API documentation

KotobaMedia Tile Kiln exposes a small HTTP API for automating the uploader workflow: create a job, upload a GeoTIFF to the returned presigned URL, poll until conversion finishes, then use the generated TileJSON URL. Creating a job requires a contact email or valid API key, but public job responses do not expose contact email or API-key metadata. Jobs created with a change key can also have the upload and generated output deleted by the caller before expiry.

Base URLs

API_URL="https://tile-kiln-api.kmproj.com"

Limits and timing

• Input files must be GeoTIFF-compatible TIFF or BigTIFF files.
• Input uploads are limited to 100000000 bytes.
• POST /jobs requires a contact email for internal tracing or a valid API key. Job responses do not return the email or API-key metadata.
• Include sizeBytes, fileSizeBytes, or contentLength when creating a job.
• Presigned upload URLs currently expire after 900 seconds.
• Source GeoTIFF objects are deleted after processing reaches COMPLETED or FAILED.
• Job status may stop being available seven days after processing finishes.
• Uploads without a changeKey expire one calendar month after the upload is received; jobs that never upload expire one calendar month after job creation.
• Uploads with a changeKey expire six calendar months after the upload is received and can be deleted by the caller before expiry; jobs that never upload expire six calendar months after job creation.
• Uploads created with a valid API key do not expire automatically.
• Expired uploads and generated outputs are cleaned up automatically.
• The upload request must use the exact Content-Type returned by upload.headers.

1. Create a job

POST /jobs

curl -sS -X POST "$API_URL/jobs" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "email": "maps@example.com",
    "changeKey": "keep-this-to-delete-later",
    "fileName": "source.tif",
    "sizeBytes": 73400320,
    "contentType": "image/tiff",
    "options": {
      "tileFormat": "png",
      "tileSize": 512,
      "resampling": "bilinear",
      "minZoom": 4,
      "maxZoom": 14
    }
  }'

For an API-key upload, send the key as an x-api-key header. apiKey or api_key in the JSON body is also accepted. When a valid API key is supplied, email is optional; if omitted, the contact email associated with the API key is used.

curl -sS -X POST "$API_URL/jobs" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: $TILE_KILN_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "fileName": "source.tif",
    "sizeBytes": 73400320,
    "contentType": "image/tiff"
  }'

Request body fields

Conversion options

Successful response

The public job object intentionally omits the contact email, change key, and API-key metadata.

In job responses, expiresAt is when the public job status is expected to expire. API-key jobs are non-expiring, so expiresAt is omitted.

{
  "job": {
    "jobId": "43f5a43d-3081-4378-9a19-7f4a47d0dc0b",
    "status": "AWAITING_UPLOAD",
    "fileName": "source.tif",
    "canDelete": true,
    "contentType": "image/tiff",
    "createdAt": "2026-06-25T04:30:00.000Z",
    "updatedAt": "2026-06-25T04:30:00.000Z",
    "expiresAt": 1798173000,
    "input": {
      "bucket": "tile-kiln-input",
      "key": "uploads/43f5a43d-3081-4378-9a19-7f4a47d0dc0b/source.tif",
      "sizeBytes": 73400320
    },
    "output": {
      "bucket": "km-tileserver",
      "key": "uploads/raster/43f5a43d-3081-4378-9a19-7f4a47d0dc0b/source.pmtiles"
    },
    "options": {
      "overviewLevels": [2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256],
      "resampling": "bilinear",
      "tileFormat": "png",
      "tileSize": 512,
      "minZoom": 4,
      "maxZoom": 14
    }
  },
  "upload": {
    "method": "PUT",
    "url": "https://...",
    "headers": {
      "Content-Type": "image/tiff"
    },
    "maxSizeBytes": 100000000,
    "expiresInSeconds": 900
  }
}

2. Upload the GeoTIFF

Upload the source file directly to the returned presigned URL. Do not add authorization headers.

UPLOAD_URL="https://..."

curl -sS -X PUT "$UPLOAD_URL" \
  -H "Content-Type: image/tiff" \
  --data-binary @source.tif

3. Poll the job

GET /jobs/{jobId}

JOB_ID="43f5a43d-3081-4378-9a19-7f4a47d0dc0b"

curl -sS "$API_URL/jobs/$JOB_ID"

Status values

Poll every few seconds. Stop polling when the status is COMPLETED or FAILED.

