How to connect Rachio and Flume: API key setup

What you'll need

Barranca Verde sits on top of two devices you already own and connects them through their APIs. Before you start, make sure you have:

• A Rachio smart sprinkler controller, set up and online in the Rachio app.
• A Flume water monitor, installed on your meter and reporting in the Flume app.
• The login for each account (you will sign in to each vendor's site to get your keys).

Both devices already talk to their own clouds; we are just asking each one, with your permission, to share its data with your Barranca Verde account. Nothing about your existing Rachio schedules or Flume alerts changes.

Step 1: Connect Rachio

Rachio is the easy one. It uses a single API key, and Rachio's web app hands it to you in two clicks under Account Settings. Our step-by-step Rachio API key guide shows exactly where to find it, with screenshots.

Paste that key into Barranca Verde's Rachio connection screen and you are done. There is one nice detail worth calling out: you do not have to set up a webhook. Some integrations make you copy a URL into the vendor's dashboard. Barranca Verde registers the webhook with Rachio for you automatically the moment you connect, so from then on Rachio pings us the instant a zone starts or stops. That real-time signal is what lets us mark precise run windows for every zone.

Step 2: Connect Flume

Flume takes a few more fields because its personal API is built around a per-account client. In the Flume portal you generate two values, a Client ID and a Client Secret, under Settings then API Access. Our Flume API keys guide walks through generating both, with screenshots.

Along with those two keys you also enter your Flume account email and password. That surprises people, so it is worth explaining rather than glossing over.

Why Flume asks for your password

Flume's personal API client authorizes access using a sign-in style of grant: the Client ID and Client Secret identify the app, and your email and password prove it is really you authorizing it. Barranca Verde uses that login exactly once, at connect time, to exchange for an access token. After that, the password is gone; it is never stored, and ongoing monitoring runs on the API client and a refreshable token.

If you want the longer, plain-language version, we wrote a dedicated explainer: why we ask for your Flume password. The short version: one-time sign-in to get the key, then we are done with the password.

Step 3 (optional): your water rate

Connecting Rachio and Flume already gets you per-zone gallons. If you also want per-zone dollars, enter your utility's rate schedule on the rate screen. Barranca Verde supports tiered pricing (one to four tiers) and monthly or bimonthly billing cycles, plus an optional fixed meter charge and utility tax so the estimate matches your printed bill. You can skip this and add it later; everything else works without it. For how that math turns gallons into dollars, see the integration guide.

What happens after you connect

As soon as both devices are connected, things start flowing on their own:

• Right away: zone runs show up in your event log in real time, as Rachio reports each start and stop.
• A few hours later: per-zone gallons and cost fill in. Flume publishes minute-level flow data on a delay of roughly three to six hours, so a run's gallons appear once that data catches up. This is normal, not a problem.
• Ongoing: we sync Flume every fifteen minutes, roll usage up against your billing cycle, and chart daily trends and per-zone breakdowns.

One first-connection note: we backfill the last thirty days of daily totals and recent zone runs, but per-run gallons can only be computed for runs after your connect date, because Flume only keeps a short window of minute-level history. Older runs will show in the log without a gallon figure. That is expected.

Is this safe?

A reasonable thing to ask before pasting keys anywhere. A few specifics:

• Your API keys and OAuth tokens are encrypted (AES-256-GCM) at the application layer before they are stored.
• Your Flume password is never stored, only used once to obtain a token.
• The keys are scoped to your own accounts and only read your data.
• You can disconnect anytime, which clears the stored credentials while keeping the usage history you have already gathered.