maps-mcp-server
Integrates with OpenStreetMap as a data source for points of interest (POIs) and geospatial data, using Valhalla and Nominatim backends to provide geocoding, routing, and isochrone functionalities based on OpenStreetMap data.
Click on "Install Server".
Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state.
In the chat, type
@followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@maps-mcp-serverFind Best Western hotels within 50 km of Frankfurt"
That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed.
Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.
Maps MCP Server
An MCP server providing geocoding, routing, isochrones and POI-by-proximity search. Answers natural-language questions like:
"Give me all Best Western hotels within 50 km of Nuremberg." "Give me all Best Western hotels an hour's drive from Nuremberg."
It runs on top of two self-hosted, free, OpenStreetMap-based backends:
Valhalla — routing engine for driving routes, isochrones (areas reachable within X minutes), and time/distance matrices.
Nominatim — geocoder turning place names / addresses into coordinates.
The POIs it searches over default to the Best Western Europe hotel set, loaded from OpenStreetMap via Overpass (coordinates come ready-made from OSM — no geocoding step). A curated CSV/JSON file can also be imported to supplement OSM coverage. Any ad-hoc list of places can be passed to a query.
Why these backends (and not Google Maps)
Need | This server | Google Maps |
"an hour away" (isochrone) | ✅ native Valhalla isochrone | ⚠️ requires distance-matrix hacks |
self-hostable, free | ✅ both pods in your cluster | ❌ paid, external |
no per-query cost | ✅ | ❌ |
POI source | OpenStreetMap (free, community-mapped) | Places API (paid) |
Google Maps' "official" MCP server is experimental, and isochrones aren't a first-class capability there. For the "an hour's drive" question, a real routing engine is required — a circle on a map is wrong.
Related MCP server: chuk-mcp-geocoder
Architecture
flowchart TB
%% ============ Client ============
Agent["🤖 JQuad Agent<br/><b>Client</b><br/><i>Consumes the maps MCP server<br/>via skills/maps/SKILL.md<br/>Forwards user Bearer token</i>"]
%% ============ The maps server ============
subgraph MapsServer["maps-mcp-server (FastMCP, Python, :8007)"]
direction TB
Tools["🔧 MCP Tools (9 exposed)<br/><i>geocode · reverse_geocode · isochrone<br/>route · distance_matrix · find_within<br/>ingest_poi · list_poi · maps_health</i>"]
Orchestrator["🧭 Query Orchestrator<br/><b>src/services/query_orchestrator.py</b><br/><i>find_within spatial filtering:<br/>• distance budget → matrix filter<br/>• time budget → isochrone + point-in-polygon<br/>• chunked Valhalla matrix calls</i>"]
GeoHelpers["📐 Geo Helpers (pure)<br/><b>src/tools/geo.py</b><br/><i>haversine_km · point_in_polygon<br/>parse_within (budget string parser)</i>"]
POIStore["💾 POI Store<br/><b>src/services/poi_store.py</b><br/><i>JSON cache of geocoded POIs<br/>upsert/dedup by place_id</i>"]
subgraph Sources["POI Sources (ingest only)"]
direction LR
OverpassC["Overpass Client<br/><i>brand + area → OSM POIs<br/>(coordinates ready-made)</i>"]
CSVImporter["CSV/JSON Importer<br/><i>curated / supplemental data</i>"]
end
Tools --> Orchestrator
Tools --> POIStore
Tools --> Sources
Orchestrator --> GeoHelpers
Orchestrator --> POIStore
Sources --> POIStore
end
%% ============ Backends ============
subgraph Backends["Backend services (sibling pods)"]
direction LR
Nominatim["🌍 Nominatim :8080<br/><b>Geocoder</b><br/><i>place name / address → lat, lon<br/>(mediagis/nominatim, Germany extract)</i>"]
Valhalla["🛣️ Valhalla :8002<br/><b>Routing engine</b><br/><i>isochrones · routes · time-distance matrix<br/>(gisops/valhalla, Germany extract)</i>"]
end
%% ============ External ============
OverpassAPI["📡 Overpass API<br/><b>POI ingest source (read-only)</b><br/><i>overpass-api.de (public)<br/>or self-hosted instance</i>"]
%% ============ Data stores ============
POIPVC[("📁 POI Data PVC<br/>/app/data/poi<br/><i>bestwestern-eu.json cache</i>")]
