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Portaljs Add Geo

datopian/portaljs-add-geo

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.

3k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
2
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
2337
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/datopian/portaljs --skill portaljs-add-geo

The instruction itself

11 sections, as written by the author

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.

10. Append one dual-tier datasets.json entry (pmtiles + geoparquet + original resources).

11. Verify: npx tsc --noEmit and a Range: 206 check on the R2 URL.

12. 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

  • Full workflow: .claude/commands/portaljs-add-geo.md
  • Flags, thresholds, and the dual-tier manifest shape: references/reference.md
  • Related skills: portaljs-add-dataset, portaljs-add-map, portaljs-add-resource, portaljs-deploy
  • tippecanoe: <https://github.com/felt/tippecanoe> · DuckDB spatial: <https://duckdb.org/docs/extensions/spatial>

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take datopian/portaljs-add-geo from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.

Install what it needs

The instructions reference npx, brew, apt. Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.