Hire an AI GIS analyst

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• A data check list to run first: coordinate system, blanks, duplicates and geometry
• Numbered query and geoprocessing steps, in order
• A map type, symbol and color choice for your reader
• A layout plan with legend, scale bar, north arrow and sources note
• A last check that the result answers your question
• Open questions

How it does the job well

• You cannot open files or run a GIS tool. Never say a step worked or that data is clean. Give checks for the user to run.
• Menu and tool names change between versions. Mark version-specific steps "check your tool's help".
• Give drafts and proposals. Get the user's go-ahead before anything that sends, publishes, spends money or changes a live system.
• For legal boundaries, official statistics or published figures, say a qualified person should review the result.
• Agree the question and the decision it supports before analysing.
• Check the data first: date range, grain, missing values, duplicates and definitions.
• Compare like with like: same period length, definitions and segments.

Mistakes it avoids

• Reporting a change without checking whether tracking or definitions changed.
• Treating correlation as cause.
• Averages that hide important segments or outliers.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: Someone says "can you just make a quick map of this?" and you do not know where to start.

• Task and assumptions. The question, reader and output as understood, with assumptions and MISSING items.
• Data checks. Per layer, the coordinate system, blank, duplicate and geometry checks to run first.
• Steps. Numbered operations with layers, settings and a check after each one.
• Map design. Map type, symbols, colors and label rules for your reader.
• Layout and export. Where the legend, scale bar, north arrow and sources go, and the export format.
• Final check. How to confirm the result answers the question, and what to document.

How the work is checked

• Numbers reconcile to the source totals, and the reconciliation is shown.
• Every chart and number states its source, period and definition.
• Limits and next checks are listed.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

A second opinion

Before it hands back, your AI reviews the draft the way Ray Kroc would. This is a way of reviewing the work. It does not mean they wrote or endorse it.

Capabilities

• Restate the task. It says the question back in one line, lists assumptions and marks missing inputs as MISSING.
• Plan the data checks. It lists checks for coordinate system, blanks, duplicates and bad geometry, before any analysis.
• Plan the query and geoprocessing. It orders the select, buffer, clip, dissolve, intersect or measure steps that answer the question.
• Choose the map and symbols. It picks a map type for your reader, with colors that work for color blind readers.
• Plan the layout and export. It places the legend, scale bar, north arrow and sources note, and picks print or web export.
• Check against the question. It lists how to confirm the result answers the first question, and what to document.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id gis-analyst only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/gis-analyst/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• The question the map or query must answer, in plain words
• Your data layers, with file type (Shapefile, GeoPackage, GeoJSON or a CSV with latitude and longitude) and what each holds
• The coordinate system, if you know it (optional)
• Who reads the result and where, such as a print PDF, a slide or a web page
• Your GIS tool, such as QGIS or ArcGIS Pro (optional)
• Known data problems, such as blanks or duplicates (optional)

Helpful context (optional)

• The column names and first five rows of each table.
• A screenshot of the layers that do not line up.

Tools and access

• Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini: The plan works from a pasted profile, your question and your layer list.
• QGIS or ArcGIS Pro: You run the steps there. The AI cannot open your files.

Functions and deliverables

• GIS analyst: Get a step by step plan to make a map or answer a location question, with data checks, symbols and layout, for QGIS or ArcGIS Pro.
  • A data check list to run first: coordinate system, blanks, duplicates and geometry
  • Numbered query and geoprocessing steps, in order
  • A map type, symbol and color choice for your reader
  • A layout plan with legend, scale bar, north arrow and sources note
  • A last check that the result answers your question
  • Open questions
  Source: Michael Sitarzewski and Agency Agents contributors.
• Statistical data analyst: Give it data and a question. Get trends, outliers, correlations and tests, explained in plain words.
  • What is typical and how much values vary
  • Outliers flagged, with ideas on what they might be
  • Trend and season notes for data over time
  • Test results in plain words, with the size of the difference
  • Cautions about what your data cannot show
  Source: Anthropic.
• Polars data table analyst: Share a data file and question. Get grouped results and Polars code to rerun.
  • A Polars script you can rerun on next month's file
  • A result file, such as a CSV or Parquet file
  • Notes on each step, with row counts before and after
  • The first rows of the result, shown in the chat
  • A list of assumptions, such as how blanks were handled
  Source: sickn33.
• Second location readiness checker: See if your business runs without you before opening a second location. Get trial gaps, a fix list and a ready or not yet call.
  • Each trial note sorted into a gap, with a one-line fix
  • A check that the first location earns without you on site
  • A check on the second site, its supplies and who runs it
  • A call of ready, ready with fixes or not yet
  • A fix list in order, with an owner and a date for each
• Metric definition writer: Share a metric, calculation and business use. Get a YAML definition, validation results and questions for the data owner.
  • A filled metric, dimension or entity YAML
  • A validation report
  • dbt-ready field names
  • Notes on edge cases
  Source: Nimrod Fisher.
• Ray Kroc: Plan shop operations using Ray Kroc’s recorded approach. Write the basics, try them in one place and check costs before copying the system.
  • Your problem worked on the way Ray Kroc would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Ray Kroc's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step

Tasks you can use it for

• Someone says "can you just make a quick map of this?" and you do not know where to start.
• You must find which sites fall inside a distance, an area or a boundary.
• Layers do not line up on the map, which is often a coordinate system problem.
• You have a spreadsheet with latitude and longitude and need a clear map for a report.

Limits to check before starting

• You need a strategy or a tool choice for a whole organization: use the GIS implementation planner.
• You need hot spot tests, regression or prediction: use the Spatial data scientist.
• You need an automated data pipeline: use the Spatial Data Engineer agent.
• You need the map styling worked out in depth: use the Map designer.
• You need a repeat task turned into a script or toolbox: use the Geoprocessing Specialist agent.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Add the pack to your AI as a skill. Or open a new chat and paste SKILL.md, then references/source-agent.md.
• Write the question first. Then list each layer with its file type and what it holds. A few sample rows are enough. Leave out private data.
• Say 'Plan this map task. Do not assume my coordinate system.' Your AI asks once for what is missing.
• Run the data checks in your GIS tool before anything else. Tell the AI what you find, and treat the steps as final only after it has seen those results.
• Follow the numbered steps. Spot check the result against a few features you know.
• Ask for fixes where a step fails, and keep the sources note with the finished map.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/gis-analyst for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.