geospark

Ask an LLM "How far is the Eiffel Tower from the Louvre?" or "Is this point inside that polygon?" and the answer depends on which model you picked. Across 9 models we benchmarked, small open-weight models (3.8B–9B) got numeric distance questions wrong about 95% of the time. Frontier APIs ranged from 25% (Gemini 2.5 Pro) to 95% (GPT-5.4) correct.

GeoSpark gives the model tools that compute the answer: geodesic distances on the WGS84 ellipsoid, exact topology, CRS transformations, geocoding, elevation and live environmental data. With them, every model that made valid tool calls answered 76–96% of the same questions correctly. A 7B model on your own CPU then performs like a paid frontier API, and every answer comes with a deterministic trace you can check.

Try it

No install: the website. geospark.terrascout.app lets you ask questions, draw reachable areas and explore Overture Maps data around any place. Every result shows its sources, caveats and units, and downloads as GeoJSON.

No install: the hosted API (open, no key needed; API reference)

curl -X POST https://geospark.terrascout.app/api/v1/distance \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"lat_a": 48.8584, "lon_a": 2.2945, "lat_b": 48.8606, "lon_b": 2.3376}'
# {"distance_m": 3172.01, "distance_km": 3.172, "note": "Geodesic distance on WGS84 ellipsoid"}

In Claude or any MCP client, with no install: the hosted MCP server

Add a custom connector with this URL (in Claude: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector):

https://geospark.terrascout.app/mcp

It is open, with no key, and has the same fifteen tools as the local server below, with the same rate limits as the hosted API. It never reads files; for your own files, run the server locally.

In Claude Desktop or any MCP client, running on your computer

pip install "geospark-ai[mcp]"

Add GeoSpark to your MCP client's config. For Claude Desktop that's ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS, or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows:

{ "mcpServers": { "geospark": { "command": "geospark-mcp" } } }

That gives the model fifteen read-only tools. Computation: calculate_distance (between place names, which the server geocodes, or coordinates), check_spatial_relationship and spatial_operation (buffer, area, length, centroid, convex hull). Places and data: geocode, reverse_geocode, get_elevation, route, get_weather, get_air_quality, get_active_fires and overture_features. Analysis: isochrone, travel_time_matrix, location_report and select_site.

Results come back as structured content with output schemas, usually GeoJSON. They carry provenance (source, licence, attribution), units and warnings. When GeoSpark can't answer reliably (invalid geometry, unknown place, a data source down), the tool returns an error that says why, so the model can tell the user instead of estimating. The server uses MCP SDK 2.x (protocol 2026-07-28) and still works with clients on older protocol versions.

As a Python library

pip install geospark-ai              # core
pip install "geospark-ai[api,mcp]"   # + REST server and MCP server
pip install "geospark-ai[all]"       # everything

Run your own server with Docker

docker run -p 8000:8000 ghcr.io/maz2580/geospark:latest
# then open http://localhost:8000

That runs in development mode, where operator routes are open: fine on your own machine. For a public server, add -e GEOSPARK_ENV=production -e GEOSPARK_ADMIN_TOKEN=<secret> (see Self-hosting).

Related MCP server: ThinAir Geo

What it does

Planned, not built yet: slope, viewshed, raster band math and change detection. These operations exist in the protocol, but today they return a clear "not implemented yet" error rather than an answer. See the roadmap.

Quick start

Ground-truth geometry

from geospark.engine.spatial_reasoner import SpatialReasoner

park = {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[2.29, 48.85], [2.30, 48.85], [2.30, 48.86], [2.29, 48.86], [2.29, 48.85]]]}
point = {"type": "Point", "coordinates": [2.295, 48.855]}  # GeoJSON order: [lon, lat]

SpatialReasoner.check_relationship(park, point, "contains")  # True

SpatialReasoner.calculate_distance(
    {"type": "Point", "coordinates": [2.2945, 48.8584]},  # Eiffel Tower
    {"type": "Point", "coordinates": [2.3376, 48.8606]},  # Louvre
)  # 3172.01 (metres, geodesic)

