OpenStreetMapi

OpenStreetMapi is a community-driven platform designed to provide a programmatic interface to OpenStreetMap data. It functions as an alternative or complement to the standard OpenStreetMap API, offering a RESTful interface for querying features, retrieving map elements, and accessing edit history. The project seeks to improve developer experience by delivering consistent endpoints, richer query capabilities, and built-in tooling such as pagination, rate limiting, and authentication.

The API is built around the OpenStreetMap data model, which comprises nodes, ways, and relations that define geographic features. OpenStreetMapi exposes these elements in JSON and GeoJSON formats, supports spatial queries by bounding boxes and polygons, and provides metadata about contributors and version history. Data licensing follows the Open Database License (ODbL) for data, with the software itself typically released under an open-source license to encourage community contribution.

OpenStreetMapi operates as a community-governed project, with governance docs, contribution guidelines, and a code repository that welcomes maintainers, developers, and volunteers. It aims for interoperability with the broader OpenStreetMap ecosystem, offering compatibility layers and export options aligned with OSM standards.

Reception and use: Proponents highlight a more modern developer experience, easier integration with contemporary web services, and improved tooling for researchers and civic tech. Critics raise concerns about fragmentation, potential divergence from the core OSM API behavior, and questions about synchronization and governance processes. OpenStreetMapi remains a secondary API within the OpenStreetMap ecosystem, used by communities seeking alternative access patterns.