Ingest

Ingesting data - or posting data - to Obelisk Core can be done through a simple HTTP POST message. You will first have to acquire an access token that you can send along. If you are authorized, your sent data will be stored.

POST /datasets/{datasetId}/data/ingest
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}

[{
    "timestamp" : "2022-03-10T16:15:50Z",
    "metric" : "temperature.cesius::number",
    "value" : 23.5,
    "labels": {
        "site": "BuildingA-Wing132",
        "sensor": "device-5bce"
    },
    "location" : {
        "lat": 51.5074,
        "lng": 0.1278,
        "elevation": 6.0
    }

}]

Full OpenAPI link

Format

You should always send an Array of IncomingDataPoint objects. These object have the following fields:

property	required	description	default
timestamp	✗	ISO 8601 datetime format	Current server timestamp
metric	✓	Name of the metric. Must include a type suffix that indicates the type of the data point value. Supported types are: `number`, `integer`, `bool`, `string`, `json`, `number[]`, `integer[]`.
value	✓	Value of the data point. Obelisk time-series are type-safe: the type must match the type suffix of the metric name.
labels	✗	Labels associated with the data point. Labels are key-value pairs that can be used to filter and group data points.	`{}`
location	✗	Location associated with the data point. Location is a geographical coordinate represented by a latitude and longitude pair, along with an optional elevation in meters above sea-level.

Examples

Sending all possible metadata: POST /datasets/{datasetId}/data/ingest Content-Type: application/json Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN} [{ "timestamp" : "2022-03-10T16:15:50Z", "metric" : "temperature.celsius::number", "value" : 23.5, "labels": { "site": "BuildingA-Wing132", "sensor": "device-5bce" }, "location" : { "lat": 51.5074, "lng": 0.1278, "elevation": 6.0 } }, ...]
Sending the minimum possible metadata: POST /datasets/{datasetId}/data/ingest Content-Type: application/json Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN} [{ "metric" : "temperature.celsius::number", "value" : 23.5 }]
Sending integer array data (e.g., accelerometer): POST /datasets/{datasetId}/data/ingest Content-Type: application/json Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN} [{ "timestamp" : "2022-03-10T16:15:50.123Z", "metric" : "wearable.acceleration::integer[]", "value" : [102, -45, 987], "labels": { "device_id": "watch-5bce" } }]

Data Type Considerations

Integer vs Number Types

Obelisk supports both floating-point (number, number[]) and integer (integer, integer[]) numeric types.

When to use integer/integer[]:

Data contains only whole numbers (no decimal points)
Examples: counts, IDs, timestamps in milliseconds, certain accelerometer/sensor data that reports integers

When to use number/number[]:

Data contains or may contain decimal values
Examples: temperature with decimals, percentages, precise floating-point measurements
Note: If you consistently store only integer values in a number field, you'll still achieve good compression. However, dedicated integer types provide superior performance for integer-only data.
Note: For arrays, storing consistent float-only data in number[] achieves good compression, but mixing integers and floats reduces compression efficiency.

15 July 2025