atlaspi-mcp

Why AtlasPI exists

AI agents working with historical geography today face a fragmented landscape: raw shapefiles in Natural Earth, unstructured text in Wikipedia, scattered coordinates in Wikidata, and academic datasets locked behind incompatible formats. None of these were designed for machine consumption.

AtlasPI bridges this gap. It provides a single, structured REST API where an AI agent can ask "What territories existed in the Balkans in 1400?" or "Show me the boundary changes of the Ottoman Empire" and get back clean JSON with GeoJSON boundaries, confidence scores, academic citations, and honest metadata about what is certain and what is disputed.

Historical data is never neutral. Borders were drawn through conquest, names were imposed through colonization, populations were erased through genocide. AtlasPI does not sanitize this complexity -- it structures it, documents it, and makes it queryable.

Related MCP server: Seshat MCP Server

Screenshot

The web UI supports keyboard shortcuts, deep linking (/app?year=1000), continent filtering, time playback animation, dark/light mode, and full i18n (English/Italian). Try it live at atlaspi.it.

Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Soil911/AtlasPI.git
cd AtlasPI

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run the server (auto-seeds the database on first launch)
python run.py

The API is now live at http://localhost:10100 and the interactive docs at http://localhost:10100/docs.

Docker

docker compose up --build

API Documentation

AtlasPI exposes 23 REST endpoints under /v1/. Full interactive documentation is available at /docs (Swagger UI) and /redoc when the server is running.

Core Endpoints

Examples

Search for empires active in 1500 CE:

curl "http://localhost:10100/v1/entity?type=empire&year=1500"

Get full details for entity #12:

curl "http://localhost:10100/v1/entities/12"

Find entities contemporary to the Roman Empire:

curl "http://localhost:10100/v1/entities/1/contemporaries"

Export all entities as GeoJSON:

curl "http://localhost:10100/v1/export/geojson" -o atlas.geojson

Find entities near Rome active in 100 CE:

curl "http://localhost:10100/v1/nearby?lat=41.9&lon=12.5&year=100&radius=500"

Snapshot of the world in 1500 CE:

curl "http://localhost:10100/v1/snapshot/1500" | jq '.summary'

Compare two entities side by side:

curl "http://localhost:10100/v1/compare/1/5"

Response Example

{
  "id": 1,
  "name": "Imperium Romanum",
  "name_variants": [
    {"name": "Roman Empire", "language": "en"},
    {"name": "Imperio Romano", "language": "es"}
  ],
  "entity_type": "empire",
  "year_start": -753,
  "year_end": 476,
  "status": "confirmed",
  "confidence_score": 0.95,
  "capital": {"name": "Roma", "lat": 41.9028, "lon": 12.4964},
  "territory_changes": [...],
  "sources": [
    {"citation": "...", "source_type": "academic"}
  ]
}

Dataset Overview

1,006 historical entities + 643 historical events spanning 6,500 years of human civilization, backed by 5,000+ academic sources and documenting 2,000+ territory changes. Plus 1,249 archaeological sites, 105 historical rulers, 29 historical languages, 104 dynasty chains, 41 trade routes, 252 historical cities, and 55 historical periods. Events include battles, treaties, epidemics, genocides, colonial violence, massacres, deportations and natural disasters — with ETHICS-007 (no euphemisms) and ETHICS-008 (known_silence flag for erased/suppressed records).

Coverage by Region

Entity Types

15 categories: empire | kingdom | republic | confederation | city-state | dynasty | colony | disputed_territory | sultanate | khanate | principality | duchy | caliphate | federation | city

Time Coverage

• Earliest entity: 4500 BCE (ancient Mesopotamian civilizations)

• Latest entity: 2024 (modern states and disputed territories)

• Negative years represent BCE dates (e.g., -753 = 753 BCE)

📖 Citation

If you use AtlasPI in research, teaching, or derivative datasets, please cite the project using the Zenodo concept DOI below. The concept DOI always resolves to the latest release — individual versions get their own per-release DOIs on top.

BibTeX

@software{atlaspi_2026,
  author       = {{AtlasPI Project}},
  title        = {AtlasPI: A structured historical geographic database for AI agents},
  version      = {6.13.0},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.19581784},
  url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19581784}
}

Plain-text citation

AtlasPI Project (2026). AtlasPI: A structured historical geographic database for AI agents, version 6.14.0. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19581784

Ethical Framework

Historical data carries the weight of conquest, displacement, and erasure. AtlasPI is built on four principles that govern every data decision:

1. Truth Before Comfort

Historical records include conquest, genocide, forced deportation, and cultural erasure. These facts are represented with precision, never sanitized. If a territory was seized by force, the acquisition_method field says so. If a population was decimated, the data shows it with sources. If a geographic name was imposed by erasing the original, both names are present.

2. No Single Version of History

Contested borders show all known versions, with dates and sources. Place names include the original local form alongside names in other relevant languages. Academic disputes are made explicit, not resolved by fiat. The database does not arbitrate history -- it documents it.

