/maplibre-pmtiles-patterns

name: maplibre-pmtiles-patterns
description: Serverless vector and raster tiles with PMTiles for MapLibre GL JS — single-file format, HTTP range requests, hosting on S3/R2/GitHub Pages, generating with Planetiler or tippecanoe, and the pmtiles protocol. Use when you need no tile server or want to host tiles from static storage.
status: verified

MapLibre PMTiles Patterns

PMTiles is a single-file format for vector or raster map tiles. You host one (or a few) files on any static host; MapLibre requests byte ranges over HTTP. No tile server, no dynamic backend. This skill covers when to use PMTiles, how to generate and host them, and how to connect them to MapLibre GL JS.

When to Use This Skill

• Hosting map tiles without running a tile server (S3, Cloudflare R2, GitHub Pages, etc.)
• Building a fully static or serverless map stack
• Serving large tile sets from a CDN with range requests
• Generating PMTiles from OSM or other sources (Planetiler, tippecanoe)
• Using Overture Maps or other single-file tile datasets with MapLibre

What PMTiles Is and Why It Matters

• **Vector and raster** — PMTiles supports both. A file can contain vector layers (e.g. water, roads, POIs), raster imagery (PNG/JPEG), or raster-dem (elevation, e.g. Terrarium format for terrain). In the style you use `type: 'vector'`, `type: 'raster'`, or `type: 'raster-dem'` accordingly.
• **Single file per map** — One `.pmtiles` file typically contains the full tile pyramid (all zoom levels) and all layers (vector or raster) in one archive. The format stores tiles in a compact layout (e.g. Hilbert curve) so the client can request only the byte ranges it needs. For very large coverage you may split by region into multiple files.
• **HTTP range requests** — The client requests only the byte ranges it needs (e.g. one tile), so the server does not need to understand x/y/z. Any host that supports `Range` headers works.
• **Serving** — You can serve directly from static storage (S3, R2, GitHub Pages, Netlify): the client uses range requests, so no tile server is required. Alternatively, [tileserver-gl](https://github.com/maptiler/tileserver-gl) or [Martin](https://maplibre.org/martin/) can serve PMTiles (from local paths, HTTP URLs, or S3), useful if you want one server that also provides styles, glyphs, or other sources.
• **Creating** — You can get PMTiles by converting from MBTiles (PMTiles CLI) or by generating from source data (Planetiler, tippecanoe, GDAL, etc.). Alternatively, [**Protomaps**](https://protomaps.com) is a provider where you can download pre-built PMTiles (e.g. global or regional basemaps) and serve them yourself, or create custom extracts via the PMTiles CLI—no need to generate from OSM yourself. Protomaps basemaps are built from OpenStreetMap data; **OSM attribution is required** in any map that uses them. See _The PMTiles CLI_ and _Generating PMTiles_ below.
• **Good for CDNs** — Range requests cache well; put the file behind a CDN for fast global access.

**When to prefer PMTiles over a traditional tile server:**

• You want zero server logic (static hosting only).
• You have a bounded dataset (country, region, theme) that fits in one or a few files.
• You want simple deployment and low ops (upload file, set cache headers, done).

**When to prefer a tile server (e.g. tileserver-gl, Martin):**

• You need dynamic tiles from a database (PostGIS) or frequently updated data.
• You have a very large global dataset and want to generate tiles on demand or by region only.

MapLibre Integration: The PMTiles Protocol

MapLibre does not speak PMTiles natively. You use the **PMTiles** library to add a protocol handler so that a `pmtiles://` (or `https://` to a .pmtiles file) source works.

**Install:**

npm install pmtiles

**Register the protocol and use in a style:**

import * as pmtiles from 'pmtiles';
import * as maplibregl from 'maplibre-gl';
import 'maplibre-gl/dist/maplibre-gl.css';

// Add PMTiles protocol so sources can reference .pmtiles URLs
const protocol = new pmtiles.Protocol();
maplibregl.addProtocol('pmtiles', protocol.tile);

const map = new maplibregl.Map({
  container: 'map',
  style: {
    version: 8,
    sources: {
      tiles: {
        type: 'vector',
        url: 'pmtiles://https://example.com/data.pmtiles'
      }
    },
    layers: [
      {
        id: 'background',
        type: 'background',
        paint: { 'background-color': '#f8f4f0' }
      },
      {
        id: 'water',
        type: 'fill',
        source: 'tiles',
        'source-layer': 'water',
        paint: { 'fill-color': '#a0c8f0' }
      }
      // add more layers as needed — each uses the same source, different 'source-layer'
    ]
  },
  center: [0, 0],
  zoom: 2
});

// Optional: remove protocol on map teardown
// map.on('remove', () => maplibregl.removeProtocol('pmtiles'));

**`addProtocol` changed in MapLibre GL JS 4.0.0.** The v3 `(params, callback)` signature is gone — the 4.0.0 changelog entry reads "Changes `addProtocol` to be promise-based without the usage of callbacks and cancelable". A handler is now `async (params, abortController)` and must resolve to **an object with a `data` property**: `{data, cacheControl?, expires?}`. Resolving to a bare `ArrayBuffer`, `Blob`, `Response` or `Uint8Array` is not the contract — MapLibre reads `.data` off whatever the handler resolves with, so a bare buffer reads as no data at all and an `arrayBuffer` request is filled with an empty `ArrayBuffer(0)`: the tile comes back blank instead of erroring. Register the handler on the module — `maplibregl.addProtocol(...)`, or the named `addProtocol` import — once, before the first map is constructed: the protocol registry is global, so one registration covers every map on the page.

// ❌ v3 — on v4+ the second argument is an AbortController, so callback(...) throws,
// and the returned {cancel} has no data: the tile comes back blank
maplibregl.addProtocol('custom', (params, callb