Claude GIS Cloud connectorWhat Claude can do in your GIS Cloud account.
The Claude GIS Cloud connector exposes 55 tools. 21 read your maps, layers, tables and files, 27 create, change or delete something, 7 are undocumented. Below: what Claude can build in your GIS, the approval GIS Cloud puts on every change, and what stays out of reach.
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Why plug GIS Cloud into Claude
A desktop GIS asks you to know where every menu lives. With this connector you describe the result instead, and Claude works across your whole GIS Cloud account while it answers: it lists your maps, reads a layer's attributes, adds features, builds a field form or imports a spreadsheet into a new table. GIS Cloud built the server around a propose-then-confirm model, so every change waits for your go-ahead.
A field form ready for the crew. A roads team needs a pothole inspection form. create_form builds it and bind_form_to_layer attaches it to a layer, so collected points land in the right place.
A spreadsheet turned into a map. import_file brings a CSV or XLS of asset locations into a new table, create_layer puts it on a map, and render_map lets Claude look at the result before you share it.
Answers drawn from your own data. query_read runs read-only queries and get_attribute_stats summarises a column, which is enough to ask how many hydrants are flagged as damaged in a district.
Now what the directory sheet leaves out. GIS Cloud's consent screen lets you grant read-only access, which then covers no writes at all. Destructive actions such as deleting a layer or updating many features go through a two-step confirmation that can be used once. Seven tools on the sheet are described nowhere. And nothing runs by itself: no tool reacts when a field crew submits a form. The site has no n8n, Make or Zapier page for GIS Cloud; the Integrations hub lists the apps that have one.
Five words to know before you start
The vocabulary you will meet once GIS Cloud is connected to Claude.
- Connector
- The link you set up once between Claude and an account you already own, so Claude can work on it while it answers you.
- Tool
- One named job a connector gives Claude. Claude picks the tools it needs by itself; the directory lists them by name.
- Authorization
- The service's own sign-in and consent screen, where you hand Claude the access it will use. Granted once per person, revocable later.
- Approval
- The confirmation Claude waits for before it goes ahead with something that changes your account, shown in the conversation.
- MCP
- The shared standard connectors are built on: it is what lets an assistant like Claude talk to an outside service.
Connect GIS Cloud to Claude in three steps
- 01
Find GIS Cloud in Claude
Open Claude's settings, go to Customize, then Connectors, and search for GIS Cloud. On a Team or Enterprise workspace, an Owner or Primary Owner has to enable it before members can sign in.
- 02
Start the connection
Click Connect on its row, then sign in to GIS Cloud in the window GIS Cloud opens itself. That is where you grant access, through OAuth, not inside Claude.
- 03
Read the consent screen
The screen belongs to GIS Cloud, not Claude, and it sets what the access covers: read only, or read and write, and which resources. Pick deliberately. If the link breaks later, use Disconnect and connect again.
The 55 GIS Cloud tools, sorted by what they do
GIS Cloud gives Claude 55 tools: 21 that read your account, 27 that change something in it, and 7 no official source describes.
Three groups: what Claude reads, what it changes, and what no official source describes. GIS Cloud documents its tools by family (maps, layers, features, tables, forms, queries, files, bookmarks). Tool names stay in English, exactly as Claude shows them.
- 21 read
- 27 write
- 7 not documented
What Claude reads (21)
21 toolsTwenty-one tools that look at your account without changing it.
get_attribute_stats
Computes statistics on one attribute column of your data, so Claude can sum up a field without paging through every record.
get_current_user
Tells Claude which GIS Cloud user it is acting as, which settles whose maps and permissions are in play.
get_datasource
Opens the details of a single data source in your account, the place a layer draws its data from.
get_feature
Reads one feature on a map, meaning a single point, line or area with its attributes, so Claude can report exactly what it holds.
get_layer
Pulls the details of one layer, the thematic slice of a map such as roads, parcels or sensors. Claude gets its settings in one call instead of guessing from the map.
get_layer_columns
Lists the attribute columns a layer carries, which tells Claude what each feature can store and which fields it can filter on.
get_map
Returns the details of a single map in your account, the container that groups layers into one view. It is the natural first look before Claude touches that map.
get_table
Describes one table from your database side: its structure and details rather than its rows. Claude learns what the table expects before new results go in.
list_basemaps
Shows the background maps available in GIS Cloud, the satellite or street imagery that sits under your own layers. Claude can name the choices so you pick one with intent.
list_bookmarks
Lists your saved map views. It gives Claude the shortcuts your team already relies on.
list_datasources
Enumerates every data source connected to your GIS Cloud account, giving Claude the inventory behind your layers, all in one place rather than map by map.
list_features
Reads the features of a layer, so Claude can go through its points, lines or areas.
list_files
Shows the files stored in your GIS Cloud space, from spreadsheets waiting to be imported to documents attached to projects. Claude can then point you to the one you mean.
list_forms
Lists the Mobile Data Collection forms in your account, the questionnaires field teams fill in on their phones. Claude gets the full catalogue before suggesting anything new.
list_layers
Lists the layers placed on a given map.
list_maps
Lists all the maps in your account, not only the one open on your screen. GIS Cloud stresses that the connector works across the whole account.
list_table_rows
Reads the rows of a table, the records themselves, so Claude can quote or summarise them. You get the actual entries, not a description of the table.
list_tables
Lists every table in your GIS Cloud data store, the database side that sits behind many layers. Claude gets the names it needs before reading rows or answering a question about your records.
query_read
Runs a read-only query on your data and hands the result to Claude, which is how it answers precise questions that span many records.
read_file
Opens a file stored in your GIS Cloud space and gives Claude its content to work with. That lets Claude check a document without you downloading it first.
render_map
Draws a map so Claude can look at it: GIS Cloud describes a rendered thumbnail, and the directory sheet mentions live interactive maps in the chat.