3. Transparency of Uncertainty

Every record carries a confidence_score from 0.0 to 1.0. Every data point includes sources[] with primary source citations. Records scoring below 0.5 are marked as status: "uncertain" (enforced at the data layer — see ETHICS-013; the distinct status: "disputed" is reserved for contested territories, ETHICS-003). An uncertain datum honestly labeled is more valuable than a fabricated certainty.

4. No Geographic or Cultural Bias

Place names use the local-language form as the primary name. Sources include non-Western historiography where available. Colonial conquests are documented from the perspective of the colonized, not only the colonizers.

These principles are enforced through automated ethical tests, documented decisions in docs/ethics/, and # ETHICS: comments throughout the codebase. See CLAUDE.md for the full governance framework.

Architecture

Tech Stack

Project Structure

atlaspi/
  src/
    api/            # FastAPI routes, schemas, error handling
    db/             # SQLAlchemy models, database setup, seed data
    ingestion/      # Data import pipelines, boundary extraction
    validation/     # Confidence scoring engine
  static/           # Web UI (HTML, CSS, JS)
  data/
    entities/       # Source entity data (JSON)
    raw/            # Original unmodified source data
    processed/      # Normalized data
  tests/            # 260 tests: technical, ethical, security, performance, data quality
  docs/
    adr/            # Architecture Decision Records
    ethics/         # Documented ethical decisions (ETHICS-001, 002, 003...)

Key Design Decisions

• Dual database support: SQLite for zero-config local development, PostgreSQL + PostGIS for production spatial queries.

• Auto-seeding: The database populates itself on first launch from JSON entity files -- no manual migration needed.

• GZip compression, CORS, rate limiting (60 req/min), and security headers enabled by default.

• Structured logging: JSON format in production, human-readable in development.

Testing

The test suite covers five dimensions:

# Run all tests
pytest

# Run with verbose output
pytest -v

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Before you start:

1. Read CLAUDE.md -- it contains the project's core values and development conventions.

2. Check docs/ethics/ -- understand the ethical decisions already made.

3. Check docs/adr/ -- understand the architectural decisions already made.

Guidelines

• Code is written in English; documentation in Italian (except this README).

• Every function touching sensitive historical data must include an # ETHICS: comment explaining the design choice.

• Tests must cover ethical edge cases, not only technical ones.

• New entity data must include sources[] with verifiable academic citations.

• Disputed territories must have confidence_score <= 0.7 and status: "disputed".

Adding Historical Entities

Entity data lives in data/entities/ as JSON files. Each entity requires:

• Primary name in the original/local language

• At least one academic source

• A confidence score reflecting source reliability

• Territory changes with dated boundaries where available

Development Setup

# Install with dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Lint
ruff check src/ tests/

# Test
pytest -v

Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md for the full development plan. Key upcoming milestones:

• PostgreSQL + PostGIS spatial queries in production

• Full GeoJSON boundary coverage for all entities

• Wikidata/OpenStreetMap ingestion pipelines

• Premium API tier with higher rate limits

• Hosted instance with public access

How to Cite

If you use AtlasPI in academic work, teaching, or derivative datasets, please cite it. A machine-readable CITATION.cff is provided in the repository root and is recognized by GitHub, Zenodo, Zotero, and most reference managers.

Suggested citation (software)

Ramadani, C. (2026). AtlasPI: A structured historical geographic database for AI agents (Version 6.1.2) [Software]. CRA. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19581784

BibTeX

@software{ramadani_atlaspi_2026,
  author       = {Ramadani, Clirim},
  title        = {AtlasPI: A structured historical geographic database for AI agents},
  version      = {6.1.2},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {CRA},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.19581784},
  url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19581784},
  note         = {Live instance: https://atlaspi.it. Concept DOI (all versions): 10.5281/zenodo.19581784. Version v6.1.2 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19581785.}
}

Citing the underlying boundary sources

AtlasPI derives its geographic boundaries from two upstream datasets. If your work depends on spatial precision, please also cite them directly:

• Natural Earth (public domain) — post-1800 modern administrative boundaries. https://www.naturalearthdata.com/

• aourednik/historical-basemaps (CC BY 4.0) — pre-1800 historical world timestamps. Ourednik, A. historical-basemaps. https://github.com/aourednik/historical-basemaps

For full methodology on how boundaries are assigned, matched, and confidence-scored, see docs/METHODOLOGY.md.

The dataset has a permanent DOI minted by Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.19581784 (concept DOI, always resolves to the latest version). Every tagged release mints a new version DOI; see the Zenodo record for v6.1.2 specifically. Deposition metadata is in .zenodo.json.

License

AtlasPI follows an open core model.

The core project -- API, data models, ethical framework, and documentation -- is released under the Apache License 2.0.

Imported datasets retain their original licenses. Every source is tracked and attributed. Premium components (hosted services, curated datasets, enterprise features) are maintained separately from the open source core.

See LICENSE for the full Apache License 2.0 text and NOTICE for third-party attributions.

Acknowledgments

AtlasPI builds on the work of:

• Natural Earth -- public domain vector map data for modern boundaries

• aourednik/historical-basemaps -- historical world boundary data

• OpenStreetMap -- geographic data under ODbL

• Wikidata -- structured knowledge base under CC0

And the countless historians, cartographers, and researchers whose work makes structured historical geography possible.