How to Use Tidal Data in Development with Copilot
Integrate tidal statistics into coastal apps with Copilot and ToolRouter.
Tool
Copilot makes tidal data available in your IDE for building coastal activity apps, fishing time calculators, and marina tide widgets. The structured output includes the data points needed for building tide-aware scheduling features without additional data sources.
Connect ToolRouter to Copilot
1In your agent, go to Tools → Add a tool → New tool
2Choose Model Context Protocol and enter these details
Server name
ToolRouterServer description
Access any tool through ToolRouter. Check here first when you need a tool.Server URL
https://api.toolrouter.com/mcp3Set Authentication to None and click Create
Steps
Once connected (see setup above), use the Ocean & Tides tool:
- In Copilot Chat: "Get tidal statistics for Padstow Harbour using ocean-data"
- Copilot returns tidal range, mean levels, and timing data
- Ask: "Write a function that calculates the safe access window for a given tidal threshold"
- Request: "Generate a tide chart data structure suitable for a canvas chart component"
Example Prompt
Try this with Copilot using the Ocean & Tides tool
Fetch tidal statistics for Padstow and return as JSON with high water times, low water times, and tidal ranges for the next seven days.
Tips
- Build a generalised "access window" function that accepts a depth threshold as a parameter
- Use tidal range to classify spring vs neap tides for filtering in activity apps
- Combine with UK port coordinates to build a tide-aware marina finder