Vector tiles

Stream Motionworks data into your map.

Mint a tile grant from a server you control, hand the resulting TileJSON URL to MapLibre GL or Mapbox GL, and render Motionworks data layers directly in your customer-facing map — no proxy, no Carto credentials in your browser.

Read the API docs → Auth model →

What they are

Vector tiles are a delivery format, not a separate product.

Motionworks data streams as Mapbox Vector Tiles (MVT) under the same per-product entitlement that gates JSON access — just a different transport. Paths is live today; other products follow as their tile workers ship.

Each tile-enabled product/reference family exposes a vector-tile surface at /v2/<product>/tiles/. The same per-product entitlement that gates JSON access gates tile access — a Paths customer gets path-line vector tiles; a Placecast customer would get building / collection-area tiles; etc. There is no separate “vector tiles” SKU and no separate subscription tier. Paths is the first — and currently only — live tile surface; the others are on the roadmap below.

How it works

A two-step grant-based access pattern.

1

Mint a grant from your backend.

Your server posts to POST /v2/<product>/tiles/grants using either an X-API-Key: mw_<64-hex> header or a Supabase Authorization: Bearer <jwt>. The response carries a grant_id and a TileJSON URL. Grants are 0 credits.
2

Hand the TileJSON URL to MapLibre.

The TileJSON URL is a capability URL — the grant id is baked in and the response carries the {z}/{x}/{y}.mvt tile template with a short-lived ?token=<jwt> (24 h TTL). MapLibre fetches tiles directly with that token; your browser never sees the upstream Carto URL.

MapLibre GL JS

Five lines on the client.

Mint the grant once on your backend; reuse the TileJSON URL for the whole session.

// 1. Server-side (Node, Worker, anything you control):
//    const r = await fetch('https://api2.mworks.com/v2/paths/tiles/grants', {
//      method: 'POST',
//      headers: { 'X-API-Key': process.env.MW_API_KEY, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
//      body: JSON.stringify({ tilesets: ['roadway_volumes_annual_2025_heatmap'] })
//    });
//    const { tile_json_url } = await r.json();

// 2. Client-side MapLibre:
map.addSource('mw-paths', { type: 'vector', url: tile_json_url });
map.addLayer({
  id: 'mw-paths',
  type: 'line',
  source: 'mw-paths',
  'source-layer': 'roadway_volumes_annual_2025_heatmap'
});

Auth model

Two surfaces, two auth styles.

Grant control plane

POST / GET / POST revoke under /v2/<product>/tiles/grants.

Auth: X-API-Key: mw_<64-hex> or Supabase JWT.
Cost: 0 credits per call.
Who calls it: your backend.

TileJSON + `.mvt` fetch

GET /v2/<product>/tiles/grants/:id/tilejson and GET /v2/<product>/tiles/{layer}/{z}/{x}/{y}.mvt?token=<jwt>.

Auth: capability URL — a short-lived tile-token (24 h TTL) carried in the URL. No X-API-Key, no Authorization header.
Cost: tile bytes meter at 1 credit per 1,000 tiles served against your wallet.
Who calls it: MapLibre, directly from the browser.

Revoke a grant via POST /v2/<product>/tiles/grants/:id/revoke — revocation propagates within ~60 s. For instant kill, rotate the tile-token signing key on the server (kills every outstanding token).

Keep tile tokens out of your logs. The ?token=<jwt> rides in the tile URL, so it can land in request logs, error-tracker breadcrumbs, and proxy logs. Tokens are short-lived (24 h) but you should still scrub the token query param at your log/observability ingest — e.g. a Sentry beforeBreadcrumb that strips ?token= from URL breadcrumbs.

Roadmap

Paths first; more products following.

The first vector-tile surface is Paths (/v2/paths/tiles/) — roadway-volume annual heatmaps, lit by the same data behind the Motionworks OBM traffic map demo. Places, Placecast, Markets Reference, Displays, and Viewcast each get their own /v2/<product>/tiles/ surface as the per-product tile workers ship. Per-product roll-out timing lives in the API reference; this page reflects what is live today.

Need a sandbox key?

Sandbox keys are issued from the Motionworks console — same key works for the JSON API and for tile grants.

Get a sandbox key Talk to sales