Irail

Query Belgian railway (NMBS/SNCB) schedules via the irail CLI. Use when the user wants train departures, connections between stations, train compositions, or service disruptions. Triggered by mentions of Belgian trains, NMBS, SNCB, iRail, train schedules, or railway delays.

irail-cli

CLI for Belgian railways (NMBS/SNCB) via iRail API. No authentication required.

Quick Start

# Station departures
irail liveboard Brugge

# Find connections
irail connections Brugge Leuven

# Check disruptions
irail disturbances

Authentication

None required. iRail API is public and free to use.

Core Rules

1. Always use --json when parsing output programmatically
2. Station names are flexible - accepts partial matches, quotes for multi-word
3. Time format - HH:MM (24-hour), date format YYYY-MM-DD
4. Language options - nl, fr, en, de (default: nl)

Output Formats

Flag	Format	Use case
(default)	Table	User-facing with colors
--json	JSON	Agent parsing, scripting

Colors indicate: red = delays, yellow = platform changes.

Workflows

Liveboard (Departures/Arrivals)

# Departures from station
irail liveboard Brugge
irail liveboard "Brussel-Centraal"

# Arrivals instead of departures
irail liveboard Brugge --arrivals

# Specific date/time
irail liveboard Brugge --time 09:00 --date 2025-02-15

# JSON for scripting
irail liveboard Brugge --json

# Different language
irail liveboard Brugge --lang en

Connections (Route Planning)

# Find routes
irail connections Brugge Leuven

# Specific departure time
irail connections Brugge Leuven --time 09:00

# Arrive by time (instead of depart at)
irail connections Brugge Leuven --time 14:00 --arrive-by

# More results
irail connections Brugge Leuven --results 10

# JSON for parsing
irail connections Brugge Leuven --json

Stations

# List all stations
irail stations

# Search stations
irail stations --search bruss
irail stations --search gent

# JSON for scripting
irail stations --json

Vehicle (Train Info)

# Show train information
irail vehicle IC1832

# Include all stops
irail vehicle IC1832 --stops

# JSON output
irail vehicle IC1832 --json

Composition (Train Cars)

# Show train composition (seats, amenities)
irail composition S51507
irail composition IC1832

# JSON for parsing
irail composition S51507 --json

Disturbances

# All current disruptions
irail disturbances

# Only planned works
irail disturbances --type planned

# Only unplanned disruptions
irail disturbances --type disturbance

# JSON for scripting
irail disturbances --json

Scripting Examples

# Get next train to destination
irail connections Brugge Leuven --json | jq -r '.[0].departure'

# Find station ID
irail stations --search "brussel" --json | jq -r '.[0].id'

# Check if delays exist on liveboard
irail liveboard Brugge --json | jq '[.[] | select(.delay > 0)] | length'

# Get platform for next departure
irail liveboard Brugge --json | jq -r '.[0].platform'

# List all disruptions
irail disturbances --json | jq -r '.[].title'

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
IRAIL_LANG	Default language (nl, fr, en, de)
IRAIL_JSON	Default to JSON output
NO_COLOR	Disable colored output

Language Options

Code	Language
nl	Dutch (default)
fr	French
en	English
de	German

irail liveboard Brugge --lang fr
irail connections Brugge Leuven --lang en

Command Reference

Command	Description
liveboard	Station departures/arrivals
connections	Route planning between stations
stations	List/search stations
vehicle	Train information and stops
composition	Train car composition
disturbances	Service disruptions
completion	Shell completions

Common Patterns

Check if train is delayed

irail vehicle IC1832 --json | jq '.delay // 0'

Get connection with transfers

irail connections Brugge Leuven --json | jq '.[0].vias | length'

Find direct trains only

irail connections Brugge Leuven --json | jq '[.[] | select(.vias == null or (.vias | length) == 0)]'

Guidelines

• No authentication needed - API is public
• Be mindful of API usage in loops - add delays between requests
• Station names are case-insensitive and support partial matching
• Delay values are in seconds (divide by 60 for minutes)

Installation

brew install dedene/tap/irail