# gods-eye-view
**Repository Path**: jerrycell/gods-eye-view
## Basic Information
- **Project Name**: gods-eye-view
- **Description**: No description available
- **Primary Language**: Unknown
- **License**: MIT
- **Default Branch**: main
- **Homepage**: None
- **GVP Project**: No
## Statistics
- **Stars**: 0
- **Forks**: 0
- **Created**: 2026-09-04
- **Last Updated**: 2026-09-05
## Categories & Tags
**Categories**: Uncategorized
**Tags**: None
## README
# π God's Eye View
### A spy-satellite simulator in your browser β then you realize the sources are public and the data is real.
Photorealistic 3D globe. Live aircraft, ships, satellites, earthquakes, traffic, and public cameras. Hands-free voice control powered by a realtime AI agent.
*No place left behind.*
βΆοΈ **From the project behind the viral God's Eye View series** *(formerly WorldView)* β [5M+ on YouTube](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6qSg2I-7_koPbDnSMo0QeeHX_RknA2uv&si=nBGYMoHWQw41v93Q) Β· [25M+ across socials](https://www.google.com/search?q=god%27s+eye+view)
[](https://github.com/trending)
π **#1 on GitHub Trending this past week β thank you.** You asked for a one-click install; it's here.
β‘ **No keys, no signup, no config file.** One click through [Pinokio](https://pinokio.computer/) β or `npm install && npm run dev` β and the globe comes to life. Keys are power-ups you paste into the app later. **[β Quick Start](#-quick-start)**
**[Quick Start](#-quick-start) Β· [First Five Minutes](#-the-first-five-minutes) Β· [Talk to It](#-talk-to-it) Β· [What's Live](#-whats-on-the-globe) Β· [Under the Hood](#-under-the-hood) Β· [Keys & Costs](#-api-keys)**
---
## π Why This Exists
**You asked, so it's happening.** God's Eye View is open source. Track the world live. Talk to it. Break it. Extend it.
Most open-source intelligence is a pile of browser tabs. The signals are abundant, but the *interface* is the bottleneck. God's Eye View turns those signals into a **place**: the world is already broadcasting β flight transponders, ship beacons, orbital elements, seismographs, public cameras β and this makes it visible on a photorealistic 3D Earth in real time. No classified clearance required; it's public signal all the way down, and the interface runs in your browser, under your control.
> Half the magic is that it looks like a forbidden cockpit. The other half is that every line of code is inspectable.
Most feeds are live or regularly refreshed. Traffic is simulated along real
roads using aggregate location data. CCTV camera poses and rocket launch
trajectories are coarse estimates.
You'll be surprised how accessible this is. Free and nearly-free APIs deliver
a surprisingly complete experience out of the box β then it's yours to extend
with bigger data sources whenever you're ready.
---
## ποΈ What This Thing Does
- **π©οΈ Cockpit view:** Ride inside a tracked flight β the camera holds the terrain under you all the way down.
- **π‘ Contacts:** A 250 km roster of everything near your target β step through live aircraft and drop into any cockpit.
- **π― Click-to-track anything:** Camera locks on, draws a fading trail, surfaces full metadata β and a tracked fire or vessel hands you off to the nearest live camera in one click.
- **ποΈ Voice whiteboard:** Speak annotations onto the world β real boundary polygons, marks, and routes.
- **π« 3D hangar:** Real per-class aircraft models β 787, ATR-72, Citation, Bell 206, MQ-9 β and a tracked contact swaps from glyph to 3D model as you close in.
- **π¨ Reskin reality:** GLSL sensor looks over the normal globe β CRT, NVG, FLIR/thermal, Noir, Snow.
- **π© Detection overlay:** Screen-space bounding boxes and IDs on everything in view.
- **ποΈ Military HUD:** Tactical heads-up display with intelligence-style telemetry.
- **π Global Context:** Stage the full situational picture with one switch β and get your exact view back when you leave.
- **π₯ Scene director:** Capture cinematic camera tours for clips and demos.
