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How it worksWhy PlaceRootAdd to your AI — freeContact

Ask about anywhere.
Get a real answer.

PlaceRoot gives any AI assistant real knowledge of the world around you — every shop, park, clinic, and café, from the same open map data that powers the big apps. Free, and nothing to sign up for.

Add to your AI — free
See it answer ↓
✓ No account✓ No API key✓ Open data
What's around downtown Palo Alto?
It's a great food-and-browsing area — 54 restaurants, 22 cafés, and 11 bookstores within a short walk. Most are along University Ave, so start there.
Answered from live open map data · just now

Whenever a place matters, PlaceRoot answers

Planning a trip

"A walkable food day in Lisbon — what's nearby?"

Choosing a neighborhood

"Compare two areas — groceries, transit, parks."

Running errands

"A hardware store on my route?"

Research & work

"What's the category mix in this district?"

This isn't another maps app.

Keep your maps app for driving. PlaceRoot answers.

MAPS APPS
Made for navigating
Accounts, ads, tracking
Closed platform — your AI can't see it
PLACEROOT
Made for answering
Completely free — no account, no ads
Open data, inside any AI you use
100% open source·100% open data·$0 forever
UNDER THE HOOD

Answers, not data dumps.

Most map tools hand an AI hundreds of kilobytes of raw GeoJSON. PlaceRoot returns compact, ranked answers — queried live from Overture Maps with DuckDB, no vendor in the middle.

one question, end to end
ASK
Is there a hardware store near the job site?
TOOL CALL
find_places(lat, lon, category="hardware_store")
DATA 
{ "name": "Stone Way Hardware",
  "distance_m": 210,
  "operating_status": "open",
  "confidence": 0.97 }  … 4 more, ranked
1.4 KB✓ budget ok
ANSWER
Yes — Stone Way Hardware, 210 m away and in business.
WHAT YOUR AI HAS TO READ
Typical map API dump482 KB
raw GeoJSON — overflows the context window
PlaceRoot answer≤ 2K tokens
~60× smaller — ranked, readable, ready to use
Small answers mean your AI actually reads them — and has room left to think.
FOR DEVELOPERS

One line. No keys. 42 tools.

v0.9.9new in this release: Half-size install: the package no longer ships the previous Overture release's artifacts
source · github ↗ pypi ↗ npm ↗ mcpservers.org ↗
Where the code is published, and where PlaceRoot is listed. Installing the package alone doesn't connect it to your assistant — that's the config step.
1 · ADD — mcp_config.json
"mcpServers": {
  "placeroot": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["placeroot"] }
}
works in:Claude · ChatGPT · Gemini · Cursor · any MCP agent
2 · CALL — 42 tools
find_places
places near a point or inside an area; filterable
warmup_city
optional first-session step: pre-cache a city so the first question is fast
summarize_area
what's in an area: totals and category mix
compare_areas
2–5 areas side by side
suggest_areas
where within reach: neighborhoods ranked by travel budget & amenities
within_distance
is the nearest match within N metres
place_details
one place in full: address, contacts, brand, sources
admin_lookup
point → neighborhood, city, county, state
changes_in_area
what's opened or closed here since a past release
geocode
place names → coordinates
geocode_batch
up to 20 place names → coordinates, one call
search_categories
free text → valid category slugs
reverse_geocode
coordinates → nearest address
reverse_geocode_batch
many coordinates → addresses, one call
address_at
coordinates → the nearest street addresses
geocode_address
street address → coordinates, deduplicated
resolve_place
free text → a stable place id
resolve_place_batch
up to 25 place ids → compact rows, one call
summarize_buildings
building footprints & heights in an area
buildings_at
the buildings at a point
land_use_at
what kind of land is this — use & cover at a point
infrastructure_at
bridges, towers & piers near a point — filter past the street furniture
water_near
rivers, canals, lakes & coast near a point — waterfront in one call
isochrone
walk / cycle / drive reach in N minutes
route
walk / cycle / drive distance + duration between two points
elevation_at
ground elevation at a point, ~30m resolution
from_to
named-place walk / cycle / drive — one hop, same answer as route
find_near
category near a named place or city, compact rows
ground_location
orient a point in one call — where, surroundings, reach, notable
places_along_route
places on the way from A to B, within a detour budget
optimize_route
best order to visit 2–10 stops, solved exactly
simplify_geometry
shrink a shape to a token budget
geometry_op
distance, bearing, area, buffer, point-in-polygon & more — one tool
render_map
a self-contained HTML map of any answer
distance_matrix
straight-line distance, up to 10×10 points
meeting_point
fair meeting spot for 2–5 people, ranked venues
travel_time_matrix
routed time + distance, up to 5×5 points
gers_lookup
any GERS id → what it is, and what it's inside
neighborhood_verdict
should I live here? a verdict from life context
verify_claims
is "8 min to the metro" true? confirmed / stretched / false
data_version
which Overture release backs the answers
preferences
local travel defaults — bike everywhere, have a dog
PlaceRoot v0.9.9 · MIT licensed · built on Overture Maps open data free forever · no account · no API key
Developed by vibemapper · Privacy Also by vibemapper: funradar.app · flood.live

Contact

hello@placeroot.dev