Documentation
Open Studio

Earth Engine Studio guide

Editor

Write JavaScript and Python, run complete scripts or selections, use modules, and save or share Studio documents.

Choose a language and file type

Studio uses Monaco for code editing. A remote file’s extension determines its language. For a draft, use the language control to choose automatic detection, JavaScript, Python, Markdown, JSON, GeoJSON, GeoJSONL, or plain text.

Earth Engine scripts conventionally use .ee.js and .ee.py, though .js and .py also work. Markdown documents can switch between source and rendered preview. GeoJSONL receives its own syntax support for Studio geometry records.

JavaScript and Python editors provide Earth Engine-aware completion, hover help, signatures, and inferred handles for supported Studio globals. Search the adjacent Docs panel when you need the complete registered signature.

Run code

Use Run to evaluate the complete active JavaScript or Python document. If a selection is active, Run selection evaluates only that text. Keyboard users can open Settings → General shortcuts for a platform-aware reference. With the editor focused:

  • Cmd/Ctrl+S saves the current writable Git file or opens the destination dialog for a draft.
  • Cmd/Ctrl+Enter runs the current selection or the complete script.
  • Cmd/Ctrl+/ toggles line comments. On keyboard layouts where / requires Shift and the browser captures the chord for Help, use Cmd/Ctrl+7 or Cmd/Ctrl+Numpad / instead.
  • F1 opens Monaco’s command palette, where the Studio Save, Run, and layout-safe comment actions are also searchable.

JavaScript runs in a persistent, isolated SES compartment inside a Worker. Python runs in a pinned Pyodide environment. Both can publish portable top-level bindings—scalars, functions, promises or awaitables, and Earth Engine expressions—to the other language. Runtime-specific custom objects remain in the language that created them.

If authentication, project, or worker state changes, callbacks and shared bindings from the previous runtime are invalidated. Rerun the defining script rather than retaining an old handle.

Use modules

JavaScript modules expose values through exports and load them with require(...):

// terrain-tools.ee.js
exports.normalizedRelief = function (image, low, high) {
  return image.subtract(low).divide(ee.Number(high).subtract(low));
};

var terrain = require("./terrain-tools.ee.js");
var dem = ee.Image("NASA/NASADEM_HGT/001");
Map.addLayer(terrain.normalizedRelief(dem, 0, 4500), {min: 0, max: 1}, "Relief");

Python supports normal imports and the cross-language require(...) helper. Static paths may resolve from the current repository, configured package roots, another Studio language, pinned public GitHub or GitLab revisions, GoogleSource, or compatible Earth Engine user modules.

Remote Python executes only after a consolidated trust confirmation. Studio also limits module depth, module count, total source size, and cycles before execution. Prefer pinned public revisions when a workflow must be reproducible.

Load attached geospatial files

Repository-relative or locally attached .geojson and .geojsonl content can be loaded with a static path:

const boundaries = loadGeoJSON("./field-boundaries.geojsonl");
Map.addLayer(boundaries.north_field, {color: "6ee7f2"}, "North field");

Static strings let Studio resolve the file before starting the Worker. A dynamic expression cannot identify which attachment or repository path should be fetched. JavaScript may use {unpack: true} to publish named GeoJSONL records as bindings; protected globals and existing declarations are never overwritten.

Save drafts and remote files

Drafts are continuously retained in browser storage. To make a draft durable and collaborative, choose Save, select one of the writable repositories already shown in Scripts, then choose its branch, folder, filename, and commit message.

An opened remote file saves back to its existing path. Studio includes the revision that was opened, so a concurrent remote change produces a conflict instead of silently overwriting someone else’s work. At that point, reload the latest remote version and reapply the local change deliberately.

When a document owns drawn geometry or local attachments, a save can commit the script and its companion files together. The script receives a static loader when required.

Get Link creates a content-addressed snapshot of the active document, language, path context, and companion geometry, then copies its public URL. Files owned by other documents are not included.

This differs from a link to a mutable repository path: opening the same Studio link always resolves the captured content. It also differs from Google’s Code Editor link implementation. See Google’s Code Editor guide when you specifically need Google Code Editor sharing behavior.

Before sharing, make sure every referenced Earth Engine asset and remote module is readable by the recipient. A code link cannot grant access to private data.