Invoke when Earth Engine, GEE, ee., or geemap is named; when work needs its server-side catalog; or when choosing Earth Engine versus local xarray or desktop processing for a large area or long archive. Covers image collections, masking, compositing, reducers, zonal statistics, time series, classification, quota-aware batching, and exports. This is an execution platform skill; combine it with remote-sensing-analysis or change-detection when those skills own the scientific method.
Movement and trajectory analytics from GPS/GNSS tracks: cleaning, stop/trip detection, road-network map matching, speed/direction, flow aggregation, and origin-destination construction. Use for fleets, human mobility, animal tracking, AIS, or sports tracks. Trigger on GPS points, GPX, trajectories, stop detection, map matching, or timestamped positions per moving object. Also invoke for privacy, aggregation, de-identification, or release of individual trajectories. Use network-accessibility-analysis for hypothetical routes, isochrones, or static OD costs without observed tracks.
Always invoke when geospatial data must be acquired, prepared, repaired, scaled, or moved through a repeatable pipeline. Covers open-data/OSM/STAC acquisition, spatial formats, CRS transforms, quality checks, and batch ETL architecture for growing or recurring joins. Invoke alongside PostGIS for database execution and alongside SWE standards when code is delivered. Do not trigger merely because another specialist reads analysis-ready data.
Invoke before recommending, training, or auditing a neural method for geospatial imagery, including vision transformers, U-Net/DeepLab/SegFormer, object detection, pixel classification, building/road extraction, and EO foundation-model fine-tuning. Also invoke for neural chip-split validity, IoU/accuracy claims, augmentation, imbalanced losses, spatial validation, or sliding-window inference. Use remote-sensing-analysis for non-neural methods and change-detection when temporal change is the deliverable.
Always invoke for training, validating, tuning, benchmarking, or claiming readiness of a predictive model. Covers leakage audits, spatial and grouped splits, metrics, reproducibility, and honest reporting. Invoke especially when spatial dependence, split design, or deployment geography is unknown; uncertainty is a reason to use this skill. Do not trigger for descriptive EDA or non-predictive statistical inference.
Invoke whenever spatial SQL or its execution backend is the decision: PostGIS, DuckDB Spatial, SpatiaLite, ST_* functions, recurring spatial joins, concurrent/growing workloads, or large GeoParquet queries. Covers backend selection, schemas, GiST/BRIN indexes, KNN, geometry versus geography, correctness benchmarks, and EXPLAIN optimization. Use PostGIS for managed concurrent services and embedded engines for bounded local analytics when evidence supports that choice. Use geo-data-engineering for acquisition, conversion, and file-based ETL without spatial SQL.
Route genuinely ambiguous or multi-stage geospatial work across specialist skills while enforcing shared CRS, validity, leakage, units, verification, and reproducibility rules. Use for requests spanning multiple stages such as acquisition, imagery, modeling, analysis, and map delivery, or for an explicit end-to-end pipeline. Never invoke for one domain merely because a parameter is unclear. Code implementation/review, backend or platform choice, and production-readiness review are direct specialist tasks. Do not add this skill as a layer around one specialist.
LiDAR and point cloud processing: PDAL pipelines, LAS/LAZ/COPC handling, ground classification, DTM/DSM/CHM generation, canopy and building metrics, and photogrammetric (SfM) point clouds. Use when the primary input is LAS, LAZ, COPC, LiDAR, or an unstructured 3D point cloud. Route analysis of an already derived DEM, DTM, DSM, or CHM to terrain-hydrology unless point-level classification or metrics remain in scope.