🌐 Atlas4D Base

May 15, 2026 · View on GitHub

Open-source public preview of Atlas4D - a PostgreSQL-native 4D spatiotemporal AI platform foundation

📰 Featured: Why We Built Atlas4D — The problem with fragmented spatiotemporal data and how we solved it.

📌 Project Status

Atlas4D Base is a public preview / tech preview.

It is the open-source foundation and reference implementation for Atlas4D concepts: PostgreSQL-native spatial + temporal data, H3 indexing, vector search, reference AI services, and a lightweight demo UI.

It is not the full production Atlas4D platform and is not production-ready out of the box. The production Atlas4D platform includes additional enterprise modules, hardened deployment patterns, governed evidence workflows, and operational surfaces that are not part of this public base repository.

The hosted demo below is a public preview demo, not an SLA-backed service.

🏆 Recognition

As seen in:

Awesome-PostgreSQL - The definitive PostgreSQL resource list (Platforms category) 🆕
Awesome-Geospatial - Curated list of geospatial resources

Atlas4D Base is the open-source public foundation of the larger Atlas4D platform. This repository contains a compact 4D stack for learning, experimentation, and extension: database, reference services, demo UI, and observability. The full Atlas4D platform adds production hardening, governed evidence workflows, operator surfaces, and domain modules for critical infrastructure.

👥 Who Is This For?

Data Engineers building real-time spatiotemporal pipelines
GIS/Geo Developers needing time-series + vector search in one DB
Telecom Teams monitoring network infrastructure
Smart City Projects analyzing mobility and urban data
Research Labs working with 4D trajectory data

✨ What Makes Atlas4D Different

Feature	Traditional Approach	Atlas4D
Data Model	Separate geo, time, vector DBs	Unified PostgreSQL stack
Spatial Indexing	R-tree only	H3 hexagons + PostGIS
Time Series	Separate TSDB	TimescaleDB integrated
Vector Search	External service	pgvector in-database
ML Pipeline	Build from scratch	Ready anomaly/threat detection
Natural Language	Not included	NLQ query interface
Observability	DIY	Prometheus + Grafana + Alerts

🚀 Quick Start

# Clone and start
git clone https://github.com/crisbez/atlas4d-base.git
cd atlas4d-base
make demo

Or manually:

cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d --build

⏱️ Time to first map: ~3 minutes

Service	URL
Map UI	http://localhost:8091
API Health	http://localhost:8090/health
API Stats	http://localhost:8090/api/stats

Demo Map

🌐 Public Preview Demo

Try the hosted Atlas4D Base preview without installing anything:

Service	URL
Map UI	Open map
API Health	Check health
API Stats	View stats

💡 This is a public preview demo for orientation and evaluation. It is not an SLA-backed production service. The demo dataset may be refreshed during maintenance; no daily refresh cadence is guaranteed.

🧱 Modular by Design

Atlas4D is built as a set of independent services around a shared 4D database core.

Add new domain modules without touching the core DB
Mix & match services (anomaly only, or anomaly + threat + NLQ)
Safe to extend: everything talks HTTP/JSON or SQL
Scalable: suitable for single-node labs and multi-service production clusters

🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      Atlas4D Platform                        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐        │
│  │   Map   │  │   NLQ   │  │ Health  │  │  API    │  UI    │
│  │   UI    │  │  Chat   │  │Dashboard│  │  Docs   │        │
│  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘        │
│       │            │            │            │              │
│  ┌────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────┐        │
│  │              API Gateway (FastAPI)              │        │
│  └────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────┘        │
│       │            │            │            │              │
│  ┌────┴────┐  ┌────┴────┐  ┌────┴────┐  ┌────┴────┐        │
│  │ Anomaly │  │ Threat  │  │Embedding│  │ Public  │Services│
│  │   Svc   │  │Forecast │  │   Svc   │  │   API   │        │
│  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘        │
│       │            │            │            │              │
│  ┌────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────┐        │
│  │     PostgreSQL + PostGIS + TimescaleDB          │  Data  │
│  │              + H3 + pgvector                    │  Layer │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

📦 Core Components

Database Layer

PostgreSQL 16 - Rock-solid foundation
PostGIS 3.4 - Spatial operations and geometry
TimescaleDB - Time-series hypertables with compression
H3 - Uber's hexagonal hierarchical indexing
pgvector - Vector similarity search for embeddings

Services (Reference Implementation)

public-api - REST API for data ingestion and queries
anomaly-svc - Real-time anomaly detection (reference models)
threat-forecastor - ML-powered threat assessment (reference model)
trajectory-embedding - Trajectory vectorization with caching
nlq-svc - Natural language to SQL translation (Bulgarian + English)

Observability

Prometheus - Metrics collection
Grafana - Dashboards and visualization
Alert Rules - Pre-configured for ML pipeline and Redis

📊 Base Preview Scope

Aspect	Status
Maturity	Public Preview / Tech Preview
Scope	Core 4D database, reference AI services, demo UI, observability
Not included	Enterprise modules, production hardening, Mission Control, Network Guardian, radar/ADS-B/vision GPU modules - see Full Edition

