| name | portaljs-add-geo |
| description | Auto-ingest a geospatial file (GeoJSON, Shapefile, GeoPackage, KML/KMZ, FlatGeobuf, CSV-with-geometry) into a PortalJS portal on the user's own machine, with no server. Normalizes CRS to EPSG:4326, derives a PMTiles render tier and a GeoParquet query tier, pushes all three artifacts to Cloudflare R2 via Git LFS, and appends one dual-tier datasets.json entry the showcase auto-renders. Use when the source is a vector geo format that needs a map or spatial-query view. |
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Edit, Bash(ogr2ogr:*), Bash(ogrinfo:*), Bash(tippecanoe:*), Bash(duckdb:*), Bash(git:*), Bash(curl:*), Bash(npx:*), Bash(node:*), Bash(mkdir:*), Bash(cp:*), Bash(wc:*), Bash(command:*), WebFetch |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| author | Datopian <hello@datopian.com> |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Claude Code with PortalJS portals (Next.js 14, React 18/19, Node 18+). Requires native GDAL, tippecanoe, and duckdb on the user's machine (macOS or Linux/WSL). Runs from any project via the plugin, a personal ~/.claude/commands install, or a portaljs clone. |
| tags | ["portaljs","data-portal","geospatial","pmtiles","geoparquet","duckdb"] |
PortalJS — Add Geo
Overview
Turn one geospatial upload into a dual-tier PortalJS dataset entirely on the user's
machine — no server-side container compute, keeping the zero-backend bet end-to-end.
From a single source the skill derives two serverless tiers plus the preserved original:
- PMTiles (render tier) — a vector-tile archive
<MapPreview> renders with MapLibre GL
over HTTP range requests; any dataset size pans and zooms with no tile server.
- GeoParquet (query tier) — a GeoParquet 1.1 file (covering
bbox column, Hilbert-sorted)
<GeoQuery> runs spatial SQL over in place via DuckDB-Wasm.
- Original — the untouched upload in its native CRS, kept downloadable.
All three land on Cloudflare R2 (Git LFS → Giftless), and the skill appends one
datasets.json entry whose resources[] match the shape the showcase auto-renders (the
@reference/world-boundaries demo, PR #1647): pmtiles → <MapPreview>, geoparquet →
<GeoQuery>, original → download. No page edits are needed. It automates the manual
tippecanoe/duckdb recipes in the template README.
Prerequisites
- A scaffolded
portaljs-catalog portal whose template ships components/MapPreview.tsx and
components/GeoQuery.tsx (PR #1647 or later).
- Native CLIs on the user's machine: GDAL (
ogr2ogr, ogrinfo), tippecanoe, and
duckdb (with the spatial extension). macOS: brew install gdal tippecanoe duckdb;
Debian/Ubuntu: apt-get install gdal-bin duckdb + tippecanoe (apt or build from source);
Windows: use WSL. The skill hard-stops with the install hint if any is missing.
- Arc credentials for the Git-LFS → R2 push (the same token
portaljs-deploy resolves), or
an OSS self-hosted Giftless.
Instructions
The canonical, full step-by-step workflow is
.claude/commands/portaljs-add-geo.md
— the single source of truth. Read and follow it when executing. Summary:
- Gather input — source (geo file path or URL), portal directory, namespace. Interview if
missing; never dead-end.
- Detect the native tools (
ogr2ogr, tippecanoe, duckdb + spatial). Any missing →
print the per-OS install and stop.
- Validate the portal directory and confirm the geo showcase components exist.
- Fetch (if URL) and detect the input format; reject raster and bare
.shp.
- Preserve the original, then normalize to EPSG:4326 GeoJSON with
ogr2ogr -t_srs EPSG:4326.
- Apply the size escape hatch (measure normalized-GeoJSON bytes): warn ≥ 500 MB; skip PMTiles
and emit GeoParquet-only > 2 GB (documented, never silent).
- Derive PMTiles with
tippecanoe -zg --drop-densest-as-needed.
- Derive GeoParquet with
duckdb — covering bbox STRUCT + ST_Hilbert order; verify a
range read.
- Track all three files with Git LFS, mint an Arc JWT, push to R2, prune, and build the
absolute
data.portaljs.com URLs.
- Append one dual-tier
datasets.json entry (pmtiles + geoparquet + original resources).
- Verify:
npx tsc --noEmit and a Range: 206 check on the R2 URL.
- Report the tiers, manifest entry, and showcase route.
Output
- Created:
data/<slug>.pmtiles, data/<slug>.parquet, data/<slug>.<origext> (all
LFS-tracked → R2); data/<slug>.4326.geojson (intermediate; can be pruned).
- Modified:
datasets.json (one dual-tier entry appended); .gitattributes (LFS tracking).
- Verified:
npx tsc --noEmit passes; the R2 URLs answer HTTP 206 range reads.
- Result:
/@<namespace>/<slug> renders the PMTiles map and the GeoParquet spatial-query
panel together, with no page edits.
Error Handling
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|
MISSING_TOOLS | ogr2ogr/tippecanoe/duckdb (or duckdb spatial) absent | Print the per-OS install line and stop; re-run after installing. |
UNSUPPORTED_FORMAT | Raster .tif/.tiff (COG tier, later phase) | Use portaljs-add-dataset for tabular; await the COG phase. |
SHAPEFILE_NOT_ZIPPED | Bare .shp with no siblings | Zip the whole .shp/.dbf/.shx/.prj set and pass the .zip. |
MULTI_LAYER | GPKG/KML with more than one layer | List layers and ask which to ingest; pass the layer name. |
REPROJECTION_FAILED | ogr2ogr error, often a missing .prj | Show stderr; re-run with -s_srs EPSG:<code>. |
EMPTY_OUTPUT | Normalized GeoJSON has 0 features | Check the geometry column / CRS of the source. |
TILING_FAILED / GEOPARQUET_FAILED | tippecanoe or duckdb non-zero | Show stderr; for very large inputs see the size escape hatch. |
LFS_PUSH_FAILED | Missing/expired Arc token or unset lfs.url | Re-mint the JWT (see portaljs-deploy); confirm git config lfs.url. |
Examples
Example 1 — Ingest a GeoJSON into both tiers
/portaljs-add-geo source=./data/rivers.geojson name="World Rivers" namespace=reference
Example 2 — Zipped Shapefile from a URL
/portaljs-add-geo source=https://example.com/admin-boundaries.zip slug=admin-boundaries
Example 3 — GeoPackage with an explicit layer and namespace
/portaljs-add-geo source=./data/census.gpkg slug=census-tracts namespace=statistics
Resources
