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Yvann Barbot

Co-founder

Dev & AI Engineer

Work

Yvann co-founded TerraLab and codes on all of it: the three QGIS plugins, the AI models behind them, and the servers those models run on. AI Segmentation turns imagery into vector polygons. AI Edit changes what imagery shows, from a written instruction. AI Agent carries out the task you describe in the open project.

Background

42 Paris alumnus. He was an AI engineer at Mago, based at Station F, before TerraLab. His open-source work has passed 1,200 GitHub stars.

Elsewhere

LinkedIn GitHub

Meet the rest of the team

Posts by Yvann Barbot

Two exported A4 print layouts side by side. On the left, the chatbot's first answer: a title, a legend and a north arrow around an empty map frame, with the words Ran without an error, the map frame is empty. On the right, the AI Agent layout of the schools in Annecy with districts, coloured schools, a legend and a scale bar, with the words One message.

AI AgentQGISGuide

ChatGPT for QGIS: What It Can and Can't Do, Tested

Can ChatGPT automate QGIS? I asked it for PyQGIS code on three real tasks and ran every script in QGIS. What worked, what failed without an error, and why.

A dark PyQGIS script buffering schools by 100 metres next to a map of central Denpasar, with the result that 864 of 7,015 buildings fall inside those zones.

What Is PyQGIS? Automate QGIS With or Without Code

PyQGIS lets you control QGIS with Python. Where to run it, a first script, and a test of how often chatbot-written PyQGIS works, with a no-code option.

A dark comparison card: QGIS MCP as four stacked pieces to set up taking 8 minutes 29 seconds, next to AI Agent as one green plugin card taking 1 minute 11 seconds.

AI AgentQGISGuide

What Is QGIS MCP? Setup, Limits, Easier Option

QGIS MCP lets Claude or another AI app drive QGIS through a local server. What the setup really takes, where it breaks, and the one-plugin alternative.

Price comparison on a dark panel, QGIS $0 versus ArcGIS Pro $700 a year, next to a QGIS map of Bonn street trees along the Rhine, coloured by species.

QGIS vs ArcGIS Pro in 2026: Price, Features, AI

ArcGIS Pro costs $700 to $4,200 per user per year and QGIS costs nothing. What each does better in 2026, a 3-year cost table, Esri files and AI tools.

Dark Web Mercator map of Europe with four equal 500 km ground squares drawn at Madrid, Berlin, Oslo and Tromsø, growing visibly larger toward the pole, with a ×8.23 callout at Tromsø.

What Is a CRS (Coordinate Reference System)?

A CRS tells software where coordinates sit on Earth. Datums, projections, EPSG codes, 4326 vs 3857, and how to fix a layer that lands in the wrong place.

A map of Pune with orange areas marking the neighbourhoods more than 2 km from a hospital, with a chat card showing the question and the answer that 46,363 people live in them.

AI AgentQGISGuide

AI Agents in QGIS: What They Are and Which to Use

An AI agent in QGIS takes a task in plain words and runs the steps in your project. How it works, a real test checked by hand, 38 plugins, and which to use.

Diagonal split of the Harike wetland in Punjab, India: true colour satellite imagery on the left, the same scene recoloured by NDVI on the right, with a green-to-red NDVI legend strip.

What Is NDVI? Meaning, Values and Formula

NDVI measures how green and dense vegetation is, from red and near-infrared light. What the values mean, a season measured field by field, and QGIS steps.

A detailed street map of central Lisbon with roads coloured by class and the Tagus river in blue, next to a floating Layers card listing roads, buildings, parks and the river.

What Is QGIS? The Free GIS, Explained for 2026

QGIS is free, open-source software for making maps and working with geographic data. What it does, what QGIS 4 changed, and 3,600 plugins counted.

Central Kisumu, Kenya, split in two: the OpenStreetMap basemap on the left, and on the right the same streets as loaded data, 4,572 buildings coloured by footprint area and 128 main roads on a dark background.