OSMData[("🗺️ OSM Extract<br/>Germany PBF<br/><i>shared by Valhalla + Nominatim</i>")]
%% ============ Connections ============
Agent -- "MCP/HTTP :8007<br/>(Bearer token)" --> Tools
Tools -- "geocode / reverse_geocode<br/>resolve place names" --> Nominatim
Orchestrator -- "isochrone polygon<br/>distance matrix · route" --> Valhalla
OverpassC -- "POST Overpass QL<br/>(one-shot cache-fill)" --> OverpassAPI
CSVImporter -- "reads" --> POISourceFiles["📄 CSV/JSON files<br/>(curated, optional)"]
POIStore -- "read/write cache" --> POIPVC
Nominatim --- OSMData
Valhalla --- OSMData
%% ============ Styling ============
classDef client fill:#e1f5ff,stroke:#0288d1,stroke-width:2px,color:#01579b
classDef server fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#ef6c00,stroke-width:2px,color:#e65100
classDef backend fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#2e7d32,stroke-width:2px,color:#1b5e20
classDef external fill:#fce4ec,stroke:#c62828,stroke-width:2px,color:#b71c1c
classDef store fill:#f3e5f5,stroke:#6a1b9a,stroke-width:2px,color:#4a148c
class Agent client
class Tools,Orchestrator,GeoHelpers,POIStore server
class OverpassC,CSVImporter server
class Nominatim,Valhalla backend
class OverpassAPI external
class POIPVC,OSMData,POISourceFiles storeHow a query flows — "Best Western hotels an hour's drive from Nuremberg":
The Agent calls
find_within(center="Nuremberg", within="1 hour")over MCP/HTTP.Query Orchestrator resolves "Nuremberg" via Nominatim → coordinates.
It requests a 60-min isochrone polygon from Valhalla.
It tests each POI Store coordinate against the polygon (
Geo Helpers).For matches, one Valhalla matrix call returns each hotel's driving duration.
Result returned — one Valhalla round trip regardless of POI count.
How ingestion works — populating the cache (one-shot, at deploy time):
Agent (or an admin) calls
ingest_poi(source="overpass").Overpass Client sends one Overpass QL query to the Overpass API.
Returned OSM hotels (coordinates ready-made) are written to the POI Store → POI Data PVC.
Thereafter,
find_withinreads only from the cache — zero Overpass dependency at query time.
Component | Responsibility |
maps-mcp-server | Single home for everything geo. Exposes 9 MCP tools; orchestrates the backends. |
Query Orchestrator | The |
Geo Helpers | Pure spatial math (haversine, point-in-polygon, budget parsing). No I/O. |
POI Store | JSON cache of geocoded POIs on a PVC. The query path's only data source. |
Overpass Client / CSV Importer | Ingest-only adapters that populate the POI Store (not on the query path). |
Nominatim | Geocoding: place names → coordinates (Nuremberg → 49.45, 11.08). |
Valhalla | Routing: isochrones, routes, time-distance matrices. The "an hour away" engine. |
Overpass API | Read-only source of POI coordinates from OpenStreetMap. Contacted only at ingest time. |
OSM Extract | The same Germany PBF shared by Nominatim and Valhalla for consistent coordinates. |
The maps server is the single home for everything geo. The POI cache is
persisted on a PVC at /app/data/poi. Overpass is only contacted at
ingest time (a one-shot cache-fill); find_within reads the cache at
query time with zero Overpass dependency.
The 9 MCP tools
Tool | Purpose |
| Headline tool. POIs within a distance or time budget of a center. |
| Point-to-point driving distance + duration. |
| Batch one-to-many / many-to-many times + distances. |
| The "reachable within X minutes" polygon. |
| Place name / address → coordinates. |
| Coordinates → address. |
| Dump the ingested POI cache. |
| Admin: load hotels from OpenStreetMap (Overpass) or a curated file → cache. |
| Internal: backend health check. |
Full tool documentation is in jquad-ai-assistant-agent/skills/maps/SKILL.md.
How find_within works (the key correctness point)
The within string decides the operation:
Distance (
"50 km","30 miles"): one Valhallasources_to_targetscall (road distance — what users mean).metric="crow"falls back to great-circle haversine.Time (
"1 hour","45 min"): one Valhalla isochrone polygon + point-in-polygon membership, plus a matrix call so each match also reports its actual driving duration.
