Spatial Engine & In-App Map Server

DuckDB Spatial Engine

At the core of the plugin is DuckDB with its spatial extension — an embedded, columnar analytical database purpose-built for fast aggregations and complex spatial queries. Run SQL against millions of features with sub-second performance, entirely offline.

Attribute table with search: browse any layer in a grid view, full-text search across attributes, select a row to focus the feature on the map
Spatial functions: spatial joins, buffers, intersections, distance and proximity queries via the ST_* function family
In-app vector format conversion (GeoJSON, KML, Shapefile, GeoPackage)
AI-enhanced natural-language querying using the on-device LLM

DuckDB Spatial Capabilities

Geometry Types Point, LineString, Polygon, Multi-*
Spatial Functions ST_* family: joins, buffers, intersects, distance
Attribute Access Table/grid view with full-text search
Coordinate Systems 4326, 3857, custom EPSG
Connection Real JDBC — not a wrapper

In-App Map Serving Stack

The plugin runs a loopback-only HTTP server inside ATAK that turns local data into standards-compliant map services — the serving stack that normally lives in a data center, running in your pocket:

Service	Sources	Output	Filtering
OGC API Features	GeoPackage vector features, DuckDB tables	GeoJSON (KML / Shapefile export)	CQL
OGC API Tiles — Dynamic Vector Tiles	DuckDB, GeoPackage vector layers	MVT generated on demand	CQL / BBox
GeoPackage Vector Tiles	GPKG tile pyramids	MVT / raster tiles	Zoom / BBox
PMTiles Vector Tiles	Single-file cloud-optimized archives	MVT	Zoom / BBox
MBTiles OSM Vector Tiles	Offline OSM basemap archives (OpenMapTiles schema)	MVT → styled PNG via GL renderer	Zoom / BBox
GL Style Renderer	GL JSON stylesheets over any vector tile source	Dynamic PNG raster tiles (XYZ)	Style layers

GL JSON Stylesheets → Raster Tiles for ATAK

ATAK does not support GL JSON styles, sprites, or glyphs natively — its map view consumes raster tile sources. That's the gap this pipeline closes: the plugin uses MapLibre GL Native as an off-screen renderer, applying any GL JSON stylesheet — with its sprites and glyphs — against local vector tiles and serving the result as dynamic PNG raster tiles, registered with ATAK as a standard XYZ map source.

Offline OSM basemaps unlocked: an OpenMapTiles-schema .mbtiles plus a GL style renders into a fully styled basemap — water, roads, buildings, labeled places — that ATAK could not otherwise display
Labels and icons render on device via the style's glyphs and sprite sheets
Works across sources: MBTiles, PMTiles, GeoPackage vector tiles, and DuckDB dynamic MVT
Styling knobs exposed in-app for paint properties; style switch invalidates the tile cache
Everything rendered on device — no tile server, no internet

🔨 Mission Planning Use Case

Pre-load a GeoPackage with terrain, infrastructure, and threat layers plus a PMTiles basemap of the AO. In the field, DuckDB answers "every bridge within 5 km of the route" with a spatial join, the attribute table pins down the specific feature by name, and the GL renderer serves the styled basemap to ATAK — all without a single network packet leaving the device.

Data Discovery & Staging

Before going offline, discover and stage data through the unified catalog search — OGC API Records, CSW, STAC, CKAN, Socrata, and THREDDS endpoints (USGS, NOAA, NASA, EuroGEOSS and more), plus AOI-clipped downloads from ESRI FeatureServer / MapServer / ImageServer and OGC services. Results export to GeoPackage for the offline serving stack. API-key-gated sources (such as USGS EarthExplorer M2M) clearly indicate when a key is required.

Additional Geospatial Capabilities

Batch import of CSV / TSV / SQLite with automatic MGRS/GARS grid conversion
OSM POI search with GeoPackage export
Advanced spatial bookmarks and placemarks with symbols and metadata
GRG (Grid Reference Graphic) builder for operational overlays
Reporting, pivot tables, and an advanced query wizard over DuckDB data

DuckDB Spatial GeoPackage PMTiles MapLibre GL Native GL JSON Styles OGC API Features OGC API Tiles CQL Filtering MVT XYZ Raster

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