Sightline

Geospatial infrastructure intelligence platform for discovering and analyzing physical-world assets using OpenStreetMap data.

Overview

Sightline enables searching, monitoring, and analyzing real-world infrastructure including:

• Telecommunications towers and data centers
• Power plants, substations, and energy storage
• Airports, helipads, and cable transport (gondolas, funiculars)
• Ports, harbours, piers, and maritime facilities
• Warehouses and industrial facilities
• Pipelines, refineries, and energy infrastructure
• Military installations
• Hospitals, prisons, embassies, and government facilities
• Surveillance cameras and emergency infrastructure
• Transportation hubs (train stations, bus stations, taxi stands)

And many more asset types across 30+ categories with over 200 searchable infrastructure types.

Architecture

flowchart TB
    classDef frontend fill:#6366f1,stroke:#4338ca,color:#fff
    classDef backend fill:#0ea5e9,stroke:#0284c7,color:#fff
    classDef external fill:#f59e0b,stroke:#d97706,color:#fff

    subgraph FE["Frontend"]
        SearchBar["SearchBar"]
        Filters["Filters"]
        ResultList["ResultList"]
        MapView["MapView — Leaflet.js"]
    end

    subgraph BE["Backend"]
        route["route.ts — Request Handler"]
        parser["parser.ts — NLP Engine"]
        geo["geo.ts — Geocoding"]
        overpass["overpass.ts — OSM Query Builder"]
        cache["cache.ts — Cache Layer"]
    end

    subgraph EX["External APIs"]
        Nominatim["Nominatim — Geocoding API"]
        OverpassAPI["Overpass API — OSM Data"]
    end

    SearchBar & Filters & ResultList & MapView -->|"POST /api/search"| route

    route -->|"parse query"| parser
    route -->|"resolve location"| geo
    route -->|"fetch POIs"| overpass
    route <-->|"read / write"| cache

    geo -->|"geocode"| Nominatim
    overpass -->|"QL query"| OverpassAPI

    class SearchBar,Filters,ResultList,MapView frontend
    class route,parser,geo,overpass,cache backend
    class Nominatim,OverpassAPI external

Data Sources

OpenStreetMap

All infrastructure data comes from OpenStreetMap, a collaborative mapping project. OSM data is crowd-sourced and may contain inaccuracies or gaps.

Nominatim

Geographic resolution uses the Nominatim geocoding service to convert place names to bounding boxes and coordinates.

Overpass API

Infrastructure queries execute against the Overpass API, which provides read-only access to OSM data.

Query Syntax

Natural Language

telecom towers in karnataka
power plants near mumbai
data centers in california
airports in germany

Structured Queries

type:telecom operator:airtel region:karnataka
type:data_center operator:google
type:substation region:texas
type:airport country:france

Supported Parameters

Supported Asset Types

Energy & Power

Telecommunications

Oil, Gas & Mining

Water & Utilities

Aviation

Maritime

Rail & Transit

Structures

Industrial & Commercial

Military & Defense

Government & Public Safety

Education & Research

Healthcare

Culture & Entertainment

Tourism & Leisure

Religious

Historic

Agriculture

Services

Public Utilities

Cable Transport

Emergency Infrastructure (Additional)

Commercial & Retail

Shared Mobility

Science & Research (Additional)

Construction

Food & Beverage Production

Food Services

Recreation

Water Features

Monitoring & Weather

Community Facilities

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm

Setup

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Project Structure

app/
├── page.tsx              # Main application page
├── layout.tsx            # Root layout
├── globals.css           # Global styles
└── api/
    └── search/
        └── route.ts      # Search API endpoint

components/
├── SearchBar.tsx         # Query input
├── Filters.tsx           # Filter sidebar
├── ResultList.tsx        # Results display
├── MapView.tsx           # Leaflet map
├── ShareButton.tsx       # Share functionality
└── ui/
    └── scroll-area.tsx   # UI components

lib/
├── types.ts              # Type definitions
├── parser.ts             # Query parsing and NLP
├── geo.ts                # Nominatim integration
├── overpass.ts           # Overpass API queries
├── cache.ts              # In-memory caching
├── search-index.ts       # Search indexing

Deployment

Vercel

npm install -g vercel
vercel

Environment Variables

No environment variables required. The application uses public OpenStreetMap APIs.

API Rate Limits

• Nominatim: 1 request/second (enforced by Nominatim usage policy)
• Overpass API: Fair use, avoid heavy queries

Responsible Use

This tool accesses publicly available OpenStreetMap data. Users must:

1. Respect OpenStreetMap's tile usage policy
2. Respect Nominatim usage policy
3. Respect Overpass API usage policy
4. Not use this tool for illegal surveillance or harmful purposes
5. Acknowledge that OSM data may be incomplete or inaccurate
6. Not perform bulk automated queries that overload public infrastructure
7. For issues regarding the map, please refer to https://www.openstreetmap.org/fixthemap

The presence or absence of infrastructure in OSM should not be taken as authoritative. Always verify critical information through official sources.

License

MIT