Every query costs at most one Valhalla round trip (plus optionally one isochrone), regardless of how many POIs are evaluated.
Quick start (local dev)
# 1. Install deps
uv sync
# 2. Run tests (no network needed — httpx is mocked)
uv run pytest
# 3. Boot the server (backends unreachable in dev, but tools are live)
OTEL_SDK_DISABLED=true uv run python -m src.server
# → http://127.0.0.1:8007/mcpFor full local functionality you need Valhalla + Nominatim running. The easiest way is the official docker images:
# Valhalla — download Germany extract, build tiles (one-time, ~20 min)
docker run -d --name valhalla -p 8002:8002 \
-v $(pwd)/valhalla-data:/data/valhalla \
-e serve_tiles=true gisops/valhalla:latest
# Inside the container:
# wget -O /data/valhalla/germany-latest.osm.pbf \
# https://download.geofabrik.de/europe/germany-latest.osm.pbf
# Valhalla rebuilds tiles on next start.
# Nominatim — imports Germany on first boot (~30-60 min)
docker run -d --name nominatim -p 8080:8080 \
-e PBF_URL=https://download.geofabrik.de/europe/germany-latest.osm.pbf \
-v $(pwd)/nominatim-data:/var/lib/postgresql/14/main \
mediagis/nominatim:4.3Then point the server at them:
export VALHALLA_URL=http://localhost:8002
export NOMINATIM_URL=http://localhost:8080
uv run python -m src.serverConfiguration
All config is via environment variables (read once at startup by
MapsSettings.from_env()):
Variable | Default | Description |
|
| HTTP listen port. |
|
| Logging level. |
|
| Valhalla base URL. |
|
| Nominatim base URL. |
|
| Max Nominatim req/sec (1/rps = min interval). |
|
| User-Agent header. |
|
| Overpass endpoint for POI ingest. Self-host or use a paid mirror for production. |
|
| Per-request Overpass timeout (Europe brand queries can be slow). |
|
| Directory for ingested POI JSON caches. |
|
| Default collection for |
|
| Default brand for |
|
| Default geographic scope for Overpass ingest ( |
|
| Max destinations per Valhalla matrix call (chunked above this). |
|
| Outbound HTTP total timeout. |
|
| Outbound connect timeout. |
|
| Optional JWT validation (agent forwards token regardless). |
| (OTel default) | OTLP gRPC endpoint for tracing. |
|
| Service name in traces. |
How to call the MCP server directly
The MCP protocol requires a Streamable HTTP handshake. Example:
# 1. Initialize session
INIT=$(curl -s -D /tmp/h -X POST http://localhost:8007/mcp \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-03-26","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"1.0"}},"id":"init"}')
SID=$(grep -i mcp-session-id /tmp/h | tr -d '\r' | awk '{print $2}')
# 2. Call a tool (geocode Nuremberg)
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8007/mcp \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
-H "Mcp-Session-Id: $SID" \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"geocode","arguments":{"query":"Nuremberg"}},"id":"1"}'End-to-end: the headline query
After deploying and ingesting the hotel set:
# 1. Ingest (one-time / on refresh) — Best Western, all of Europe, from OSM
# tools/call ingest_poi {source: "overpass"}
# → {"source": "overpass", "collection": "bestwestern-eu", "ingested": 180, "total": 180}
# 2. Ask: Best Western within 1 hour of Nuremberg
# tools/call find_within {center: "Nuremberg", within: "1 hour"}The server:
Geocodes "Nuremberg" → 49.4521, 11.0767 (Nominatim).
Requests a 60-minute isochrone polygon around it (Valhalla).
Tests each cached hotel coordinate against the polygon (point-in-polygon).
For each hotel inside, calls the Valhalla matrix for its actual driving duration (so it can say "43 min away", not just "inside the zone").
Returns the matches sorted shortest-duration-first.
{
"budget": {"kind": "time", "human": "1 hour", "raw": "1 hour"},
"center": {"lat": 49.4521, "lon": 11.0767, "display_name": "Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany"},
"matches": [
{
"name": "Best Western Premier Nürnberg City Center",
"address": "...",
"lat": 49.45, "lon": 11.07,
"time_seconds": 600, "time_minutes": 10.0,
"inside_isochrone": true,
"source_url": "osm://node:12345"
}
],
"match_count": 1,
"total_evaluated": 180
}(Exact match counts and durations depend on real OSM data and driving times at query time.)
