Who Worldmonitor is for#
Analysts and journalists verifying breaking geopolitical events
When a breaking event surfaces, World Monitor shows conflict event feeds, country instability scores, active hotspot data, and regional OSINT feeds on the same map. A journalist can check current crisis trackers, dated metrics, and cited context before trusting a breaking claim. The AI country brief on any clicked country names the headlines it drew on, so the sourcing is visible.
Skip if:
Your workflow requires structured analyst-written assessments with human editorial review on a scheduled report cadence.
Commodity traders monitoring chokepoints and supply disruption
The commodity lens fuses AIS shipping, 13 chokepoints with live disruption scores, pipeline and LNG data, and energy market prices. A trader monitoring the Red Sea can see vessel counts through Bab el-Mandeb, war-risk tier changes for Yemen, and energy futures repricing on one surface. The physical supply signal and the market repricing appear together rather than arriving from separate products hours apart.
Skip if:
Need a structured futures trading terminal, news wire service, or Bloomberg-equivalent financial analytics.
Developers building AI agents that need live geopolitical data
The MCP server exposes 95 tools covering risk scores, conflict data, chokepoint status, and country briefs. A developer building a Claude-based research agent can call get_country_risk, get_chokepoint_status, and get_maritime_activity without maintaining a scraping pipeline. SDKs for Python, JavaScript, Ruby, and Go wrap the REST API with zero dependencies and support JMESPath projection to fetch only the fields required.
Skip if:
Project does not require live geopolitical data or only needs static training-corpus sources.
The problem it solves#
Geopolitical intelligence feeds are siloed. A commodity desk tracks shipping via one AIS aggregator, reads country-risk reports from another vendor, and watches market data in a third terminal. The problem is not access to any individual feed; it is that signals across systems rarely surface together. A conflict escalation, a chokepoint disruption, and an energy-price move may be causally linked but arrive hours apart through separate products, each with its own login and cost.
Commercial intelligence tools like Seerist address part of this by aggregating feeds into a single interface, but they target enterprise procurement: per-seat pricing, long contract cycles, and infrastructure controlled entirely by the vendor. For journalists, independent analysts, traders, and builders, the cost and friction of these tools places live geopolitical correlation out of reach. The result is that most people working outside large organizations assemble their own patchwork of free sources, with no single surface where signals can intersect.
How it solves it#
58 map layer types across seven signal domains
Layers span geopolitics, maritime shipping, aviation, energy infrastructure, cyber incidents, weather, and macro markets. Each layer type streams from dedicated upstream sources and renders live on a WebGL flat map or 3D globe. The catalog includes satellite tracks, GPS jamming zones, protest clusters, dark ship AIS gaps, and civil-defense siren alerts, with most layers accessible from the command palette without learning the full UI.
469 live news and OSINT feeds from 773 attributed providers
Feeds cover global and regional news, conflict trackers, government statements, shipping intelligence, aviation reports, and cyber incident data. AI synthesis runs across streams to produce country briefs, hotspot summaries, and a live Country Instability Index for 31 countries. Every figure carries a source citation rather than arriving as a bare number.
13 maritime chokepoint monitors with live AIS vessel counts
Tracks vessel transit through the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal, Bab el-Mandeb, and 10 additional straits with live AIS data provided by Wingbits. Each chokepoint carries a disruption score. The cascade analysis shows which trade corridors and port networks lose fallback routes when a chokepoint is blocked, with resilience data for 170 countries providing context.
MCP server with 95 live tools for AI agent workflows
The MCP server exposes 95 tools covering risk scores, chokepoint status, conflict data, market feeds, and country briefs. Tools are available to Claude and other MCP clients via a Pro API key, with JMESPath projection on every call to fetch only the fields you need. Official SDKs for Python, JavaScript, Ruby, and Go provide zero-dependency programmatic access to the same underlying data.