- **π Share Links:** Camera, style, layers, and even one tracked target serialize into a URL β a live target is a handoff, not a bookmark.
- **π Reset Globe:** One control β or one sentence β back to the full Earth.
---
[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRJaKcXZS94)
βΆοΈ **[The full walkthrough of everything below, on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRJaKcXZS94)**
## β‘ Quick Start
**Nothing to sign up for to get started.** Both paths below land you in the
same place: a live satellite globe β keyless Esri World Imagery with keyless
terrain, and OSM stepping in automatically if Esri is ever unreachable β with
aircraft, military traffic, satellites, earthquakes, public cameras, radio and
launches already moving on it. No account, no key, no file to edit.
**Optional signups, optimal experience.** The keyless globe gets you running;
a couple of two-minute signups make it spectacular. Want the photorealistic-3D
cities? A **free Cesium ion token** covers them for eligible personal,
non-commercial use β no Google account needed; current ion terms and quotas
apply. Prefer them straight from Google, plus in-app place search? A
**Google Maps key** is the billing-enabled, metered route β with a surprisingly
generous free tier ([real numbers](#-api-keys)). Either one pastes straight
into **Then power it up** below.
### Path 1 β One click, no terminal
1. Install [Pinokio](https://pinokio.computer/).
2. In **Discover β Download from URL**, paste
`https://github.com/bilawalsidhu/gods-eye-view`.
3. Click **Install**, then **Start**.
That is the whole thing. The launcher verifies Pinokio's runtime, installs the
locked dependencies, finds a free local port, and opens the app.
### Path 2 β Terminal / coding agent
Requires Node.js 24.14.x or 26.x. Node 25 is usable but EOL; the setup doctor
warns instead of blocking it.
```bash
npm install
npm run doctor
npm run dev
```
Open **`http://localhost:4173`**. Cold start settles in under two seconds on a
recent laptop (median 1.86 s in a point-in-time M5/Chrome capture β
[docs/PERFORMANCE.md](docs/PERFORMANCE.md); a comparison baseline, not a hardware
requirement). A first-run card offers to stage a mission for you β **Live
Contacts**, **Space Missions**, **Environmental** β or leaves you to explore
manually.
**macOS shortcut:** `./scripts/dev-fresh.sh` clears the Vite cache and pulls any
configured keys straight from the Keychain. It starts keyless too.
### Then power it up β in the app, not in a file
Keys are upgrades, not prerequisites. When you want one, click the **POWER UP**
chip in the bottom-right corner: Provider Settings lists every supported key,
what it switches on, and where to get it. Paste, hit **SAVE KEYS**, and the app
restarts itself with the new capability on. Once everything is configured the
chip reads **POWERED UP** β and if a compact layout hides it, `?setup=1`
reopens the same panel.
- **Where keys land:** Pinokio β the app's ignored `pinokio/ENVIRONMENT`; a
terminal clone β the repo-root `.env`. Either file is made owner-only
*before* a secret is written into it, and it never leaves your machine.
- **Keys you already have stay yours:** values from your shell or the macOS
Keychain show as *configured externally* and are read-only to the panel.
- **What to get first:** the free [Cesium ion](https://cesium.com/ion) token
(eligible personal, non-commercial use; current terms and quotas apply) for
photorealistic 3D and world terrain; a Google Maps key only for the
billing-enabled, metered route + place search; OpenAI when you want to talk
to the world. Full map, costs included, in [Keys & Costs](#-api-keys).
> [!WARNING]
> Do not enter credentials in Pinokio 8.0.40's native **Configure** panel: that
> release does not save this nested app file correctly, and it logs submitted
> values. Use Provider Settings inside the app instead. Both file stores are
> local plaintext; on macOS the Keychain via `./scripts/dev-fresh.sh` remains
> the stronger option.
The server binds to **localhost** on both paths, and Provider Settings answers
requests only from your machine. Browser-side keys (Google Maps, Cesium ion)
must be restricted at their providers β [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md) shows how,
and it carries the LAN-sharing rules alongside [Keys & Costs](#-api-keys).
