First Basemap

Create a shockingly fast and virtually free interactive map of the world using OpenStreetMap and PMTiles

What you will learn

• How to link a free GitHub Actions task runner to large-scale, long-running servers using Amazon Web Services.

• How to configure Planetiler to download OpenStreetMap data and convert it to the PMTiles file.

• How to style and display the map using MapLibre GL JS.

Who can take it

This course is free. Previous experience working with Amazon Web Services and GitHub Actions will be useful, but anyone with a good attitude is qualified.

If you have never made a GitHub Actions workflow before, you should review the first three chapters of “Go big with GitHub Actions,” a previous course by Ben Welsh, Iris Lee and Dana Chiueh.

They are “Introducing Actions,” “Introducing YAML” and “Creating your first Action.“ They will teach you the basics you need to work through this class.

Table of contents

• 1. What you will make
• 2. Scaling your Actions
• 3. Building your PMTiles
• 4. Styling your basemap

About this class

Ben Welsh prepared this guide in December 2025. GitHub’s Copilot, an AI-powered text generator, provided some assistance. The materials are available as free and open source on GitHub. Some portions are borrowed from “Go big with GitHub Actions.”