🗺️ OpenRoute MCP

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to plan routes using the OpenRouteService API, for activities such as hiking or mountain biking.

[!CAUTION]

DISCLAIMER: The routes generated by this service are provided for informational purposes only and are not guaranteed to be safe, legal, or suitable for your intended use. Always verify routes independently using official maps, local authorities, and current conditions before attempting any journey. Users assume all risks and responsibilities for their safety and compliance with local laws and regulations.

[!TIP]

Copy the whole GPX file returned as part of the tool call results, and use a service such as gpx.studio to load the generated GPX file on a map.

🛠️ Available tools

• 📍 Find possible coordinates for a location
  • Arguments:
    • location (string): location to get coordinates for
  • Returns: list of 10 coordinates with available description to enable the agent figure out the right one
• 🏠 Find possible locations (addresses) for given coordinates.
  • Arguments:
    • lon (float): Longitude of the location
    • lat (float): Latitude of the location
  • Returns: list of objects close to the given coordinates
• 🗺️ Create a route from a starting location to a destination, optionally with waypoints
  • Arguments:
    • route_type (string): Type of route, e.g. "cycling-mountain", "cycling-regular", "foot-hiking", "driving-car"
    • from_coordinates (list[float]): Starting location as [longitude, latitude]
    • from_coordinates (list[float]): Destination location as [longitude, latitude]
    • waypoints (list[list[float]]): optional list of waypoints coordinates as [[lon, lat], ...]
  • Returns:
    • a resource file containing the route GPX (e.g. route://foot-hiking-98.gpx)
    • a resource file containing a PNG image visualization of the route (e.g. route://foot-hiking-98.png)
    • a resource file containing a HTML interactive visualization of the route (e.g. route://foot-hiking-98.html) that can be directly opened with your browser
• 📌 Search for Points of Interest (POIs) in an area
  • Arguments:
    • bounding_box_coordinates (list[list[float]]): coordinates defining a bounding box as [[min_lon, min_lat], [max_lon, max_lat]]
    • filters_name (list[string]): optional list of names to filter POIs, e.g. ["Gas station", "Restaurant"]
  • Returns: found POIs information
• 🔎 Search for known routes close to a given start and end coordinates, this enables to suggest waypoints to go through known trails when creating a route. It is only working in Switzerland for now thanks to the Swiss Confederation api3.geo.admin.ch 🇨🇭
  • Arguments:
    • route_type (string): Type of route, e.g. "cycling-mountain", "cycling-regular", "foot-hiking", "driving-car"
    • from_coordinates (list[float]): Starting location as [longitude, latitude]
    • from_coordinates (list[float]): Destination location as [longitude, latitude]
  • Returns: known trails trace and description when available to help the agent build a nice route
• ⏱️ Computes the area that can be reached within a given time or distance from one or more starting points.

  • Arguments:

    • coordinates_list: 1 or more coordinates to compute reachable area from as [[lon, lat], ...]
    • route_type: Type of route, e.g. "cycling-mountain", "cycling-regular", "foot-hiking", "driving-car"
    • range_type: Type of range, either time (in seconds) or distance (in metres)
    • area_range: maximum range value of the analysis in seconds for time and metres for distance. Or a comma separated list of specific range values

  • Returns: Reachable area information in GeoJSON format

🗃️ Available Resources

• 🚏 Route files
  • URL pattern: route://{filename}
  • Type: GPX (.gpx), HTML (.html), or PNG (.png)
  • Description: Returns a previously generated route file by filename.
  • Produced by: create_route_from_to tool

🔌 Connect client to MCP server

Follow the instructions of your client, and use the /mcp URL of your deployed server (e.g. http://localhost:8888/mcp)

For example, for GitHub Copilot in VSCode, to add a new MCP server through the VSCode UI:

• Open side panel chat (ctrl+shift+i or cmd+shift+i), and make sure the mode is set to Agent in the bottom right
• Open command palette (ctrl+shift+p or cmd+shift+p), and search for MCP: Open User Configuration, this will open a mcp.json file

⌨️ Use stdio transport

[!IMPORTANT]

Login with GitHub to openrouteservice.org and get an API key that you can provide through the OPENROUTESERVICE_API_KEY environment variable.

OPENROUTESERVICE_API_KEY=YYY uvx openroute-mcp

In VSCode mcp.json file you should have:

{
  "servers": {
    "openroute-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "openroute-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OPENROUTESERVICE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

[!IMPORTANT]

Click on Start just on top of "openroute-mcp" to start the connection to the MCP server.

You can click the wrench and screwdriver button 🛠️ (Configure Tools...) to enable/disable specific tools

Full details of the CLI options:

usage: openroute-mcp [-h] [--http] [--port PORT] [--openroute-api OPENROUTE_API] [--openroute-api-key OPENROUTE_API_KEY]
                     [--data-folder DATA_FOLDER] [--no-save] [--no-img] [--add-html]

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for building routes using OpenRouteService.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --http                Use Streamable HTTP transport
  --port PORT           Port to run the server on
  --openroute-api OPENROUTE_API
                        OpenRouteService API URL (default: https://api.openrouteservice.org)
  --openroute-api-key OPENROUTE_API_KEY
                        OpenRouteService API key (default: taken from env var OPENROUTESERVICE_API_KEY)
  --data-folder DATA_FOLDER
                        Folder to save generated routes
  --no-save             Don't save generated routes to disk (also disable image and HTML generation)
  --no-img              Do not add PNG image visualization of the routes to the response (image not supported by all LLMs)
  --add-html            Add HTML interactive map for routes to the response (larger context used)

📡 Use streamable HTTP server

Connect to a running streamable HTTP MCP server, such as openroute-mcp.onrender.com/mcp

In VSCode mcp.json you should have the following:

{
  "servers": {
    "openroute-mcp-http": {
      "url": "https://openroute-mcp.onrender.com/mcp",
      "type": "http"
    }
  }
}

[!CAUTION]

The routes created on a public MCP server will be publicly available to anyone.

More details available in the VSCode MCP official docs.

🧑‍💻 Development

Checkout the CONTRIBUTING.md page for more details on running in development and contributing.