agent-skills

Author, edit, publish, and validate CARTO Builder maps via the `carto maps` CLI. Use when the user wants to create a map from a natural-language request, edit an existing map (datasets, layers, styling, privacy, popups, widgets, SQL parameters), duplicate one, upload custom marker icons, or wire up an AI agent on a map. Covers the full `carto maps` subcommand surface — `list`, `get`, `create`, `update`, `delete`, `publish`, `validate`, `schema`, `agents`, `markers`, `screenshot`, `datasets update`.

Start here for first-time CARTO use — install the CLI, authenticate, switch profiles, understand JSON output and async job patterns. Also orients on the two parallel access paths into the CARTO platform (CLI for authoring/scripting, MCP server for inline interactions in chat hosts) and which skills cover each.

Administer the CARTO org — users, roles, quotas, activity audit, and bulk resource operations.

Write spatial SQL against the connected warehouse — dialect-specific guidance, performance defaults, and CARTO's query/job execution model.

Generate a working geospatial app powered by CARTO and deck.gl — basemap, layers (vector / H3 / quadbin / raster), widgets, filters, legend, inputs, optional chat-with-map agent, and the right auth strategy (public token, OAuth, SSO, or M2M).

Render an ad-hoc interactive map inline in the chat from a deck.gl declarative spec via the CARTO MCP server's view_map tool. Use whenever the user asks to map, visualize, or show the geographic distribution of points, polygons, hexagons, quadbins, clusters, density (heatmaps), or raster — and the map is exploratory or throwaway, not meant to be saved as a permanent CARTO Builder map. Triggers on "show me X on a map", "visualize Y", "make a heatmap of Z", "render the points/clusters/raster of W". Distinct from carto-create-builder-maps (CLI authoring of permanent maps), carto-preview-builder-map (loading an existing saved Builder map), and carto-develop-app (writing a from-scratch deck.gl app in TypeScript / JavaScript).

Guides the user through building composite score workflows when they ask about composite scores, indexes, multi-variable scores, ranking areas, site scoring, market potential, resilience indexes, risk indexes, weighted scores, PCA, or supervised/unsupervised scoring.

Builds, schedules, and operates analytics DAGs in CARTO Workflows — the no-code/low-code orchestration layer over the data warehouse. Triggers when the user wants to author a workflow, run/edit one, schedule a DAG, or copy a workflow across profiles or orgs.

Builds Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) workflows in CARTO. Triggers when the user mentions GWR, geographically weighted regression, spatially varying relationships, local regression, local coefficients, spatial regression, "what drives X in different areas", "why do prices vary spatially", "local factors affecting Y", varying coefficients, coefficient maps, spatial non-stationarity, or wants to model how the relationship between a dependent variable and predictors changes across geography. Produces per-cell regression coefficients that reveal how predictor importance shifts from place to place.

Guides the user through spatial enrichment workflows — triggered by requests to enrich, add demographics, estimate population around locations, compute spatial features, sociodemographic analysis, "what's around" queries, buffer/isochrone + join patterns, or trade area enrichment.

Builds trade area and catchment analysis workflows in CARTO. Triggers when the user mentions trade area, catchment area, isochrone, site selection, where to open, best location, billboard, OOH, audience targeting, drive time, walk time, coverage area, commercial hotspot, site scoring, location ranking, or wants to generate isochrones, score candidate locations, or identify the best sites for retail, advertising, or services.

Builds site selection and cannibalization analysis workflows in CARTO. Triggers when the user mentions site selection, cannibalization, cannibalizing, new store location, where to open, optimal location, facility placement, network impact, overlapping catchments, twin areas, similar locations, look-alike areas, find locations like my best, store overlap, revenue impact of new store, commercial hotspots, demand hotspots, location scoring, location ranking, expand network, new branch, franchise placement, EV charging siting, or wants to evaluate candidate sites, quantify overlap between trade areas, or find areas that resemble top-performing locations.

