MCP Tools Reference: mapstools.googleapis.com

Tool: resolve_names

Resolves a batch list of specific location queries (landmark names or exact addresses) into canonical Google Maps Place IDs.

Input Requirements (CRITICAL):

  1. queries (array of objects - MANDATORY): A list of location queries to resolve. You may specify up to 20 queries.

    • Each query object must have:
      • text (string - MANDATORY): The text query representing a specific place name or address to resolve.
        • Examples: 'Googleplex, Mountain View, CA', '1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA', 'Eiffel Tower, Paris'.

  2. location_bias (object - OPTIONAL): Use this to prioritize results near a specific geographic area.

    • Format: {"viewport": {"low": {"latitude": [value], "longitude": [value]}, "high": {"latitude": [value], "longitude": [value]}}}

  3. region_code (string - OPTIONAL): The Unicode CLDR region code (two-letter country code, e.g., US, CA) of the user to bias the results.

Instructions for Tool Call:

  • Specificity (CRITICAL): Queries must represent a specific place name or address. General searches like 'restaurants' or chain names like 'Starbucks' are not supported.
  • Do NOT call this tool if the downstream tools you plan to invoke already accept raw address or place name strings directly.

Save to Google Maps:

  • The response includes a save_to_maps_url field: a single Google Maps link containing all successfully resolved places.
  • When the user wants to save, share, or open the resolved places as a list in Google Maps, present this link to the user. Do NOT construct this link yourself.

Error Handling (CRITICAL):

  • This is a batch processing tool. A request might return "mixed results" (e.g. some queries resolve successfully while others fail).
  • The output list of results is guaranteed to map 1:1 with the input queries indices. A failed query will result in an empty Result message (no entity is set) at its corresponding index in the results list.
  • You MUST check the failed_requests map field in the response to identify which specific query index failed. The key of failed_requests represents the 0-based index of the failed query in the request. Do not assume the entire batch call failed because of a partial failure.

The following code sample shows how to use curl to call the resolve_names MCP tool.

Curl Request 
curl --location 'https://mapstools.googleapis.com/mcp' \
--header 'content-type: application/json' \
--header 'accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
--data '{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "resolve_names",
    "arguments": {
      // Provide these details according to the MCP tool specification.
    }
  },
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1
}'

Input Schema

Request message for ResolveNames.

ResolveNamesRequest

JSON representation 
{
  "queries": [
    {
      object (LocationQuery)
    }
  ],
  "locationBias": {
    object (LocationBias)
  },
  "regionCode": string
}
Fields
queries[]

object (LocationQuery)

Required. A list of location queries to be resolved. You may specify up to 20 queries.
locationBias

object (LocationBias)

Optional. An optional region to bias the resolution results. If specified, the resolution results will be biased towards the entities that are closer to this region. Including location_bias or region_code often provides better results by narrowing the search space.

If both location_bias and region_code are specified, location_bias takes precedence over region_code.
regionCode

string

Optional. An optional region code to bias the resolution results. If specified, the resolution results will be biased towards the entities that are in or near the specified region. This should be a CLDR region code. For example, "US" or "CA". Including location_bias or region_code often provides better results by narrowing the search space.

If both location_bias and region_code are specified, location_bias takes precedence over region_code.

LocationQuery

JSON representation 
{
  "text": string
}
Fields
text

string

Required. The text query to resolve to a specific geospatial entity on Google Maps, such as a place or an address. The more specific the query, the more accurate the resolution. For example, "San Francisco", "Googleplex, Mountain View, CA", "1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA", or "Eiffel Tower, Paris". Queries must be a specific address or place name. General locations like a chain name (e.g. Starbucks) or a search query like "restaurants" are not supported.

LocationBias

JSON representation 
{

  // Union field type can be only one of the following:
  "viewport": {
    object (Viewport)
  }
  // End of list of possible types for union field type.
}
Fields
Union field type. The type of the location bias. type can be only one of the following:
viewport

object (Viewport)

A viewport defined by a bounding box.

Viewport

JSON representation 
{
  "low": {
    object (LatLng)
  },
  "high": {
    object (LatLng)
  }
}
Fields
low

object (LatLng)

Required. The low point of the viewport.
high

object (LatLng)

Required. The high point of the viewport.

LatLng

JSON representation 
{
  "latitude": number,
  "longitude": number
}
Fields
latitude

number

The latitude in degrees. It must be in the range [-90.0, +90.0].
longitude

number

The longitude in degrees. It must be in the range [-180.0, +180.0].

Output Schema

Response message for ResolveNames.