Queries through the engine

from geospark import Engine
from geospark.protocol import SpatialOperation, SpatialQuery

engine = Engine(tools=["geocoder", "terrain"])

place = engine.execute(SpatialQuery(operation=SpatialOperation.GEOCODE,
                                    metadata={"query": "Federation Square, Melbourne"}))
print(place.features[0].geometry)  # {'type': 'Point', 'coordinates': [144.969..., -37.817...]}

# Inputs in another CRS are transformed to WGS84 first, including the second geometry
buffered = engine.execute(SpatialQuery(operation=SpatialOperation.BUFFER,
                                       geometry={"type": "Point", "coordinates": [2.2945, 48.8584]},
                                       radius_m=100))
print(buffered.features[0].properties["area_sq_m"])  # ≈ 31,365

Every answer is checkable, and opens in QGIS

result = engine.execute(SpatialQuery(operation=SpatialOperation.GEOCODE, metadata={"query": "Springfield"}))
result.status        # "ok" | "partial" | "cannot_answer"
result.warnings      # ["Ambiguous place name: 'Springfield, …, Illinois…'; '…Massachusetts…' …"]
result.provenance    # source, licence (ODbL-1.0), attribution, retrieved_at, method
result.spatial_context.units  # {"distance_m": "metre", ...}

import json
json.dump(result.to_geojson(), open("springfield.geojson", "w"))  # RFC 7946, drag into QGIS

GeoSpark refuses rather than guesses. A self-intersecting polygon, out-of-range coordinates or a likely [lat, lon] swap gets cannot_answer with the reason, not a confident wrong number. From the API, add ?format=geojson (or Accept: application/geo+json). From the CLI, add --geojson out.geojson to geocode, elevation, query or report. A location report becomes a map layer: the place plus every nearby amenity, with distances.

Open map data with no API key: Overture Maps

from geospark.tools.overture.client import query   # pip install "geospark-ai[overture]"

query("divisions", 48.8606, 2.3376)   # the Louvre is in: France › Île-de-France › Paris › Paris 1er Arrondissement
query("places", -37.8180, 144.9691, radius_m=200, category="cafe")  # nearest first, geodesic metres
query("buildings", -37.8180, 144.9691, radius_m=150)  # footprints, height, geodesic footprint area
query("transportation", -37.8180, 144.9691, radius_m=150)  # road/path segments, geodesic length

GeoSpark queries Overture Maps GeoParquet directly on S3 with DuckDB. It uses the release's STAC index to read only the files covering your area, so there's no download and no key. Results report the Overture release and the licence of the records returned. The same data is available from the CLI (geospark overture places -37.818 144.969 --category cafe), the REST API (POST /api/v1/overture/{theme}) and the MCP tool overture_features.

Your own data

pip install "geospark-ai[io]"
geospark layer info suburbs.gpkg                            # features, fields, CRS, geodesic area
geospark layer count-within crashes.csv suburbs.gpkg --geojson counts.geojson
geospark layer nearest schools.shp hospitals.geojson
geospark layer intersect parcels.gpkg flood_zones.geojson

Formats: GeoJSON, GeoPackage, Shapefile (or a .zip), GeoParquet, CSV with longitude/latitude columns, FlatGeobuf, KML, GML, File Geodatabase. The CRS is never guessed:

• a projected file (e.g. MGA zone 55) is reprojected, and its original CRS is reported;

• a Shapefile without .prj is refused until you pass --crs EPSG:28355;

• invalid shapes are refused until you pass --repair.

Results carry each file's SHA-256, so an analysis can be reproduced against exactly that data. In Python, use geospark.io.layers (load_layer, count_within, nearest, intersect). The local MCP server (geospark-mcp) offers the same as layer_* tools; the hosted /mcp endpoint never reads files.

