π Earthly is becoming much more than a web map.
Over the past few weeks, we have made a big step towards an open geographic workspace that can be used on the web, installed on your devices, shared privately, and carried into places without reliable internet.
The most important new features are:
π§ A new tour page
π± The Earthly app
π Private groups β public alpha
ποΈ Offline-capable Field sessions
β¨ A massively improved AI map editor
π§ A new tour page
The new Earthly tour introduces the project through real workflows: drafting operational maps, asking spatial questions, collaborating across devices, publishing map-backed stories, and drawing offline from a phone.
Take the tour to get a better understanding of Earthly, its features, and its capabilities:
https://earthly.city/tour
π± Earthly is now an app
The Android app contains the complete Earthly workspace, adapted for touch, plus capabilities browsers cannot reliably provide: an embedded local node, Nostr relay, #Blossom server, saved offline regions, nearby Field sessions, and a durable delivery queue. All built on #nostr technology.
Android on Zapstore:
https://zapstore.dev/apps/naddr1qqxxx6t50yhx2ctjw35xc7gprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9uju7npwpehgmmjv5hxgetkqgsxaamh579jgp06666dk2npjytygyfrkq70zjrgszzzsrd32sua43qrqsqqqlstt49k8z
macOS preview for Apple silicon:
https://github.com/zeSchlausKwab/earthly/releases/latest/download/earthly-macos-aarch64.dmg
β οΈ The macOS build is currently an unsigned, unnotarized preview.
π Private groups β public alpha
Private groups combine encrypted chat, comments, maps, and shared geometry in one workspace. Earthly uses MLS β Messaging Layer Security β to encrypt group records and update the cryptographic epoch whenever membership changes.
Cordn coordinates membership and orders delivery through @ContextVM over Nostr, but only receives opaque MLS records. It does not receive plaintext messages or maps. Invitations are signed, joining requires an MLS key package, and an administrator must approve new members.
π Join our Earthly test group -> the link is at the bottom of this post!
β οΈ Private groups are still alpha. The MLS implementation is release-candidate software and has not received an independent professional security audit. Please experiment with us, report problems, and do not yet rely on it for highly sensitive or safety-critical coordination.
β¨ A much more capable AI mapping assistant
Earthlyβs AI chat can now inspect the current map, research places, query geographic sources, create and revise structured geometry, and turn the resulting Dataset into an article with inline map references.
Tip: Try Kimi 2.7 code highspeed via the moonshot API. - ITS FUCKING FACEMELTING π
Its actions remain inspectable, and everything it creates becomes editable GeoJSON β not a screenshot or a closed AI artifact.
π§ Technically, the assistant combines typed editor tools, a bounded QuickJS geospatial sandbox, and remote ContextVM/MCP tools. Geographic research is federated across OpenStreetMap and Overpass, Wikipedia, Wikidata, and our private SearXNG service.
π Belt and Road map plus referenced article:
π’ Persian Gulf ports and global shipping routes:
ποΈ Offline maps and nearby Field sessions
The native app embeds its own Nostr relay and Blossom file service. Saved regions can keep map tiles and referenced resources on the device, verify them by hash, and load them locally.
Signed publications enter a durable SQLite outbox before the first network attempt and can be delivered byte-for-byte when connectivity returns.
π‘ Field sessions are a separate nearby collaboration mode. A host creates a signed, expiring, single-use invitation. Another phone joins over shared Wi-Fi or a hotspot, signs the pairing claim, and waits for explicit host approval.
The resulting permission is capability- and session-scoped. Devices can then exchange verified Nostr records and hash-verified Blossom files without depending on an internet connection or central relay.
π οΈ And many smaller improvements
Earthly now has proper multi-step drawing for rectangles, circles, triangles, and arrows; scaling controls with meaningful handles; larger arrowheads; real dashed lines; centered line labels; deletion for Private groups and Field sessions; a cleaner and collapsible AI configuration interface; better toast placement; model switching; and a swipeable mobile tour slider.
π± Earthly remains open source and built around open geography, open protocols, and user-controlled data.
