Best for
- Geospatial analysts wanting a unified desktop GIS + AI workflow
- Developers who want to run local LLMs and connect custom MCP tools
- Open-source users comfortable building from source under GPL-3.0
A
37FMRS · D
Arion is a distinctive early-stage open-source desktop app combining LLM chat, MCP tool integration, and map visualization for geospatial work. It is not an MCP server and cannot be configured as one in other MCP clients; with binary releases still pending, users must currently build from source.
Arion is a cross-platform desktop application (Electron + React + TypeScript + Vite) by GeoRetina Inc. for advanced geospatial analysis and agentic workflows. It supports multiple LLM providers (OpenAI, Google Gemini, Azure, Anthropic, Ollama) via the Vercel AI SDK, can connect to user-defined MCP servers to access external Python/TypeScript tools, and includes dynamic map visualization with MapLibre GL plus a local RAG knowledge base built on PGlite with pgvector. Note: Arion is an MCP client / desktop app, not an MCP server; the repository provides no server manifest, tool list, or transport for serving MCP.
Setup
Requires Node.js 22+ and npm 8+. Clone the repository, run npm install, and start development mode with npm run dev. Production builds need platform toolchains: Windows requires Visual Studio Build Tools (npm run build:win), macOS requires Xcode Command Line Tools (npm run build:mac, produces a .dmg), Linux requires build-essential, python3, and libsecret-1-dev (npm run build:linux, produces AppImage/Snap/.deb). Raster processing uses GDAL: install via brew install gdal (macOS) or sudo apt install -y gdal-bin libgdal-dev (Ubuntu); Windows builds bundle GDAL and do not fall back to system GDAL. Official binary installers are not yet available.
Fit and risk
Not for
- Users looking for an MCP server entry to configure in clients like Claude Desktop (Arion is not an MCP server and ships no server manifest)
- Users who need official turn-key installers (binary releases are not yet published)
- Non-technical users unwilling to build an Electron app and compile native modules
Required permissions
- Local file system read/write for app data (SQLite) and the knowledge base (PGlite)
- Network access to call cloud LLM provider APIs
- Access to a local Ollama instance if local models are configured
- Execution of system GDAL binaries for raster processing
- Connections to user-defined MCP servers and execution of their tools
Risks and side effects
- The project is early-stage (v0.0.14); several features (plugin system, Python agent runtimes, SpatiaLite integration) are planned only
- Building from source is required; native modules (better-sqlite3, keytar) can fail to compile
- Connecting custom MCP servers executes external code whose safety you must evaluate yourself
- With cloud LLMs, query content is sent to third-party APIs
Troubleshooting
- Verify Node.js 22+ and npm 8+ are installed
- On Windows build errors, install Visual Studio Build Tools (C++ workload)
- On macOS build errors, run `xcode-select --install`
- After dependency updates, run `npm run rebuild` to rebuild native modules
- Verify GDAL with `gdalinfo --version`; macOS/Linux fall back to system GDAL on PATH, Windows does not
Use cases
Running geospatial queries and analysis through a chat interface
Visualizing and manipulating geospatial data on a MapLibre GL map
Ingesting PDF/DOCX/TXT documents into a local vector store for RAG
Using local LLMs via Ollama for geospatial tasks
Extending agent capabilities with custom MCP servers exposing Python/TypeScript tools