# Connect through a vendor cloud

URL: https://pro-weather.com/docs/getting-started/connect-cloud

> Connect an Ecowitt or WeatherFlow Tempest station using an API key, with no upload URL to configure on the station and your existing history imported automatically.

Some stations can be connected by pasting a key from the manufacturer's own
cloud account. Nothing on the station changes, and unlike a
[direct upload URL](https://pro-weather.com/docs/getting-started/connect-hardware), **your existing
history comes across too**.

Two are supported today:

| Source | What you need |
| --- | --- |
| **Ecowitt Cloud** | An application key and an API key from your ecowitt.net profile |
| **WeatherFlow Tempest** | A personal access token from tempestwx.com |

Both live on **Connection** in your site dashboard.

## Why you might prefer this to an upload URL

The upload URL is still the fastest route if your gateway has a Customized
upload field and you only care about readings from today onwards. Connect
through the cloud instead when:

- **Your firmware will not accept a custom server.** Some rebranded Fine Offset
  units and some locked-down models simply have no such field.
- **You want the history you already have.** A pushed station starts empty and
  fills forwards. A cloud connection is walked backwards as well, so a station
  that has been logging for three years arrives with three years of readings.
- **You would rather not touch the station at all.** Nothing on the hardware is
  reconfigured, so your existing uploads to other networks keep working exactly
  as they did.

## Ecowitt Cloud

1. Sign in at [ecowitt.net](https://www.ecowitt.net/user/index).
2. Open your profile and find the **API** section.
3. Copy the **Application Key**, then generate and copy an **API Key**. These
   are not your account password.
4. Paste both into the Ecowitt Cloud card on the Connection page.
5. Leave **Device MAC** blank to connect every device on the account, or paste
   one MAC to connect just that station.

## WeatherFlow Tempest

1. Sign in at [tempestwx.com](https://tempestwx.com/settings/tokens).
2. Under Settings, open **Data Authorizations** and create a personal access
   token.
3. Paste it into the Tempest card on the Connection page.
4. Leave **Station ID** blank to connect every station the token can see.

## What happens next

- Live readings start appearing within about five minutes.
- Past readings import in the background, oldest-first, a few windows per
  refresh. A long archive takes a few hours to land; the Overview page shows
  the progress.
- Your keys are encrypted before they are stored and are never sent back to
  the browser.

## If the connection stops

If the vendor rejects the stored keys - because you regenerated them, or
removed the device from the account - the card shows **Reconnect needed** and
readings stop. Paste the new keys and everything resumes, including the import.

Nothing already archived is ever removed by disconnecting or reconnecting.

## Which sensors come across

Everything the vendor publishes for that station: temperature, humidity, wind,
rain, pressure, solar and UV, plus the accessory channels where you have them
(soil moisture and temperature, leaf wetness, extra room sensors, air quality,
lightning).

One limitation worth stating plainly: for **imported past readings**, the
accessory channels available are those the vendor's history API publishes.
Lightning, leak and snow readings are recorded live from the moment you
connect, but are not part of the backfilled archive.