Feeds are the core of the Adafruit IO system. A feed holds data and meta-data that you have sent to Adafruit IO.

Data is the information you want Adafruit IO to store. For example, temperature data, fan speed, or whether a light switch is turned on or off. Note that the data does not have to represent a physical thing, but it often does!

Meta-data includes settings for whether the data is public or private, what license the stored sensor data falls under, and a general description of the data for humans to read.

For users programming with Adafruit IO (i.e.: Writing code that interfaces with Adafruit IO's API directly via MQTT or REST):

• You will need to create one feed for each unique source of data you send to Adafruit IO.
  • For example, if you have a project with one temperature sensor and two humidity sensors, you would need to create three feeds. One feed for the temperature sensor, and one feed for each humidity sensor.

For users using WipperSnapper with Adafruit IO (No-code programming):

• A feed (or multiple feeds, depending on the component) is automatically created when you add a new component to your board.
  • For example, if you are adding a new temperature sensor to your board on Adafruit IO, the feed to store the temperature sensor's data will automatically be created for you. 

Both API access and WipperSnapper both use feeds, the latter just automatically manages it for you.