AI AgentQGISTutorial

How to Download OpenStreetMap Data into QGIS

QuickOSM for a town, a Geofabrik .pbf for a country, Overpass Turbo for custom queries. Tested on Kisumu, with the timeouts and the ODbL credit.

Centre-pivot farms near Cristalina, Brazil, from the Sentinel-2 image of 7 July 2026, split in two: true colour on the left, NDVI from red to green on the right, under the title Sentinel-2 in QGIS.

AI AgentQGISTutorial

How to Download Sentinel-2 Images in QGIS

Stream Sentinel-2 into QGIS over STAC with no account, or download the L2A product from Copernicus Browser. Bands, clouds and NDVI, tested in Brazil.

A 1947 USGS topographic map of San Francisco split in two: on the left the plain scan, on the right the same map georeferenced and laid over OpenStreetMap, the Bay Bridge continuing past the map's edge, under the title Georeferencing in QGIS.

AI AgentQGISTutorial

How to Georeference a Map or Image in QGIS

Open Layer > Georeferencer, place control points, pick Polynomial 1 and a projected CRS. Then read the RMSE in metres: tested on a 1947 USGS map.

AI Agent in QGIS: three maps it made from one message each, a café heatmap in Lyon, population density in Gironde and vineyard NDVI in Saint-Émilion.

AI AgentQGISTutorial

AI Agent for QGIS: The Complete Guide

How to use AI Agent in QGIS: install it, write your first request, stay in control, then 10 real runs, from georeferencing an old map to an HTML report.

Three panels of the same suburban street from the air: bare satellite imagery, an OpenStreetMap centreline drawn down the middle of it, and the paved surface filled in kerb to kerb as a polygon.

AI SegmentationQGISTutorial

Extract Roads in QGIS: 6 Methods and One Trap

Start with QuickOSM. Where OSM is thin, five more ways to get roads out of imagery, and the line-or-surface choice that decides all of them.

Three panels over the same suburban rooftops: plain aerial imagery, the same roofs with OpenStreetMap solar generators drawn as sparse outlines, and the same roofs again with every array detected as its own polygon.

AI SegmentationQGISTutorial

Detect Solar Panels in QGIS: 5 Methods

Check OpenStreetMap first. Then four ways to map rooftop PV from aerial imagery in QGIS, with the menu paths and where each one fails.

Three panels of the same suburban block from the air: bare imagery, a colour threshold lighting up the pools and a blue roof alike, and a segmentation result with only the pools outlined.

AI SegmentationQGISTutorial

Detect Swimming Pools in QGIS: 5 Methods

Start with QuickOSM on leisure=swimming_pool. Where the map is thin, use a segmentation model, threshold the blue, or run a water index. Five methods compared.

Three panels of the same parkland: plain aerial imagery, an NDVI raster with vegetation in red, and every tree crown as its own coloured polygon.

AI SegmentationQGISTutorial

Map Tree Canopy in QGIS: 6 Methods, Free and Paid

For multispectral imagery, threshold NDVI in the raster calculator, then polygonize. Six methods, what each one needs, and what a canopy layer costs.

5 Best Bunting Labs Alternatives for QGIS (2026)

QGISGeoAIComparison

5 Best Bunting Labs Alternatives for QGIS (2026)

Bunting Labs traces one line at a time. For every object in an area, use AI Segmentation. Five tools on input, price and privacy.

Deepness Alternatives in QGIS: 5 Free and Paid

QGISGeoAIComparison

Deepness Alternatives in QGIS: 5 Free and Paid

Deepness runs an ONNX file you supply, offline and free. If you have no such file, here are five tools compared on input, price and where the imagery goes.

5 Best eCognition Alternatives in 2026

QGISGeoAIComparison

5 Best eCognition Alternatives in 2026

Trimble stopped actively selling eCognition. AI Segmentation is the fastest replacement. Five tools compared on input, cost and where your imagery goes.

