mapkit_flutter

MapKit for Flutter. Wraps MKMapView as a Flutter platform view on iOS and macOS, with annotations, overlays, clustering, Look Around, tile overlays, and the modern MKMapConfiguration family.

Every public type carries Apple's exact MapKit symbol name — MKMapCamera, MKCoordinateRegion, MKPolyline, CLLocationCoordinate2D. If you (or your coding agent) know MapKit, you already know this API. The MK namespace also means zero import collisions with google_maps_flutter, mapbox_maps_flutter, or flutter_map in mixed-platform code — no as mk prefixes needed.

Apple platforms only (iOS + macOS). Apple's MapKit does not exist on Android. Pair this with google_maps_flutter behind a platform switch for cross-platform apps. Look Around is iOS-only (no macOS MapKit equivalent).

Install

flutter pub add mapkit_flutter

Add to ios/Runner/Info.plist (on macOS, macos/Runner/Info.plist plus the Location sandbox entitlement) if you set showsUserLocation: true:

<key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
<string>Used to show your current location on the map.</string>

Minimum: iOS 17, macOS 14, Dart 3.10, Flutter 3.41.

Quick start

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:mapkit_flutter/mapkit_flutter.dart';

class MapPage extends StatefulWidget {
  const MapPage({super.key});

  @override
  State<MapPage> createState() => _MapPageState();
}

class _MapPageState extends State<MapPage> {
  MKMapViewController? _controller;

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MKMapView(
      initialCamera: const MKMapCamera(
        centerCoordinate: CLLocationCoordinate2D(
          latitude: 37.334922,
          longitude: -122.009033,
        ),
        distance: 1500, // meters, like MKMapCamera.centerCoordinateDistance
      ),
      showsUserLocation: true,
      annotations: {
        const MKPointAnnotation(
          id: MKAnnotationId('apple-park'),
          coordinate: CLLocationCoordinate2D(
            latitude: 37.334922,
            longitude: -122.009033,
          ),
          title: 'Apple Park',
          subtitle: 'One Apple Park Way',
        ),
      },
      onMapCreated: (controller) => _controller = controller,
      onTap: (coordinate) => debugPrint('tapped $coordinate'),
    );
  }
}

Coordinate is an exported alias for CLLocationCoordinate2D.

The widget mirrors MKMapView

The base style is a sealed preferredConfiguration (exactly MKMapView.preferredConfiguration); view-level switches are direct parameters with their MKMapView property names:

MKMapView(
  initialCamera: ...,
  preferredConfiguration: const MKStandardMapConfiguration(
    elevationStyle: MKMapElevationStyle.realistic,
    emphasisStyle: MKMapEmphasisStyle.muted, // `standard` ≙ Apple's `.default`
    pointOfInterestFilter: MKPointOfInterestFilter.including([
      MKPointOfInterestCategory.cafe,
      MKPointOfInterestCategory.park,
    ]),
    showsTraffic: true,
  ),
  // MKHybridMapConfiguration() / MKImageryMapConfiguration() likewise.
  isZoomEnabled: true,
  isScrollEnabled: true,
  isRotateEnabled: false,
  isPitchEnabled: false,
  showsCompass: true,
  showsScale: true,
  showsUserLocation: true,
  showsUserTrackingButton: true,
  userTrackingMode: MKUserTrackingMode.follow,
  cameraZoomRange: const MKCameraZoomRange(
    minCenterCoordinateDistance: 500,    // meters
    maxCenterCoordinateDistance: 100000,
  ),
  cameraBoundary: someRegion,            // MKCoordinateRegion?
  selectableMapFeatures: {MKMapFeatureOptions.pointsOfInterest},
)

Annotations

MKPointAnnotation merges the annotation (coordinate, title, subtitle) with its MKAnnotationView presentation (alpha, isDraggable, zPriority, clusteringIdentifier…) — Flutter is declarative, so there is no separate view object.

// System balloon marker (MKMarkerAnnotationView)
MKPointAnnotation(id: MKAnnotationId('home'), coordinate: home)

// Tinted + glyph-branded marker
MKPointAnnotation(
  id: MKAnnotationId('cafe'),
  coordinate: cafe,
  icon: MKAnnotationIcon.marker(
    markerTintColor: Colors.brown,
    systemImage: 'cup.and.saucer.fill',
    glyphTintColor: Colors.white,
  ),
)

// Custom image from an asset
final icon = await MKAnnotationIcon.asset('assets/pin.png');
MKPointAnnotation(id: MKAnnotationId('shop'), coordinate: shop, icon: icon)

// Fully custom marker from a rendered Flutter widget: capture PNG bytes
// (e.g. via RenderRepaintBoundary.toImage) and pass them through:
MKPointAnnotation(
  id: MKAnnotationId('w'),
  coordinate: here,
  icon: MKAnnotationIcon.image(pngBytes),
)

// Callout + drag
MKPointAnnotation(
  id: MKAnnotationId('apple-park'),
  coordinate: applePark,
  title: 'Apple Park',
  subtitle: 'One Apple Park Way',
  onCalloutTap: () => Navigator.pushNamed(context, '/details'),
  isDraggable: true,
  onDragEnd: (coordinate) => print('dropped $coordinate'),
)

Annotations sharing a clusteringIdentifier cluster natively when they crowd.