---
## π The First Five Minutes
No account, no signup. The first-run card will offer to stage a mission for you β or run this gauntlet yourself. Somewhere in these five minutes it stops feeling like a demo:
1. **Light up the sky.** Take the **Live Contacts** mission (or turn on **Flights** yourself) β thousands of live aircraft, gliding on real telemetry, detection mesh already reading the scene. Click one: the camera locks on, a trail draws behind it, and its live telemetry card comes up.
2. **Take the controls.** Hit **COCKPIT** on your tracked plane and ride it down, switching sensors mid-flight: NVG into Ironbow FLIR.
3. **Drop into a busy airport.** Search one and descend to the taxiways with **3D** aircraft on β grounded contacts, taxi trails, the whole apron working in real time.
4. **Look through a public camera.** Turn on **CCTV** over Austin, London, or California. The feeds aren't webcam embeds β they project *into* the 3D city. Cycle coverage to **VIEWSHED** and every camera draws its estimated coverage volume β where it reaches, and where it goes blind.
5. **Track something in orbit.** Turn on **Satellites** and click the ISS β you ride along at orbital distance, orbit ring and all.
6. **Switch the optics.** Tap `1`β`7` β CRT, NVG, FLIR β and the whole live planet re-renders through a different sensor.
7. **Talk to it** *(needs an OpenAI key)*: *"Take me to LAX and select the nearest airborne aircraft."*
8. **Come home.** Hit **Reset Globe** β or just say *"zoom out to a globe view."*
**Keyboard:** `1`β`7` visual styles Β· `H` HUD Β· `D` detection Β· `C` cockpit Β· `Esc` out.
---
## π©οΈ The Cockpit
> Every plane should let you do this.
Real-time cockpit mode, built from live flight data: the camera rides your contact with real terrain holding underneath, all the way down β sensor styles come along for the ride, and **Contacts** keeps the 250 km roster one click away: jump plane to plane and fall straight into the next cockpit.
The cockpit even carries its own briefing strip: nearby live signals, regional headlines, and real local weather β with an opt-in **WX** mode that renders volumetric clouds from actual observations around your aircraft.
*Why cockpit mode exists: you're riding a real aircraft over real terrain β and you get to pick which sensor you see the world through.*
---
## ποΈ Talk to It
> Voice needs an **OpenAI key**. Without one the entire app still runs β the mic button just reports voice is unavailable. The same key drives the **AI HUD summary**: a terse, five-word intelligence-style readout of the current view that regenerates as you move.
Click **GEV MIC**, grant the microphone, and just talk. This is more than a voice-controlled remote:
- **π§ It knows what it's looking at.** The agent pulls live scene context before answering β including coordinates, street names, active layers, and view scale. Ask *"what city is this?"* mid-flight and it knows.
- **π― Entity Q&A.** Click any plane, ship, or datacenter and ask *"what's this?"* It answers using the object's live telemetry.
- **ποΈ Visual grounding.** At street level, it reads a viewport screenshot to identify legible signage and building names, and is instructed never to hallucinate labels.
- **π¬ Cinematic framing.** *"Show me the planes overhead"* pulls the camera back, angles it, and frames the live traffic like a director.
- **π Honest and secure.** The agent only confirms actions that succeeded. Your `OPENAI_API_KEY` never touches the browser; the client only gets a short-lived session token.