4. Build the TileJSON URL

Completed output keys end in .pmtiles. The public TileJSON URL uses the same key without .pmtiles, plus .json, under https://tiles.kmproj.com/.

OUTPUT_KEY="uploads/raster/43f5a43d-3081-4378-9a19-7f4a47d0dc0b/source.pmtiles"
TILEJSON_URL="https://tiles.kmproj.com/${OUTPUT_KEY%.pmtiles}.json"

echo "$TILEJSON_URL"

map.addSource("uploaded-raster", {
  type: "raster",
  url: "https://tiles.kmproj.com/uploads/raster/43f5a43d-3081-4378-9a19-7f4a47d0dc0b/source.json",
  tileSize: 512,
});

5. Optional caller-requested delete

DELETE /jobs/{jobId}

Caller-requested delete is only available when the job was created with a non-empty changeKey. API-key authentication does not authorize deletion by itself. The change key is not returned by the API.

For completed conversions, this deletes the retained conversion state and generated PMTiles output. If temporary source or error state still exists, it is removed too. If conversion never completed, the endpoint removes the transient upload state.

If a job is actively PROCESSING, delete returns 409; retry after the job reaches COMPLETED or FAILED.

JOB_ID="43f5a43d-3081-4378-9a19-7f4a47d0dc0b"

curl -sS -X DELETE "$API_URL/jobs/$JOB_ID" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"changeKey":"keep-this-to-delete-later"}'

The change key can also be sent as an x-change-key header.

End-to-end shell script

This script uses jq and polls until the job finishes.

#!/usr/bin/env sh
set -eu

API_URL="${API_URL:-https://tile-kiln-api.kmproj.com}"
FILE_PATH="${1:?Usage: $0 source.tif maps@example.com}"
EMAIL="${2:?Usage: $0 source.tif maps@example.com}"
CHANGE_KEY="${CHANGE_KEY:-}"
FILE_NAME="$(basename "$FILE_PATH")"
SIZE_BYTES="$(wc -c < "$FILE_PATH" | tr -d ' ')"

CREATE_RESPONSE="$(
  jq -n \
    --arg email "$EMAIL" \
    --arg changeKey "$CHANGE_KEY" \
    --arg fileName "$FILE_NAME" \
    --arg contentType "image/tiff" \
    --argjson sizeBytes "$SIZE_BYTES" \
    '({
      email: $email,
      fileName: $fileName,
      sizeBytes: $sizeBytes,
      contentType: $contentType,
      options: {
        tileFormat: "png",
        tileSize: 512,
        resampling: "bilinear"
      }
    } + (if $changeKey == "" then {} else { changeKey: $changeKey } end))' |
  curl -sS -X POST "$API_URL/jobs" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data-binary @-
)"

JOB_ID="$(printf '%s' "$CREATE_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.job.jobId')"
UPLOAD_URL="$(printf '%s' "$CREATE_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.upload.url')"
CONTENT_TYPE="$(printf '%s' "$CREATE_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.upload.headers["Content-Type"]')"

curl -sS -X PUT "$UPLOAD_URL" \
  -H "Content-Type: $CONTENT_TYPE" \
  --data-binary "@$FILE_PATH"

while :; do
  JOB_RESPONSE="$(curl -sS "$API_URL/jobs/$JOB_ID")"
  STATUS="$(printf '%s' "$JOB_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.job.status')"
  printf '%s\n' "job $JOB_ID: $STATUS"

  case "$STATUS" in
    COMPLETED)
      OUTPUT_KEY="$(printf '%s' "$JOB_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.job.output.key')"
      printf '%s\n' "https://tiles.kmproj.com/${OUTPUT_KEY%.pmtiles}.json"
      exit 0
      ;;
    FAILED)
      printf '%s\n' "$JOB_RESPONSE" >&2
      exit 1
      ;;
  esac

  sleep 3
done

Errors

Error responses use JSON:

{
  "message": "fileName is required."
}