ArcGIS Location Platform

# Fix list: ArcGIS Location Platform

From Anchor Terminal's listing at https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arcgis, the October 2026 research run, assessed 8 October 2026. Grade B, 65.4 out of 100.

This is everything the published grade says the listing lacks, the biggest possible gain to the total first. It comes from the reason given for each score, the checklist each category was scored against (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist), the provenance checks, the deductions, what we couldn't check and what the review panel asked for. A fix counts at the next check, once it's public.

For a coding agent working on ArcGIS Location Platform: work through the items below in the product, its docs and its public pages. Each category gives the reason for its score, with the points each checklist item earned, and the checklist itself, so the gap is the items that earned less than their points. Change the product, not the wording, and keep a note of what you changed and where it's published.

## 1. Payments & pricing, 40 out of 100, up to 7.5 more on the total

Why it scored 40: No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Unit prices for every service are public without a login (20). A monthly free tier of 20,000 geocodes, 20,000 routes and 500 place searches, and the billing help says a payment method is needed only to turn on pay-as-you-go. The sign-up form is drawn by script and we couldn't read it, so the no-card reading rests on the billing help (20). An account is created by a person in a browser (0). Total 40.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-payments):

The published rubric, also on the [x402 page](https://www.anchorterminal.com/x402/).

- 40, a machine payment protocol (x402, MPP or L402) on the tool's own endpoints. 10 to 30 when it covers only some endpoints or only goes through a third party, and the note says which.
- 20, per-call or per-unit pricing published without a login. 10 for public plan-only pricing, 0 for "contact sales" or prices behind a login.
- 20, a free tier or trial that doesn't need a card.
- 20, autonomous onboarding, meaning an agent can get access without a person signing up in a browser (keyless use, x402, a programmatic key API).

Payment platforms and agent wallets rarely charge for their own API over a machine protocol, so the first line has steps for them, and the highest one that applies counts. 40 when x402, MPP or L402 runs on all their own endpoints, 30 when it runs on part of their own API, 25 when their merchants can accept one, 20 for running a facilitator, 15 for paying as a buyer, and 0 when the only protocol is their own. Merchant acceptance sits above a facilitator because the platform's own customers can charge agents through it, while a facilitator settles for sellers who wire up the protocol themselves. The counter-argument (a facilitator does more for the protocol as a whole) has a point. Each note says which step applied.

Open-source software you run yourself is scored on its hosted or paid option if it has one. A free, self-hosted package with nothing to buy gets 20, 20 and 20 for the last three lines, and 0 to 40 for the first only if it ships a payment protocol.

## 2. Reliability, 65 out of 100, up to 7 more on the total

Why it scored 65: Graded as a hosted service on the REST location services, which are generally available. Esri runs its own status page at status.location.arcgis.com with current status and an event history (20). The history is drawn by script, so we read the RSS feed the page links. Its newest entry is an intermittent basemap tile slowdown on 16 June 2026, outside the 90 days to 8 October, so we gave 25 of 30 and held back 5 because the feed's depth is unknown. No request rate limits with numbers were found in the geocoding, places or routing reference (0). No 429 or backoff guidance was found. The geocoding output page says only that a timeout after 60 seconds may be retried later (0). The SLA of 23 December 2025 commits to 99.9 per cent monthly uptime for ten services (10). The REST services are generally available, and the MCP server is a beta (10). Total 65.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-reliability):

Hosted APIs, MCP servers, models and platforms.

- 20, a public status page with component history (Statuspage, Instatus, BetterStack or the vendor's own).
- 0 to 30, the incident record for the last 90 days on that page. 30 for a clean record or trivial incidents only, 20 for minor incidents only, 10 for one major outage (an hour or more of a core API down, or errors across the board), 0 for several. 5 when there's no history we could read, and the note says so.
- 15, rate limits documented with numbers.
- 15, documented 429 or overload handling (Retry-After, backoff guidance), and idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance where writes are involved.
- 10, an SLA published for any paid tier.
- 10, the surface agents use is generally available, not beta or preview.

Local packages, SDKs, frameworks and stdio MCP servers.

- 20, installs from an official package with supported runtimes stated.
- 25, a public CI and test suite, passing on the default branch.
- 0 to 25, open crash or regression issues relative to activity (25 for few and handled, 0 for many, old and unanswered).
- 15, semver discipline and breaking changes called out in a changelog.
- 15, version 1.0 or later, or declared stable.

Protocols are read from their reference implementations, the public facilitators or servers, spec stability and test vectors.

## 3. Schema & documentation, 61 out of 100, up to 6.3 more on the total

Why it scored 61: No OpenAPI description was found for geocoding, places or routing. The geocoding service description at `GeocodeServer?f=pjson` lists each parameter with its type, allowed values and supported operations, which earns 8 of 25. `/llms.txt` returns 404 on developers.arcgis.com and location.arcgis.com (0). The reference explains when to use a direct request or a job, and stored or unstored geocoding (16 of 20). Parameters carry types, defaults, allowed values and maximums, such as `maxLocations` up to 50 and `pageSize` up to 20 (12 of 15). Each operation has request and response examples, and the geocoding output page lists error codes with extended codes and causes (13 of 15). Geocoding has dated release notes back to 2023 and the platform has release notes by month, but the geocoding path carries no version while places uses `/v1` (12 of 15). Total 61.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-schema):

APIs and MCP servers.