Country Instability Index and resilience rankings for 170 countries
The CII v13 scores 31 Tier-1 countries across 12 live signals with approximate 24-hour movement. Resilience rankings cover 170 countries using five-factor scorecards with indicator-level scores. The instability index, assessments for 29 scored hotspots, and resilience data are available on the map and through the API.
Strengths and trade-offs#
Strengths
- Free at $0 with no signup requiredThe full dashboard costs nothing and requires no account. All 58 map layer types except Resilience are accessible without registration, including country briefs, chokepoints, breaking alert watchlists, and six pre-tuned monitor variants covering world, tech, finance, commodity, energy, and a positive-signals view. The free tier is not a trial or a limited preview; it is a complete product.
- AGPL-3.0 open source with self-hosting documentedThe full source is on GitHub under AGPL-3.0-only. Personal, research, and self-hosted commercial use are all permitted when AGPL obligations are met. The repository had 88,947 stars and 13,653 forks as of October 2026, reflecting active community adoption. Self-hosting documentation covers local Node.js development, Vercel, Docker, and static deployments.
- Multi-domain correlation on one live map surfaceGeopolitics, maritime shipping, aviation, energy infrastructure, cyber incidents, climate, AI datacenter positions, and macro market prices render together so converging signals appear as co-located events rather than separate reports from separate tools. The correlation is the core value: a commodity trader can see a chokepoint disruption, the affected vessel flows, and energy futures repricing side by side.
- Developer-ready with REST API, MCP, and four official SDKsThe REST API follows an OpenAPI 3.1 spec at worldmonitor.app/docs/api-reference. The MCP server exposes 95 live tools. Zero-dependency client libraries are available for Python (worldmonitor-sdk), JavaScript/Node (worldmonitor), Ruby (worldmonitor), and Go. Builders can wire live geopolitical data into AI agents without maintaining a scraping pipeline or custom feed aggregation.
Trade-offs
- -349 open GitHub issues across a fast-moving codebaseThe repository had 349 open issues as of October 2026, covering active bugs and feature requests across a codebase that received its last push the previous day. Self-hosters should track the issue queue for regressions. The primary hosted instance at worldmonitor.app is actively maintained, but self-hosted deployments may lag the hosted version in data freshness for feeds that depend on production credentials.
- -Full data coverage requires per-source API credentialsThe core map runs with no environment variables locally, but feature-specific layers covering aviation, specialized market data, satellite tracking, and some OSINT feeds require upstream API keys listed in .env.example. Self-hosters who want complete feature parity with the public instance need to acquire and configure credentials for each relevant provider. The documentation covers the full list.
- -MCP and REST API access requires a Pro subscriptionThe MCP server with 95 tools and the REST API with full endpoint access require a Pro plan from $39.99/month. The free tier has no programmatic data access beyond what the browser exposes. Teams building agent workflows or integrating live data into external systems need to budget for Pro rather than relying on the free dashboard alone.
Worldmonitor vs alternatives#
World Monitor vs Seerist
Seerist is a paid geopolitical intelligence platform serving enterprise security teams and government clients. It combines analyst-written threat assessments with algorithmic monitoring of political instability, travel risk, and country-level events. Access requires a sales engagement; pricing is not published and targets large organizations on annual contracts.
World Monitor covers similar signal domains but is structured differently. The core dashboard is free at $0 with no signup. Rather than delivering analyst-curated reports on a report cadence, it streams 469 OSINT feeds continuously and correlates them on a live map. Coverage breadth also differs: World Monitor includes maritime chokepoints with live AIS, aviation data, cyber incidents, AI infrastructure mapping, and macro market prices alongside geopolitical events, rather than focusing narrowly on political and security risk.
Access and pricing
Seerist pricing is enterprise-only, requiring a sales process with no self-service tier. World Monitor's free tier provides full access to 57 of its 58 map layer types, country briefs, chokepoint tracking, and breaking alerts with no account required. Pro adds WM Analyst, a scenario engine, the MCP server with 95 live tools, and the Resilience layer from $39.99/month.
