This is a small NodeJS server that takes a polygon and returns OpenStreetMap PBF data clipped to that boundary. It uses GeoDesk to efficiently extract OSM data, then Osmium to clip to the precise boundary and convert from the large XML to the much more compact PBF.

Depending how you maintain and refresh the input GOL file, the data returned will be recent or not. You could also query the Overpass API to get much more up-to-date extracts, but this API is slower, is experiencing sporadic availability as of November 2025, and returns larger XML data.

The input POST body should be a single GeoJSON Feature with a Polygon geometry. The properties must be set to something -- at least {}, but properties can be filled out (and will be logged).

curl http://localhost:3000 \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"type":"Feature","geometry":{"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-1.6181559940271484,53.83772286984376],[-1.6581718271386592,53.75619889723589],[-1.411653714426592,53.748948101502265],[-1.45839960864663,53.842255054099155],[-1.6181559940271484,53.83772286984376]]]},"properties":{}}' > leeds.osm.pbf

• Install the GOL CLI: https://www.geodesk.com/download
• Install osmium: https://osmcode.org/osmium-tool/
• Install node: https://docs.npmjs.com/downloading-and-installing-node-js-and-npm
• Install this server's dependencies: npm ci

You need a GOL v2 file to source the data. You can get a planet-wide one from https://openplanetdata.com/ or build one from smaller OSM extracts using https://docs.geodesk.com/gol/build.

Edit the constants at the top of server.js as needed, then npm run server.

By default, the server logs to requests.log in the GEOJSONL format -- one GeoJSON Feature per line, with some stats properties filled out.