Twenty-eight tools, four jobs β the commands below come straight from the product's voice test suite and tool playbook:
**π₯ Direct it** β drone-operator camera verbs:
> π£οΈ *"Take me to Tokyo."* Β· *"Orbit around this area slowly."* Β· *"Draw the walking route from the Capitol to Zilker Park."* β *"Fly the route we just drew."* Β· *"Zoom out to a globe view."*
**ποΈ Annotate it** β a whiteboard over the real world:
> π£οΈ *"Outline the state of Texas."* Β· *"Annotate the Texas State Capitol and its grounds"* β it draws the **actual enclosing boundary**, not a circle. Β· *"How far is the Eiffel Tower from the Louvre?"* β a connector arrow appears and it speaks the distance. Everything persists until you say *"clear the map."*
**π Interrogate it** β analyst queries against the live layers:
> π£οΈ *"How many flights are over Texas right now?"* Β· *"Which ships are headed to Oakland?"* Β· *"What is the biggest fire near Los Angeles?"* Β· *"Is anything flying above forty thousand feet?"* Β· *"When does the ISS pass over next?"*
**ποΈ Operate it** β the whole console, hands-free:
> π£οΈ *"Switch to night vision and turn on the flights layer."* Β· *"Turn on the camera viewsheds."* Β· *"Play a news radio station near Austin."* Β· *"Track that plane."* β *"Enter Cockpit."*
**And the rapid-fire tier** β one sentence each:
> π£οΈ *"Show me global infrastructure."* (stages the layers and pulls back to the globe) Β· *"Play Orbital Watch."* (a full cinematic scene) Β· *"Set detection density to fifty percent."* Β· *"Next contact β helicopters only."* (mid-cockpit) Β· *"Show me space missions."* Β· *"Switch to OSM."* Β· *"Sharpen the image a touch."* Β· *"Switch to the tactical layout."* Β· *"What's turned on right now?"*
*Ask for radio near anywhere and the globe starts broadcasting β every station is a real place you can fly to.*
---
## π°οΈ What's on the Globe
Thirteen live layers. **Eleven of them need nothing at all** β no key, no account, no signup, starting with the satellite basemap you land on. (π’ nothing Β· π‘ free key Β· π΄ metered.)
| Layer | What you get | Source | Auth |
|-------|--------------|--------|------|
| πΊοΈ **Map Stack** | Esri satellite imagery, Google Photorealistic 3D, OSM, plus additional ion-hosted stacks | Esri / Google / Ion / OSM | π’ Esri satellite + OSM Β· π‘ ion-hosted Google 3D + world terrain Β· π΄ direct Google + place search |
| βοΈ **Live Flights** | 11,000+ live aircraft + route history | OpenSky + adsb.lol | π’ (π‘ optional for more polling credits) |
| ποΈ **Military Flights** | ADS-B military traffic in amber | adsb.lol | π’ |
| π’ **Live Vessels** | Thousands of ships worldwide | AISStream | π‘ |
| π°οΈ **Satellites** | 838-object catalog, color-coded by class with a live legend β the **DENSE** chip drops in the whole Starlink shell | CelesTrak | π’ |
| π **Earthquakes** | Global seismic activity, last 24h | USGS | π’ |
| π **Traffic** | Live congestion driving per-vehicle flow at street level β dive below ~8 km and the dots color to real jams. Keyless it's an approximate simulation | TomTom + OSM | π’ (π‘ TomTom makes it real β get one) |
| πΉ **CCTV Mesh** | ~800 public cameras projected *into* the 3D space β Austin Β· California (Caltrans) Β· London (TfL). Positions are published; poses are estimated priors **you calibrate by dragging a gizmo on the camera itself** | City APIs | π’ |
| π» **Radio** | Geolocated world radio with an **analog tuner** β drag the needle across up to 750 stations and the globe flies to each broadcaster | Radio Browser / broadcasters | π’ |
| π² **Bikeshare** | Live station availability | GBFS | π’ |
| π₯ **Active Fires** | Live NASA FIRMS detections, trailing 24h | NASA FIRMS | π‘ |
| π **Space Missions** | Rolling 30-day launches with payload, stage, and recovery detail | Launch Library 2 | π’ (π‘ optional token raises the allowance) |
| ποΈ **Mapped Installations** | Viewport-bounded military-site context from community mapping β incomplete by nature, and labeled that way | OpenStreetMap | π’ |
**The basemap ladder β what each tier buys you:**
| You have | The globe you get |
|---|---|
| π’ Nothing | Esri World Imagery satellite basemap + keyless terrain, in 2D. OSM takes over automatically if Esri is unreachable; if terrain is unavailable the globe continues without it |
| π‘ A free Cesium ion token | **Google Photorealistic 3D cities** and world terrain β eligible personal, non-commercial use; current ion terms and quotas apply |
| π΄ A Google Maps key | The same 3D direct from Google, plus in-app place search β the billing-enabled, metered route |
*The Space Missions layer replaying a Falcon 9 ascent β labeled `RECONSTRUCTED ESTIMATE`, scrubbable 0.25Γβ4Γ.*
**Also on the globe:** neighborhood overlays Β· an optional cockpit WX cloud effect. **Bundled static infrastructure:** Datacenters (4,351), Dams (704), and Submarine Cables (712).