Self-hosting and data ownership
Seerist is hosted SaaS with no self-hosting option; the vendor controls the infrastructure and data export is not a documented feature. World Monitor is AGPL-3.0 open source: the full source is on GitHub, and self-hosting is documented for Node.js local development, Vercel, Docker, and static deployments.
Developer and agent access
Seerist does not publish a public API or SDK. World Monitor provides a documented OpenAPI 3.1 REST API, an MCP server with 95 live tools for AI agent use, and official zero-dependency SDKs for Python, JavaScript, Ruby, and Go.
When Seerist fits better
Organizations that need structured analyst-written assessments delivered on a schedule, with human editorial judgment on political and security events, and that can engage a sales team for enterprise pricing.
When World Monitor fits better
Individuals, journalists, traders, and builders who need live signal correlation across geopolitics, markets, shipping, and cyber without a procurement process, or teams building AI research workflows that require programmatic access to live geopolitical data at a fraction of enterprise pricing.
Quick start#
Self-hosting the web app runs on Node.js; clone the repository, install dependencies, and start a local dev server with no required environment variables for basic use.
```bash
git clone https://github.com/koala73/worldmonitor.git
cd worldmonitor
npm install
npm run dev
```What it's built on#
- Languages
- JavaScriptTypeScript
- Databases
- PostgreSQL
- Infrastructure
- AWS
- Cache
- Redis
- Tooling
- esbuild
FAQ#
Is World Monitor really free, or is that a trial?
The dashboard is free at $0 with no trial clock and no signup required. It covers 58 map layer types (except Resilience), country instability scores for 31 countries, 13 chokepoint feeds, breaking alert watchlists, country briefs, and six monitor variants. The Pro tier from $39.99/month adds WM Analyst, the MCP server with 95 live tools, a scenario engine, scheduled digests, and the Resilience map layer. No ads, and the free tier requires no account, so there is no user data to sell.
Can I self-host World Monitor?
Yes. The full source is on GitHub under AGPL-3.0. Clone the repository and run npm install followed by npm run dev; the app starts on localhost:3000 with no required environment variables for basic local use. The self-hosting guide documents Vercel, Docker, and static deployment options. Feature-specific data layers covering aviation, specialized market feeds, and some OSINT sources require upstream API credentials listed in .env.example. A desktop app built with Tauri is also available for Windows, macOS, and Linux without self-hosting the full server.
What does the AGPL-3.0 license allow for self-hosters?
AGPL-3.0-only permits personal, research, educational, and self-hosted use without restriction. You can fork and modify the code; AGPL requires sharing source changes when you distribute the software or run a modified version as a network service for others. Commercial use is allowed when you comply with AGPL obligations. Private-source proprietary deployments or use of official World Monitor branding require a separate commercial or trademark license from the author.
Does World Monitor work with AI agents and Claude?
Yes. The MCP server at worldmonitor.app/mcp exposes 95 live tools covering risk scores, conflict data, chokepoint status, maritime activity, and country briefs. MCP access requires a Pro API key. Official SDKs for Python, JavaScript/Node, Ruby, and Go wrap the REST API for programmatic use. The terminal dashboard runs live data in a shell with npx worldmonitor and needs no API key; it covers world news, markets, conflict, military flights, cyber, climate, and prediction markets with mouse support.
How does World Monitor compare to Seerist for geopolitical monitoring?
Seerist targets enterprise buyers through a sales process with analyst-curated reports and per-seat pricing. World Monitor is free at $0 with no signup for the core dashboard, covers a broader set of signal domains including maritime chokepoints, aviation, and cyber alongside political risk, and is fully open source under AGPL-3.0. Seerist offers no self-hosting or public API. World Monitor provides a documented REST API, MCP server, and official SDKs for programmatic access. The right choice depends on whether you need human-curated analyst assessments (Seerist) or live self-service signal correlation with developer access (World Monitor).
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