Provider specification

Become a data provider at Cecil and join our partnership program. This document describes the advantages and technical specification for integrating spatial datasets with the Cecil platform.

Why integrate with Cecil

  • Cecil provides an additional distribution channel for your organisation. Our customers will discover your datasets through our marketing initiatives and product documentation.

  • Our unique value proposition is to deliver an intuitive developer experience. Our customers will acquire and analyse your datasets in a few simple steps.

  • We are natively compatible with leading spatial technologies. This will enable our customers to use your datasets with their preferred systems, tools, and libraries.

  • We take the time to learn about your product details and we embrace customer success. This will reduce your efforts in customer onboarding and support.

  • We offer an efficient pricing model that doesn’t have minimum usage requirements. This will enable your customers to scale in a cost effective manner.

Process overview

There are 3 high-level steps across the end-to-end integration.

  • Data acquisition: Cecil initiates the process by sending an API request to your organisation.

  • Webhook events: Your organisation provides successful and erroneous status updates.

  • Data delivery: Your organisation finalises the process by delivering data to Cecil.

Data acquisition

Cecil requires an API endpoint that allows submitting a request on behalf of a customer to acquire a dataset for their area of interest (AOI). Cecil defines this request as a subscription. The following information is required in the structure of the API endpoint.

  • Request body containing a GeoJSON geometry object in EPSG:4326 delimiting the boundaries of the AOI and coordinates type as Polygon or MultiPolygon.

  • Response body containing a resource ID representing Cecil’s subscription in your system, or when applicable, a descriptive error message.

Webhook notifications

Cecil requires status updates via webhooks. All webhook notifications must provide the following information and a cryptographic signature in SHA256.

  • Resource ID representing Cecil’s subscription in your system.

  • Status transitions such as completed and failed with a descriptive error message.

Data delivery

Once data is ready, Cecil requires a completed webhook event and the following requirements.

  • An API endpoint, cloud storage service, or similar method to securely access data in a deterministic manner, allowing for large scale processing in small and incremental steps, with the ability to retry on error and continue from the last checkpoint.

Data format

Cecil accepts a variety of data formats such as GeoTIFF, NetCDF, Zarr, GeoParquet, and Parquet, requiring industry standard structures and metadata. For example, CRS, consistent pixel grids, explicit NoData values, and standard requirements per official specifications.

Next steps

Please contact us with a brief introduction, links to your organisation website, API documentation, white papers, and pricing information. We believe in collaborative partnerships, so even if you don’t think our specifications are compatible, we would love to explore an integration path forward.