**Missing a layer you want?** Open an issue β or add it and send the PR.
---
## ποΈ Field Missions
Once the basics click, run these:
| Mission | How |
|---|---|
| **π Ask the planet** | *"Why are all these military helicopters flying in circles?"* Select a military track β it silently backfills ~24 h of real trace history β and see what it's been doing, resolved as stacked 3D loops. |
| **βοΈ Final approach** | Click-track an airliner lining up for a runway, hop into the **cockpit**, and ride it down. |
| **π Night watch** | Fly to your own city, switch to **NVG**, and let the detection mesh and HUD read the scene. |
| **π’ Port call** | Vessels on over the Port of Long Beach. Click a tanker for its tactical card and wake trail β then hit **NEAREST** in the CCTV panel and look at the same water through a public camera. |
| **π» Tokyo FM** | Orbit Shibuya with the **Radio** layer on β then drag the analog tuner needle: every position snaps to a real station and the globe flies to whoever's broadcasting. |
| **π₯ Fire line** | FIRMS over California. Click a detection β the camera dives to it β read the intensity, then hit **NEAREST** in the CCTV panel for a ground view. |
| **πΆ Ask for a walking route** *ποΈ* | Tell the world where you want to go and watch a real street-following route trace itself through the 3D city β then *"fly it"*: banked turns, eased ends, a camera that leads the path like a drone shot. |
| **π Measure LAX to DFW** *ποΈ* | *"How far is LAX from DFW?"* β an arrow spans the country, the distance lands in the caption, and the endpoints stay pinned to the real world as you orbit. |
| **π Launch replay** | Open **Space Missions**, pick a launch from the last 30 days, and ride the T-minus countdown through ascent to orbit β scrub it at 0.25Γβ4Γ. Labeled `RECONSTRUCTED ESTIMATE`, because it is one. |
| **πͺ¦ Walk the boneyard** | Fly from regional context down into dense, fully resolved rows of retired aircraft. |
| **ποΈ Orbit Three Gorges** | Sweep the dam and its terrain at a glance β then flip on the **Dams** layer and find 703 more. |
*ποΈ = voice missions β they need an OpenAI key.*
*Ask the planet: a military contact's last ~24 hours of real trace history, resolved as stacked 3D loops.*
*"Draw the walking routeβ¦ now fly it" β banked turns, eased ends, the camera leading the path like a drone shot.*
*Walk the boneyard: rows of retired airframes, fully resolved in 3D.*
---
## π§ Under the Hood
Some of the engineering that makes it feel real rather than like a tech demo:
- **World-stable icons.** Aircraft and ships point along their *true real-world heading* at every camera angle β tracked or not, looking straight down or across the horizon β via per-frame screen-space course projection. No spinning, no viewport-locking.
- **Smooth motion from choppy data.** Live feeds arrive every 15β30s; the globe renders one interval behind real time and interpolates between known fixes. Dead reckoning fills the gaps.
- **Honest satellites.** SGP4 propagation with orbit rings that stay locked to their satellites via GMST realignment β no drift, no per-second flicker.
- **Sits on the real ground.** Entity heights run through a real vertical datum β geoid-aware, sampled against the *rendered* terrain mesh β so aircraft park on aprons and cameras stand on street corners instead of floating.
- **Spends your quota like it's its own.** The paid feeds run behind cached, budget-governed proxies β an OpenSky credit governor, a TomTom daily tile budget, disk-cached TLEs β so an afternoon of exploring doesn't torch an API allowance.