What Claude changes (27)
27 toolsTwenty-seven tools that create, edit or delete. GIS Cloud says you approve every write, and destructive ones get a two-step check.
bind_form_to_layer
Asks you firstAttaches a field form to a layer, so that layer receives what the form collects.
bulk_update_features
Asks you firstChanges many features in one pass, for instance setting the same status on every point in an area.
create_bookmark
Asks you firstSaves a map view under a name so you can return to it later.
create_feature
Asks you firstAdds a single new point, line or area to a layer, with the attribute values you give.
create_form
Asks you firstBuilds a new Mobile Data Collection form for field teams, with the questions and fields you describe.
create_layer
Asks you firstAdds a new layer to a map, ready to hold features or display imported data.
create_map
Asks you firstStarts a brand new map in your account, which Claude can then fill with layers.
create_table
Asks you firstCreates a new table in your data store, a structure that can then receive rows or back a layer.
create_table_row
Asks you firstWrites a new record into an existing table, with the values you dictate in the chat.
delete_bookmark
Asks you firstRemoves a saved map view that no longer serves anyone.
delete_feature
Asks you firstErases one feature from a layer, along with its attributes.
delete_file
Asks you firstDeletes a file from your GIS Cloud storage.
delete_layer
Asks you firstRemoves a whole layer from a map. GIS Cloud uses exactly this case as its example of a destructive action.
delete_map
Asks you firstDeletes an entire map from your account.
delete_table
Asks you firstDrops a table and the records it holds.
delete_table_row
Asks you firstRemoves one record from a table while keeping the table itself.
import_file
Asks you firstBrings a CSV or XLS file into a new table, which can then sit behind a layer.
make_directory
Asks you firstCreates a folder in your GIS Cloud file space to keep uploads organised.
query_write
Asks you firstRuns a query that changes data, the writing counterpart of the read-only query tool.
unzip_file
Asks you firstExtracts an archive already stored in your GIS Cloud space.
update_bookmark
Asks you firstEdits an existing saved view, for example its name or the area it frames.
update_feature
Asks you firstChanges one feature, its attributes or its place on the map.
update_form
Asks you firstModifies an existing field form, such as its questions or options.
update_layer
Asks you firstReworks an existing layer, for instance how it is styled.
update_map
Asks you firstAdjusts an existing map.
update_table_row
Asks you firstCorrects the values of one existing record in a table, leaving every other row as it was.
upload_file
Asks you firstSends a file into your GIS Cloud storage, ready to be read, unzipped or imported.
Undocumented (7)
7 toolsThe directory lists these seven names. No official text says what they do, and this page will not guess from a name.
add_table_columns
This name appears in the directory's tool list. GIS Cloud's article covers tables at length, yet says nothing about columns being added, and no Claude page documents it either. No official source describes it, so the page stops here.
delete_form
Listed on the sheet, yet absent from GIS Cloud's description of form tools, which names listing, building, updating and binding forms and nothing else. No official source documents this name.
get_bookmark
The directory names it, but neither GIS Cloud's sentence about saved views nor any Claude page describes it: no official source documents this tool. The page leaves the gap open rather than fill it with a guess drawn from the name.
get_form
Present in the tool list and nowhere else in the official sources. Nothing published by GIS Cloud or Anthropic says what it returns or does, and a name alone is not documentation.
list_dbconnections
Only the name is public. GIS Cloud's article does not mention database connections as a tool family, and no Claude documentation covers it, so no official source describes this tool.
refresh_access_token
This one is listed by the directory without a single line of official description, neither from GIS Cloud nor from Claude's documentation. What it does is not documented anywhere public.
upload_binary_file
The sheet lists it next to upload_file, but no official sentence tells the two apart, so nothing documents this one on its own. The page will not infer a difference from the wording of the name.
What Claude asks before it changes your GIS
By default, Claude stops and asks before each action it carries out on an account in your place. GIS Cloud goes further for its own connector and documents how.
The directory sheet describes a propose-then-confirm model: you approve every write, and destructive actions are clearly flagged. GIS Cloud's article adds that deleting a layer or updating many features first returns a plain-language summary of what is about to happen, and that each confirmation works only once. On Team and Enterprise, workspace owners also decide whether members can skip some prompts and can restrict what a connector may do for the whole organization. Claude inherits exactly your GIS Cloud permissions.
Which plans include it
None of the 819 sheets in the official directory shows availability by plan. That answer, connector by connector, is not published anywhere.
The general rule is public: remote connectors are open to every user on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and mobile, while desktop extensions install on Claude Desktop. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner enables a connector for the organization first. For the current status, open the GIS Cloud sheet in the official directory from your own account.
Where the GIS Cloud connector stops
A connector is not an automation. Claude calls these tools while it answers you; nothing fires when a form is submitted or a layer changes.
Everything known here comes from GIS Cloud itself: neither Claude's help center nor Anthropic's developer docs have a page on this connector. The directory badge is not a security audit, and Anthropic writes on every sheet that it does not control which tools a publisher exposes, nor guarantee they behave as announced. GIS Cloud adds that access goes through OAuth and stays scoped to the account. Connect what comes from a publisher you trust.
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