- 25, a machine-readable contract (a public OpenAPI file or similar; for MCP, typed JSON Schema inputs on every tool).
- 10, llms.txt or Markdown docs served for agents.
- 0 to 20, descriptions that say what a tool is for, when to use it and when not to, read from the tool definitions in the source or the API reference.
- 0 to 15, typed inputs with enums, constraints and required fields, and no free-form JSON blobs.
- 0 to 15, examples and documented error responses.
- 15, versioning and a public changelog.

Models are read from the API reference, the OpenAPI file, llms.txt, the structured-output and tool-use docs and the model cards. Frameworks from docs a model can follow, typed interfaces, examples and the API reference.

## 4. Security & auth, 64 out of 100, up to 6.3 more on the total

Why it scored 64: API key credentials carry selected privileges, an expiry date of at most one year, optional referrer limits and two tokens for rotation, and OAuth 2.0 user and app authentication are supported, which earns 30. Less 10 because the documented examples send the token as a `token` request parameter, although headers are accepted and recommended (20). Privileges are chosen per key, down to stored or unstored geocoding and simple or optimised routing, and the MCP server filters tools by them (16 of 20). Results include place names and addresses from third-party data, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (5 of 15). The dashboard shows usage by service and by credential per day, with no per-call log found (10 of 15). The trust centre has a coordinated disclosure programme with a safe harbour statement and a PGP key, and says Online Services are covered by FedRAMP moderate and ISO 27001, without naming ArcGIS Location Platform. No security.txt and no bug bounty were found (13 of 20). Total 64.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-security):

- 0 to 30, the credential model. 30 for OAuth 2.1 with scopes, or scoped and revocable keys with rotation. 20 for plain revocable API keys. 10 for one all-powerful key. 10 off when a secret can travel in a URL query string as a documented option.
- 0 to 20, read-only or least-privilege modes, and confirmation or approval for destructive actions.
- 0 to 15, prompt-injection posture where the tool returns untrusted content (documented mitigations or guidance). A tool that returns no untrusted content gets 10.
- 0 to 15, audit logs or per-call visibility for the operator.
- 0 to 20, a security programme. security.txt or a disclosure policy, a bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001, advisories handled in public.

Models are read for retention, whether API data trains models (and whether that's off by default), zero-retention options and certifications. Frameworks for telemetry defaults, approval hooks, guardrails and sandboxing.

## 5. Agent ergonomics, 78 out of 100, up to 3.6 more on the total

Why it scored 78: Responses can be sized with `outFields` and `maxLocations` on geocoding and `pageSize` on places (20 of 25). Places pages with `pageSize` and `offset` and filters by category and text, and geocoding filters by extent, country and category (18 of 20). Errors are a JSON object with `code`, `message` and `details`, with documented causes for 400, 403, 498 and 499 (15 of 20). The geocoding, places and routing calls are reads, so retries are safe, but no retry guidance was found and we didn't read the MCP tools' annotations (10 of 20). A geocode needs `f`, a token and an address, and Esri publishes ArcGIS REST JS and the ArcGIS API for Python (15). Total 78.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-ergonomics):

- 0 to 25, context cost. For MCP, the number and size of the tool definitions (25 for ten or fewer compact tools, 15 for 11 to 30, 5 for more than 30, plus up to 10 back for toolsets, dynamic loading or read-only subsets). For APIs, whether responses can be sized (field selection, limits, summaries).
- 20, pagination, filtering and output-size controls.
- 20, actionable, documented error responses, codes and messages an agent can recover from.
- 20, idempotency or safe retries, and for MCP the `readOnlyHint` and `destructiveHint` annotations.
- 15, sensible defaults, few required parameters, and official SDKs in at least two languages.

Models are read for tool use, structured output, prompt caching, context length, batch and SDKs. Frameworks for how much code and how many defaults a tool-calling agent with MCP needs.

## 6. Transparency & trust, 72 out of 100, up to 2.5 more on the total

Made of editorial 54, provenance 89.

Why it scored 72: A closed service with a dated agreement that states what may be stored, cached and shared, and an Apache-2.0 client library (15 of 30). The privacy statement was revised on 31 July 2026, the Products & Services supplement on 9 September 2025 and the Data Processing Addendum on 12 March 2024. None states a retention period, and neither the supplement nor the addendum names ArcGIS Location Platform (14 of 30). The agreement promises 90 days' notice for deprecations, and the July 2026 release notes record the retirement of legacy API keys (16 of 20). The addendum names four sub-processors as examples and the GDPR page says information is stored in the United States, with no list specific to this product (9 of 20). Total 54.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-transparency):

- 0 to 30, source availability and licence clarity. 30 for open source under an OSI licence, 15 for closed with clear terms, 0 for unclear terms.
- 0 to 30, data handling and retention statements that agree with each other (privacy policy, DPA, retention periods, subprocessors).
- 0 to 20, a deprecation policy or notices with dates.
- 0 to 20, telemetry disclosed with an opt-out (local software), or subprocessors and data locations disclosed (hosted).

