Google Maps Platform agent skills

Google Maps Platform agent skills (GitHub) are portable, self-contained modules of Google Maps Platform-specific knowledge, instructions, and workflows. They're designed to help AI assistants understand Google Maps Platform best practices and execute complex tasks with higher accuracy and lower token cost.

Available skills

Google Maps Platform provides a suite of skills for core products. Skills for additional products and features are coming soon!

Skill Description
google-maps-platform A collection of skills for architecting and implementing production-ready code using Google Maps Platform APIs and SDKs across Web, Android, iOS, and Web Services APIs for any of the following: map, place, address, geocoding, routing/ETA (including eco-friendly routing), nearby search, 3D/Street View/static map, marker clustering, custom styling, drawing, geofencing, heatmap, or environmental (air-quality/pollen/solar/weather).

Get started

Google Maps Platform agent skills work with any AI assistant that supports skills, including Gemini, Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot, and Claude.

Install Google Maps Platform agent skills

In most cases, Google Maps Platform agent skills can be installed with a single command:

Skills CLI

For most popular AI-assistive tools, you can use the skills CLI to install Google Maps Platform agent skills. Run the following in the root directory of your project:

npx skills add googlemaps/agent-skills

This method has been tested as a terminal command or a natural language prompt to the agent in:

Gemini CLI

This repository is configured as a Gemini CLI extension. You can add it using the Gemini CLI:

gemini extensions install https://github.com/googlemaps/agent-skills

Lovable

Install the Google Maps Platform agent skills in Lovable using the Skills settings UI:

  1. Visit https://lovable.dev/settings/skills
  2. Under Workspace skills, click Add > Import from GitHub.
  3. Paste the URL for the google-maps-platform main skill:
https://github.com/googlemaps/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/google-maps-platform

Update Google Maps Platform agent skills

You can get all available updates and clean up out-of-date skills by running the update command:

Skills CLI 

npx skills update

Gemini CLI 

gemini extensions update

Use Google Maps Platform agent skills

AI assistants are designed to use skills automatically whenever they detect that a skill's description matches your current request. However, skills can also be manually invoked. This is often done by typing / in the agent chat and searching for the skill name.

Core components of a skill

Each agent skill is a specialized package that can provide the AI assistant with the following components:

  • Specialized instructions: Detailed guidance on achieving specific tasks, such as implementing Place Autocomplete or generating a map with Advanced Markers.
  • Best practices: Built-in security and performance patterns to ensure your app follows Google Maps Platform recommendations from the start, including cost optimization.
  • Automation scripts: Executable code that allows your AI agent to perform local environment setup or configuration automatically.
  • Real-world robustness: Error and exception handling patterns distilled directly from verified open-source repository implementations.

Benefits of using skills

Using agent skills reduces the manual effort of searching documentation while improving the efficiency of your AI interactions.

Reduced token costs

Conventional AI integrations often load massive amounts of documentation upfront, which consumes significant tokens and increases session costs. Agent skills use progressive disclosure to minimize this overhead:

  • The agent initially only "scans" brief metadata to see if a skill is relevant.
  • Detailed instructions and resources are only loaded when the agent determines they're necessary for your specific task.

AI-guided implementation

Instead of manually searching through documentation, you can describe your intent in natural language. Skills guide your AI assistant to perform tasks such as the following:

  • Add a map with a marker to my web app.
  • Implement Place Autocomplete for address entry.
  • Help me generate a static map image. For a full list of the Google Maps Platform agent skills, see Available skills.

Use skills alongside the Code Assist MCP server

Agent skills are designed to complement the Code Assist MCP server:

  • Google Maps Platform agent skills: Provide the quick instructions and recommended practices that tell an agent how to perform Google Maps Platform tasks through token-efficient progressive disclosure. They educate the agent on how to use the MCP server tools effectively.

  • Code Assist MCP server: Designed for AI-assisted development workflows, enabling AI assistants to interact with your Google Maps Platform projects, resources, and data programmatically.

Next steps