LoginSign Up
← Back to all sparks
G

GRASS GIS

DEVOPS
Velocity0.0

Geospatial analysis and modeling system for raster and vector data

grass.osgeo.org ↗

GRASS dropped the GIS from its name and gave Python users a real API.

geospatialpython-apijupyterjson-outputparallelisationrebrand
◆Current state
GRASS 8.5.0 landed in May 2026 with more than 2,570 changes since 8.4.2, a rebrand from GRASS GIS to GRASS with a new logo, and documentation rewritten in Markdown under MkDocs. The headline technical change is grass.tools, a Python API that calls GRASS tools as functions with direct NumPy array and raster pack I/O. Parallelisation was extended across r.mapcalc, r.texture, r.horizon and v.surf.rst, and JSON output now covers dozens of tools.
◆Where it's heading
GRASS has spent three releases making itself scriptable from outside its own shell. 8.4.0 renamed location to project and started the JSON output push; 8.4.1 and 8.4.2 broadened it; 8.5.0 finished the job with a first-class Python entry point and expanded grass.jupyter with interactive region updates and parallelised time-series maps. A forty-year-old command-line GIS is repositioning as a library that Python data workflows import.
◆Prediction
With grass.tools established, expect the next cycle to extend JSON output and direct array I/O to the tools that still require file round-trips.

◆Recent moves

  1. 3mo ago

    grass.tools Python API, NumPy I/O and a rebrand to GRASS

    ⚡ SPARK

    The release that completes the scriptability arc started in 8.4.0. A Python API with direct NumPy and raster pack I/O removes the file round-trip that kept GRASS out of data pipelines, and the rebrand plus rewritten docs signal the project knows it is courting a different audience.

    View source ↗
  2. 3mo ago

    GRASS 8.5.0RC1

    The release candidate for 8.5.0, published a day before the final and listing the same headline features with a slightly lower change count. It is the same body of work, not a separate step.

    View source ↗
  3. 8mo ago

    Evapotranspiration conversion error corrected in i.evapo.mh

    A maintenance release whose errata matter more than its 35 fixes: i.evapo.mh had been overstating evapotranspiration by using 86.4 instead of 0.0864, meaning published results computed with it are wrong by orders of magnitude.

    View source ↗
  4. 1y ago

    New parallel watershed and slope-unit addons; notarized Mac binaries

    Eighty-plus fixes plus five new addon toolsets, including OpenMP parallel watershed delineation and GDAL VRT creation. Notarized Mac binaries remove an install obstacle that had been pushing macOS users away.

    View source ↗
  5. 1y ago

    GRASS GIS 8.4.1RC1

    The candidate for 8.4.1, listing essentially the same highlights and addons as the final release three months later. Included for completeness rather than as a distinct change.

    View source ↗
  6. 2y ago

    location becomes project; JSON output and SVM classification arrive

    The release that started the current direction: renaming location to project across the Python API, CLI and GUI, and introducing JSON output as a format option. New tools i.svm and v.fill.holes plus the grass.jupyter SeriesMap class round it out.

    View source ↗