Tesla Motors Node API

A Node.js module wrapper for the Tesla Motors JSON API. This library allows developers to write server-side JavaScript that interacts with various Tesla Motors API endpoints, from authentication to individual vehicle data streams, without having to concern themselves with the details of interacting with the API directly.

Although this library was written with the Model S in mind, it will work just as well for the Model X, Model 3, and likely future similar Tesla vehicle offerings.

Installation

Add to your project's dependencies with your favorite package manager:

npm install node-tesla --save

Basic Usage

Start by requiring the node-tesla library and creating a new Tesla instance, the class which is responsible for holding on to a Tesla account's details. All that's required is the account e-mail address.

const Tesla = require('node-tesla').Tesla;

const account = new Tesla('test@example.com');

Authentication

However, simply creating the account doesn't perform authentication, which will need to be done before using just about any other API functionality. To do that, call the authenticate method on the account instance passing in the account password as the sole argument.

authenticate, along with most methods found in this API, perform asynchronous operations and as such return Promises.

account.authenticate('a$tr0ngPa$sw0rd').then((response) => {
  // Yay, successfully authenticated! The response likely contains only the
  // authentication ("Bearer") token
}, (error) => {
  // Error authenticating, handle it!
});

Behind the scenes, Tesla's API uses the OAuth 2.0 Bearer token flow, and the token used to authenticate is passed as the only argument to the authenticate method's resolve handler. However, object instances instantiated via the Tesla constructor ("account" constructor) keep a reference to the latest token (in-memory only). In case you store the token and the expiration and find a still-valid token on instantiation, it can be passed in as the second argument to the Tesla constructor and the authentication piece can be skipped (see the detailed documentation on the Tesla constructor for more possible options).

Getting vehicles

Vehicle instances are where the good stuff happens. Use the vehicles method on account instance to fetch metadata for all vehicles.

account.vehicles().then(vehicles) => {
  // `vehicles` is an array of Vehicle instances
  // Use lodash's `find` method to get the first vehicle named `Magnum Opus`
  const magnumOpus = _.find(vehicles, { name: 'Magnum Opus' });
}, (error) => {
  // Error getting vehicles, handle it!
});

Issuing data requests and commands

Once you have a Vehicle instance, both commands - actions such as honking the horn - and data requests - requests that purely provide various data points about the state of the vehicle - can be executed from the instance. Vehicles may need to be woken up before other commands/data requests can be made. For example, to honk the horn:

magnumOpus.wakeUp((response) => {
  return magnumOpen.honkHorn();
}, (error) => {
  // Error waking up the vehicle, handle it!
}).then((response) => {
  // Horn successfully honked!
}, (error) => {
  // Error honking the horn, handle it!
});

See the Vehicle documentation for additional commands and further information.