The other half of Transparency and trust is the provenance score, computed from checked facts (below). The category score is the mean of the two.

Provenance checks not met in full (half of this category, computed from checked facts):

- Privacy policy: read, states 6 of the 8 things a reader expects (8.5 of 10)
- security.txt: not found (0 of 10)

## 7. Maintenance & community, 83 out of 100, up to 1.5 more on the total

Why it scored 83: The latest dated change is MCP server 1.0.0-beta.1.7 on 29 September 2026, and the geocoding service has release notes for September 2026 (30). Dated entries in the last 90 days include MCP releases on 27 July, 10 August, 1, 15 and 29 September, and ArcGIS REST JS 4.11.0 on 7 August (20). Public release notes and the Esri Community forum exist, technical support is a paid extra, and we didn't read reply times. The ArcGIS REST JS repository shows 60 open issues and a push on 24 September 2026 (10 of 15). Official SDKs are current, ArcGIS REST JS 4.11.0 and `arcgis` 2.4.3 of 21 April 2026 (15). The JS repository has pull-request test and release workflows, and we didn't check that they pass (8 of 10). Total 83.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-maintenance):

- 0 to 30, time since the last release, or the last published model or API change for a closed service. 30 within 30 days, 20 within 90, 10 within 180, 0 older.
- 20, at least three releases or dated changelog entries in the last 90 days.
- 0 to 25, responsiveness. Issues and pull requests answered on GitHub (the open issues and how recent the replies are). For closed services, a public changelog and a support or community channel that answers, 0 to 15.
- 15, presence in the official MCP registry under a verified namespace (MCP servers), or current official SDKs (APIs and models).
- 10, package health, current dependencies and CI.

Models are read for deprecation notice periods and model churn rather than release counts.

## What we couldn't check

What we couldn't read counted as absent. Publishing it on a page a plain HTTP fetch can read (not only in a browser) lets the next check count it.

- unchecked: whether the sign-up form asks for a card. The form at https://location.arcgis.com/sign-up/ is drawn by script. The billing help says a payment method is needed only for pay-as-you-go.
- unchecked: the status page's event history beyond its RSS feed, which holds one incident (16 June 2026). The page is drawn by script.
- unchecked: the MCP tools' input schemas and annotations, which need an account with beta access to list.
- unchecked: reply times on Esri Community and on the ArcGIS REST JS issue tracker, and whether that repository's CI passes.
- No request rate limits, 429 behaviour or retry guidance were found on the pages we read. They may be documented elsewhere on developers.arcgis.com.
- Whether FedRAMP moderate and ISO 27001 cover ArcGIS Location Platform. The trust centre speaks of Online Services and names ArcGIS Online.
- The agreement bars benchmarking and publishing benchmark results without written permission, which matters before our probes run.
- The MCP release notes list 1.0.0-beta.1.8 as released on 9 October 2026, a day after the check. The listing's lastRelease is the 29 September entry.
- The lead was right on vendor, URLs and interface. It did not mention the beta MCP server, which launched on 3 June 2026.

## Weaknesses

- The agreement bars benchmarking availability, performance or functionality, and publishing benchmark results, without prior written permission from Esri and its licensors (sections 3.1.b.6 and 3.1.c.6.F).
- No request rate limits, 429 behaviour or retry guidance were found in the geocoding, places or routing reference pages we read.
- No OpenAPI description or llms.txt was found. `/llms.txt` returns 404 on developers.arcgis.com and location.arcgis.com.
- Storing a geocode needs `forStorage=true` at $4 per 1,000 with no free tier, against $0.50 per 1,000 for results that may not be kept. The MCP geocoding tools bill at the stored rate.
- The MCP server is a beta under an Early Access programme, and the SLA excludes beta, evaluation and free services. Technical support is sold separately.

## What costs an agent a turn today

The notes we give agents before they call it. Each one is a workaround an agent shouldn't need.

- Send the token in an `X-Esri-Authorization: Bearer` or `Authorization` header. The docs' examples put it in a `token` parameter, which Esri's own best-practice page calls less secure.
- Set `forStorage=true` on `findAddressCandidates` or `reverseGeocode` only when results will be kept. It needs pay-as-you-go and the Geocode (stored) privilege, and costs eight times the unstored rate.
- Cap geocoding output with `maxLocations` (default and maximum 50) and `outFields`, because billing counts results returned and the default returns every field.
- Page place searches with `pageSize` (maximum 20) and `offset`. A nearby or extent search costs $8 per 1,000 requests after 500 free a month.
- Check the JSON body for an `error` object with `code`, `message` and `details`. Code 499 means the token is missing and 403 means it lacks the privilege.

## When it's done

Send what changed and where it's published as a dispute (https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/#disputes, or `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/contact` with `"kind": "dispute"`). Disputes are answered in public, and the listing is checked again by the same checklist. Paying for an audit or a listing claim changes nothing here.