pixel-path turns a route between two places into a pixel-art fly-through
pixel-path is a one-commit Claude Code skill that reads two place names, routes the drive between them on real roads, and renders a pixel-art first-person fly-through from OpenStreetMap buildings and generated scenery, now at 218 stars seven days after it was published.
Image: GitHub
Why it mattersA content creator who needed a motion graphics team and days of work to film a route can now describe it in a chat message and get a pixel-art version back, inside the same Claude Code window they already use to write code.
A content maker who wants a short pixel-art drive from one place to another used to need either a motion-graphics team or a long evening in Blender. pixel-path, a Claude Code skill published by GitHub user jonwheatley, does it as a chat message. Give it two place names, and it draws the real road on real streets and plays it back as a pixel-art fly-through. The repository is MIT-licensed, has one commit, and reached 218 stars in the seven days since it went up.
What the skill does
The user describes the trip in plain words inside Claude Code, and the skill picks up five data sources to assemble the scene. OpenStreetMap gives the roads and the shapes of the buildings next to them. OSRM finds the driving route between the two places. Nominatim turns a place name into coordinates. AWS Terrain Tiles supply the ground height, so the pass-through rises and falls with the land. Wikidata adds the names of landmarks the route goes past. The output is a short, interactive camera that moves along the real road.
What is generated
The scenery that fills the gaps between the mapped buildings comes from a model, not from the open data. The skill calls RetroDiffusion's rd_pro__default model to draw the pixel-art fields, trees and sky along the route. Four detail levels are listed in the README, and three of them cost money per region of road: placeholders are free, sparse costs about 72 cents to $1.44 a region, moderate about $3.24 to $5.76, and detailed about $6.48 to $11.16. The free placeholder level is enough to see the route; the paid ones replace the placeholder tiles with denser pixel art.
Why it is a Claude Code skill rather than a web app
Claude Code's skill system is a plugin shape: a folder of files, installed with /plugin marketplace add jonwheatley/pixel-path, that Claude can call as if it were a tool. Running pixel-path from inside Claude Code means the user describes the output they want in the same message they would use to ask the model anything else, and the skill handles the fetches, the routing and the image calls on their behalf. For a developer who already lives in Claude Code, the fly-through comes out of the window they already have open, with no new account to sign up for and no editor to learn.
Where it is useful
The README lists five uses: making levels for driving or racing games off real-world roads, visualising a commute or a holiday, cover art and background video for a travel post or a stream, retracing a historical journey, and learning how pseudo-3D rendering works by reading the code. The spread of uses is wider than the usual Claude Code skill, which is often one tool for one job: pixel-path reuses the same route as an input to a game asset, a social post or a short teaching clip.
The OpenStreetMap data is under the Open Database License, which asks that the attribution travel with any derivative work. A team using pixel-path to make a game level or a reel should carry the OSM credit in the finished piece.
Source
This item was written by an AI system from the linked source. Reveneau is responsible for what it publishes.
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