2,605 stars · MIT · v3.1.0 (2026-07-06) · Track this in Scout
A visual editor for the design of a vector map, which otherwise means editing a long settings file by guesswork.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
Maputnik is an editor for the MapLibre Style Specification, the open format that says how a vector map should be drawn. It began as one person's project in 2015 and is now maintained by the MapLibre organisation.
What it is good for. Anyone putting a map on a page and finding the default look wrong. Changing a map's style by editing the settings file means guessing, saving, reloading and guessing again. Here you pick a layer, change a colour or a width, and the map in front of you changes. It is also the quickest way to understand how those style files are built, because you can watch the file change as you click.
- A rename, and the handover is written into the licence file. It was
maputnik/editorand is nowmaplibre/maputnik. The MIT licence file at/blob/main/LICENSEcarries two copyright lines — "Copyright (c) 2015 Lukas Martinelli" and "Copyright (c) 2024 MapLibre contributors" — which records the move from one author to a community organisation rather than leaving it to a blog post. - There is nothing to install if you do not want to. The project's own hosted editor runs at maplibre.org/maputnik and its README says plainly that everything stays in the browser's local storage, so no style of yours reaches a server.
- Release v3.1.0 of 6 July 2026 added a control for the map projection — globe or flat — and a code editor for the whole style file beside the menus, so you can drop into the raw file when the menus run out.
- The release is nearly three months old and the release page itself says "185 commits to main since this release". The newest code landed on 18 August 2026. So the published version is well behind the project, and the hosted editor is ahead of the download.
- It only edits the design. It does not make map data, host tiles or serve anything, so you still need a tile source from somewhere else before the editor is useful.
- 84 open issues against 7 pull requests, for a project with 2,605 stars. This is a small volunteer effort inside a larger organisation, not a staffed product.
- maplibre/maplibre-gl-js
The thing that actually draws the map in a browser and reads the style file this editor writes, so it is the other half of the same job rather than an alternative.
Track this in Scout - openmaptiles/openmaptiles
Supplies the map data and a set of ready-made styles, which overlaps the styling part but through files you edit by hand rather than a window.
Track this in Scout - protomaps/basemaps
A smaller, newer project producing both the data and the cartography in one bundle, aimed at people who want a finished look rather than a tool for making one.
Track this in Scout
# nothing to install: open https://www.maplibre.org/maputnik/ # or run it locally in a container (a sealed box that holds the # program and everything it needs, so it cannot disturb anything else) docker run -it --rm -p 8888:8000 ghcr.io/maplibre/maputnik:main # then open http://localhost:8888 # or from source, with Node.js at the current long-term-support version or newer npm install npm run start
