PlaceRoot

Name: PlaceRoot
Author: chuofringer

by chuofringerversion 0.12.0i★ –iRuns on your computer

Registry nameio.github.chuofringer/placeroot

Install

Overview

Description from the maker (original English)

Grounds AI agents in Overture Maps open data — compact answers, no API key.

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

These three are never merged into one score: opinions, measurements and popularity are different things.

User voiceiNo reviews yetReviews open together with accounts in a later step
Our basic checksi1 of 1 passedChecked from public information; code not scanned yet
UsageiNot measured yet★ –

What you can do with it

We have not written a plain-language summary for this one yet. Below are the facts we read from the registry.

Connection: Runs on your computer
Transport: stdio, Streamable HTTP
Category: Other

Install

Pick the AI app you use, then copy the settings.

Before you install

Basic checks: 1 of 1 passed
Runs on your computer with your user’s permissions (files, network, apps).
You fill in yourself: PLACEROOT_CACHE

You need

npmNode.js installed (for the npx command)

Which app do you use?

ClaudeClaude CodeCursorVS CodeChatGPT

Pick your app above. We remember it, so next time the button says “Install in …”.

Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config, and paste this into claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "placeroot": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "placeroot"
      ],
      "env": {
        "PLACEROOT_CACHE": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Run this in your terminal

claude mcp add placeroot --env PLACEROOT_CACHE=your-value -- npx -y placeroot

Fill in the empty values before running it.

Open in Cursor

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "placeroot": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "placeroot"
      ],
      "env": {
        "PLACEROOT_CACHE": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

Open in VS Code

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .vscode/mcp.json in your project

{
  "servers": {
    "placeroot": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "placeroot"
      ],
      "env": {
        "PLACEROOT_CACHE": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

This one runs on your computer, and ChatGPT can only connect to servers on the internet. Pick another app.

Your choice stays on this device in a cookie; no account needed.

Values you fill in

PLACEROOT_CACHE env
Set to 'off' to disable the local on-disk tile cache. Optional; caching is on by default.

These settings are generated from the maker’s registry entry. If the README says otherwise, follow the README.

What it can do

Runs on your computer; the tool list appears in your AI app after you install it.

Basic checksi

We check information anyone can see; we have not read the code. Checks that do not apply are left out of the count. · Checked Nov 7, 2026

✓ Pass
Maker matches the repo
The registry name was verified with the GitHub account chuofringer, which owns the repo
… Not checked yet
Still maintained
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
… Not checked yet
Has a licence
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
– Not applicable
Endpoint responds
This one runs on your computer; there is no internet endpoint
– Not applicable
Sign-in with OAuth
Runs on your computer and uses local settings instead
… Not checked yet
No hidden instructions in tool descriptions
Runs on your computer; we can only read tool lists from internet endpoints

Compared with others in Otheri

More stars than 0% of the other 32683 servers in this category
Published to the registry more recently than 66% of the other 32683 servers in this category
Basic checks equal to or better than 100% of the other 32683 servers in this category

Compared with every active server in this category in the registry. Stars count only when the publisher owns the repo.

Common questions

Is PlaceRoot safe?

It passed 1 of 1 applicable basic checks. We have not read the code. Before adding a key or token, see what access the server asks for and use a key with only the permissions you need.

What keys or codes does it need?

The registry does not list a required key, though some servers ask you to sign in on first use.

Does it run on my computer or in the cloud?

It runs on your computer. Your AI app starts it when needed, and data does not pass through the maker’s servers (unless it calls an online service itself).

Is it still maintained?

The GitHub repo last changed –, and the latest version (0.12.0) reached the registry 19 days ago.

Which apps can use it?

Apps that support MCP, such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code. You also need Python (uv), Node.js on your computer.

What can I use instead?

In the same category: Spec Driven Development, Remote Desktop Commander, MCP Server Autocad Lisp Helper

Alternatives

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README from the maker

Open the README

Copied from the maker’s repo as written. PopNx MCP has not reviewed or endorsed it. HTML, images and scripts are removed. Links lead off this site.

Quick start · Tools · Reference · Benchmarks · Website

PlaceRoot grounds AI agents in open map data. It's an MCP server that answers spatial questions — what's nearby, what's in this neighborhood, how do I get there — from Overture Maps open data. No API key, no signup, no vendor platform.

An independent project by vibemapper.

🎯 Answers, not data dumps. Every tool returns compact, ranked results sized for an agent's context window — never a raw GeoJSON dump.
🗺️ Real routing, zero keys. route and isochrone walk an actual street graph built from Overture's transportation segments — not a straight-line guess — anywhere on Earth.
🚶 Reachability-filtered search. find_places(..., within={"minutes": 15, "mode": "walk"}) keeps only results truly inside the street-graph walk/cycle/driveshed — not a radius that guesses at it, and not a second call to intersect a polygon yourself.
🏙️ Rich, filterable place data. Category, brand, confidence, operating status, contactability — sourced from Overture's open dataset (contributed by Meta, Uber, TomTom, and others).
📐 Boundary-accurate. Search inside a named place's real administrative polygon, not a guessed radius circle.
⚡ Zero setup. Reads Overture's public data directly — no key, no database, nothing to install beyond the server itself.

