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Overview

toni integrates with the Yelp Fusion API to provide restaurant autocomplete, making it faster to log visits with accurate restaurant information. The integration is optional and toni works fully offline without it.
Yelp integration is completely optional. You can use toni without an API key and manually enter restaurant information.

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Getting a Yelp API Key

1

Visit Yelp Developers

Go to https://www.yelp.com/developers/v3/manage_app
2

Create an app

Sign in with your Yelp account and create a new app. You can use any name and description.
3

Copy your API key

Once created, copy the API key from your app details page.

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Configuration Methods

When you first run toni, it will guide you through an interactive onboarding flow defined in cmd/onboarding.go:433: 
toni
The onboarding will:
  1. Ask if you want to enable Yelp autocomplete
  2. If enabled, prompt you to paste your API key
  3. Securely save the key to ~/.toni/yelp_api_key with 0600 permissions
  4. Create ~/.toni/onboarding.json to track completion
You can skip onboarding by pressing Esc or choosing to disable Yelp. You can always re-enable it later by editing the configuration files.

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Method 2: Command-Line Flag

Provide the API key directly when launching toni: 
toni --yelp-key YOUR_API_KEY_HERE
This is defined in cmd/root.go:30.

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Method 3: Environment Variable

Set the YELP_API_KEY environment variable: 
export YELP_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE
toni
The environment variable is loaded in cmd/root.go:39.

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Method 4: .env File

toni automatically loads .env and .env.local files from the current directory: 
# .env
YELP_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE
This is handled by the loadDotEnv function in cmd/root.go:88.

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Manual Configuration

You can manually configure Yelp integration by editing files in ~/.toni/:

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Enable/Disable Yelp

Edit ~/.toni/onboarding.json: 
{
  "completed": true,
  "yelp_enabled": true
}
Set yelp_enabled to false to disable Yelp autocomplete.

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Store API Key

Create or edit ~/.toni/yelp_api_key: 
echo "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" > ~/.toni/yelp_api_key
chmod 600 ~/.toni/yelp_api_key
Ensure the yelp_api_key file has 0600 permissions (owner read/write only) to keep your API key secure.

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How Autocomplete Works

When Yelp is enabled, toni uses the Yelp Fusion Business Search API for autocomplete:
  • API endpoint: https://api.yelp.com/v3/businesses/search (from internal/search/yelp.go:12)
  • Search behavior: Filters by categories=restaurants,food and limits results to 8 matches
  • Default location: Uses “New York, NY” if no location is specified
  • Sort order: Results sorted by best_match
  • Timeout: 5 second request timeout

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Data Retrieved

From internal/search/yelp.go:29, autocomplete suggestions include:
  • Restaurant name
  • Address (street, city)
  • Neighborhood (stored as state)
  • Cuisine (from first category)
  • Price range ($, $$, $$$, $$$$)
  • Latitude/longitude coordinates
  • Yelp business ID (stored as place_id)

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Offline Mode

Yelp integration gracefully degrades when:
  • No API key is configured
  • Network is unavailable
  • API request fails
In offline mode:
  • Autocomplete is disabled
  • You can still manually enter all restaurant information
  • All other toni features work normally
All restaurant data is stored locally in SQLite. Yelp is only used for initial autocomplete - your data never depends on the Yelp API.

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Priority Order

The API key is loaded with the following priority (from cmd/root.go:38):
  1. --yelp-key command-line flag
  2. YELP_API_KEY environment variable
  3. .env or .env.local file
  4. ~/.toni/yelp_api_key secure file
Higher priority sources override lower priority ones.

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Troubleshooting

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Autocomplete Not Working

Verify your configuration: 
# Check if onboarding is complete
cat ~/.toni/onboarding.json

# Check if API key file exists
ls -l ~/.toni/yelp_api_key

# Test API key manually
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.yelp.com/v3/businesses/search?term=pizza&location=NYC"

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Re-running Onboarding

To re-run the onboarding flow: 
rm ~/.toni/onboarding.json
toni

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API Rate Limits

Yelp Fusion API has rate limits. If you hit limits:
  • Autocomplete will fail gracefully
  • You can continue entering data manually
  • Wait for the rate limit window to reset
For the most up-to-date Yelp API documentation, visit the Yelp Fusion API docs.

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