- **Secure by design.** Every API that touches a private key (OpenAI, AISStream, OpenSky OAuth, camera frames) is brokered through a hardened server-side proxy with SSRF protection, response caps, and sanitized errors. The only keys the browser sees are Google Maps and Cesium ion (restrict both at the provider).
- **No framework.** Vanilla JavaScript, **CesiumJS**, and **Vite** β plus **Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles** for the planet and the **OpenAI Realtime API** for voice. Fast to read, fast to hack on.
```
src/
βββ main.js # Bootstrap: Google 3D tiles, layer registration
βββ ui.js # Runtime UI β panels, HUD, styles, control facade
βββ hud.js # Intelligence HUD + AI scene summary
βββ keySetup.js # POWER UP panel β in-app provider keys (dev server only)
βββ mapStackController.js # Basemap switching β Google 3D / Esri / OSM / ion stacks
βββ iconOrientation.js # Screen-projected world-space headings + horizon cull
βββ voice/ # OpenAI Realtime session + 28 voice tools
βββ data/ # One module per layer + orchestration + context store
β βββ local_data/ # Bundled datasets (per-folder provenance)
βββ scenes/ # Cinematic scene director
```
See [`docs/CURRENT-STATE.md`](docs/CURRENT-STATE.md) for the authoritative runtime reference.
---
## π API Keys
**The legend, one more time:** π’ **no signup** β works out of the box Β· π‘ **free key** β register, paste, done Β· π΄ **metered** β a billing-enabled account; costs are small but real.
Most of the globe is π’: flights (anonymous), military traffic, satellites, earthquakes, CCTV, radio, bikeshare, space missions, mapped installations, and every bundled dataset run with **zero keys**.
**And you never have to edit a file to add one.** Click **POWER UP** in the
bottom-right corner of the running app, paste the key into Provider Settings,
hit **SAVE KEYS** β the app writes it to its own local store with owner-only
permissions and restarts itself. Everything below is the map of what each key
actually buys you.
### What you need for the good experience
Six keys. Four have a free tier, and the two π΄ ones are metered:
| | Key | Why | Get it |
|---|-----|-----|--------|
| π‘ | **Cesium ion** | πΊοΈ Google Photorealistic 3D, world terrain, and additional ion-hosted imagery stacks. The free Community plan is for eligible individual, personal/non-commercial use and has quotas | [cesium.com/ion](https://cesium.com/ion) β use a public `assets:read` token and check current [pricing/eligibility](https://cesium.com/platform/cesium-ion/pricing/) |
| π΄ | **Google Maps** | Direct Google Photorealistic 3D + Google place search ([Map Tiles API](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/tile)) | [Google Cloud Console](https://console.cloud.google.com/) β URL-restrict it |
| π΄ | **OpenAI** | ποΈ The voice experience + AI HUD summary. The mini model works; the standard model is noticeably smarter. Want Gemini or another provider behind the mic? PRs welcome | [platform.openai.com](https://platform.openai.com) β metered, see costs below |
| π‘ | **AISStream** | π’ Live global ships | [aisstream.io](https://aisstream.io) β free, seriously, it's a two-minute signup |
| π‘ | **NASA FIRMS** | π₯ Live active fires | [firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov](https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/api/map_key/) β free |
| π‘ | **TomTom** | π¦ Real traffic instead of an approximate simulation | [developer.tomtom.com](https://developer.tomtom.com) β free tier is plenty, completely worth it |
*What the TomTom key buys you: rush-hour density painted on the city β then dive from the jam straight into the camera watching it.*
### Cherry on top
| | Key | Why | Get it |
|---|-----|-----|--------|
| π‘ | **OpenSky** | βοΈ More flight-polling credits (π’ anonymous works without) | [opensky-network.org](https://opensky-network.org) |
| π‘ | **Launch Library 2** | π Higher space-missions request allowance (π’ works without) | [thespacedevs.com](https://thespacedevs.com) |
All of them are worth getting. None of them are required to start.
`npm run doctor` reports Node/npm readiness, the primary provider routes, and
where each configured provider was found without printing credential values.