Overlays

MKPolyline, MKPolygon, MKCircle, MKTileOverlay — each merges its renderer's stroke/fill vocabulary (strokeColor, lineWidth, lineDashPattern):

MKMapView(
  initialCamera: ...,
  polylines: {
    MKPolyline(
      id: const MKPolylineId('route'),
      coordinates: const [...],
      strokeColor: Colors.blue,
      lineWidth: 6,
      lineCap: CGLineCap.round,
      lineJoin: CGLineJoin.round,
      lineDashPattern: const [6, 3],     // alternating dash/gap points
      gradientColors: const [Colors.green, Colors.red], // MKGradientPolylineRenderer
      level: MKOverlayLevel.aboveLabels,
    ),
    // Great-circle path, rendered by native MKGeodesicPolyline:
    MKPolyline.geodesic(
      id: const MKPolylineId('sfo-nrt'),
      coordinates: const [sfo, nrt],
    ),
  },
  polygons: {
    MKPolygon(
      id: const MKPolygonId('zone'),
      coordinates: const [...],
      interiorPolygons: const [[...]],   // holes, MKPolygon-exact
      fillColor: Colors.red.withValues(alpha: 0.3),
      strokeColor: Colors.red,
    ),
  },
  circles: {
    MKCircle(
      id: const MKCircleId('radius'),
      center: const CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: ..., longitude: ...),
      radius: 500, // meters
    ),
  },
)

Tile overlays go through the controller (MKTileOverlay(urlTemplate:) semantics):

await controller.addTileOverlay(
  const MKTileOverlay(
    id: MKTileOverlayId('osm'),
    urlTemplate: 'https://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png',
  ),
);

Controller — MKMapView's imperative surface

final MKMapCamera camera = await controller.camera;          // MKMapView.camera
final MKCoordinateRegion region = await controller.region;   // MKMapView.region
await controller.setCamera(camera, animated: true);          // setCamera(_:animated:)
await controller.setRegion(region, animated: true);          // setRegion(_:animated:)
await controller.setCenter(coordinate, animated: true);      // setCenter(_:animated:)
await controller.convertToPoint(coordinate);                 // convert(_:toPointTo:)
await controller.convertToCoordinate(offset);                // convert(_:toCoordinateFrom:)
await controller.showCallout(MKAnnotationId('a'));
await controller.openLookAround(coordinate);                 // MKLookAroundViewController
final Uint8List png = await controller.takeSnapshot(
  const MKMapSnapshotOptions(showsBuildings: false),         // MKMapSnapshotter.Options
);

Mutations run on an internal serial queue — concurrent calls execute in source order. controller.dispose() runs automatically when the owning MKMapView widget unmounts.

Two dialects

The canonical API is the MapKit mirror above. If you think in google_maps_flutter terms, the exported CameraConveniences extension layers that dialect on top — implemented purely over the canonical calls, no extra platform surface:

await controller.zoomTo(14);
await controller.zoomBy(2);
await controller.zoomIn();
await controller.scrollBy(80, -40);
await controller.fitCoordinates(annotations.map((a) => a.coordinate));
final zoom = await controller.getZoomLevel();

Zoom levels are a Web-Mercator convenience (MKMapCamera.withZoomLevel / camera.zoomLevel); MapKit's native unit is distance in meters.

Errors

MapKit's imperative API doesn't throw, and neither do the mirrored calls. Expected conditions degrade instead: camera moves clamp, unknown ids are ignored (showCallout racing a rebuild that removed the annotation is harmless, matching selectAnnotation semantics), conversions return null before the first layout, and openLookAround returns false when no scene exists.

What can genuinely fail throws a typed MapKitException instead of a raw PlatformException:

try {
  final png = await controller.takeSnapshot();
} on MapKitPlatformException catch (e) {
  debugPrint('${e.code}: ${e.message}'); // e.g. snapshot-failed
}

• MapKitPlatformException — native failure with a stable code (takeSnapshot → snapshot-failed) plus the native message / details.
• MapKitDisposedException — controller used after the owning widget unmounted.
• MapKitUnsupportedPlatformException — MKMapView built off iOS/macOS.

Failures MKMapView reports through its delegate surface as widget callbacks: onDidFailToLocateUser (most commonly location permission denied) and onDidFailLoadingMap (map content failed to load, e.g. offline).

Type-safe platform channel

The Dart↔Swift boundary is generated by Pigeon from pigeons/messages.dart. After editing the schema, regenerate with dart run pigeon --input pigeons/messages.dart.

The generated files (lib/src/messages.g.dart, darwin/mapkit_flutter/Sources/mapkit_flutter/messages.g.swift) are committed and must not be hand-edited. Wire types keep a Platform prefix so the generated Swift never shadows real MapKit symbols; public Dart names are restored via typedef (e.g. MKUserTrackingMode).

Claude Code skill

A scaffold skill ships at tool/skills/flutter-mapkit-scaffold/SKILL.md. Drop it into your user skills and invoke with /flutter-mapkit-scaffold:

cp -R tool/skills/flutter-mapkit-scaffold ~/.claude/skills/

License

MIT — see LICENSE.