🎯 Use Cases & Example Modules

Atlas4D Base ships with the core 4D engine and generic AI services. On top of this core, domain-specific modules can be added:

Telecom & Networks

GPON / fiber anomaly detection
Capacity & congestion forecasting
Network Guardian-style risk scoring for critical infrastructure

Smart City & Mobility

Traffic & fleet analytics via trajectories
Movement anomalies (speed spikes, unusual routes)
High-risk zones (stadiums, events, gatherings)

Airspace & Airports

Trajectory monitoring for aircraft and drones
Conflict zones / separation violation detection
Safety dashboards for control rooms

Wildfires & Agriculture

Fire risk mapping (wind, temperature, drought, historical fires)
Crop yield forecasting on H3 grid
Early warning for extreme weather events

Defense & Security

Multi-sensor drone detection (radar + vision + RF)
Spatiotemporal analysis of suspicious objects and vehicles
Pattern-of-life analysis on 4D trajectories

Predictive Analytics

Time-series forecasting
Vector-based similarity: "find trajectories similar to this incident"

🔒 Security & Hardening

Atlas4D Base ships with a developer-friendly demo configuration.
It is not production-ready out of the box.

Before exposing a deployment to the internet you should:

change all default passwords and secrets,
restrict exposed ports and put Atlas4D behind a reverse proxy (HTTPS),
use a dedicated DB user with least privilege,
protect observability (Grafana/Prometheus) and internal APIs.

See docs/SECURITY.md for a detailed hardening guide.

📚 Documentation

🔧 Configuration

# .env.example
POSTGRES_HOST=postgres
POSTGRES_DB=atlas4d
POSTGRES_USER=atlas4d_app
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your_secure_password

# Optional: Enable ML features
ENABLE_ANOMALY_DETECTION=true
ENABLE_THREAT_FORECAST=true
ENABLE_NLQ=true

🗺️ Roadmap

Atlas4D Base roadmap is directional. Dates are intentionally avoided until a release is actively being prepared.

See ROADMAP.md for the directional roadmap.

🤝 Atlas4D Full Edition

This repository is Atlas4D Base: the open-source foundation and reference implementation.

The full Atlas4D platform builds on this foundation with production and enterprise capabilities, including:

Mission Control for operator-facing case review and triage
Network Guardian for telecom and critical infrastructure monitoring
Radar, ADS-B, vision, and multi-sensor modules
Governed evidence workflows with lineage, review, and audit semantics
Advanced forecasting and risk scoring across multiple evidence sources
Deployment hardening, sizing, support, and integration guidance

Atlas4D Base is useful for learning the architecture and running the public demo stack. Full Atlas4D is designed for production operational environments.

📊 Case Studies

Atlas4D is designed for multiple industries. Explore our use case outlines:

Industry	Use Case	Key Features
📡 Telecom	Network Monitoring	SNMP, GPON, real-time alerts
🏙️ Smart City	Municipal IoT Platform	Traffic, parking, air quality
🛡️ Defense	Counter-Drone System	Radar fusion, swarm detection
🔥 Emergency	Wildfire Monitoring	Risk prediction, satellite hotspots
🌾 Agriculture	Harvest Forecasting	NDVI tracking, yield prediction

Each case study includes architecture diagrams, NLQ examples (Bulgarian + English), and expected results.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See our Contributing Guide.

Ways to contribute:

🐛 Report bugs
📝 Improve documentation
💻 Submit code
💡 Propose new modules

Check out our Good First Issues for beginner-friendly tasks.

📄 License

Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE for details.

🙏 Built On

Atlas4D stands on the shoulders of giants:

Our vision: Atlas4D aims to become the "Linux of 4D spatiotemporal data platforms" - a stable, open foundation for location-aware, time-sensitive AI applications.

⭐ Star this repo if you find it useful!

💬 Ask Your Data in Natural Language

Atlas4D supports natural language queries in Bulgarian and English:

Bulgarian:

"Какво е времето в Бургас?"
"Покажи заплахи около София"
"Покажи аномалии от последния час"

English:

"Show threats near the airport"
"What anomalies happened today?"

See NLQ Usage Guide for full examples.

🔗 After the Local Stack is Up

Service	URL
Map UI	http://localhost:8091
API Health	http://localhost:8090/health
API Stats	http://localhost:8090/api/stats

For the hosted public preview, use the Public Preview Demo section above.

👩‍💻 For Developers

New to Atlas4D Base? Start here:

Developer Onboarding - Architecture, first 10 minutes, common tasks
Contributing Guide - How to submit PRs, code style, testing

Quick Dev Commands

# Start stack
docker compose up -d

# View logs
docker compose logs -f api-gateway

# Connect to database
docker compose exec postgres psql -U atlas4d_app -d atlas4d

# Rebuild after changes
docker compose build api-gateway && docker compose up -d api-gateway

🗺️ Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md for upcoming features and releases.

Current public preview: v0.3.x | Next focus: public preview refresh, module packaging, and deployment hardening