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Mapbox Android Patterns

Official integration patterns for Mapbox Maps SDK on Android. Covers installation, adding markers, user location, custom data, styles, camera control, and featureset interactions.

2 minutes · 330 words · 23 sections

Mapbox Android Integration Patterns

Official patterns for integrating Mapbox Maps SDK v11 on Android with Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, and View system.

Use this skill when:

Installing and configuring Mapbox Maps SDK for Android
Adding markers and annotations to maps
Showing user location and tracking with camera
Adding custom data (GeoJSON) to maps
Working with map styles, camera, or user interaction
Handling feature interactions and taps

Official Resources:

Installation & Setup

Requirements

Android SDK 21+
Kotlin or Java
Android Studio
Free Mapbox account

Step 1: Configure Access Token

Create app/res/values/mapbox_access_token.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">
    <string name="mapbox_access_token" translatable="false"
        tools:ignore="UnusedResources">YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN</string>
</resources>

Get your token: Sign in at mapbox.com (opens in a new tab)

Step 1b: Internet permission (required)

Maps need network access. Include this in AndroidManifest.xml — agents often omit it and only list location permissions later:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

Step 2: Add Maven Repository

In settings.gradle.kts:

dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
        maven {
            url = uri("https://api.mapbox.com/downloads/v2/releases/maven")
        }
    }
}

Step 3: Add Dependency

In module build.gradle.kts:

android {
    defaultConfig {
        minSdk = 21
    }
}

dependencies {
    implementation("com.mapbox.maps:android:11.18.1")
}

For Jetpack Compose:

dependencies {
    implementation("com.mapbox.maps:android:11.18.1")
    implementation("com.mapbox.extension:maps-compose:11.18.1")
}

Map Initialization

Jetpack Compose Pattern

Basic map:

import androidx.compose.runtime.*
import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.fillMaxSize
import androidx.compose.ui.Modifier
import com.mapbox.maps.extension.compose.*
import com.mapbox.maps.Style
import com.mapbox.geojson.Point

@Composable
fun MapScreen() {
    MapboxMap(
        modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize

With ornaments:

MapboxMap(
    modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(),
    scaleBar = {
        ScaleBar(
            enabled = true,
            position = Alignment.BottomStart
        )
    },
    compass = {
        Compass(enabled = true)
    }
) {

View System Pattern

Layout XML (activity_map.xml):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <com.mapbox.maps.MapView
        android:id="@+id/mapView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"

Activity:

import android.os.Bundle
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import com.mapbox.maps.MapView
import com.mapbox.maps.Style
import com.mapbox.geojson.Point

class MapActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    private lateinit var mapView: MapView

    override fun

Add Markers (Point Annotations)

Point annotations are the most common way to mark locations on the map.

Jetpack Compose:

MapboxMap(modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize()) {
    MapEffect(Unit) { mapView ->
        // Load style first
        mapView.mapboxMap.loadStyle(Style.STANDARD)

        // Create annotation manager and add markers
        val annotationManager = mapView.annotations.createPointAnnotationManager()
        val pointAnnotation = PointAnnotationOptions()
            .

View System:

// Create annotation manager (once, reuse for updates)
val pointAnnotationManager = mapView.annotations.createPointAnnotationManager()

// Create marker
val pointAnnotation = PointAnnotationOptions()
    .withPoint(Point.fromLngLat(-122.4194, 37.7749))
    .withIconImage("custom-marker")

pointAnnotationManager.create(pointAnnotation)

Multiple markers:

val locations = listOf(
    Point.fromLngLat(-122.4194, 37.7749),
    Point.fromLngLat(-122.4094, 37.7849),
    Point.fromLngLat(-122.4294, 37.7649)
)

val annotations = locations.