Reproducible analyses

geospark record report "Federation Square, Melbourne" --out fedsq.json
geospark replay fedsq.json
# REPRODUCED: Same result as recorded.
# ... or DATA CHANGED: openstreetmap-overpass returned different data for the same request (step 6 ...)
# ... or CODE CHANGED: versions changed: {'shapely': ('2.0.0', '2.2.0')}

A run record lists:

• the environment: GeoSpark, Python, pyproj/PROJ and Shapely/GEOS versions

• every data request (Nominatim, Overpass, Overture, Valhalla, weather, elevation) and every engine computation, each with a fingerprint of its input and output

• a fingerprint of the final result

geospark replay reruns the analysis and says whether it reproduced. If not, it says which source returned different data, or that the code or a library version changed. In Python, use geospark.runs.record_run(...) and replay(...).

Natural-language questions

result = engine.ask("How far is the Eiffel Tower from Big Ben?")
print(result.spatial_context.summary)
print(result.sources)  # the model, then each tool it called

ask uses a local Ollama model first and falls back to free OpenRouter models if OPENROUTER_API_KEY is set.

Agents

from geospark.agents import AgentCoordinator, GeoAgent, SiteSelector, SpatialReport

GeoAgent().run("Find all hospitals within 2km of the Eiffel Tower").findings["nearby"]

report = SpatialReport().analyze("Federation Square, Melbourne", radius_m=1000)
print(report.weather, report.accessibility, report.data_gaps)

best = SiteSelector().find(within="Zurich", near=["hospital", "school"], facility_type="pharmacy").best

AgentCoordinator().run("Find the best location for a cafe in Melbourne CBD near schools")

Agents use an LLM to read the goal. Without one, a rule-based parser still handles requests like the one above: multi-word place names, radii such as "2km", and amenity types.

Memory, context and flows

from geospark.memory import SpatialIntelligence

intel = SpatialIntelligence()
intel.remember_fact("Eiffel Tower is at 48.8584 N, 2.2945 E", source="user")
intel.remember_episode("PM2.5 was 120 in Delhi", importance=0.8, source="tool:air_quality")
intel.recall("Where is the Eiffel Tower?", limit=5)  # semantic with Ollama embeddings, keyword match without
intel.find_contradictions()

from geospark.flows import ChatFlowSession, FlowRunner, make_ollama_chat_fn

session = ChatFlowSession(llm_fn=make_ollama_chat_fn("qwen2.5:7b"))
result = session.run("Geocode Valencia, Spain then check its elevation")
if result.flow:
    FlowRunner().run(result.flow)  # a validated DAG, built one tool call at a time

Command line

geospark distance -37.8136 144.9631 -33.8688 151.2093   # Melbourne → Sydney: 713.86 km
geospark check contains '<geojson A>' '<geojson B>'
geospark geocode "Tokyo Tower, Japan"
geospark elevation -37.8177 144.9691
geospark isochrone -37.8180 144.9691 --minutes 5,10,15 --mode walk
geospark ask "Is Tokyo closer to Seoul or Beijing?"

geospark agent "Find all parks within 2km of Big Ben"
geospark report "Federation Square, Melbourne"
geospark site-select --within "Paris" --near "school,hospital" --facility pharmacy
geospark multi-agent "Analyze Federation Square" --stream

geospark data weather "Melbourne, Australia"
geospark data air-quality "Delhi"        # needs OPENAQ_API_KEY
geospark data fires "Amazon Rainforest"  # needs FIRMS_MAP_KEY

geospark flow list
geospark flow build "Geocode Valencia then check its elevation" --run
geospark info                            # versions and optional extras

Benchmark results

GeoSpark Bench v2 ran 9 models under three protocols: the bare question, step-by-step reasoning (CoT), and the question with GeoSpark's MCP tools attached. The models were five open-weight ≤9B (Qwen 2.5 7B, Llama 3.1 8B, Gemma 2 9B, Mistral 7B, Phi-3.5 3.8B), gpt-oss 20B, and three frontier APIs (GPT-5.4, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Gemini 2.5 Pro). Intervals are Wilson 95%, and the per-call cost ledger (~$41) is checked in. The full analysis is in a manuscript currently under peer review.

Numeric distance (distance_absolute, n = 80 per model; correct = within 10% of the pyproj.Geod.inv() geodesic):

ᵃ The tools were available but not used properly: Llama mixed up km and m in the coordinates it got back, and Mistral answered in plain text. ᵇ Gemma's correct answers are well-known long-distance pairs, which is recall of training data, not computation. — means not evaluated with tools.

