Clearance: Quality filter for OpenStreetMap replication
Clearance is a free software tool for controlling the quality of OpenStreetMap replication diffs. It tracks thematic and territorial edits to OSM and keeps replication extracts (extracts, diffs, and a local Overpass API) up to date.
Instead of trusting every incoming change, Clearance evaluates edits against configurable quality rules based on OSM tags, metadata, geometry and changeset properties. Compliant changes, at object level, pass through automatically. Suspect ones are retained rather than applied. Retained data must either be fixed directly in OSM or approved manually. All data contributions are made only in OSM itself. Reviewing and fixing suspect changes is done collaboratively by the team responsible for a given theme and region.
Because it uses standard OpenStreetMap ecosystem formats for both input and output, Clearance integrates seamlessly into existing OSM data reusers workflows, while providing greater confidence in the consumed data. It is used to filter and review changes on thematic contributions such as tourism POIs across France, or road and emergency access points in Spain.
How Clearance addresses this problem
Clearance imports an initial OSM PBF extract, then checks every incoming change against configurable quality rules. Changes that meet the rules are applied automatically to the replicated database, while suspect changes are held back. Quarantined changes must then be fixed directly in OSM or manually approved by reviewers. After each update, previously held objects are re-evaluated, so a change is released automatically once it no longer fails the rules.