About InfraNode

Hi, I am Khaled Cherif, a software developer from Hamburg. InfraNode is my attempt to solve a problem I kept running into at work.

How it came about

As a developer I faced the same hurdle again and again: the moment I needed a city's open data, say on air quality, weather, traffic or public transit, I first had to sign up at yet another portal and request an API key. Every source had its own format, its own quirks and its own login. A small feature swallowed a disproportionate amount of time before the first line of useful code even existed.

That is where the idea behind InfraNode came from: to bring these fragmented sources together behind a single, unified REST interface and make them available to everyone without a key. The API passes the data of the official sources through, normalises it onto a shared envelope and states honestly where each response comes from and whether a source is currently returning anything.

How the project runs

The entire project is free to use and ad-free. A source code release is in preparation. It is built with accessibility in mind. Maintenance and operation rest with a single person, namely me. Everything runs on a server in Germany.

That setup has its trade-offs, and I think they are worth stating plainly: a one-person maintenance means short paths and clear responsibility, but also that not everything is covered around the clock. Where a source fails or returns nothing, the API says so openly via the source status rather than faking an error.

Contact

For suggestions, bug reports and enquiries you can reach me at [email protected]. I also offer software development as a service; if you need help with a project, feel free to write to me at the same address.