Quick start

Run it straight from PyPI or npm — no install step:

uvx placeroot             # stdio MCP server

uvx placeroot --http # HTTP endpoint at http://127.0.0.1:8321/mcp

Add to Claude Code

claude mcp add placeroot -- uvx placeroot

Add to Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

"mcpServers": { "placeroot": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["placeroot"] } } }

Add to Cursor / other MCP clients

Same config as above wherever your client keeps its MCP server list. Prefer npm? Use "command": "npx", "args": ["placeroot"].

"mcpServers": { "placeroot": { "command": "npx", "args": ["placeroot"] } } }

Then ask your agent something spatial:

*"What's around downtown Palo Alto?" · "Compare these two neighborhoods for a bike shop." · "Plan my errands: pharmacy, hardware store, post office."*

What it can do

48 tools, grouped into four families — every answer fits in a couple of thousand tokens:

Family	Tools	Answers questions like
🔍 Search & identify	`find_places`, `find_near`, `geocode`, `reverse_geocode`, `place_details`, `search_categories`, `warmup_city`, …	What cafés are near this point? Coffee near the Eiffel Tower?
📊 Area analysis	`summarize_area`, `compare_areas`, `neighborhood_verdict`, `summarize_buildings`, `land_use_at`, `transit_stops_near`, …	What's in this neighborhood, should I live here, and how does it differ from that one?
🚴 Routing	`route`, `from_to`, `isochrone`, `optimize_route`, `places_along_route`, `distance_matrix`, `travel_time_matrix`, `map_match`	How far to walk from A to B? What's reachable in 15 minutes? Best order for 6 stops? Which streets did this GPS trace actually take?
🗺️ Geometry & maps	`render_map`, `simplify_geometry`	Show me this result as an interactive map

It also ships seven workflow prompts (site selection, neighborhood comparison, errand planning, should I live here, get to know my city, verify listing claims, plan area visit) and three attachable resources — and a PLACEROOT_TOOLS setting to load only the tool profiles you need, cutting schema overhead by up to 95%.

📚 [Full tool catalog, prompts, resources & configuration → docs/REFERENCE.md](docs/REFERENCE.md)

[!NOTE]

Open data has honest limits: no live traffic, no opening hours, no ratings or photos — what PlaceRoot deliberately doesn't do. For everything else about where things are and what's reachable from them, it answers without a key.

Why PlaceRoot

It's the only keyless MCP server doing real graph routing over global open map data — with every tool declaring proper MCP annotations so clients know which calls are read-only before prompting you. Stable GERS ids let agents hold onto places across turns; local caching makes repeat queries answer in milliseconds and keeps working offline; and the whole thing is self-hostable end to end.

How it stacks up against Mapbox MCP and Google Maps MCP: head-to-head benchmarks · token-efficiency numbers.

Recreation places

Overture's places theme is derived from business listings, which makes it strong on businesses and thin on the places a family goes on a Saturday — playgrounds, neighbourhood parks, dog parks, beaches. Those features aren't missing from Overture, though; they're in a different theme. Overture's base theme is a direct conflation of OpenStreetMap, and PlaceRoot already queries it for land_use_at and infrastructure_at. The places tools read it too, by default.

Nothing is downloaded, built, or hosted — it's one more live scan of the same public Overture release, and it roughly 2.5xes playground coverage (1,552 vs 674 across New York City, measured once on release 2026-07-22.0 — counts drift release to release — with 1,013 of them more than 150 m from any places-theme playground). Every places tool answers from both at once, with no other change: same tools, same response shape, same category filters.

The cost is a second dataset scan per places query (cached like everything else), and these rows carry no confidence or operating_status and are often unnamed — an unnamed playground comes back with name: null rather than being dropped. If you'd rather have the latency than the coverage:

export PLACEROOT_RECREATION_LAYER=0

data_version reports the layer whenever it's active. Full details, including why live Overpass queries and raw OSM Parquet were measured and rejected: docs/RECREATION.md.

Development

uv sync           # install dev dependencies

uv run pytest # offline test suite uv run ruff check .

See CONTRIBUTING.md for dev setup, design rules, and how to propose a tool. Other docs: CHANGELOG · SECURITY · publishing · website · running a data mirror · the recreation layer

Contact

hello@placeroot.dev

Developed by vibemapper.

Privacy Policy

PlaceRoot runs on your machine — no account, no API key, no sign-up. It has no telemetry and sends nothing to us; the only network traffic is your own queries going straight to Overture Maps' public data on AWS S3 (or a mirror you configure). Full details: placeroot.dev/privacy.html.

License and attribution

The code is MIT. The data it queries is the Overture Maps public release, licensed per theme — places under CDLA-Permissive-2.0; the OSM-derived themes (divisions, transportation, base) under ODbL, which asks for attribution on anything user-facing you build from them:

© Overture Maps Foundation · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)

Per-theme obligations: docs/DATA-LICENSE.md.

mcp-name: io.github.chuofringer/placeroot

PlaceRoot

Overview

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

What you can do with it

Install

Before you install

Values you fill in

What it can do

Basic checksi

Maker matches the repo

Still maintained

Has a licence

Endpoint responds

Sign-in with OAuth

No hidden instructions in tool descriptions

Compared with others in Otheri

Common questions

Alternatives

Spec Driven Development

Remote Desktop Commander

MCP Server Autocad Lisp Helper

README from the maker

Quick start

What it can do

Why PlaceRoot

Recreation places

Development

Contact

Privacy Policy

License and attribution