UV Sun Skill

Check current UV index and sun safety advice for Australian cities. Zero config — no API keys, no setup.

Install

npx skills add agairola/life-skills --skill uv-sun

When to Use

Trigger this skill when the user:

• Asks about the UV index or UV level
• Asks about sunscreen, SPF, or sun protection
• Wants to know if it's safe to be outside in the sun
• Asks about sunburn risk
• Asks whether they need a hat, sunglasses, or sun protection
• Wants sun safety advice for an Australian city
• Mentions ARPANSA or UV monitoring

Prerequisites

• uv — brew install uv (macOS) or pip install uv (all platforms)
• API keys — not needed. ARPANSA UV data is fully open.
• Dependencies — declared inline (PEP 723), installed automatically by uv run.

Setup Status

!command -v uv > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo "uv: installed" || echo "uv: NOT INSTALLED"

Command Template

uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/uv_sun.py" [OPTIONS]

Options

Flag	Values	Default	Purpose
--city	city name (string)	Sydney	City to look up (fuzzy matched)
--all	(flag)	off	Show all cities sorted by UV index descending
--no-cache	(flag)	off	Force fresh data

Only parse stdout (JSON). Stderr contains diagnostics only.

Common Commands

# Default — Sydney UV index
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/uv_sun.py"

# Specific city
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/uv_sun.py" --city Melbourne

# Fuzzy match — "bris" matches "Brisbane"
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/uv_sun.py" --city bris

# All Australian cities sorted by UV index
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/uv_sun.py" --all

# Force fresh data
uv run "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/uv_sun.py" --city Perth --no-cache

Presenting Results

Follow the formatting rules in ../../references/platform-formatting.md. Key skill-specific formatting below.

Single City Mode

UV Index for Sydney: 5.2 (Moderate)
Measured at 12:30 on 2026-03-11

Sun protection: Sun protection recommended from 10am to 3pm
SPF: SPF 30+
Exercise: Safe to exercise outdoors with sun protection

Source: ARPANSA UV Monitoring

All Cities Mode

UV Index across Australia (highest to lowest):

Darwin — 11.3 (Extreme)
Townsville — 9.8 (Very High)
Brisbane — 8.1 (Very High)
Alice Springs — 7.5 (High)
Perth — 6.4 (High)
Sydney — 5.2 (Moderate)
Gold Coast — 5.0 (Moderate)
Adelaide — 4.8 (Moderate)
Newcastle — 4.5 (Moderate)
Canberra — 3.9 (Moderate)
Melbourne — 3.2 (Moderate)
Hobart — 2.1 (Low)

Source: ARPANSA UV Monitoring

Formatting Rules

• Single city: show UV index, category, sun protection advice, SPF, and exercise advice
• All cities: list sorted by UV index descending, show city name, UV index, and category
• Always include the measurement time and date
• For exercise questions, lead with the exercise advice
• For sunscreen questions, lead with the SPF recommendation
• Invite follow-up: "Ask me about a specific city or say 'all cities' for the full list."

Handling Edge Cases

• City not found: "I couldn't find a city matching '[query]' in the ARPANSA data. Available cities include: [list]. Try one of those."
• No data available: "UV data isn't available from ARPANSA right now. The feed may be temporarily down — try again in a few minutes."
• Night time / zero UV: The UV index may be 0 or very low outside daylight hours. Note this: "The UV index is currently 0 — it's outside daylight hours. UV levels will update when the sun rises."
• API errors: "Couldn't get UV data right now. The ARPANSA feed may be temporarily unavailable — try again in a few minutes."

Reference

UV Index Categories

UV Index	Category	Sun Protection
0-2	Low	No protection required for most people
3-5	Moderate	Sun protection recommended 10am-3pm
6-7	High	Sun protection recommended 9am-4pm
8-10	Very High	Sun protection essential 8am-5pm
11+	Extreme	Sun protection essential all day

SPF Recommendations

Category	SPF	Notes
Low	SPF 15+	Only if spending extended time outdoors
Moderate	SPF 30+	Apply before going outside
High	SPF 50+	Reapply every 2 hours
Very High	SPF 50+	Reapply every 2 hours, seek shade
Extreme	SPF 50+	Reapply every 2 hours, avoid peak hours

Available Cities

The ARPANSA feed covers major Australian cities including: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Hobart, Canberra, Townsville, Alice Springs, Newcastle, Gold Coast. The --all flag shows every city in the feed.

Data Source

All data comes from ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency) via their public UV monitoring XML feed. No API key needed. Data updates every few minutes during daylight hours. No user data is sent to any service.