ResolveNamesResponse

JSON representation 
{
  "results": [
    {
      object (Result)
    }
  ],
  "failedRequests": {
    integer: {
      object (Status)
    },
    ...
  },
  "saveToMapsUrl": string
}
Fields
results[]

object (Result)

Output only. The list of resolved entities from the location queries. Guaranteed to map 1:1 with the request queries indices. An empty string at index i indicates the resolution failed for that query. If the resolution failed, please check the failed_requests field for the error status.
failedRequests

map (key: integer, value: object (Status))

Output only. A map communicating partial failures. The key is the index of the failed request in the queries field. The value is the error status detailing why the resolution failed.

An object containing a list of "key": value pairs. Example: { "name": "wrench", "mass": "1.3kg", "count": "3" }.
saveToMapsUrl

string

Output only. A link to save all successfully resolved entities in Google Maps.

Result

JSON representation 
{
  "entity": {
    object (Entity)
  },
  "confidence": enum (Confidence)
}
Fields
entity

object (Entity)

Output only. The resolved entity from the location query.
confidence

enum (Confidence)

Output only. The level of confidence for the resolution.

Entity

JSON representation 
{

  // Union field entity can be only one of the following:
  "place": string
  // End of list of possible types for union field entity.
}
Fields
Union field entity. The resolved entity type. entity can be only one of the following:
place

string

The resource name of the resolved place.

FailedRequestsEntry

JSON representation 
{
  "key": integer,
  "value": {
    object (Status)
  }
}
Fields
key

integer
value

object (Status)

Status

JSON representation 
{
  "code": integer,
  "message": string,
  "details": [
    {
      "@type": string,
      field1: ...,
      ...
    }
  ]
}
Fields
code

integer

The status code, which should be an enum value of google.rpc.Code.
message

string

A developer-facing error message, which should be in English. Any user-facing error message should be localized and sent in the google.rpc.Status.details field, or localized by the client.
details[]

object

A list of messages that carry the error details. There is a common set of message types for APIs to use.

An object containing fields of an arbitrary type. An additional field "@type" contains a URI identifying the type. Example: { "id": 1234, "@type": "types.example.com/standard/id" }.

Any

JSON representation 
{
  "typeUrl": string,
  "value": string
}
Fields
typeUrl

string

Identifies the type of the serialized Protobuf message with a URI reference consisting of a prefix ending in a slash and the fully-qualified type name.

Example: type.googleapis.com/google.protobuf.StringValue

This string must contain at least one / character, and the content after the last / must be the fully-qualified name of the type in canonical form, without a leading dot. Do not write a scheme on these URI references so that clients do not attempt to contact them.

The prefix is arbitrary and Protobuf implementations are expected to simply strip off everything up to and including the last / to identify the type. type.googleapis.com/ is a common default prefix that some legacy implementations require. This prefix does not indicate the origin of the type, and URIs containing it are not expected to respond to any requests.

All type URL strings must be legal URI references with the additional restriction (for the text format) that the content of the reference must consist only of alphanumeric characters, percent-encoded escapes, and characters in the following set (not including the outer backticks): /-.~_!$&()*+,;=. Despite our allowing percent encodings, implementations should not unescape them to prevent confusion with existing parsers. For example, type.googleapis.com%2FFoo should be rejected.

In the original design of Any, the possibility of launching a type resolution service at these type URLs was considered but Protobuf never implemented one and considers contacting these URLs to be problematic and a potential security issue. Do not attempt to contact type URLs.
value

string (bytes format)

Holds a Protobuf serialization of the type described by type_url.

A base64-encoded string.

Confidence

The level of confidence for the resolution.

Enums
CONFIDENCE_UNSPECIFIED Default value. This value is unused.
MEDIUM Medium confidence indicates that the resolution is likely correct but there may be other candidates.
HIGH High confidence indicates that the resolution is correct and represents a specific geospatial entity (e.g., a specific place).

Tool Annotations

Tool annotations are sent to MCP clients to describe the basic risk of a given tool. Most clients treat these hints as untrusted, but they can be used to decide when a confirmation prompt might be sent to a user.

Along with the title string, the following boolean hints are defined as follows:

  • readOnlyHint: If true, the tool doesn't modify its environment. Default: false.
  • destructiveHint: If true, then the tool can perform destructive actions. If false, then the tool can only perform additive actions. Default: true.
  • idempotentHint: If true, then calling the tool repeatedly with the same arguments will have no additional effect on its environment. Default: false.
  • openWorldHint: If true, then the tool can interact with an 'open world' of external entities. If false, then the tool can only interact with internal entities. For example, a web search tool would be open world, while a memory tool would not be open world.

Destructive Hint: ❌ | Idempotent Hint: ❌ | Read Only Hint: ✅ | Open World Hint: ❌