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Apache Baremaps

ANALYTICS
Velocity0.0

Toolkit for creating vector tiles and geospatial data pipelines from OpenStreetMap

baremaps.apache.org ↗

Baremaps got geoparquet and hillshading, then went quiet for eighteen months in incubation

geospatialvector-tilesopenstreetmapapache-incubatorgeoparquet
◆Current state
Apache Baremaps is a pipeline for building vector map tiles from OpenStreetMap and raster sources, still carrying the incubating designation across every release in this window. The work splits between format support and the tile-serving path: geoparquet reading arrived in 0.8.1 along with vector contours and hillshades generated from raster tiles, while 0.8.2 fixed a Postgres tile store performance issue and added a materialized-views refresher. Release notes open with the same appeal for new contributors every time, which is itself a signal about the size of the community.
◆Where it's heading
Two threads are visible. One is broadening what Baremaps can read and produce — geoparquet in, terrain-derived vector layers out — which pushes it past OSM-to-tiles toward a general geospatial pipeline. The other is making the Postgres-backed tile store hold up under load, with version-dependent query generation and materialized view refreshing suggesting real deployments hit its limits. Cadence has been slowing throughout: roughly nine months between 0.7.1 and 0.7.2, eleven to 0.8.1, then two months to 0.8.2, and nothing published since February 2025.
◆Prediction
The entries offer no roadmap statement, and eighteen months without a release makes the incubation status the open question rather than the feature set; nothing here indicates whether graduation or dormancy is the more likely next step.

◆Recent moves

  1. 1y ago

    Baremaps 0.8.2 fixes Postgres tile store performance

    Performance work on the Postgres tile store plus a materialized-views refresher and queries generated per Postgres version — the profile of a project responding to deployments rather than adding features. It is the last release published here.

    View source ↗
  2. 1y ago

    Baremaps 0.8.1 adds geoparquet, contours and hillshades

    The most capability-expanding release in this window: geoparquet support opens a widely used columnar geospatial format as an input, and generating vector contours and hillshades from raster tiles means Baremaps now produces terrain layers rather than only reprojecting what it was given. A performance regression identified by a contributor was also fixed here.

    View source ↗
  3. 2y ago

    Baremaps 0.7.2 is release packaging and dependency upkeep

    Mostly ASF release-process compliance — the apache- tar prefix, missing files added, unwanted folders excluded — alongside a maplibre-gl bump and workflow reporting improvements. Incubation overhead rather than product change.

    View source ↗
  4. 3y ago

    Baremaps ships its first release under the Apache Foundation

    The first release after joining the ASF, and the content reflects that: Google code style adopted, the root package renamed, and a forked dependency replaced with the upstream one. Governance work rather than features, but it is the release that set the project's structure for everything after.

    View source ↗