On macOS its Keychain-aware result previews `./scripts/dev-fresh.sh`; plain
`npm run dev` reads only explicit environment and Vite dotenv values. The
OpenSky summary reports only OAuth client-pair presence, not the resolved
runtime mode or credential validity; Basic and credentials-file modes remain
advanced `dev-fresh.sh` configuration.
**If you'd rather not use the panel** β headless boxes, coding agents, scripted setups:
```bash
# Put keys in .env (see .env.example), or pass them as env vars:
OPENAI_API_KEY="β¦" AISSTREAM_API_KEY="β¦" npm run dev -- --host localhost --port 4173
# On macOS, store any of them in the Keychain and dev-fresh.sh pulls them in:
security add-generic-password -U -s "google-maps-api" -a "api-key" -w
security add-generic-password -U -s "openai-api" -a "api-key" -w
security add-generic-password -U -s "aisstream-api" -a "api-key" -w
security add-generic-password -U -s "firms-map" -a "map-key" -w
security add-generic-password -U -s "cesium-ion" -a "token" -w
```
OpenSky can run fully anonymous (`OPENSKY_AUTH_MODE=anon`), or import OAuth credentials with `./scripts/opensky-import-client.sh /path/to/credentials.json`.
### πΈ What it actually costs
Honest numbers, roughly, as of mid-2026 β always check the provider pricing pages:
| | Cost reality |
|---|---|
| **π’ Most layers** | **$0, no signup.** OpenSky anon, USGS, CelesTrak, adsb.lol, city CCTV, Radio Browser, GBFS, Launch Library 2, bundled datasets. |
| **π‘ The free-key tier** | **$0 with a signup.** AISStream, FIRMS, TomTom, OpenSky, plus Cesium ion for eligible personal/non-commercial use. Provider quotas and eligibility still apply. |
| **πΊοΈ Google 3D tiles** | **Free through an eligible Cesium ion Community account within its quota; metered through a direct Google key.** Use the direct route for GEV place search or commercial deployment, verify current provider terms, and set budget alerts where billing is enabled. |
| **π΄ OpenAI voice** | **The one that costs real money β so the app meters it for you.** Realtime audio runs a few cents per active minute; an evening of heavy use is single-digit dollars. A live session-spend readout sits next to the mic, with an STD/MINI model toggle, a $2 warning, and a **$5 hard cap that ends the session**. The voice context window is kept deliberately short too. |
Google's direct 3D route is surprisingly generous: the first 1,000 Photorealistic
3D Tiles sessions each month are currently free, and one root request supports
roughly three hours of rendering. A solo user exploring sparingly can
realistically stay inside the free usage cap. Billing must still be enabled, so
restrict the key and set a quota or budget alert. Check Google's
[current pricing](https://developers.google.com/maps/billing-and-pricing/pricing)
before relying on these figures.
### π§ The floor is low on purpose
Everything above is the deliberately cheap baseline β enough to get a real taste of geospatial intelligence, GEOINT, and OSINT without ever talking to a sales team. You'll also notice the ceiling: terrestrial AIS goes quiet mid-ocean and satellite AIS costs real money; premium imagery, SAR, and the deeper commercial feeds live behind enterprise contracts. That's not a limit of the architecture β every layer here is a pattern you can point at your own data sources. This repo hands you the foundation; what you fuse into it is up to you.
### π Sharing an instance
By default nobody else can reach your server β it binds to localhost. To share on your LAN, opt in explicitly (`npm run dev -- --host 0.0.0.0 --port 4173`, or `HOST=0.0.0.0 ./scripts/dev-fresh.sh` on macOS/Linux) β but know that β οΈ **a LAN-visible server brokers your configured API keys to anyone who can reach it.** Set the per-IP throttles (`GEV_RATELIMIT_OPENAI_PER_MIN`, `GEV_RATELIMIT_GOOGLE_PER_MIN` β see `.env.example`) and, before anything else, **set provider-side budget caps** (Google Cloud budgets, OpenAI usage limits): the throttles are app-level guards, not billing caps. Full threat model in [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md).
