 'Authorization: Bearer your-api-key'

[madpilot]

Are you on the latest Home Assistant?

Though if you are getting a denied error (which implies a bad API key) you shouldn't be getting any forecasts.

[Jaywatts]

I can get the access through the amber integration but only with 3 hours forecast. If i want 12 hours forecast i need to use the developers aip or Amber2MQTT, however the developers page seems to have several errors and MQTT won't sync the required data

[madpilot]

Make sure you are running the latest home assistant - there was a bug that was fixed in a recent release.

[madpilot]

If you are calling the end point yourself, add next=288 to get the 12 hours.

[Jaywatts]

This is in my Amber2MQTT config
username: username
password: password
broker: 127.0.0.1
port: 1883
client_id: amber-2-mqtt
debug: "False"

This is in my Mosquitto broker config
active: true
folder: mosquitto
logins: []
anonymous: true

and this is from the log
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/paho/mqtt/client.py", line 4609, in _create_socket
sock = self._create_socket_connection()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/paho/mqtt/client.py", line 4640, in _create_socket_connection
return socket.create_connection(addr, timeout=self._connect_timeout, source_address=source)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/socket.py", line 864, in create_connection
raise exceptions[0]
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/socket.py", line 849, in create_connection
sock.connect(sa)
~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^
ConnectionRefusedError: [Errno 111] Connection refused

[madpilot]

curl -X GET "https://api.amber.com.au/v1/sites/01K4Y2ZC9VK7S57MVRJXQAHEDY/prices/current?next=288" -H "accept: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer psk_e7ec5dbff7de17a37e5727a0ecaab149"

…

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On 15 Sep 2025 at 14:03 +0100, Jaywatts ***@***.***>, wrote: Thanks so much—that did the trick! Just one final question: if I wanted to pull data from this API and feed it into forecast sensors (similar to how the Amber integration works), but with a 12-hour forecast window instead of the default, what would be the best approach? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Jaywatts]

aahh it all makes sense now thank you.

[Jaywatts]

and the perKwh for the general and feedin blocks are more reliable than the "advancedPrice - predicted" figures?

[madpilot]

For forecasts, I'd use advancedPrice - that's what we use for Smartshift.

If we want the number to match the app - use perKwh

[Jaywatts]

Thanks heaps — I’ve got all my forecast sensors set up now and they’re working great. Would you mind sharing an example "curl" command to fetch the current general price, so i can make a current sensor?

[madpilot]

It's the same call - look for the interval marked as CurrentInterval

If you don't want the forecasts in there, omit the next=288 bit