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A Hands-On Guide for Working with Large-Scale Spatial Data. Learn more.
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Wherobots for QGIS is a new plugin that connects QGIS to Wherobots Cloud. From a panel inside QGIS, an analyst can run spatial SQL against WherobotsDB, load the results as a map layer, push a local layer up to a Wherobots Iceberg table, and pull raster data into the canvas.
GIS analysts hit the same wall in city after city. A workflow that runs fine on a neighborhood runs fine on a district. At state scale, it crashes or runs for hours. At country scale, the analyst has to write a loop, tile the data by county, process each tile, handle the features that fall on the boundary, reassemble the output, and discover the seam artifacts two days later. That loop is not the analysis. It is overhead that the existing tools and databases impose.
This is the partitioning tax. It is not a performance problem. It is an architectural one. Desktop GIS and single-node databases process data on one machine. When the data outgrows that machine, the analyst absorbs the cost: split the extent, manage the tiles, merge the results, debug the edges. Every time a parameter changes, run it again. Testing at city scale and assuming it generalizes is not a workflow, it is a bet.
The same constraint blocks AI coding assistants. Tools like Claude Code and Cursor are fluent at writing spatial SQL for a single-pass query. Ask one to scale a workflow from a county to a state and it generates a partition loop with no overlap buffer and no dedupe logic. The model does not know about edge effects. The developer still has to do the work.
Wherobots for QGIS is a new plugin that removes the wall on the QGIS side of the stack. An analyst writes spatial SQL in a panel inside QGIS. WherobotsDB executes it in the cloud across the full extent, whether that extent is a city block or a continent, with no partition logic in the query and no tile management by the analyst. The result loads as a map layer.
The panel has three tabs, plus a connection screen where you enter an API key and pick a region and runtime.
Write spatial SQL in a free-form editor, or switch to Browse Tables and pick a table from the catalog. Set a row limit. Check one box to restrict results to the current map extent. Results land in the QGIS project as a layer, ready for styling, joins, or export.
Select a vector layer in your project, give it a destination table name, and send it to Wherobots. The plugin creates the table and inserts the features in batches while QGIS stays responsive.
Run raster SQL with RS_ functions against raster tables. Use the current map extent as the bounding box. A query that returns RS_AsGeoTiff loads as a raster layer. A query that returns RS_Values gives you pixel values as a table.
RS_ functions
RS_AsGeoTiff
RS_Values
The plugin runs on QGIS 3.22 through QGIS 4.0, covering both Qt5 and Qt6 builds.
Wherobots has one job in this picture: hold the data and run the compute. The interface should follow the person doing the work.
Today the same WherobotsDB tables are reachable from a Python notebook, a SQL client, a Python Job, the Wherobots CLI, and from AI coding assistants like VS Code, Cursor, and Claude Code through the Wherobots MCP Server. QGIS joins that list. The tables an analyst opens on the canvas are the same tables an agent queries through MCP. One copy of the data. No exports.
This is what making spatial accessible means in practice. An analyst who knows QGIS and knows SQL can now run a spatial join across hundreds of millions of records and see the result on a map, without standing up a cluster or learning a new interface. WherobotsDB, built by the original creators of Apache Sedona, handles the distribution, indexing, and coordinate systems underneath.
wherobots-python-dbapi
You need a Wherobots Cloud account. Start a free trial if you do not have one. The wherobots_open_data catalog, including Overture Maps, is a good first query.
wherobots_open_data
Wherobots for QGIS is the first project published under Wherobots Labs.
Labs is where Wherobots ships the projects that live at the edge of the platform: connectors, plugins, adapters, example pipelines, and skills for AI coding assistants. They are built by the solutions architects and customer engineers who work with Wherobots customers every day, and by community contributors.
Every Labs repository follows the same rules. It is public on GitHub under the wherobots organization with a labs- prefix. It is Apache 2.0 licensed unless noted otherwise. It has a README with a plain statement of support expectations, a CONTRIBUTING.md, and GitHub Issues enabled. It gets a security review before first release, and security fixes continue under the standard Wherobots security policy.
wherobots
labs-
CONTRIBUTING.md
What a Labs project does not carry is a production SLA. You are responsible for confirming a project fits your use case before you rely on it, and you are free to fork it. A Labs project that earns adoption can graduate to a supported product surface.
More Labs projects are on the way. Browse them at here and open an issue or a pull request on any of them.
If you use QGIS and you have a dataset that stopped fitting on your machine, install the plugin and tell us what you build.
Key takeaways
Wherobots for QGIS is a plugin that connects QGIS to Wherobots Cloud. From a panel inside QGIS, an analyst runs spatial SQL against WherobotsDB, loads results as a map layer, pushes a local layer up to a Wherobots table, and pulls raster data into the canvas.
Open the Wherobots panel, enter your API key, and pick a region and runtime. In the SQL Query tab, write spatial SQL in a free-form editor or switch to Browse Tables and pick a table from the catalog. Results land in the QGIS project as a layer, ready for styling, joins, or export.
Wherobots for QGIS is available from the QGIS Plugin Repository. As a Wherobots Labs project, its repository is public on GitHub and Apache 2.0 licensed unless noted otherwise. You need a Wherobots Cloud account to run queries, and a free trial is available.
No. WherobotsDB holds one copy of the data. The tables an analyst opens on the canvas are the same tables reached from a Python notebook, a SQL client, the Wherobots CLI, and AI coding tools through MCP.
Wherobots Labs is the home for projects at the edge of the platform: connectors, plugins, adapters, example pipelines, and skills for AI coding assistants. Every Labs repository is public on GitHub with a labs- prefix, Apache 2.0 licensed unless noted otherwise, and gets a security review before first release. Labs projects do not carry a production SLA.
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