stac-zap: Free-Text Search for STAC Catalogues

developmentseed.org

stac-zap: search STAC with one request

Ask for earth observation data in your own words. The jev decision model picks the catalog, collection, place and dates for stac-map.

Cool new prototype from Development Seed: stac-zap builds on top of stac-map and integrates free-text search across STAC catalogues. Describe the data you need, get results.

Daniel Wiesmann, writing on LinkedIn:

You type one request in the search bar, and Jev picks the catalog and the collection, finds the place in your request, and sets the dates and the cloud cover. Jev does not write text: it only selects from options that exist, such as real catalogs, collections and places, so every search is a valid STAC query. The answers update the app state, and stac-map shows the result.

Jev is an interesting choice for translating the search request into a structured query. Unlike general-purpose LLMs, Jev works from pre-specified output types, so it always returns results in a predictable format, which makes it a better fit for many automation tasks

Turning fuzzy requests into tangible results is one of the better uses of AI. People often don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, or where to find it, especially when the data is spread across several catalogues. Right now, this still needs a well curated list of sources like STAC Index, which stac-zap uses, or the Portolan registry. Jev can only pick from catalogues it knows. AI makes searching easier but the results are only as good as the source data.