Provider Settings switches itself off whenever the server is shared. The panel
answers loopback requests only, and any sharing mode disables the surface
outright rather than trusting the socket β tunnelled traffic reaches the server
from loopback too, so socket identity can't carry that boundary. Nobody on your
LAN gets a key-entry form.
Pinokio LAN and Cloudflare sharing are currently unavailable for this launcher.
The supported Pinokio release can activate sharing again when the Open-action
URL is registered, and writes a successful tunnel-login passcode into its own
notification and terminal stream. Before preflight, the launcher rewrites both
sharing modes to disabled values, clears the child passcode, and pins Pinokio's
share trigger to a disabled sentinel. The app then starts loopback-only and
registers the standard Open URL. Use a separate reviewed authentication proxy
if remote access is required.
---
## π Responsible & Open
God's Eye View runs on **public data, clear sources, and local-first execution.** No secrets, no private datasets, no mystery scraping β anything involving a private key is brokered server-side. It has the visual grammar of a classified ops room, built entirely from open signals and inspectable code.
**The line.** This project models **events, assets, infrastructure, and systems** β aircraft, vessels, satellites, fires, cameras, cities. It does not build features for named-person search, face recognition, or tracking individuals, and pull requests that cross that line won't be merged. People are not a query type here.
**Come build it.** This is the canonical live 3D client from the project that kicked off the recent wave of spatial-intelligence tools β and it's a canvas: the layers here are the signals one person could find and fuse. Add a city pack, a data source, a style, a voice tool. It's the window through which you see the world; bring that window to others.
**Status:** An evolving open-source client for exploration and learning β a fast, hackable foundation, not a hardened production service. Released under the **[MIT License](LICENSE)**. Bundled and live datasets carry their own terms β see **[DATA_SOURCES.md](DATA_SOURCES.md)**. Security model: **[SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md)**. Want to contribute? **[CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md)**.
**Maintainers:** [Bilawal Sidhu](https://github.com/bilawalsidhu) and [Sameh Khamis](https://github.com/samehkhamis) at [Halfpixel](https://halfpixel.ai).
Media note: the capture GIFs on this page show Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles and live data layers, used promotionally with in-frame attribution; they aren't licensed for standalone reuse. See [media provenance and permissions](docs/media/README.md); full source terms in [DATA_SOURCES.md](DATA_SOURCES.md).
> [!IMPORTANT]
> God's Eye View is an exploratory visualization of public and third-party data.
> Data may be delayed, incomplete, modeled, inferred, or wrong. Do not use it
> for flight or maritime navigation, emergency response, medical or health
> decisions, investment decisions, or other safety-critical or operational
> purposes. Verify important information with authoritative sources.
---
## π§ What's Next
First β thank you. To everyone who watched the God-view demos and went off to build their own, and to everyone who kept asking for the code: I'm grateful. And when I polled whether this should go open source, you weren't subtle about it:
So here it is. Step inside the spy-thriller cockpit β except the data is real β and let's turn this into our shared sandbox for making sense of the world, and have fun doing it. This repo is the baseline, it stays open, and the whole point is for you to break things and bolt on layers we haven't thought of yet.
One heads-up from the inside: build in this space for a week and you learn that **the present is the cheap part**. The moment you try to go back in time β tiling, serving, and scrubbing *what happened* and *what changed* at any real resolution β the data gets expensive and the compute gets brutal. That's the long game.
**Update β a hosted version is coming.** We originally planned to keep this repository as the open-source client and build a separate professional product. Then the launch happened, and the loudest request wasn't another feature β it was *"just give me a link."* So we're building an official hosted God's Eye View at [Halfpixel](https://halfpixel.ai): no installation, just open it in your browser. The hosted version is the easiest way into this open-source project. More soon.
---
βΆοΈ [Watch the God's Eye View series](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6qSg2I-7_koPbDnSMo0QeeHX_RknA2uv&si=nBGYMoHWQw41v93Q) Β· π¬ [Map the World](https://maptheworld.ai/) β the newsletter behind the project
**π God's Eye View. No place left behind.**