# tangrams/tangram

WebGL map rendering engine for creative cartography

Repository: https://github.com/tangrams/tangram
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tangrams-tangram
Homepage: https://tangram.city
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: tangram, map, mapzen, raster-tiles, webgl, vector-tiles, leaflet, magic, rendering, map-renderer, vector-graphics
Last push: 2026-02-08T03:24:49+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 52/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 66, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4721, "days_push": 206, "days_rel": 624, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2334, forks 291 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:37.982927+00:00)

## What it is
Tangram is a JavaScript library for rendering 2D and 3D maps live in the browser using WebGL, tuned for OpenStreetMap but supporting GeoJSON/TopoJSON and other vector tile sources. It integrates as a Leaflet plugin and uses declarative scene files for data sources, layers, and styling.

## Use cases
- render interactive 2D and 3D vector maps in the browser
- style custom map themes with a declarative scene file
- display OpenStreetMap vector tiles with WebGL acceleration
- add a WebGL map layer to an existing Leaflet map
- visualize GeoJSON or TopoJSON data as a map
- create creative cartography with custom raster and vector tile styling

## When to choose
- you need GPU-accelerated 2D/3D map rendering in a web browser
- you want deep custom styling of vector tiles for creative cartography
- you already use Leaflet and want a WebGL-powered layer
- you need to render GeoJSON/TopoJSON or custom vector tile sources

## When to avoid
- you need a native mobile map engine (use Tangram ES instead)
- you just need simple slippy maps without custom styling (plain Leaflet may suffice)
- you need a fully maintained project with active feature development
- your target browsers lack WebGL support

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: graphics, data-visualization, web-scraping
- domain: web-development, graphics, frontend
- platform: browser
- tags: webgl, vector-tiles, maps, leaflet-plugin, cartography, 3d-maps, openstreetmap, javascript, web

## Member repositories
- tangrams/tangram (main) score 52

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:37.982927+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:37:47.487211+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/tangrams/tangram (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:37.982927+00:00, sha 8dbfdf1c2ead)
  - homepage: https://tangram.city (fetched 2026-08-29T10:18:32.724027+00:00, sha db84b2e3e65d)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/tangram (fetched 2026-08-29T10:18:32.732942+00:00, sha b13c3c7bedd8)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.