| name | earth-view-server-apis |
| description | Work on Earth View server/API logic. Use when editing or debugging Vite local middleware, Vercel-style API handlers, Copernicus Sentinel auth/image/catalog requests, Sentinel scene search behavior, Ask View OpenAI/Anthropic calls, streaming SSE responses, environment variables, or server-side credential handling. |
Earth View Server APIs
Use this skill for changes that cross the browser/server boundary.
Start Here
Read these files first:
vite.config.ts for local dev middleware mounted under /api/*.src/server/sentinel.ts for shared Sentinel auth, Process API rendering, Catalog searches, validation, and token caching.src/server/askView.ts for shared Ask View prompt construction, provider calls, streaming, and briefing extraction.api/*.ts for Vercel-style wrappers around the shared server functions.src/providers/SentinelProvider.ts and src/components/Modal/AskViewModal.tsx for browser callers.
Endpoint Map
Local Vite middleware and deployment handlers expose the same routes:
POST /api/sentinel-image: render a Sentinel PNG through Copernicus Process API.POST /api/sentinel-scenes: search Sentinel Catalog scenes.POST /api/ask-view: non-streaming AI view analysis.POST /api/ask-view-stream: SSE streaming AI view analysis.
Keep shared logic in src/server/*; keep api/* wrappers thin.
Sentinel Flow
src/server/sentinel.ts handles:
- credential lookup from
COPERNICUS_CLIENT_ID / COPERNICUS_CLIENT_SECRET, with older SENTINELHUB_* fallbacks.
- access-token caching.
- request validation.
- bbox conversion to
[minLon, minLat, maxLon, maxLat].
- Sentinel Process API request bodies.
- Sentinel Catalog searches.
- Sentinel-2 cloud filtering above 60 percent.
- scene de-duplication by acquisition minute.
- scene geometry/footprint fields used by the modal scene hover overlay.
Important constraints:
- Image width/height are clamped to 256-1024 server-side.
- Scene search limit is clamped to 1-100.
- Lookback is clamped to 1-1825 days.
- Sentinel-1 uses IW, DV polarization, high resolution, orthorectification,
GAMMA0_TERRAIN, and Lee speckle filtering.
- Sentinel-2 uses
leastCC mosaicking and maxCloudCoverage: 60.
Ask View Flow
src/server/askView.ts supports OpenAI and Anthropic:
- OpenAI uses the Responses API model constant in
OPENAI_MODEL.
- Anthropic uses the Messages API model constant in
ANTHROPIC_MODEL.
- Initial requests must include an image data URL.
- Follow-up requests can use chat history plus hidden
VIEW_BRIEFING.
- Streaming responses hide the briefing section from visible chat deltas.
- Web-search tools are configured when providers support them.
The visible UI is currently disabled in ImageryModal.tsx with ASK_VIEW_VISIBLE = false. Server endpoints may still be called directly when keys are configured.
Environment Variables
Expected local/deployment variables:
COPERNICUS_CLIENT_ID=
COPERNICUS_CLIENT_SECRET=
OPENAI_API_KEY=
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=
Older Sentinel names are still supported:
SENTINELHUB_CLIENT_ID=
SENTINELHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=
Never expose these credentials in client-side code.
Common Tasks
For a Sentinel image-rendering bug, inspect SentinelProvider.ts request shape, then fetchSentinelImage.
For a Sentinel scene-list, scene-footprint, or time-lapse bug, inspect /api/sentinel-scenes, fetchSentinelScenes, useRegionalImagery.ts, and useTimeLapse.ts.
For local-only endpoint behavior, inspect vite.config.ts middleware before touching api/*.
For deployment-only behavior, inspect api/* wrappers and ensure they pass the same env variables into shared server functions.
For Ask View issues, inspect AskViewModal.tsx for browser payload shape and askView.ts for validation, prompt construction, provider body, stream parsing, and error handling.
Validation
Run:
npm run lint
Use external API calls only when the user expects them and credentials/network are available. Without credentials, validate that server errors remain clear and do not break the NASA/GIBS-only app path.
