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Compose Mapbox MCP tools to produce grounded, cited location-aware responses from live data instead of training data
Mapbox Location Grounding Skill
Teaches AI assistants how to ground location-aware responses in live Mapbox data by composing MCP tools into a structured, cited answer. Use this instead of relying on training data for place names, POIs, ratings, or travel times — which are stale and prone to hallucination.
When to Use Grounding
Ground responses when the user asks about:
"What's near [location]?" or "What's around [coordinate]?"
"Describe this neighborhood / area"
"Find [category] within walking/driving distance"
"What can I do near [address]?"
"How long does it take to get from A to B?"
"What's within a 10-minute walk of here?"
"How far is it between these locations?"
Real estate, travel, mobility, or local discovery use cases
Any question where place accuracy, recency, or travel time matters
Never answer location questions from training data alone. Always retrieve live data.
Grounding Tool Composition
Preferred: single tool call
If ground_location_tool is available, use it — it handles reverse geocoding, POI search, place details enrichment, isochrone, and a static map image in one call:
ground_location_tool(
longitude, latitude,
query: "restaurant", // optional — category or subcategory of nearby places to find
profile: "mapbox/walking", // optional — travel profile for isochrone
contours_minutes: [5, 10, 15]
)
Returns:
Neighborhood/place name from reverse geocoding
Nearby POIs with distances, ratings, price levels, and popularity (when available)
Travel-time reachability from isochrone
A static map image for visual context
Citations for all data sources
Do not call reverse_geocode_tool, category_search_tool, place_details_tool, or isochrone_tool separately — they are already composed inside this tool.
Query parameter
The query parameter accepts category or subcategory terms — not attribute preferences:
Not supported: "family-friendly", "fast charging", "outdoor seating" — these are not filterable attributes in Mapbox data
To help users find places matching a preference (e.g. "family-friendly"), search by category ("restaurant") and use the returned rating and price data to inform the recommendation.
Fallback: manual composition
If ground_location_tool is not available, build the grounded response by composing these tools in order:
Returns a map image that can be included in the response for visual context.
Grounded Response Structure
Always structure grounded responses with explicit citations:
Place: [neighborhood, city from reverse_geocode]
Nearby [category]: [list from search/category tool, with names, ratings, prices, and distances]
Travel context: [X min walk / Y min drive from isochrone]
Sources: Mapbox Search, Mapbox Directions (live data)
Example grounded response:
SoMa, San Francisco, CA (live Mapbox data)
Restaurants within walking distance:
Bix Restaurant $$ ★8.4 — 56 Gold St (180m)
The Bird $ ★7.9 — 115 New Montgomery St (320m)
Oren's Hummus $$ ★8.1 — 131 Townsend St (510m)
Reachable by walking: 5 min, 10 min, 15 min
Sources: Mapbox Geocoding API, Mapbox Search API, Mapbox Place Details API, Mapbox Isochrone API, Mapbox Static Images API
Routing Grounding
For questions about travel between two locations, use directions_tool. For questions about reachable area, use isochrone_tool. For comparing travel times across multiple locations, use matrix_tool.
Point-to-point travel time and distance
"How long does it take to drive from Pike Place Market to Capitol Hill?"
"What's the fastest route from the hotel to the airport?"
directions_tool(
waypoints: [{longitude, latitude}, {longitude, latitude}],
profile: "mapbox/driving-traffic" // live traffic; or "mapbox/walking", "mapbox/cycling", "mapbox/driving"
)
Returns: duration (with live traffic), distance, turn-by-turn steps, and an encoded polyline for map rendering. Supports up to 25 waypoints for multi-stop routes.
Area reachability ("within X minutes")
"What's reachable within a 10-minute walk?"
"Show me what I can reach in 15 minutes by car from here"
Returns a polygon showing the area reachable within each time threshold. Combine with category_search_tool or ground_location_tool to answer "what restaurants are within a 10-minute walk?" — use the isochrone to define the boundary, then search within it.
Multi-location travel time matrix
"Which of these three offices is closest to my location?"
"What are travel times from this warehouse to each of our delivery zones?"
"Compare commute times to multiple locations"
Use matrix_tool — do NOT call directions_tool separately for each pair. Matrix batches all pairs in a single API call.
Returns a matrix of durations and distances between every source/destination pair. Rank results by duration to find the nearest location. One matrix_tool call replaces N separate directions_tool calls.
Proximity search with routing context
For "find [category] within X minutes of [location]":
Geocode the origin if needed: search_and_geocode_tool(address)
Get the reachable area: isochrone_tool(coordinates, profile, contours_minutes)
Search for POIs: ground_location_tool(longitude, latitude, query: "category") — the isochrone
contours tell the user what's within each time band
Or more directly: ground_location_tool returns both nearby POIs and isochrone reachability in one
call, which covers most proximity + routing use cases without additional composition.
Example routing response
Pike Place Market → Capitol Hill, Seattle
By car (with traffic): 12 min, 3.2 km via Pine St
By walking: 28 min, 2.1 km
By cycling: 14 min, 2.3 km
Source: Mapbox Directions API (live traffic)
What Mapbox Grounding Offers vs. Training Data
Training Data
Mapbox Grounding
POI accuracy
Stale, hallucinated
Live, verified
Ratings/price
Often wrong
Live via Place Details
Business hours
Often wrong
Live via Place Details
Travel times
Estimated
Live traffic via Directions
Reachable area
Not available
Isochrone polygons
Multi-stop routing
Not available
Up to 25 waypoints
New places
Missing
Indexed
Map image
None
Inline static map
Citations
None
Tool + API source
Important Limitations
Attribute filtering (family-friendly, outdoor seating, fast charging) is not supported by the category search API. Use category terms and let rating/price data inform preference-based recommendations.
POI coverage varies by region. If search returns few results, say so rather than padding with guesses.
Coordinates required for proximity search — if the user provides an address, geocode it first with search_and_geocode_tool before running category search.
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Answering "what's near X?" from training data without calling search tools
Estimating travel times without calling directions_tool or isochrone_tool
Hallucinating business names, hours, or ratings
Calling reverse_geocode_tool + category_search_tool + place_details_tool separately when ground_location_tool is available
Using attribute terms like "family-friendly" as the query parameter — use the category instead
Returning raw tool output without synthesizing into a readable response
Omitting citations — always indicate the response is grounded in live Mapbox data