Show User Location (Display)

Step 1: Add permissions to AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />

Step 2: Request permissions and show location:

// Request permissions first (use ActivityResultContracts)

// Show location puck
mapView.location.updateSettings {
    enabled = true
    puckBearingEnabled = true
}

Performance Best Practices

Reuse Annotation Managers

// Don't create new managers repeatedly
// val manager = mapView.annotations.createPointAnnotationManager() // each call

// Create once, reuse
val pointAnnotationManager = mapView.annotations.createPointAnnotationManager()

fun updateMarkers() {
    pointAnnotationManager.deleteAll()
    pointAnnotationManager.create(markers)
}

Batch Annotation Updates

// Create all at once
pointAnnotationManager.create(allAnnotations)

// Don't create one by one in a loop

Lifecycle Management

// Always call lifecycle methods
override fun onStart() {
    super.onStart()
    mapView.onStart()
}

override fun onStop() {
    super.onStop()
    mapView.onStop()
}

override fun onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy

Use Standard Style

// Standard style is optimized and recommended
Style.STANDARD

// Use other styles only when needed for specific use cases
Style.STANDARD_SATELLITE // Satellite imagery

Troubleshooting

Map Not Displaying

Check:

Token in mapbox_access_token.xml
Token is valid (test at mapbox.com)
Maven repository configured
Dependency added correctly
Internet permission in manifest

Style Not Loading

mapView.mapboxMap.subscribeStyleLoaded { _ ->
    Log.d("Map", "Style loaded successfully")
    // Add layers and sources here
}

Performance Issues

Use Style.STANDARD (recommended and optimized)
Limit visible annotations to viewport
Reuse annotation managers
Avoid frequent style reloads
Call lifecycle methods (onStart, onStop, onDestroy)
Batch annotation updates

Reference Files

Load these references when you need detailed patterns for specific topics:

references/compose.md – Jetpack Compose: dependencies, token setup, MapboxMap, annotations with click, GeoJSON, MapEffect
references/annotations.md – Circle, Polyline, and Polygon annotation patterns
references/location-tracking.md – Camera follow user location + get current location once
references/custom-data.md – GeoJSON sources and layers: lines, polygons, points, update/remove
references/camera-styles.md – Camera control (set, animate, fit) + map styles (built-in and custom)
references/interactions.md – Featureset interactions, custom layer taps, long press, gestures

Appendix 1.1–1.8

8 files · 27 KB

Everything this skill ships beside its prose. All of it is set here, as subchapters of chapter 1.

ReferencesMarkdown · 6 files

Documentation the agent loads on demand, rather than up front.

Also bundled2 files

Everything else published alongside the skill.

Install this repository

$ npx skills add mapbox/mapbox-agent-skills

» /plugin marketplace add mapbox/mapbox-agent-skills

Skills install per repository, not per chapter — the CLI has no documented per-skill form, so we do not print one.

About this skill

Trigger

Official integration patterns for Mapbox Maps SDK on Android. Covers installation, adding markers, user location, custom data, styles, camera control, and featureset interactions. Based on official Mapbox documentation.

The verbatim description from this skill’s front matter — the string an agent matches on to decide whether to load it.

Colophon for this issue

Colophon

How this issue was made

Source

github.com/mapbox/mapbox-agent-skills, branch main, last pushed 7 August 2026.

Licence

MIT — the text of every chapter is reproduced unmodified, frontmatter included, under the upstream licence.

Discovery

19 chapters found by walking the repository tree for SKILL.md, not by matching a directory convention. One layout observed: skills/*/SKILL.md.

Issue colours

Resolved from a deterministic hash of the owner name. Two accent tones are generated per issue and each is proven against its own ground before it ships: a single accent that passes AA on both light and dark paper is arithmetically impossible.

Heading repairs

1 repair applied to this chapter so the document has one h1 and no skipped levels:

Shifted “23 headings” from h1 to h2 so the chapter title is the only h1.

Spec compliance

Every chapter satisfies the Agent Skills specification’s frontmatter rules.

Images

Images inside a chapter come from the upstream repository. Where the author gave no alternative text we mark the image decorative rather than inventing a description — a plausible caption we made up is worse than none for the reader who depends on it.

Marketplace

A plugin manifest is published at .claude-plugin/marketplace.json by Mapbox Plugin Marketplace, declaring 1 plugin. It is read for editorial metadata only — never as the skill index, which is always the repository tree.

Signal

Install counts come from skills.sh. They measure downloads, not quality, and an unranked repository is not an unread one.

Agent surfaces

The whole issue is available as one markdown document at , and each chapter at its own URL.

/mapbox/mapbox-agent-skills.md

.md