Do I need API keys to run God's Eye View?

No. It runs keyless out of the box using Esri satellite imagery and OSM, with live flights, ships, satellites, earthquakes, cameras, radio, and launches all available without any keys.

What do the optional API keys unlock?

A Cesium ion token enables photorealistic 3D and world terrain for eligible personal, non-commercial use. A Google Maps key enables a metered, direct 3D route with in-app place search. An OpenAI key enables voice control and AI-generated HUD summaries.

Can I self-host this?

Yes, it's designed to run locally in your browser, either via a Pinokio one-click install or by cloning the repo and running it with Node.js. The server binds only to localhost.

What license does this project use?

The repository does not specify a license in the available metadata, so check the repo directly before reusing or redistributing the code.

Is the tracking data fully accurate and real-time?

Most feeds like flights, ships, satellites, and earthquakes are live or regularly refreshed. Traffic is simulated from aggregate location data, and camera poses and launch trajectories are coarse estimates, not precise.

What language and framework is this built with?

It's a JavaScript application built on the Cesium 3D globe engine and WebGL, running as a browser-based app started via npm or Pinokio.

Gods Eye View: Browser-based 3D globe

God's Eye View is an open-source browser app that overlays live public data feeds onto a photorealistic 3D globe. It's built for developers, OSINT researchers, and geospatial hobbyists who want to explore real-time aircraft, ship, satellite, earthquake, and camera data in one interface, and optionally control it with voice commands through a realtime AI agent. The project grew out of a YouTube video series and is built with Cesium and WebGL, running locally in the browser with no account required to start.

The app works without any API keys using Esri satellite imagery and keyless terrain, with OSM as a fallback. Adding a Cesium ion token unlocks photorealistic 3D and world terrain for personal, non-commercial use; a Google Maps key adds a metered direct route with in-app place search; an OpenAI key enables voice control and AI-generated scene summaries. Each data layer (flights, ships, satellites, cameras, radio, etc.) is a separate module, so you can extend or swap sources.

Key features

Cockpit view: ride inside a tracked flight with the camera following real terrain as the aircraft descends.
Click-to-track: lock the camera on any aircraft, ship, or fire, draw a fading trail, and pull up live metadata.
Voice control: a realtime AI agent handles navigation ("take me to Tokyo"), annotation, and analyst-style queries ("how many flights are over Texas right now?").
Sensor reskins: GLSL shaders switch the whole globe between CRT, night vision, FLIR/thermal, noir, and snow looks.
Public camera integration: live CCTV feeds project into the 3D city with an optional viewshed overlay showing estimated coverage.
3D aircraft models: contacts swap from a glyph to a real per-class 3D model (787, ATR-72, Citation, Bell 206, MQ-9) as you approach.
Detection overlay and military HUD: screen-space bounding boxes and a tactical telemetry HUD for a surveillance-style view.
Shareable state: camera position, active layers, sensor style, and a tracked target all serialize into a URL.

Ideal use cases

God's Eye View fits people who want a single, explorable view of live public geospatial signals: flight and ship tracking enthusiasts, OSINT researchers correlating multiple live feeds, developers prototyping geospatial visualizations on top of Cesium, or anyone building demo footage or cinematic camera tours of real-world data. It's also a reasonable starting point for experimenting with voice-driven map control using a realtime AI agent.

It is not a fit if you need guaranteed real-time accuracy for operational or safety-critical decisions. Traffic layers are simulated from aggregate location data, and CCTV camera poses and rocket launch trajectories are coarse estimates, not precise ground truth. It's also not designed as a hosted multi-tenant SaaS product; it runs locally, binds to localhost, and expects you to manage your own API keys.

Installation

Two supported paths. Both open the same app with keyless Esri satellite imagery and OSM terrain; flights, military traffic, satellites, earthquakes, cameras, radio, and launches all work without keys.

Path 1: Pinokio (no terminal)

Install or update Pinokio to version 8.2 or later.
Open God's Eye View from the Pinokio app catalog.
Click Install, then Start.

This works on Windows, macOS, and Linux; the launcher handles dependencies and finds a free local port.

Path 2: terminal

Requires Node.js 24.x (24.14.0+) or 26.x.

git clone https://github.com/bilawalsidhu/gods-eye-view.git
cd gods-eye-view
npm ci
npm run doctor
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:4173 and pick a first-run mission: Live Contacts, Space Missions, Environmental, or Explore Manually.

On macOS, ./scripts/dev-fresh.sh clears the Vite cache and pulls configured keys from the Keychain, and also starts keyless.

To add optional API keys (Cesium ion, Google Maps, OpenAI), use the in-app POWER UP panel rather than editing files directly. Keys are stored locally: in pinokio/ENVIRONMENT for the Pinokio install, or a repo-root .env for a terminal clone. Both files are set owner-only before secrets are written, and are excluded from Git. The server only binds to localhost, and browser-exposed keys (Google Maps, Cesium ion) should be restricted at the provider level, per the project's security documentation.