inspect

name	inspect
description	This skill should be used when the user asks to "inspect", "describe", "preview", "analyze", or "look inside" a GIS or CAD file (`.shp`, `.gdb`, `.dwg`, `.dxf`, `.geojson`, `.kml`), or asks "what's in this shapefile / geodatabase / DWG", "show me the layers", "what CRS does this use", "how many features", "list the attributes". Invoked as `/gis-to-db:inspect <file> [--json] [--features-sample N]`. Read-only — never writes to the user's filesystem outside `/tmp` and never touches a database.
argument-hint	<path-to-gis-or-cad-file> [--json] [--features-sample N] [--layer LAYER_NAME]
allowed-tools	Bash, Read, Write, Glob

Inspect a GIS or CAD file

This skill produces a structured analysis of a GIS or CAD file — its format, geometry type(s), layers, feature count, CRS, attribute schema, and a small sample of features — without writing anything to a database. It is the safe first step before any ingestion.

When to Use

Invoke when the user wants to understand a file's contents before deciding how to ingest it. Common phrasings:

• /gis-to-db:inspect ./parcels.shp
• /gis-to-db:inspect /data/cadastre.gdb --json
• /gis-to-db:inspect ./site-plan.dwg --features-sample 3
• "What's in this geodatabase?"
• "Describe the layers and CRS of this shapefile."

What It Produces

Markdown report (default) or JSON (--json flag) covering:

• File summary — path, size, format detected, driver used.
• Layer list — each layer's name, geometry type, feature count, CRS, attribute columns with types.
• CRS analysis — detected EPSG (or "unknown"), whether reprojection to EPSG:4326 will be needed, axis order.
• Sample features — up to N features per layer (default 3) showing geometry preview + attribute values.
• Warnings — missing CRS, invalid geometries, unsupported entity types (for DWG), extreme coordinate values.

How It Works

1. Validator agent runs first. Invoke the gis-preflight-validator agent via the Task tool with mode=inspect to confirm the file exists, is readable, and GDAL is available (host or Docker).
2. Decide execution context. Prefer the host's Python+GDAL if available; otherwise run inside the configured Docker image (docker_image from settings, default osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.8.0).
3. Run the inspection script. The skill emits scripts/gis_inspect.py to /tmp/gis_inspect.py (or mounts it into Docker), then executes it with the file path and flags.
4. Render the report. Parse the script's JSON output and render the markdown table (or pass through JSON if --json).

Implementation Reference

• scripts/gis_inspect.py — Python inspector using fiona (Shapefile, .gdb, GeoJSON, KML), ezdxf (DXF), and LibreDWG dwg2dxf subprocess (DWG → DXF → ezdxf). Outputs structured JSON.
• references/output-format.md — exact schema of the JSON the script produces and the markdown rendering rules.
• references/dwg-pipeline.md — DWG handling, layer filtering, entity-type-to-geometry mapping rules.
• examples/sample-output.md — example markdown report for a Shapefile and a .gdb.

Important Constraints

• Never write to the user's filesystem outside /tmp/. Inspection is read-only.
• Never connect to a database. This skill describes files, not data.
• Always include "next step" suggestions in the report (/gis-to-db:convert ..., /gis-to-db:scaffold-service ...) based on what was found.