River Agent
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Plate Nº 1 — riveragent.app · est. 2026

Know before the river rises.

River Agent watches the official NOAA forecast for the gauges you care about, around the clock, and sends a plain-English email or text the moment your river is projected to cross a flood stage — then again only when the story truly changes.

✉  Get alerts — one email How it works ↓

agent@riveragent.app · send a ZIP or a river · replies in about a minute

Data
NOAA · NWS NWPS
Cadence
Every 30 min
Channels
Email + SMS
Cost
$0 — donations welcome
Fig. 1 — How it works

Three moving parts.
None of them are yours to move.

Tell the agent your river

One email with a ZIP code — or “the Bogue Chitto near Bush”. The agent looks up the nearby NOAA gauges and writes back in about a minute with a recommended setup. Nothing turns on until you reply YES.

We read the forecast

Every 30 minutes we pull the official National Water Prediction Service forecast for your gauge and compare the projected crest against its published flood stages — action, minor, moderate, major.

You get the word

When the forecast first crosses a stage you watch, you get one clear message: which river, how high, roughly when. After that we only speak up when things escalate, ease, or clear. Reply to any alert to tweak or stop that river — the agent handles it.

Fig. 2 — Reading the water

Forecasts wobble.
Your inbox shouldn’t.

NOAA re-issues river forecasts many times a day, and most revisions mean nothing. River Agent remembers what it already told you and re-alerts only on meaningful change: a new category, a crest a foot higher or lower, or an all-clear.

Six signals cover the whole arc of a flood — from the first quiet “heads up” to the message you actually relax to.

Forecast hydrograph crossing flood stages A river stage forecast rising over 72 hours. It crosses the action stage around hour 30, triggering a rising alert, and the minor flood stage around hour 44, triggering an escalation alert, before cresting and starting to fall. HYDROGRAPH — FORECAST vs FLOOD STAGES GAUGE CUSL1 MAJOR · 21 FT MODERATE · 18 FT MINOR · 15 FT ACTION · 12 FT +30 H — CROSSES ACTION ALERT: RISING +44 H — CROSSES MINOR ALERT: ESCALATION CREST 16.8 FT · +54 H 8 12 16 20 NOW +18 H +36 H +54 H +72 H STAGE (FT) × FORECAST HORIZON — NWPS OFFICIAL FORECAST, RE-READ EVERY 30 MIN
FIG. 2 — One storm, two messages. The forecast crosses action stage: you hear about it once. It keeps climbing into minor: you hear about that, too. The dozen small revisions in between stay quiet.

Legend — the six signals

Fig. 3 — Getting started

Setup is one email.

No app, no account, no password. Write to agent@riveragent.app with:

  • A ZIP code or your river — “70433”, or the river’s name and the nearest town. A gauge link works too.
  • Nothing else, really — the agent replies with the gauges it found, the stages it suggests, and the current conditions. Answer in plain words to tweak anything.
  • A “YES” to finish — nothing is turned on until you confirm. Texts too? Send your number when it asks.

Replies land in about a minute. Unsubscribing works the same way: reply to any alert, or email the agent. A human reads hello@riveragent.app whenever you’d rather skip the robot.

✉  Email the agent

Pre-fills the one blank you need.

Prefer your own words? That works too — it reads anything.

Fig. 4 — Keeping it running

Free forever. Coffee optional.

River Agent is a personal project with a very small cloud bill. Alerts are free and will stay free. If it saved you a soggy weekend — or just replaced your refresh-the-gauge habit — a coffee covers the hosting and the text messages.

☕  Buy me a coffee

No paywall behind it, ever. Donations just keep the gauge lit.