Mapflow Alternatives for QGIS: 5 Free and Paid

QGISGeoAIComparison

Mapflow Alternatives for QGIS: 5 Free and Paid

AI Segmentation is my default pick: draw a zone, type a word, no graphics card. Five QGIS plugins on price, install, GPU and where the imagery goes.

Three panels: a land cover raster drawn as a grid of coloured pixels, the same boundary traced by polygonize as a staircase, and the same boundary again as a smooth green line after dissolve, an area filter, simplify and smooth.

QGISTutorialGeoAI

Convert Raster to Vector in QGIS: 5 Methods

For a classified raster, use Raster > Conversion > Polygonize. Here are the five methods, the fix for staircase edges, and what to do with a photograph.

A diagram in which the outline of a roof, drawn in green, sits offset from the dashed outline of the walls underneath it, labelled overhang plus lean, beside an aerial view of houses whose detected outlines are drawn in red.

What Is a Building Footprint? Meaning & Calculation

A building footprint is the ground area inside a building's outer walls. What counts, how it differs from floor area, and how to calculate it from a plan.

QGISAI SegmentationComparison

9 Best AI Plugins for QGIS in 2026 (Free and Paid)

For pulling objects out of imagery, start with AI Segmentation or Mapflow. Nine plugins compared on price, where the computation runs, and install effort.

Aerial imagery of dense Paris blocks split down the middle, plain photo on the left and every detected building drawn as its own coloured polygon on the right.

What Is GeoAI? Definition, Examples, Uses in QGIS

GeoAI is machine learning run on geographic data. The five things it extracts today, what it costs in hardware and time, and how to run it in QGIS.

A before/after slider over aerial imagery of a Paris neighbourhood, plain rooftops on the left and each building filled with its own colour on the right, under the title Building Footprints in QGIS.

AI SegmentationQGISTutorial

Detect Building Footprints in QGIS: 3 Methods

Draw a zone, name the object, run it: you get a polygon layer in minutes. Open data, AI detection and hand-digitizing compared, with the filtering step.

A before/after slider over aerial imagery of a lakeside park, plain trees on the left and each tree crown filled with its own colour on the right, under the title Segment Anything in QGIS.

AI SegmentationQGISTutorial

Segment Anything (SAM) in QGIS: 7 Plugins Compared

SAM outlines an object from a click or a word. Seven QGIS plugins run it: what each costs, which needs an NVIDIA card, and how to install one.

AI Edit in QGIS: aerial imagery on the left, AI-generated segmentation on the right.

AI EditQGISTutorial

AI Edit for QGIS: The Complete Guide

Turn the aerial imagery in your QGIS canvas into edits, clean maps, and vector data with plain-language prompts, using AI Edit by TerraLab.

A card showing the exact error, ImportError: DLL load failed while importing _C, above the fix: install the Visual C++ Redistributable for x64, then restart Windows.

QGISTroubleshooting

QGIS: DLL Load Failed Importing _C (Solved)

Install the Visual C++ Redistributable (x64), then reboot. That clears it on most machines. Four fixes, in the order they turn out to be the real one.

A card showing the exact error, ImportError: DLL load failed while importing _gdal, above the fix: take the non-QGIS GDAL folders out of PATH, then sign out and back in.

QGISTroubleshooting

QGIS: DLL Load Failed Importing _gdal (Solved)

A second GDAL sits earlier on your PATH and wins the DLL search. Take the non-QGIS folders out, sign out, sign back in. Five fixes, likeliest first.

A card showing the two errors the Flatpak build of QGIS returns, no module named pip and a read-only file system, above the fix: run pip with --devel and install with --user.

QGISTroubleshooting

QGIS Flatpak: No Module Named pip (Solved)

Run pip through the Flatpak with --devel and install with --user. The exact commands, four fixes when it still fails, and why /usr is read-only.