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After you have applied a GeoEngine worker with GIS plugins enabled, it appears as a native tool inside your GIS software — no proxy service, no extra configuration. This guide shows you how to find and run your workers from QGIS and ArcGIS Pro. If you haven’t applied a worker yet, see Creating a Worker first.

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How GIS Plugins Work

GeoEngine installs a plugin into QGIS and/or ArcGIS Pro on the first geoengine apply for a worker that has plugins enabled. The plugin:
  1. Discovers workers by calling geoengine workers --json and geoengine describe <worker> --json
  2. Displays each worker as a tool entry in the GIS toolbox, one per available version plus a latest entry
  3. Runs workers by invoking geoengine run <worker> --json --input KEY=VALUE as a subprocess
  4. Streams logs to the GIS progress panel in real time
  5. Returns outputs as a structured JSON result; output files are automatically loaded into the GIS view

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Running in QGIS

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Step 1: Open the Processing Toolbox

In QGIS, open the Processing menu and click Toolbox, or press Ctrl+Alt+T. The Processing Toolbox panel will appear on the right side of the screen.

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Step 2: Find Your Worker

Expand the GeoEngine provider in the toolbox. Your workers are listed by name. Each worker that has been applied in production shows individual version entries (e.g. my-worker (1.0.0), my-worker (1.1.0)), plus a my-worker (*latest) entry at the top of the list (the * prefix sorts it above the versioned entries). Click on any entry to see its description, config hash, and last-applied time in the help panel on the right.

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Step 3: Fill In Inputs and Run

Double-click a worker entry to open the tool dialog. Fill in the required input parameters:
  • File inputs — use the file selector to browse to a file on your machine; GeoEngine mounts it automatically
  • Folder inputs — select a directory
  • Other inputs (enum, number, boolean, string) — displayed as dropdowns, number fields, checkboxes, or text fields
Click Run. Container logs stream into the QGIS log panel in real time. When the run finishes, output files are automatically added as layers to your QGIS project.

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Running in ArcGIS Pro

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Step 1: Open the GeoEngine Toolbox

In ArcGIS Pro, open the Analysis tab and click Tools to open the Geoprocessing pane. Search for GeoEngine in the search bar, or browse to the GeoEngine toolbox in the Toolboxes section of the Catalog pane.

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Step 2: Find Your Worker

Expand the GeoEngine toolbox. Your applied workers appear as tool entries, listed by name and version. Click a tool to see its description and parameters.

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Step 3: Fill In Inputs and Run

Double-click a worker to open its tool dialog. Fill in the required parameters and click Run. Container logs appear in the Geoprocessing history and messages panel. Output files are added to your ArcGIS Pro map automatically when the run completes.

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Understanding Output

When a worker finishes, GeoEngine returns a structured JSON result: 
{
  "status": "completed",
  "exit_code": 0,
  "files": [
    {
      "name": "output.geojson",
      "path": "/path/to/output/file",
      "size": 123,
      "kind": "output"
    }
  ]
}
  • kind: "output" — a file produced by the worker; automatically added to your GIS view
  • kind: "input" — an input file that was passed in; also shown in the GIS so you can compare input and output side by side
If a run fails, the exit code and any error messages from the container appear in the GIS messages panel.

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Cancelling a Run

You can cancel a running worker at any time using the cancel button in the GIS progress dialog. Cancellation terminates the GeoEngine subprocess, which in turn stops and removes the Docker container immediately.

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Refreshing the Worker List

The plugin reads the worker list fresh each time the toolbox is opened. If you apply a new worker or a new version and it doesn’t appear in your GIS yet, close and reopen the Processing Toolbox (QGIS) or Geoprocessing pane (ArcGIS Pro) to trigger a refresh.