generate-sketch-map

Render a hand-drawn route map (PNG) of China from an ordered list of locations. The map layers province washes, rivers through the visited cities, highlighted city polygons, the route with direction arrows, numbered markers, a compass, and an optional title. Visual style is fixed.

When to use

Apply this skill when the user wants any of:

• A hand-drawn / sketch map of a China trip
• A travel route map / 行程图 / 路线图 / 旅行地图 visualizing a sequence of Chinese cities

Coverage is mainland China only (WGS84 lat/lng). Foreign locations will not match the province / city outlines and will appear under unmatchedLocations in the summary.

Setup (run once per machine)

From this skill directory, install the CLI dependencies once:

pnpm --dir scripts install

Node 20+ is required.

Usage

Run the CLI from this skill directory (reads route JSON, writes PNG; summary on stdout):

cat input-route.json | pnpm --dir scripts exec tsx render-sketch-map.ts --output /tmp/route.png

Install: copy or symlink this folder into your coding agent’s skill path (for example <project>/.cursor/skills/generate-sketch-map/ where applicable, or whatever your tool documents). Geo data ships inside sketch-map-sdk; no separate geo/*.json copy is required for normal use.

Input JSON schema

{
  "title": "optional, up to 60 chars, omit for no title",
  "locations": [
    { "name": "武汉", "lat": 30.5928, "lng": 114.3055 },
    { "name": "青岛", "lat": 36.0671, "lng": 120.3826 }
  ],
  "width": 800,
  "height": 600
}

The PNG is rasterized at 2x the SVG viewBox size.

stdout summary

After a completed render, stdout contains a JSON object useful for follow-up reasoning:

{
  "output": "/abs/path/route.png",
  "status": "ok",
  "message": "Rendered 5 locations to png.",
  "locationCount": 5,
  "unmatchedLocations": []
}

Inspect unmatchedLocations to detect bad coords (typically a typo, non-China location, or coordinate-order swap).

Workflow

1. Collect the visit order from the user. Each stop needs name, lat, lng (WGS84).
2. If the user only provided city names, geocode them first (any source the user trusts; this skill does not geocode).
3. Write the route JSON to a temp file or pipe it via stdin.
4. Run the CLI; capture the stdout summary.
5. If unmatchedLocations is non-empty, verify those coordinates and re-run.
6. Show the generated PNG to the user (its path is in output).

Example

The bundled references/sample-route.json traces 故宫 → 兵马俑 → 外滩 → 西湖 → 黄山. From this skill directory:

pnpm --dir scripts install
pnpm --dir scripts run render --input ../references/sample-route.json --output /tmp/sample.png

Troubleshooting

• unmatchedLocations non-empty — Coordinates are outside mainland China polygons (often lat/lng swapped). Fix the input and re-run.