Use an AI agent with Scribble Maps (Agent Mode)

Agent Mode lets an AI agent work in the Scribble Maps map editor with you. If you use Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini in your browser, you can ask it to draw a shape, fix a boundary, tidy a layer or check a map, and it works in the editor you already have open, signed in to your own account.

Nothing is installed, and there is no API key to create or store. Your normal sign-in, plan limits and AI credits apply to the agent exactly as they apply to you.

First, let your agent into the browser

Agent Mode is the Scribble Maps half. The other half is in your AI app: an agent cannot touch the page until you give it browser access there, and that is the step people miss.

In Claude, this is the browser pane, and you switch it on with the globe control. Until you do, Claude will talk about "the browser pane" as though you can already see it, and nothing it says about your map will actually reach the map. ChatGPT and Gemini each have their own control in their own place, and these apps change often, so if you cannot find it, search that app's own help for browser or page access.

A quick way to tell whether the agent really has the page: ask it what is on your map. If it can name a layer you created, it is connected. If it describes a map in general terms, it is guessing, and browser access is still off.

Turn Agent Mode on

There are three ways to start:

Click Enable Agent Mode in the footer of the map editor.
Ask your agent to turn it on. Any of its map calls switches Agent Mode on for you.
Open the editor at https://www.scribblemaps.com/create/#agentMode. That link opens the Agent access panel. Agent Mode itself switches on with the agent's first action.

When Agent Mode is on, a status bar appears at the bottom of the map. It names the tool that is active and the item that is selected, so you can see what the agent is doing while it works. Tool tips also move to a fixed spot at the bottom left, which keeps them out of the way of the map.

To stop, ask the agent to turn Agent Mode off. Reloading the editor also ends it. The editor goes straight back to normal.

Give the agent a task

You can work two ways, and they mix freely.

Ask your agent directly. In your agent's own chat, tell it what you want on the map. For example: "Draw a 100 metre circle around the CN Tower and drop a marker in the middle." The agent reads the editor, picks the right tool and draws.

Use the Agent access panel. Click Agent access in the editor footer. The panel has a request box, a Send task button, a Cancel task button, a status line and a log of replies. It also shows a short quick start for the agent, which you can hide.

The panel is useful in two situations: when you want to hand a task over yourself, and when your agent can click and type on the page but cannot run JavaScript.

What an agent can do

An agent in Agent Mode has more than 100 of the editor's own tools. The main ones:

Draw markers, lines, polygons and circles. Circles take a real radius in metres. Scribble Maps converts between screen position and latitude and longitude, so the shape lands where it belongs.
Pick tools from the live toolbox, by the same names and keyboard shortcuts you see.
Edit an existing shape. The agent can open a shape, list its editing handles, highlight the one you mean and move that handle. The shape keeps its style and its history.
Style shapes: colours, opacity, line weight, and solid, dashed or dotted lines.
Read the map. It can list what is on the map with names, types and sampled coordinates, and read the current view.
Search and navigate: find a place, go to a coordinate, set the zoom, change the basemap.
Work with data: import a file, filter by attribute, build buffers and travel time areas, add legends and labels, and export an image or GeoJSON.
Add map kits such as USA Zip Codes, USA Parcel Boundaries, Traffic Intelligence and Solar Analysis, and run their reports: a rooftop solar report for a building, or the daily traffic volume on a road. Kits that need Pro Business tell the agent so, and it will hand you the upgrade link rather than paying itself.
Undo and redo, so it can check a step and reverse it.

Ask Scribble for help

Scribble is the map assistant built into the editor. An agent that gets stuck, needs documentation or cannot find a feature can hand the question to Scribble and read the answer, then carry on with the tools itself.

Asking Scribble counts the same way as asking Scribble yourself. Tools the agent uses directly, such as drawing a circle, work exactly as they do when you click them.

Undo anything you did not want

Every edit an agent makes goes into the same undo history as your own edits. One click of Undo puts the map back.

Nothing is saved or shared unless you save or share it. If a task is going the wrong way, click Cancel task in the Agent access panel. Cancelling stops the task; it does not roll back edits that already happened, so use Undo for those.

Which agents work

Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini all work, as does any other AI agent that can work in your browser tab. You may need to allow your agent to act on the page the first time.

From a phone or tablet. Your phone's own browser cannot run Agent Mode. An app whose agent brings its own browser can, though. In the ChatGPT mobile app, switch to Work mode and ask for the map you want. The agent opens Scribble Maps in its own browser, which is not signed in, so it shows you an Authorize Scribble Maps link. Open the link on your phone, sign in, check the account and what is being asked for, and approve. The link expires after a short time or once it is used, so ask for a new one if it has lapsed. The agent then builds the map in your account. Save or share it from the agent's chat, or open it later on any device.

Some browsers can also offer the editor's tools to an agent automatically, without you doing anything. Support for that is still arriving, so treat it as a bonus rather than something to rely on: the steps above work either way.

Good habits

Check browser access on the agent's side before anything else. Most "it is not working" turns out to be an agent that cannot see the page. An agent that cannot name a layer on your map is not connected.
Let the agent turn Agent Mode on first. It gives you the status bar and keeps the editor's own tips out of the way.
Ask for a place by name or address rather than by coordinates you are not sure about. The agent can search, and coordinates it invents are the most common source of a shape in the wrong spot.
Ask it to check its work. It can read the map back and look at the view, so "check the circle is on the tower" is a reasonable instruction.
Keep the editor tab open while it works. The agent works in that tab.
Save or share only when you are happy with the result.

Last updated October 8, 2026