POI ingestion pipeline
The ingest_poi tool loads hotels from one of two sources:
OpenStreetMap via Overpass (default)
ingest_poi(source="overpass", brand="Best Western", area="europe"):
Builds an Overpass QL query for every feature tagged
brand~"Best Western"inside the area (Europe bbox by default).Sends one POST to the Overpass endpoint.
Parses each returned element into a POI with coordinates already attached (no geocoding step — OSM nodes carry lat/lon).
Extracts optional
addr:*,phone,website,brand,starstags.Upserts into
<collection>.jsonkeyed bysha1(osm_type:osm_id)— idempotent, so re-fetching updates records in place.
The public Overpass instances are rate-limited, so treat ingest as a
one-shot cache-fill at deploy time, not a per-query call. For steady
traffic, self-host Overpass and point OVERPASS_URL at it.
Curated CSV / JSON file
ingest_poi(source="csv:/app/data/hotels.csv"):
name,lat,lon,street,housenumber,postcode,city,country,phone,website,brand
Best Western Premier Nürnberg City Center,49.4521,11.0767,Koenigstr.,33,90402,Nuremberg,DE,+49 911 206890,https://...,Best WesternCSV headers are case-insensitive; only name,lat,lon are required. Use
this to curate a checked-in list, or to supplement OSM where coverage is
thin. A JSON file (a list of objects with the same keys) is also accepted.
Re-running ingest_poi updates existing entries; it never duplicates.
Deployment (Kubernetes)
# Build + push (from jquad-ai-assistant-agent/deployment/scripts/)
./build-and-push-all.sh --project jquad-agent-maps-mcp-server
# Deploy to the teams namespace
kubectl apply -k k8s/overlays/teamsOne-time data setup (Valhalla + Nominatim)
Both backends need an OSM extract. On first boot:
Valhalla: download the Germany PBF into the
valhalla-dataPVC, then restart the pod — it builds routing tiles (10-30 min for Germany).Nominatim: set
PBF_URLin the manifest (already done); themediagis/nominatimimage imports automatically on first boot (30-60 min, ~3-4 GB RAM).
Subsequent restarts are instant (data is on the PVCs). Both backends use the
same Germany extract so coordinates are consistent. Switch to the Europe
extract later by changing PBF_URL and the Valhalla download.
Populate the hotel cache
After the maps server pod is up, populate the POI cache from OpenStreetMap:
# Via MCP API (from inside the cluster) or a chat request:
ingest_poi(source="overpass", brand="Best Western", area="europe")
# → fetches ~150-200 Best Western hotels across Europe from OSM,
# caches them on the maps-mcp-poi-data PVC.This is a one-shot cache-fill. To supplement OSM coverage, also import a curated CSV:
ingest_poi(source="csv:/app/data/hotels.csv")If you self-host Overpass, set OVERPASS_URL in the configmap first.
Testing
uv run pytest # all tests
uv run pytest tests/test_geo.py -v # spatial helpers only
uv run pytest --cov=src # with coverageThe test suite (128 tests) covers:
test_geo.py— haversine, point-in-polygon (with holes), theparse_withinbudget parser (distance + time + edge cases).test_poi_store.py— JSON cache upsert/dedup/delete, UTF-8, path sanitization (no traversal).test_overpass_client.py— Overpass QL query builder (Europe bbox, country codes, brand regex widening), element parsing (node + way center, dedup, unnamed-skip), httpx wire format mocked viarespxincluding rate-limit (429) and gateway-timeout (504) handling.test_csv_importer.py— CSV/JSON import (case-insensitive headers, BOM, TSV, coordinate validation, missing-column errors), theoverpass_to_poiconverter, and theimport_fileextension dispatcher.test_nominatim_client.py/test_valhalla_client.py— httpx wire format mocked viarespx.test_query_orchestrator.py— thefind_withinspatial filtering for both distance and time budgets, with matrix chunking and isochrone polygon membership.
Related components
Component | Role |
jquad-ai-assistant-agent | Orchestrator; consumes this server via |
OpenStreetMap / Overpass | Source of POI data (Best Western hotels) — coordinates ready-made, no geocoding needed. |
jq-rag-mcp / web-search-discovery / web-crawler | Sibling MCP servers sharing the same FastMCP pattern. |
License
Copyright © 2025 JQuad. All rights reserved.
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