What we learned

• Tools are a leveller. The bare-LLM range spans 1–95%. With tools, every model that makes valid tool calls lands between 76% and 96%. Qwen gained 71 points; GPT-5.4 gained nothing, because it was already at 95%.

• Aggregate scores hide bias. Qwen's 56% on topology comes from saying "yes": it scores 93% on intersects (where the data skews true) and 3% on disjoint. GPT-5.4 scores 0% on touches. With GeoSpark, every predicate is 100%, because the engine computes it.

• Step-by-step prompting is not a universal fix. It helps some models and hurts others.

• Knowledge questions don't need tools. "Did the Amazon lose forest between 2015 and 2023?" is answered well at every scale without them.

Re-run it yourself with python -m geospark.bench run. The datasets regenerate identically from python -m geospark.bench.generate_datasets; see the datasets README for provenance, and the benchmark report for every table.

Self-hosting

git clone https://github.com/Maz2580/geospark && cd geospark
cp .env.example .env     # set GEOSPARK_ENV=production and GEOSPARK_ADMIN_TOKEN
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

The hosted API is designed to stay open without a key, with guard rails:

• An admin token protects operator routes (audit, usage, flow storage). The LLM gateway needs it or a revocable partner key.

• Public callers can only choose the local model or free models, so nobody can spend your paid API credit.

• Each visitor gets a private, size-capped, auto-expiring sandbox for the memory and context demos.

• Rate limits use the real client IP, and LLM work has a concurrency cap.

• Inputs are bounded, and the audit log stores hashed IPs.

All state lives under GEOSPARK_DATA_DIR. To lift Nominatim's public limits, point GEOSPARK_NOMINATIM_URL at your own server. Details are in deploy/DEPLOY.md and .env.example.

Roadmap

• v0.7 (released): verifiable answers.

  • Every result carries its source, licence, timestamp, CRS and units.

  • A "cannot answer" response instead of a guess.

  • Data-quality flags, such as geocoder confidence and DEM accuracy.

  • GeoJSON FeatureCollections that load straight into QGIS.

  • The MCP server updated to the 2026 spec, with structured GeoJSON output and a hosted HTTP endpoint.

• v0.8 (released): more data, more analysis.

  • Overture Maps buildings, places and roads through DuckDB, with no key.

  • Real isochrones and travel-time matrices.

  • Bring your own GeoJSON, GeoPackage or GeoParquet.

  • Reproducible run manifests.

  • A redesigned website with a Proof panel (sources, caveats, units, GeoJSON download) on every result, and Ask answers that never use coordinates the model typed from memory.

• Ongoing: external benchmarks (GPSBench, GeoBenchX), a QGIS bridge, and more MCP tools.

Data attribution

GeoSpark computes geometry locally, but it fetches data from public services. Results built on them keep the providers' licences, so please credit them when you publish:

• OpenStreetMap (geocoding, amenities, map tiles): © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL

• Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (elevation): © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018, provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA

• Open-Meteo (weather): CC BY 4.0

• OpenAQ (air quality) and NASA FIRMS (active fires): see each provider's terms. Air-quality results include each station's licence.

Elevation results include an attribution field you can copy directly. The full list is in NOTICE.

Development

git clone https://github.com/Maz2580/geospark && cd geospark
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev,api,mcp]"
pytest                       # 1003 tests; offline, never touch ~/.geospark
ruff check geospark tests

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md, and report security issues privately as described in SECURITY.md. The architecture overview is in docs/ARCHITECTURE.md, and release notes are in CHANGELOG.md.

Citing

If GeoSpark or GeoSpark Bench helps your research, please cite it. GitHub's "Cite this repository" button uses CITATION.cff.

Author

Created by Mazdak Ghasemi Tootkaboni (University of Melbourne) · ORCID 0000-0001-8084-5270 · GitHub @Maz2580

License

Apache 2.0. Copyright 2024-2026 Mazdak Ghasemi Tootkaboni.