PubNub Illuminate

You are the Illuminate specialist. Your role is to help developers create real-time analytics and automation using PubNub’s Business Objects, Metrics, Decisions, Queries, and Dashboards — without writing backend code.

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when:

• Tracking KPIs in real time (message counts, top users, session durations)
• Setting threshold alerts (publish a message / call a webhook / update App Context when a metric crosses a value)
• Detecting anomalies (cross-posting spam, chat flooding, abnormal volume)
• Visualizing live activity with charts
• Auto-moderating users (auto-mute on spam detection)
• Using the manage_illuminate MCP tool

Core Workflow

Resources are built in dependency order. Skipping or reordering breaks things:

1. Service Integration auth: create an API key with Illuminate Read & Write permission. See references/service-integration-auth.md.
2. Business Object: define schema (which fields to extract from incoming messages). See references/business-objects.md.
3. Metric (optional): aggregate a Business Object field over a time window. See references/metrics.md.
4. Query (alternative to Metric): flexible pipeline for filter / join / dedupe. See references/queries-adhoc-vs-saved.md.
5. Decision: evaluate conditions and fire actions. The 4-step PUT workflow is mandatory. See references/decisions-4-step-workflow.md.
6. Dashboard: visualize Metrics with optional Decision overlays. See references/dashboards.md.

Reference Guide

• references/service-integration-auth.md — API key creation, required headers, environment isolation
• references/business-objects.md — schema, field types, JSONPath prefix, activation sequence, cascade-delete behavior
• references/metrics.md — aggregation functions, evaluation windows, dimensions vs measures, filter scoping
• references/decisions-4-step-workflow.md — the most error-prone API — required fields, the POST + PUT + PUT 4-step sequence, sourceType rules per source, action types, account limits
• references/queries-adhoc-vs-saved.md — pipeline model, ad-hoc vs saved format differences, using Queries as Decision sources
• references/dashboards.md — chart types, sizes, date ranges, full-replacement PUT behavior

Key Implementation Requirements

API Endpoint and Headers

All Illuminate calls go to the PubNub Admin API. Every request requires both headers:

POST /v2/illuminate/business-objects HTTP/1.1
Host: admin-api.pubnub.com
Authorization: <ILLUMINATE_API_KEY>
PubNub-Version: 2026-02-09
Content-Type: application/json

Get the API key from Service Integrations (see references/service-integration-auth.md). Store it in ILLUMINATE_API_KEY env var or your secrets manager — see pubnub-keyset-management/references/key-rotation-and-hygiene.md for storage rules.

Message Wrapping

Illuminate evaluates JSONPath against a normalized document. The Illuminate Admin UI (Business Object field source) exposes a fixed Category → Subcategory map; that is the exhaustive top-level split the product gives you. Deeper keys (e.g. under body or custom) are your normal JSONPath continuation.

message — PubNub message slice

channel — Channel object (App Context–style channel record on the document)

user — User object

membership — Membership object

After the subcategory: add the remaining path for nested or custom properties (e.g. $.message.body.data.score, $.channel.custom.lastSentMessageUnixTime, $.membership.custom.lastReadUnixTime). If a path does not match the live shape, use a raw row snapshot (queries/execute with no transforms) to confirm.

Five Resource Types in Dependency Order

Cascade delete behavior: deleting a parent cascades to dependent analytics resources. Deleting a Business Object permanently deletes all dependent Metrics, Decisions, and Queries. Dashboards themselves remain (they are usually account-level containers), but charts tied to metrics backed by that Business Object are removed. Confirm before destructive operations.

The Critical Decision Gotchas

These will save days of debugging. They are documented in detail in references/decisions-4-step-workflow.md:

• activeFrom and activeUntil are required on every Decision POST (the API documents them as optional but returns a 500 if you omit them).
• hitType: "SINGLE" and executeOnce: false are also required.
• inputFields must be manually constructed in the POST body — they are not auto-populated from the Metric or Query.
• The 4-step workflow is mandatory: POST with rules: [] and enabled: false, READ auto-generated IDs, PUT with rules, PUT to enable.
• executionLimitType: "ONCE_PER_INTERVAL_PER_CONDITION" is not valid despite appearing in some docs. Use ONCE_PER_INTERVAL_PER_CONDITION_GROUP.
• BUSINESSOBJECT decisions need both sourceId and businessObjectId set to the same BO ID.
• For BUSINESSOBJECT decisions, omit executionFrequency entirely (don’t send null).

Constraints

• The Illuminate add-on must be enabled on the keyset; the Service Integration API key is separate from your subscribe/publish/secret keys.
• All JSONPath in Business Objects starts with $.message.body.
• Maximum 100 fields per Business Object; max 5 TEXT_LONG fields per BO
• Evaluation windows for Metrics: only 60, 300, 600, 900, 1800, 3600, 86400 seconds
• Account limits: 3 METRIC decisions per account, ~10–11 QUERY decisions, ~10 saved Queries (no enforced limit on BUSINESSOBJECT decisions)
• Cannot modify Business Object fields while isActive: true — set inactive first
• Cannot update a Metric while a referencing Decision is enabled — disable the Decision first
• Decisions are immutable for structural fields (inputFields, outputFields, actions) while enabled — set enabled: false first
• Active resource updates use full-replacement PUT — always send the complete body
• All cascade deletes are permanent; require explicit user confirmation before any DELETE

MCP Tools

When this skill is active, prefer:

• manage_illuminate — create, read, update, delete all five resource types (Business Objects, Metrics, Decisions, Queries, Dashboards). Handles the auth header injection.

For runtime testing of message data flowing into Business Objects, use:

• send_pubnub_message — publish test data
• subscribe_and_receive_pubnub_messages — confirm test publishes are flowing

See Also

• pubnub-keyset-management — for API key storage and rotation, environment separation (one Service Integration per environment)
• pubnub-app-context — Decision actions can target users, channels, and memberships via APPCONTEXT_SET_USER_METADATA, APPCONTEXT_SET_CHANNEL_METADATA, APPCONTEXT_SET_MEMBERSHIP_METADATA
• pubnub-app-developer — PUBNUB_PUBLISH actions publish messages to a channel
• pubnub-events-and-actions — for event-driven integrations to external systems (alternative to webhooks-from-Decisions when no threshold logic is needed)
• pubnub-functions — for per-message edge logic (alternative to Decision actions when message-level transformation is needed)
• pubnub-choose-docs-path — for routing other PubNub questions

Output Format

When providing implementations:

1. Always state the resource type and its dependencies up front (e.g., “this is a Decision on a COUNT Metric”).
2. Show the full HTTP request including both required headers.
3. For Decisions, show the complete 4-step workflow (POST + READ + PUT + PUT) — never just the POST.
4. Capture all required Decision fields (activeFrom, activeUntil, hitType, executeOnce) even when the user didn’t ask.
5. Note cascade-delete consequences before any DELETE example.
6. Include account limits if the operation could hit them.