πΊοΈ Open Earthly:
https://earthly.city
Over the past few weeks, we have made a big step towards an open geographic workspace that can be used on the web, installed on your devices, shared privately, and carried into places without reliable internet.
The most important new features are:
π§ A new tour page
π± The Earthly app
π Private groups β public alpha
ποΈ Offline-capable Field sessions
β¨ A massively improved AI map editor
π§ A new tour page
The new Earthly tour introduces the project through real workflows: drafting operational maps, asking spatial questions, collaborating across devices, publishing map-backed stories, and drawing offline from a phone.
Take the tour to get a better understanding of Earthly, its features, and its capabilities:
https://earthly.city/tour
π± Earthly is now an app
The Android app contains the complete Earthly workspace, adapted for touch, plus capabilities browsers cannot reliably provide: an embedded local node, Nostr relay, #Blossom server, saved offline regions, nearby Field sessions, and a durable delivery queue. All built on #nostr technology.
Android on Zapstore:
https://zapstore.dev/apps/naddr1qqxxx6t50yhx2ctjw35xc7gprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9uju7npwpehgmmjv5hxgetkqgsxaamh579jgp06666dk2npjytygyfrkq70zjrgszzzsrd32sua43qrqsqqqlstt49k8z
macOS preview for Apple silicon:
https://github.com/zeSchlausKwab/earthly/releases/latest/download/earthly-macos-aarch64.dmg
β οΈ The macOS build is currently an unsigned, unnotarized preview.
π Private groups β public alpha
Private groups combine encrypted chat, comments, maps, and shared geometry in one workspace. Earthly uses MLS β Messaging Layer Security β to encrypt group records and update the cryptographic epoch whenever membership changes.
Cordn coordinates membership and orders delivery through @ContextVM over Nostr, but only receives opaque MLS records. It does not receive plaintext messages or maps. Invitations are signed, joining requires an MLS key package, and an administrator must approve new members.
π Join our Earthly test group -> the link is at the bottom of this post!
β οΈ Private groups are still alpha. The MLS implementation is release-candidate software and has not received an independent professional security audit. Please experiment with us, report problems, and do not yet rely on it for highly sensitive or safety-critical coordination.
β¨ A much more capable AI mapping assistant
Earthlyβs AI chat can now inspect the current map, research places, query geographic sources, create and revise structured geometry, and turn the resulting Dataset into an article with inline map references.
Tip: Try Kimi 2.7 code highspeed via the moonshot API. - ITS FUCKING FACEMELTING π
Its actions remain inspectable, and everything it creates becomes editable GeoJSON β not a screenshot or a closed AI artifact.
π§ Technically, the assistant combines typed editor tools, a bounded QuickJS geospatial sandbox, and remote ContextVM/MCP tools. Geographic research is federated across OpenStreetMap and Overpass, Wikipedia, Wikidata, and our private SearXNG service.
π Belt and Road map plus referenced article:
π’ Persian Gulf ports and global shipping routes:
ποΈ Offline maps and nearby Field sessions
The native app embeds its own Nostr relay and Blossom file service. Saved regions can keep map tiles and referenced resources on the device, verify them by hash, and load them locally.
Signed publications enter a durable SQLite outbox before the first network attempt and can be delivered byte-for-byte when connectivity returns.
π‘ Field sessions are a separate nearby collaboration mode. A host creates a signed, expiring, single-use invitation. Another phone joins over shared Wi-Fi or a hotspot, signs the pairing claim, and waits for explicit host approval.
The resulting permission is capability- and session-scoped. Devices can then exchange verified Nostr records and hash-verified Blossom files without depending on an internet connection or central relay.
π οΈ And many smaller improvements
Earthly now has proper multi-step drawing for rectangles, circles, triangles, and arrows; scaling controls with meaningful handles; larger arrowheads; real dashed lines; centered line labels; deletion for Private groups and Field sessions; a cleaner and collapsible AI configuration interface; better toast placement; model switching; and a swipeable mobile tour slider.
π± Earthly remains open source and built around open geography, open protocols, and user-controlled data.
πΊοΈ Open Earthly:
https://earthly.city
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