Capabilities/Data
Data discovery
MAIA's data discovery takes a question that core data cannot answer and returns a public GIS layer, found during the run, clipped to the project's county, and saved with its source and usage terms.
What it answers#
Questions about things a local government maps and MAIA does not hold: a planned road, a utility service area, a zoning overlay. MAIA reaches for discovery only when core data does not answer. See Data.
You ask
Find retail-zoned corner lots near newly approved roads.
What you get#
A new layer in the project, holding the public layer's features inside your county. Open the layer to read its description. It records five things.
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Source | What it holdsThe publisher and the address of the service |
| Area | What it holdsThe county the layer was clipped to |
| Subset | What it holdsThe filter applied, in plain language, when there is one |
| Source choice | What it holdsWhy the agent picked this layer over the others |
| Usage terms | What it holdsThe license the publisher states |
Note
Read the usage terms before you export or publish a discovered layer. The agent skips a layer whose license restricts your use, but the terms are the publisher's, and they travel with the layer so that you can read them yourself.
How it works#
- Search. The agent searches public GIS catalogs for layers that cover the county.
- Inspect. For each candidate, the agent reads the publisher, the fields, the number of features in the county, the last edit date, and the license.
- Choose. The agent picks the candidate that answers the question.
- Fetch. MAIA pulls the features, clips them to the county boundary, and saves the layer. A feature that crosses the boundary is cut at it.
Discovery happens inside a run, and the run spends credits like any other. See What uses credits.
Refresh a layer#
Ask MAIA to refresh the layer. It pulls the features again from the same source with the same filter, so the layer is as current as its publisher.
Limits#
- Over 10,000 features, the fetch is narrowed by an attribute, such as one zoning class, so the layer fits. MAIA tells you which filter it applied.
- The project needs a county. Discovery works inside one county and clips to it.
- Public GIS services only. MAIA reads layers that a publisher serves publicly. It does not read open data portals of other kinds, and some services cannot be fetched.
- A discovered layer is as current as its publisher. The last edit date is in the description.
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Features per fetch | Value10,000 |
In the app and over MCP#
| Where | How |
|---|---|
| The web app | HowState the objective in chat. MAIA reports the layer it found and why it chose it |
| MCP | HowState the objective in the request of create_project or the message of send_message. The agent can find and add a public layer in the same run |
Related#
- Core data is what MAIA checks first.
- Web research answers what no layer holds.