# Periplus

> Maps, bookmarks, collections, and directions — Robert's canonical store for geographic places.

- **MCP server name:** `periplus`
- **Prompt snippet:** [prompts/tools/periplus.md](../../prompts/tools/periplus.md)

## What It Is

Periplus is the canonical store for **places** in Robert's life: addresses and points of interest, their actual coordinates, organized into collections (often one collection per trip or per category), with multi-hop directions between them. Backed by OpenStreetMap's Nominatim for place search and OSRM for routing.

Named for the ancient Greek *periplus* — the sailing manual that listed coastal landmarks in order. Same idea: the catalogue of places that matter, with the routes between them.

Periplus sits in the same relation to Neo4j that Kairos does for calendar and contacts: Periplus holds the **canonical geographic record** (the lat/lng, the bookmark, the collection); Neo4j holds the **interpretation and cross-domain linking** (what Robert did at the place, what restaurant Bourdain recommended, what species Cousteau observed there).

## ⚠️ Critical Discipline: Never Estimate Coordinates

> Models reliably misplace estimated coordinates — bookmarks for restaurants end up in the ocean.

When you need a place's coordinates, **call `search_places` to look them up.** Do not estimate or guess from memory. The typical workflow is:

1. `search_places("place name")` to resolve the place via Nominatim
2. Use the returned `lat` and `lng` to `create_bookmark` or other coordinate-consuming operations

This rule has no exceptions. Even for "obvious" landmarks where you think you know the coordinates, look them up.

## MCP Tools

### Search

| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `search_places` | Search OSM/Nominatim for addresses and places. Returns lat/lng + metadata. **The first step for any place not already bookmarked.** |
| `search_bookmarks` | Search saved bookmarks by name / tag / source / collection. Returns existing bookmarks before you re-create them. |
| `get_bookmark` | Fetch a single bookmark by UUID. |

### Bookmarks (creation)

| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `create_bookmark` | Create a bookmark from coordinates (name, lat, lng, optional description/address/source/tags). |
| `import_bookmarks` | Import a KML/KMZ/GPX/GeoJSON file from the server filesystem. |

### Geographic queries

| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `find_bookmarks_nearby` | Find bookmarks near a point, sorted by distance. Includes `distance_m`. |
| `find_bookmarks_in_area` | Find bookmarks within a bounding box (sw_lat/lng → ne_lat/lng). |
| `get_directions` | Multi-hop directions between waypoints (semicolon-separated `lat,lng` pairs). Returns distance, duration, GeoJSON geometry, step-by-step instructions. Modes: `car`, `bike`, `foot`. |

### Collections

| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `list_collections` | List all collections with bookmark and track counts. |
| `get_collection` | Get a collection with its full bookmark list. |
| `create_collection` | Create a new collection (name, optional description and tags). |
| `add_bookmarks_to_collection` | Add bookmarks to a collection (comma-separated bookmark UUIDs). |
| `remove_bookmark_from_collection` | Remove a bookmark from a collection (does not delete the bookmark). |

## Canonical Workflow — Find and Save a Place

```
1. search_places("Rideau Canal Ottawa")
   → [{lat: 45.4274, lng: -75.6919, name: "Rideau Canal", ...}]

2. create_collection("Ottawa Landmarks")
   → {id: "coll-uuid", ...}

3. create_bookmark(
       name="Rideau Canal",
       lat=45.4274, lng=-75.6919,
       address="Rideau Canal, Ottawa, Ontario",
       source="nominatim"
   )
   → {id: "bm-uuid", ...}

4. add_bookmarks_to_collection(
       collection_id="coll-uuid",
       bookmark_ids="bm-uuid"
   )
```

Steps 1 and 3 enforce the no-estimate rule: the coordinates passed to `create_bookmark` came from `search_places`, not from the model's head.

## Who Uses Periplus

- **Nate** — heavy, primary. One collection per trip, with the destinations, lodging, day-trip points of interest. Used alongside `get_directions` for itinerary logistics.
- **Bourdain** — restaurants, markets, shops. Collections organized by city or by type. Bourdain's Neo4j `Restaurant` and `Ingredient` nodes cross-link to Periplus bookmarks.
- **David** — stores, theatres, studios, apothecaries — the places where culture and good taste live. Collections by city or by type.
- **Cousteau** — site-of-interest bookmarks for nature observations (dive sites, garden suppliers, parks).
- **Other agents** read Periplus when their work involves a place; the four above do the writing.

## What It's Good For

- Resolving "where is X" with real coordinates
- Building a per-trip collection of places worth knowing about
- Multi-hop routing for actual itinerary planning
- Finding bookmarks near a point or in an area ("what's near the hotel")
- Importing GPS tracks, KML waypoints, or other geo data

## What It's Not Good For

- Estimating coordinates without lookup. (Documented above; restating because it's the single most important rule.)
- Cross-domain interpretation — Periplus holds the place; what Robert did or thought about the place belongs in Neo4j (Activity, Restaurant, Observation, etc.)
- Real-time location tracking — Periplus is for places, not for "where is Robert right now"
- Indoor navigation, building floor plans — Periplus is map-scale

## Known Gotchas

- **Never estimate coordinates.** Bears repeating because the failure mode is silent: a bookmark created with estimated lat/lng looks fine until someone tries to navigate to it and ends up at the wrong location. Always `search_places` first.
- **Nominatim's `display_name` is verbose.** Use it for verification but pass cleaner names to `create_bookmark` (`name` field).
- **`tags` is a JSON string, not a dict.** When passing tags to `create_bookmark` or `create_collection`, serialize the dict to a JSON string: `'{"category": "restaurant"}'`, not `{"category": "restaurant"}` directly.
- **`waypoints` format is specific.** `get_directions` expects semicolon-separated `lat,lng` pairs: `"45.42,-75.70;45.50,-73.57"`. Get this wrong and routing fails silently.
- **Search before create.** Before `create_bookmark` for a known place, run `search_bookmarks` to avoid duplicates. Bookmarks aren't deduplicated by coordinates automatically.
- **Collections are organizational, not exclusive.** A bookmark can belong to multiple collections. Adding to one doesn't remove from another.
- **`import_bookmarks` reads server filesystem paths.** The path must be absolute and accessible to the Periplus server, not the client.