mapbox-style-transformer

Transforms Mapbox GL style documents into MapLibre GL compatible styles. Handles proprietary extensions, unsupported layer types, Mapbox-only properties, expression operators, and mapbox:// URLs.

Usage

import { mapboxToMaplibre, isMapboxStyle } from "mapbox-style-transformer";

const maplibreStyle = mapboxToMaplibre(mapboxStyle);

// With a Mapbox access token (appended to transformed URLs):
const maplibreStyle = mapboxToMaplibre(mapboxStyle, {
  accessToken: "pk.your_token_here",
});

mapboxToMaplibre returns a new style object; the input is not mutated.

isMapboxStyle(style)

A type guard that returns true if the style appears to be a Mapbox GL style. Detects mapbox:// protocol URLs in glyphs, sprite, or source url properties, and Mapbox-only root properties (fog, lights, imports, etc.).

if (isMapboxStyle(style)) {
  // style is narrowed to MapboxStyle
  style = mapboxToMaplibre(style);
}

This is a heuristic — it catches most Mapbox styles but may not detect styles that use no mapbox:// URLs and no Mapbox-only properties.

transformUrls(style, options?)

A lightweight alternative to mapboxToMaplibre that only converts mapbox:// protocol URLs to standard HTTPS URLs, without touching layers, properties, or expressions. This is useful if you already know your Mapbox style is compatible with MapLibre — which is the case for styles created for the Mapbox SDK versions prior to the Mapbox/MapLibre fork.

Unlike mapboxToMaplibre, transformUrls mutates the style object in place and is imported from a separate entrypoint (mapbox-style-transformer/urls.js) to allow URL transformation without the rest of the style transformations.

import { transformUrls } from "mapbox-style-transformer/urls.js";

transformUrls(style, { accessToken: "pk.your_token_here" });

Non-mapbox:// URLs are left unchanged, so passing a MapLibre style is a no-op.

What gets transformed

URLs

mapbox:// protocol URIs are converted to standard HTTPS URLs:

Resource	Input	Output
Source	mapbox://mapbox.mapbox-streets-v8	https://api.mapbox.com/v4/mapbox.mapbox-streets-v8.json
Glyphs	mapbox://fonts/mapbox/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf	https://api.mapbox.com/fonts/v1/mapbox/{fontstack}/{range}.pbf
Sprite	mapbox://sprites/mapbox/streets-v12	https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/mapbox/streets-v12/sprite

If an accessToken is provided, ?access_token=<token> is appended to each transformed URL. Non-mapbox:// URLs are left unchanged.

Root properties

Mapbox-only root properties are removed: fog, lights, snow, rain, camera, color-theme, imports, schema, models, featuresets, fragment, indoor, iconsets.

fog is converted to MapLibre's sky property where possible (see below).

Sources

Unsupported source types are removed entirely:

• raster-array
• model

Layer types

Mapbox type	Action
fill, line, symbol, circle, heatmap, fill-extrusion, raster, hillshade, background	Kept (Mapbox-only properties stripped)
building	Converted to fill-extrusion
model, raster-particle, slot, clip, sky	Removed

Building layer conversion

Mapbox building layers become fill-extrusion layers with property mapping:

Mapbox (paint)	MapLibre (paint)
building-color	fill-extrusion-color
building-opacity	fill-extrusion-opacity

Mapbox (layout)	MapLibre (paint)
building-height	fill-extrusion-height
building-base	fill-extrusion-base

Building-only properties like building-emissive-strength, building-roof-shape, building-facade are dropped.

Paint and layout properties

Mapbox-only properties are stripped from each layer type. These include emissive strength, occlusion opacity, z-offset, border, flood-light, and other properties not supported by MapLibre. See src/layers.js for the full list per layer type.

Unsupported base layer properties (slot, appearance) are also removed.

Projection

Mapbox	MapLibre
mercator	mercator
globe	globe
Anything else	mercator (fallback)

The Mapbox name property is replaced with type and Mapbox-only properties (like center, parallels for Albers) are removed.

Light

The light property (shared by both specs) is passed through, keeping only anchor, position, color, and intensity.

If the style has a Mapbox lights array (the newer multi-light system) but no light property, the directional light is extracted and converted to a single MapLibre light object. The directional light's direction [azimuth, polar] is mapped to MapLibre's position [1.15, azimuth, polar].

Fog to sky

Mapbox fog properties are mapped to MapLibre sky:

Mapbox fog	MapLibre sky
color	fog-color
high-color	sky-color
horizon-blend	sky-horizon-blend

Other fog properties (range, star-intensity, vertical-range, space-color) have no MapLibre equivalent and are dropped.

If the style already has a sky property, fog conversion is skipped.

Expressions

Mapbox-only expression operators are handled:

Expression	Action
hsl, hsla	Converted to rgb/rgba (literal args converted inline, dynamic args passed through)
to-hsla	Converted to to-rgba
at-interpolated	Converted to at
pitch	Replaced with literal 0
random	Replaced with literal 0.5
config, measure-light, raster-value, raster-particle-speed, sky-radial-progress, is-active-floor, distance-from-center, worldview	Removed (returns null)

HSL color strings (e.g. "hsl(200, 50%, 60%)") in property values are converted to RGB.

case, match, and coalesce expressions are cleaned up: branches that reference unsupported expressions are removed, and if all branches are removed, the fallback value is returned directly.

Legacy style features

After all transformations, MapLibre's migrate() function runs to convert any remaining legacy features:

• Old-style filters to expressions
• Property functions with stops to interpolation expressions
• Token strings like "{name}" to ["to-string", ["get", "name"]]

Visual impact

The goal is to preserve visual appearance where possible, but some differences are unavoidable:

• 3D models removed: model layers and sources are dropped entirely.
• Atmosphere simplified: The multi-property Mapbox fog maps to a simpler MapLibre sky with fewer controls.
• Multi-light to single light: The Mapbox lights array (ambient + directional) collapses to a single directional light.
• Building layers: Mapbox's procedural building rendering features (facade details, roof shapes, flood lighting) are lost; only the basic extrusion geometry is preserved.
• Particle effects removed: raster-particle layers (e.g., wind visualization) are dropped.
• Sky layers removed: Mapbox sky layers are dropped (MapLibre uses a root sky property instead).
• Emissive/occlusion effects lost: All emissive strength and occlusion opacity properties are stripped.
• Expressions with no equivalent: pitch becomes 0, random becomes 0.5, config values are removed. Styles that relied on these for dynamic behavior will show static fallback values.