# MBTiles File Sources

Martin can serve any type of tiles from [MBTile](<https://github.com/mapbox/mbtiles-spec>) files. MBTiles archives are local SQLite databases and must reside on the same machine as the tile server. To serve a file from CLI, simply put the path to the file or the directory with `*.mbtiles` files. For example:

```bash
martin  /path/to/mbtiles/file.mbtiles  /path/to/directory
```

You may also want to generate a [config file](<https://maplibre.org/martin/config-file/index.md>) using the `--save-config my-config.yaml`, and later edit it and use it with `--config my-config.yaml` option.

> [!TIP]
>
> See [MBTiles vs PMTiles](<https://maplibre.org/martin/sources-files/#mbtiles-vs-pmtiles>) for a comparison of the two file formats.

## MBTiles Hot Reload

Martin watches directories configured under `mbtiles` for changes at runtime. When `.mbtiles` files are added, modified, or removed from a watched directory, Martin automatically updates the tile catalog - no restart required.

```bash
# Martin will watch this directory and reflect any *.mbtiles changes live
martin  /path/to/mbtiles/directory
```

Or via config file:

```yaml
mbtiles:
  paths:
    - /path/to/mbtiles/directory
```

> [!TIP]
>
> **Scanning subdirectories**
>
> Set `recursive: true` next to `paths` to scan subdirectories too. A nested file is named by its path relative to the scanned directory with `/` replaced by `.`, so `2024/roads.mbtiles` becomes `2024.roads`.

> [!TIP]
>
> **Per-project directories**
>
> List a directory of project directories under `collections` to publish every file inside a project as `<project>.<file>`, so `/projects/tiles/project1/roads.mbtiles` becomes `project1.roads`.

The following events are handled automatically:

- **File added** - the new source appears in the catalog.
- **File modified** - the source is reloaded and its tile cache is invalidated. Not available on windows due to OS-limitations (SQLite not allowing `FILE_SHARE_DELETE`).
- **File removed** - the source is removed from the catalog.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Hot reload applies to directories configured under `mbtiles.paths` (or passed on the CLI). Named sources listed under `mbtiles.sources` are snapshotted at startup and are not watched for changes.