Atlas

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  Atlas

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Inspiration

I always liked globes and maps.

For many topics it helps to look at it on a map to get a better feeling for it.

What it does

Atlas can show you whatever you are interested in on a 3D globe you can spin around and zoom in on

• All the places I've ever visited?
• Sunken ships?
• Active volcanos?
• Recent tornados and tsumanis?
• Earthquakes?
• Which countries are part of the EU?
• Where are all the IKEAs worldwide?
• Where are Washington State and Washington DC?

You can have ChatGPT research anything for you and update the globe!

How we built it

Using ChatGPT Desktop app, WebMCP docs, DuckDB (via WebAssembly), globe.gl and Cloudflare for static site hosting.

And lots and lots of iterations with ChatGPT Desktop (with GPT 5.6 Sol).

Looking at the browser, checking how the tools are used and how often, if anything can be simplified or improved like less UI, less wording, fewer tools, fewer dependencies in the codebase, faster loading times.

Challenges we ran into

Getting good datasets to have examples, loading times of the app (e.g. getting to a reasonable time to interactivity)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Everything works in the browser via static assets and via WebMCP.
• No need to configure anything, no need to set up a complex backend.
• Datasets can be added via WebMCP.
• Easy to build upon (change look and feel of the globe, use different datasets, …)

What we learned

Current models are already very capable and it helps them to have a direct way of expressing something 'in one go' where humans would perhaps use multiple steps and tools.

That's why instead of providing dozens of tools to work with data and the globe visualization I've settled on just a handful of more generic but powerful declarative tool calls like using SQL and sending a declarative JSON for visualizing data on the globe that cover many use cases at once and compose well.

What's next for Atlas

Helping others find out about it, loading data, explaining things, adapting Atlas to something that works for them whether in education, research, work or fun.

Built With

• duckdb
• globe.gl
• webmcp