List Transit Operators
transit_list_operatorsList Bay Area transit agencies and retrieve their operator codes, optionally filtering to those with live tracking.
Instructions
List Bay Area transit agencies and their operator codes.
Start here. Every other tool needs an operator code, and this is what produces them — BART is 'BA', Muni is 'SF', AC Transit is 'AC', Caltrain is 'CT'.
The Monitored flag matters: agencies reporting real-time data support live departures and vehicle positions, while schedule-only agencies do not.
Args:
monitored_only (boolean): only agencies publishing real-time data (default: false)
limit (number): maximum operators to return (default: 50)
response_format ('markdown' | 'json'): output format (default: 'markdown')
Returns: { "count": number, "total": number, "truncated": boolean, "operators": [ { "Id": string, "Name": string, "Monitored": boolean, "PrimaryMode": string, "TimeZone": string } ] }
Examples:
"What transit agencies are there?" -> call with no arguments
"Which ones have live tracking?" -> monitored_only=true
Call this first whenever the user names an agency, to resolve its code
Error Handling:
Ignore the TimeZone field: 511 reports "America/Vancouver" for every Bay Area agency, which is a known upstream data bug. Everything here is Pacific time
511-internal pseudo-agencies (5E, 5F, 5O, 5S) are filtered out — they carry no service data
511 allows 60 requests per hour across ALL endpoints, so cache this rather than re-fetching
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| limit | No | Maximum results to return (max 200) | |
| monitored_only | No | Only agencies that publish real-time data, excluding schedule-only ones | |
| response_format | No | Output format: 'markdown' for human-readable, 'json' for machine-readable | markdown |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| count | Yes | ||
| total | Yes | ||
| operators | Yes | ||
| truncated | Yes |