What is martin?

Martin is a server for delivering map tiles, built with performance and high traffic loads in mind. It is written in Rust, a programming language known for fast execution and low memory use. The project is part of the MapLibre family of open-source mapping tools. The core job Martin does is take geographic data and convert it into vector tiles on the fly. Vector tiles are small packages of map data that a browser or app can download and render as a visual map. Martin can pull this data from a PostgreSQL database (specifically using the PostGIS extension, which adds geographic capabilities to the database), and it automatically finds compatible tables and functions without manual configuration. It can also serve tiles directly from two common file formats: PMTiles and MBTiles, both of which store pre-packaged map data. Beyond serving tiles, Martin includes companion tools for working with MBTiles files. One tool, called martin-cp, lets you generate a complete set of tiles from any data source and save them into an MBTiles file for offline use or distribution. Another tool, simply called mbtiles, lets you inspect, copy, compare, and validate MBTiles files, which is useful for managing large map datasets. Martin also handles some adjacent mapping tasks: it can serve map style definitions, generate sprite sheets (small icon images used in maps), and produce font glyph files, all on the fly from configured sources. The project has a full documentation site at maplibre.org/martin, covering installation, configuration via a command-line interface or a config file, and the API for serving tiles to client applications. It is dual-licensed under Apache 2.0 and MIT, and welcomes outside contributions through its GitHub repository.