Choose and configure the data warehouse engine connection for CARTO (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, Postgres, Databricks, Oracle).

Import geospatial files into the data warehouse via CARTO, export results back out, and prepare tilesets for fast map rendering.

Discover what's in the connected warehouse — schemas, tables, columns, and CARTO named sources.

Discover and subscribe to external spatial datasets via CARTO Data Observatory and partner catalogs.

End-to-end ArcGIS Portal / AGOL → CARTO migration. Triggers when the user wants to migrate ArcGIS content to CARTO, plan a migration, asks "what's in my Portal", names a Portal/AGOL URL, or asks to migrate the datasets / web maps / simple apps. Runs three phases — discover (enumerate items + write MIGRATION_MANIFEST.md), migrate-data (Hosted Feature Layers / Tables → CARTO tables), migrate-maps (Web Maps + simple Dashboards / Web Experiences / Web Mapping Apps → CARTO Builder maps). Default mode is batch; migrated maps are always tagged `From ArcGIS` and created as private.

Preview an existing saved CARTO Builder map inline in the chat via the CARTO MCP server's load_builder_map tool. Use whenever the user references a saved Builder map — by URL, by ID, or by name (resolved via list_maps first). Renders a lightweight read-only preview (layers, basemap, viewport, popups, legend). Widgets, SQL parameters, map description, and other Builder-only features are NOT included; the user can click "Open in Builder" for the full experience. Triggers on "show me the X map", "open the Y map", "preview the Z map", and post-CLI-creation inline previews of a freshly-created map. Distinct from carto-create-builder-maps (CLI authoring), carto-render-inline-map (ad-hoc deck.gl spec), and carto-develop-app (developer app).

Builds geocoding workflows in CARTO that convert street addresses or place names into geographic coordinates. Triggers when the user mentions geocoding, address to coordinates, address resolution, geolocate addresses, "add geometry from addresses", lat/lon from address, place name to point, address matching, forward geocoding, converting addresses to points, or has tabular data with address columns but no spatial geometry column and needs to create one.

Builds Getis-Ord Gi* hotspot analysis workflows in CARTO. Triggers when the user mentions hotspots, coldspots, spatial clusters, Getis-Ord, Gi*, cluster detection, concentration areas, "where do X cluster", spacetime hotspot, temporal clusters, time-varying patterns, hotspot trends, emerging hotspots, Mann-Kendall, or wants to find statistically significant spatial or spatiotemporal patterns in point or grid data.

Builds routing and origin-destination analysis workflows in CARTO. Triggers when the user mentions routing, route calculation, travel time, travel distance, OD matrix, origin-destination, isoline, isochrone, isodistance, catchment area, reachable area, drive time polygon, walk time polygon, service area, accessibility analysis, travel time matrix, distance matrix, commute patterns, trip flow, OD flow, mobility patterns, taxi trips, ride patterns, route geometry, shortest path, network distance, or wants to compute routes, generate isolines, build travel matrices, or analyze movement patterns between origins and destinations.

Builds Moran's I spatial autocorrelation workflows in CARTO. Triggers when the user mentions spatial autocorrelation, Moran's I, spatial dependency, spatial correlation, spatial outliers, HH HL LH LL quadrants, high-high clusters, low-low clusters, spatial weight matrix, "is there clustering", "are values spatially correlated", local indicators of spatial association, LISA, spatial randomness test, or wants to determine whether a variable exhibits spatial clustering, dispersion, or randomness across a gridded dataset. Also relevant when the user needs to classify locations into cluster types (HH, HL, LH, LL) rather than just identifying hotspots and coldspots.

Builds territory planning workflows in CARTO combining territory balancing and location allocation. Triggers when the user mentions territory balancing, territory planning, sales territories, service zones, workload distribution, balanced territories, location allocation, facility placement, optimal locations, maximize coverage, minimize cost, minimize travel distance, depot placement, hub placement, warehouse siting, response time optimization, demand coverage, or wants to divide an area into balanced regions or find optimal facility locations.