# Carto Find Spatial Data

> Discover and subscribe to external spatial datasets via CARTO Data Observatory and partner catalogs.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-cartodb-agent-skills-carto-find-spatial-data`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [CartoDB](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/cartodb)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [CartoDB](https://github.com/CartoDB)
- **Source:** https://github.com/CartoDB/agent-skills/tree/master/skills/carto-find-spatial-data

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-cartodb-agent-skills-carto-find-spatial-data
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# carto-find-spatial-data

The **CARTO Data Observatory (DO)** is a catalog of curated external spatial datasets — demographics, points of interest, environmental data, mobility, financial — that you can subscribe to and have materialized into your own data warehouse. Instead of the user hunting down a US census shapefile, this skill answers: "what's already curated in the DO that would help here?"

This skill covers **discovery and subscription**. Once subscribed, the data lives in the user's warehouse and is queryable like any other table — see [`carto-query-datawarehouse`](../carto-query-datawarehouse).

## When to use this skill

- The user asks for "demographics", "points of interest", "boundaries", "mobility data", "weather", or any other category of *external* spatial data.
- The user has internal data and wants to *enrich* it with external context (e.g., spatial-join their stores against census tracts).
- The user is exploring what's available before committing to a paid subscription.

If the user already has the dataset in their warehouse, jump to [`carto-explore-datawarehouse`](../carto-explore-datawarehouse) instead — DO is for sourcing *new* external data.

## Quick reference

```bash
# Discover what's available — by keyword
carto do search --keyword "census" --json
carto do search --keyword "weather" --country usa --json

# Inspect a specific dataset
carto do get  --json

# List your active subscriptions
carto do subscriptions list --json

# Subscribe (writes to a connection in your org)
carto do subscribe  \
  --connection carto_dw \
  --destination my_project.do.census_tracts
```

> The exact `carto do` subcommand surface is evolving — `search`, `get`, `subscribe`, `subscriptions` are the stable verbs. Check `carto do --help` if a flag isn't recognized.

## What's in this skill

| Topic | Reference |
|---|---|
| Discovery: searching, filtering, evaluating datasets | [references/data-observatory.md](references/data-observatory.md) |
| Subscribing: paid vs free, materialization, refresh, costs | [references/subscribe.md](references/subscribe.md) |

## Always-on guidance

- **Free vs paid**: many DO datasets are free (US Census, OpenStreetMap-derived, NaturalEarth). Premium datasets (Spatial.ai, Mastercard, AirSage, etc.) require a CARTO subscription contract — `carto do get` shows the licensing and pricing tier.
- **Subscription lands data into the user's warehouse.** It's not a remote view — actual rows are written to a destination table the user pays warehouse storage for. Plan destination naming accordingly.
- **Spatial extension required**. DO datasets often include H3 cells / geometry types that depend on CARTO's spatial extension being installed in the destination warehouse. If subscribing fails with "function not found", check that the spatial extension is installed — see [`carto-manage-platform`](../carto-manage-platform).
- **Don't recommend a DO dataset without `carto do get` first.** The dataset's metadata reveals coverage (US-only, EU-only, global), update cadence (monthly, yearly, real-time), and licensing — all critical to whether it actually fits the user's question.
- **DO is *external*; named sources are *internal*.** Don't confuse the two. Named sources (covered in [`carto-explore-datawarehouse/references/named-sources.md`](../carto-explore-datawarehouse/references/named-sources.md)) are the user's saved queries; DO is the curated catalog of third-party data.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [CartoDB](https://github.com/CartoDB)
- **Source:** [CartoDB/agent-skills](https://github.com/CartoDB/agent-skills)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-cartodb-agent-skills-carto-find-spatial-data
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/cartodb
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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