---
name: astral-transit-snapshot
description: "Succinct snapshot of current sky transits and how they impact a natal chart — defaults to the querent's own chart, optionally any person in the tenant KB. Emphasizes the most exact aspects and fastest-moving bodies for short-term impact."
version: 1.0.0
author: Hermes Agent + Alex
license: MIT
metadata:
  hermes:
    tags: [astrology, transits, snapshot, short-term, natal-overlay]
    related_skills: [astral-chart-api, astral-transit-calendar, astral-tenant-kb, astrology-reading-compose, astrology-lens-rulership-chains]
---

# Astral Transit Snapshot

## When to use
Use when the user asks "what are the transits now?", "what's hitting my chart?", "any big transits today?", or any short, present-tense ask about current sky activity in relation to a natal chart. This is the **succinct** transit skill — not a full reading, not a calendar.

For long horizons / calendar feeds / `.ics` files → use `astral-transit-calendar`.
For a full multi-lens reading → use `astrology-reading-compose`.

## Parameters
- **`subject`** *(optional)* — whose chart the transits should be measured against.
  - Default: **the user's own natal chart** (self profile in tenant KB, falling back to USER.md birth data).
  - When the user names someone else ("transits on Kathleen", "what's hitting my brother's chart"), apply `astral-tenant-kb`'s disambiguation policy (slug → name → alias → fuzzy → none) to resolve the subject. If ambiguous, ask before computing.
- **`focus`** *(optional)* — a life-area hint ("career", "relationship", "health") to bias the synthesis. Never invented; only if supplied.

## Required workflow

### 1. Time + subject
- Capture wall-clock UTC and the user's local time. For Alex: `TZ=America/Los_Angeles date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M %Z'` plus `date -u '+%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ'`.
- Resolve the subject. For self, pull birth data from the tenant KB self profile or USER.md. For other, recall via `astral-tenant-kb` (`scripts/kb.py recall_person <name>`).

### 2. Get current transits
```bash
curl -sS https://transit-list-demo.apps.poofc.com/api/transits/current
```
Returns current positions (sign, degree) for all planets + nodes.

### 3. Get / load natal chart
If a cached chart exists in the KB (`charts/<slug>-<hash>.json`), load it. Otherwise compute:
```bash
curl -sS "https://transit-list-demo.apps.poofc.com/api/chart?utc=DD/MM/YYYY/HH/mm/0&coordinates=LAT%20LON"
```
Then save via `kb.py save_chart`.

### 4. Compute transit→natal aspects in code (the snapshot core)
The API doesn't return a ranked transit-to-natal aspect list, so compute it locally. Compare every transiting body's longitude to every natal planet/angle (Asc, MC, IC, Desc included).

**Aspects:** conjunction (0°), opposition (180°), trine (120°), square (90°), sextile (60°). Optionally semi-square (45°) and quincunx (150°) if the orb is very tight.

**Orb rules (snapshot — tighter than calendar):**
| Transiting body | Orb |
|---|---|
| Moon | 1.0° |
| Mercury, Venus, Mars, Nodes | 1.5° |
| Sun | 2.0° |
| Jupiter, Saturn | 2.0° |
| Uranus, Neptune, Pluto | 1.5° |

Tighter than calendar orbs because a snapshot is about **what's loud right now**, not what's possible across a window.

**Rank by exactness:** sort by absolute orb ascending. The tightest 3–5 aspects are the headline.

**Tag applying vs separating** if you can compute it (transit speed vs natal position): applying = sharper, near-future; separating = fading. If you can't compute speed reliably, omit the tag rather than guess.

### 5. Layer fast-mover spotlight
Independent of the ranked aspect list, surface what the **fast movers** (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars) are doing right now:
- What sign + house they're in (use the natal house framework).
- Any current aspect to a personal natal body or angle that's within orb.
- Any imminent ingress within ~48 hours (use a quick scan: take the body's current longitude and current daily speed; if it crosses a sign boundary within 48h, mention it).

These short-term layers are what give the snapshot its temporal punch.

## Reply formatting (succinct)
Aim for a mobile-readable response — short, scannable, no walls of text. Strict order:

1. **Header line.** One line, italic: subject name + local time + UTC.
   > *Alex · 2026-05-23 08:30 PDT (15:30 UTC)*

2. **🎯 Exact now (the headline).** A bulleted list of the 3–5 tightest transit→natal aspects, in transit-first format:
   > • **Moon ☌ natal Venus** — 0°12′ (applying) — Cancer 14°
   > • **Mars △ natal Sun** — 0°48′ — Scorpio 4° → Libra 3°
   > • **Saturn □ natal Mercury** — 1°30′ (separating) — Pisces 18° → Sagittarius 19°

   Bold the aspect, show exact orb in degrees/minutes, tag applying/separating only if confidently computed.

3. **🌙 Fast layer.** 2–4 short bullets on Moon / Mercury / Venus / Sun / Mars positions and any sign change within 48h. House placement (in the natal chart) in parentheses.
   > • Moon in Cancer (4th) — quiet/private register today
   > • Mercury 28° Gemini → enters Cancer in ~14h

4. **📖 Story (1 short paragraph).** 2–4 sentences synthesizing the headline aspects into a coherent present-moment picture. Lead with the *tightest* aspect — that's the most temporally significant signal. If a `focus` was supplied, tie it in here. No long lists. No "folk" language.

5. **One-breath summary.** A single bold sentence at the bottom.

If there are NO aspects within snapshot orbs, say so plainly and lean on the fast-layer + sign/house framing for the story. Don't pad.

## Pitfalls
- **Don't echo the calendar.** Calendar-orb aspects (3°+) belong in `astral-transit-calendar`. The snapshot is the *exact-now* layer.
- **Don't invent applying/separating.** If you don't have transit-body daily motion, omit the tag.
- **Don't read slow-planet aspects as short-term.** A Pluto square within orb has been there for months and will be there for months — frame it as backdrop, not breaking news. Lead with fast-mover aspects when they're tight.
- **Subject defaults to the user.** Never silently switch to Alex when someone else asks for their own chart in another tenant.
- **Disambiguation is non-negotiable** if the user names someone whose slug/alias is ambiguous in the KB — ask before computing (per `astral-tenant-kb` policy).
- **No invented focus.** If the user didn't supply one, read generally.
- **Transit-first labeling.** Always `<transit body> <aspect> natal <natal body>` in the user-facing summary, never the reverse.
- **Stay grounded.** Use API output for positions. Do not estimate longitudes from memory.

## Verification
- `curl -sS https://transit-list-demo.apps.poofc.com/api/health` returns ok.
- The tightest reported orb in the headline list must be ≤ the orb table above for its transiting body.
- Subject's birth data (or the canonical resolved chart) is the one referenced — confirm slug/utc match before computing.