Open an .mbtiles file and look inside it.
No docker, no tile server, no upload — a desktop app that reads the file where it sits.
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MBTiles Viewer is a small cross-platform desktop app for inspecting and comparing .mbtiles
files. Point it at a file and it draws every layer in its own colour, lists them in a panel you
can toggle and reorder, and lets you click any feature to read its attributes.
It is built for the moment after a tile build finishes and you need to answer did that actually work? — before wiring the tileset into anything.
- 100% offline. The file never leaves your machine. A tiny Rust HTTP server reads tiles straight out of the SQLite file and serves them to the embedded map.
- Nothing to set up. No docker image, no
tileserver-gl, no upload to a viewer site. - Reloads itself. The file is watched: rebuild the tileset and the map redraws.
| Vector and raster | MVT (pbf) and MLT vector tiles, plus raster tilesets — optionally drawn as hillshade or terrain-RGB |
| Every layer, coloured | A stable colour per source-layer name, so water is blue and transportation is orange in every file you open |
| Layer control | Show/hide a whole file or one of its layers, set per-file opacity, filter to points, lines or polygons |
| Stacking order | Drag files to restack them — the panel reads top-to-bottom exactly like the map draws |
| Compare | Open a second set of files in a split view with a swipe handle, synced camera, and A/B tabs |
| Inspect | Click (or hover, or hold Shift) to read a feature's attributes |
| Feature table | Sortable, searchable table of what you selected, with the raw JSON per row and copy-as-GeoJSON |
| Tile debugging | Tile boundaries, collision boxes, live z/x/y readout, and copy this tile as GeoJSON from the right-click menu |
| Picks up where you left | Remembers the files you had open, the camera, the split position, and which layers you had hidden |
| Light and dark | Follows the system by default |
| Works small | Below 840px the panel becomes a bottom sheet, so it is usable in a narrow window |
 Compare — two tilesets, one swipe handle |
 Inspect — attributes on click, and a table of everything selected |
 Dark — follows the system |
 Narrow windows — the panel becomes a sheet |
Grab the installer for your platform from the releases page.
| Platform | Bundle |
|---|---|
| macOS | .app — built for Apple Silicon and Intel |
| Windows | .msi |
| Linux | .deb |
Then drop an .mbtiles file onto the window, or use ⌘/Ctrl+O.
macOS may say the app is from an unidentified developer on first launch — right-click the app and choose Open.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘/Ctrl + O | Open an MBTiles file |
| L | Show/hide the layers panel |
| S | Split view |
| F | Feature table |
| B | Basemap |
| T | Tile boundaries |
| I | Cycle the attribute popup: click → hover → off |
| Shift (held) | Inspect features under the pointer |
┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ Svelte + MapLibre GL │ HTTP │ Rust (Tauri) │
│ layer panel, compare, │ ◀────▶ │ hyper server on :9872 │
│ inspection, feature table │ │ reads tiles from SQLite, │
│ │ │ watches the file for changes │
└──────────────────────────────┘ └────────────────────────────────┘
The Rust side opens the .mbtiles (SQLite), serves a TileJSON document and the tile blobs over
localhost, and watches the file so a rebuild triggers a redraw. The frontend is a
MapLibre GL JS map: it adds one source per file and, for vector tilesets,
three layers per source-layer (polygons, lines, points) so every geometry type can be toggled on
its own.
Layer visibility is derived from three inputs — the file's own flag, the per-layer flag, and the
geometry filter — rather than remembered, which is what keeps the panel and the map from drifting
apart. That logic lives in src/lib/sources.ts and is covered by
yarn test:ui.
Requires Node.js (LTS), yarn, and a Tauri v2 environment (Rust toolchain plus your platform's webview dependencies).
git clone https://github.com/Akylas/mbview-rs.git
cd mbview-rs
yarn install
yarn dev # runs the app with hot reload| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
yarn dev |
Run the app (Tauri + vite, hot reload) |
yarn dev:web |
Frontend only, in a browser — useful for working on the UI chrome |
yarn build |
Build the installers for the current platform |
yarn check |
cargo check, eslint and svelte-check |
yarn test |
Rust tests plus the frontend layer-model tests |
yarn format |
prettier and eslint --fix |
src/ Svelte frontend
components/ui/ design-system primitives (button, toggle, sheet, …)
components/ app screens: source panel, feature table, popups
lib/ source model, settings, theme, layout stores
src-tauri/src/ Rust: tile server, mbtiles reader, file watcher
resources/styles/ optional basemap styles
docs/ the project website (GitHub Pages)
Releases are cut from the Release workflow. Run it from the Actions tab and pick how to bump the version:
auto— from the conventional-commit history (default)patch/minor/major— forced
It bumps package.json and Cargo.toml, updates CHANGELOG.md, tags, and then builds and
uploads a draft release for every platform. Pushing a v* tag by hand does the same, minus the
bump.
Issues and pull requests are welcome — including from first-time contributors. Please read the contribution guide; commits follow conventional commits, which is what drives the changelog.
Found a bug? Open an issue with the steps and, if you can, the tileset that shows it. Ideas and questions belong in Discussions.
Tauri · Svelte · MapLibre GL JS · hyper · rusqlite