gpio-pmtiles

⚠️ DEPRECATED: This plugin is deprecated. PMTiles support is now built into geoparquet-io core. Use gpio pmtiles create (CLI) or geoparquet_io.api.ops.create_pmtiles() (Python). See the GeoJSON guide for usage.

PMTiles generation plugin for geoparquet-io.

Overview

This plugin provides integrated PMTiles generation from GeoParquet files by orchestrating a streaming pipeline:

GeoParquet → [reproject] → [filter] → [convert to GeoJSON] → [tippecanoe] → PMTiles

All filtering, reprojection, and conversion happens in-memory through Unix pipes—no intermediate files needed.

Why use this plugin instead of manual piping?

• Simpler API: Single command handles the entire pipeline with sensible defaults
• Built-in CRS handling: Automatically reprojects to WGS84 if needed
• Better error messages: Clear guidance for common issues (tippecanoe missing, invalid paths)
• Quality defaults: Pre-configured tippecanoe settings for production use

Installation

# As a CLI tool
uv tool install geoparquet-io --with gpio-pmtiles

# For Python library use
pip install geoparquet-io gpio-pmtiles

Requirements:

• tippecanoe must be installed and available in PATH
  • macOS: brew install tippecanoe
  • Ubuntu: sudo apt install tippecanoe

Quick Start

# Basic conversion
gpio pmtiles create buildings.parquet buildings.pmtiles

# With spatial filtering
gpio pmtiles create data.parquet filtered.pmtiles \
  --bbox "-122.5,37.5,-122.0,38.0"

# With attribute filtering and column selection
gpio pmtiles create data.parquet cities.pmtiles \
  --where "population > 10000" \
  --include-cols name,population,area

# With CRS override (if metadata is incorrect)
gpio pmtiles create data.parquet tiles.pmtiles --src-crs EPSG:3857

# From S3 with AWS profile
gpio pmtiles create s3://bucket/data.parquet tiles.pmtiles --profile my-aws-profile

Python API

The plugin also provides a Python API:

from gpio_pmtiles import create_pmtiles_from_geoparquet

# Basic usage
create_pmtiles_from_geoparquet(
    input_path="buildings.parquet",
    output_path="buildings.pmtiles"
)

# With filtering
create_pmtiles_from_geoparquet(
    input_path="data.parquet",
    output_path="tiles.pmtiles",
    bbox="-122.5,37.5,-122.0,38.0",
    where="population > 10000",
    include_cols="name,type,height",
    min_zoom=0,
    max_zoom=14
)

# With CRS override
create_pmtiles_from_geoparquet(
    input_path="data.parquet",
    output_path="tiles.pmtiles",
    src_crs="EPSG:3857"  # Reproject from EPSG:3857 to WGS84
)

CLI Options

How It Works

Plugin System

This plugin uses the entry points system to register itself with geoparquet-io. When installed, it automatically adds the pmtiles command group to the gpio CLI.

Pipeline Architecture

The plugin orchestrates a subprocess pipeline:

1. Reprojection (if --src-crs specified): gpio convert reproject
2. Filtering (if bbox/where/include-cols specified): gpio extract
3. GeoJSON conversion: gpio convert geojson with streaming output
4. Tile generation: tippecanoe with production-quality settings

All stages communicate through Unix pipes for memory efficiency. No intermediate files are created.

Manual Pipeline Alternative

If you prefer manual control, you can achieve the same result with pipe commands:

# Plugin version (simple)
gpio pmtiles create data.parquet tiles.pmtiles --bbox "-122,37,-121,38"

# Equivalent manual pipeline
gpio extract data.parquet --bbox "-122,37,-121,38" | \
  gpio convert geojson - | \
  tippecanoe -P -o tiles.pmtiles -zg --simplify-only-low-zooms

The plugin provides better defaults and error handling, but manual piping offers more flexibility.

Coordinate Precision

The --precision option controls decimal places for coordinates:

# Reduce precision for smaller files
gpio pmtiles create data.parquet output.pmtiles --precision 5

Development

Contributions are welcome! See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/geoparquet/gpio-pmtiles.git
cd gpio-pmtiles
uv sync --all-extras

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Format and lint
uv run ruff format .
uv run ruff check --fix .

Related Documentation

• geoparquet-io Documentation - Full user guide and API reference
• GeoJSON Conversion Guide - Detailed streaming and conversion options
• tippecanoe documentation - Tile generation options
• PMTiles specification - PMTiles format details

Links

• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/gpio-pmtiles/
• Issues: https://github.com/geoparquet/gpio-pmtiles/issues
• Parent Project: https://github.com/geoparquet/geoparquet-io

License

Apache 2.0