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Asking questions

Type a question the way you would ask a colleague. While GeoAI works, it shows each step it takes; then the answer streams in, followed by download buttons for the full result.

The chat screen: a question, the collapsible thinking panel with its steps, the streamed answer and two download buttons — **The chat screen.** Every spatial answer comes with its working: recognised places, candidate datasets, the chosen roles, the plan and the executed query. Figures shown are illustrative.

Start with an example

The welcome screen offers a few questions that run with one click. They show the range well:

What tree data do you have?A question about the catalogue itself Buildings in Amstelveen before 1960Filter by attribute and place Monuments in AalsmeerShow features in a municipality Trees near schools in AmstelveenRelate two datasets by distance

What you see while it works

The thinking panel opens as soon as you send a question and lists each step as it happens:

Recognised places, resolved to their official district or neighbourhood, or flagged as outside the data’s coverage.
Candidates: the datasets found for your question, with a similarity score.
Selected: which dataset is counted, which ones constrain it, and why.
Plan: the structured analysis GeoAI will run.
Query: the database query that was actually executed, with “returned N of M features”.

When the answer starts, the panel folds away to “Done · N steps”. Click it to look again at any time.

How answers are written

The answer uses the language of your question, even though the data itself is Dutch. Place and street names stay as they are.
It leads with the key finding, then gives at most three examples.
For per-district or per-group results it makes clear that each row is a group, not a single object. For “top 10” questions it says the list is ranked.
A result of zero is phrased as “none found in the data queried”, never as a claim about the real world.
Scope notes explain what was counted, where, and from which registers. See Answers, results and downloads.

Tips for good questions

Name the place

“in Elsrijk”, “per wijk in Aalsmeer”, “in Kudelstaart”. Districts and neighbourhoods are recognised by their official names.

Say what to count

“How many trees”, “which buildings”, “the 10 largest parks”. One kind of object per question works best; two kinds are split automatically.

Use real thresholds

“within 100 m”, “built before 1945”, “label C or better”. Vague words like “expensive” lead to a clarifying question.

Refine instead of retyping

Follow up with “only in Elsrijk” or “and in Aalsmeer?” and GeoAI rewrites the question for you. See Follow-ups.

Technical noteAnswers are streamed as server-sent events: progress steps, a routing decision, answer text in small chunks, and machine-readable trace events that the Stage uses. Each browser tab is its own session.