Proposal talk:Addr=main

Original discussion in French

Discussion in French on forum.openstreetmap.fr

Schéma de Charlieu replacement

I think it is a better replacement for "Le Schéma de Charlieu" for reasons stated there.

• A house address and a POI address are both addresses, containing the same kind of information, and therefore it makes sense to use the same addr: in both cases.
• If the element has the addr=main key, then that's the default street number.
• Any house in a associatedStreet relationship could (semi-)automatically be tagged addr=main as well as elements with a (locally) unique address.
• Multiple elements with identical addresses and addr=main on more than one would be flagged as an error to be fixed.
• contact:* should still be used when the POI has a different address than its physical location (for example, a PO box)

--Pandark (talk) 23:13, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

Specify multiple uses for a given address

I think using addr=main is genius.

Therefore, I believe we should consider using other values, allowing multiple address nodes. e.g.: addr=main;delivery;service;garage;hgv;bikes

The overlap with entrance=* is better minimized. addr=* should be reserved for distinguishing addressing objects. entrance=* has its own problems that needs to be solved first, eg can't have main vs secondary vs servicing vs deliveries entrance=shop , entrance=home , entrance=garage . At most, they should share some suffix eg *:to=* , *:function=* , cf entrance:use=* used by others before.
—— Kovposch (talk) 07:10, 11 July 2025 (UTC)

Example 1 : INSEE building

This building 556532717 556532717 hosts the INSEE office with these entrances having an address:

Address	Entrance type	OSM tags	OSM objects	Panoramax picture
116 Avenue Verdier	Main	addr=main	5713474941 5713474941	https://panoramax.openstreetmap.fr/?pic=8e9c2145-6e9a-446c-acff-14ba2fd9932a&xyz=85.14/-14.41/0
116 Avenue Verdier	Service	addr=service	12991933625 12991933625	https://panoramax.openstreetmap.fr/?pic=36088b5c-0b72-48e4-8d9d-96f62eae620b&xyz=7.66/-26.48/0
88 Avenue Verdier	Secondary	addr=secondary	2493656071 2493656071	https://panoramax.openstreetmap.fr/?pic=10f30416-186a-4221-9c89-812672302a95&xyz=1.51/-8.96/0
23 Avenue de la Marne	Garage	addr=garage motor_vehicle=yes	8569602272 8569602272	https://panoramax.openstreetmap.fr/?pic=1482464a-528f-4ca5-972d-21c695bd3323&xyz=126.54/-1.76/0
23 Avenue de la Marne	Service	addr=service motor_vehicle=no	12991910945 12991910945	https://panoramax.openstreetmap.fr/?pic=340b75a2-2bc5-4679-a421-440772e497d9&xyz=122.26/-6.25/0

Other entrances also exist, without any address associated: 12991906356 12991906356, 12991940439 12991940439, 12991940440 12991940440.

As there are different addresses and entrances without any address, I don't see another way than to create a specific site relation (please tell me I'm wrong and that you have an alternativeǃ).

addr=secondary is ambiguous and confusing here. addr=* doesn't have the same meaning as entrance=secondary , as it refers to main address object. The same address can have multiple entrance=* , and the secondary address can have its own addr=main , meaning this doesn't work. A different addr*=* / addr_*=* / addr:*=* is needed for main vs secondary addresses separately from main vs secondary objects.
—— Kovposch (talk) 06:58, 11 July 2025 (UTC)

Example 2: "Musée d'Art et de Culture Soufis"

This museum 5010996908 5010996908 has

• a addr=main entrance at the main gate 4304490573 4304490573
• a addr=entrance with entrance=main entrance on the building door 12992504650 12992504650

All these 3 nodes have a unique address: addr:housenumber=6 at addr:street=Avenue des Tilleuls

Overflorian (talk) 14:41, 10 July 2025 (UTC)

addr=entrance doesn't explain it clearly, and is confusing with entrance=* . addr=building / addr=target / addr=receiver ?
—— Kovposch (talk) 07:13, 11 July 2025 (UTC)

Good idea!

Introducing addr=main is a really good idea IMO. I proposed something very similar in Tagging proposal: Category/feature tag for addresses - OSM Forum only to find out that this proposal already exists.

I'm a CoMaps developer and noticed that it is quite difficult to decide where an address should be displayed on the map. addr=main improves the current indirect definition (everything with addr:housenumber=* that does not fall into any other category) and make it easy to decide which location represents an address best. Map per wiki (talk) 09:03, 21 June 2026 (UTC)

Confusing

There seems to be a confusion between various aspects, namely the address itself, the feature to which it belongs, the geo location(s) associated with it for routing and the purpose the routing target serves. I'm in the process of matching 2.5 M addresses in Austria with the official registry, so I see that from a practical standpoint. And quite honestly, we haven't maxed out the tags already in existence, not even close, so I'd be hesitant to make it even more complicated than it is.

We can tag addr:* either as standalone point or on the feature (e.g. area, building, entrance). Key:entrance describes what it's good for (main, service, delivery,...). What we can't do fully at the moment (but see Key:routing:entrance) is to describe how you get there if there's a choice e.g. of gates or access roads to the compound. For me, that doesn't call for additional address tags.

Adresses don't have uses, they just describe a geo-located point in a human readable way (sell the plot, tear down the building and create a playground, the address doesn't change, the entrance may). It's the entrances - and there can be many per address - that have uses.

Problems we face are address duplication (should happen only within a given building), address inheritance (e.g. from point to area) and routing directions as described above (to get to the delivery entrance of the "frumps" workshop in A-street 20, use gate 17). None of which are solved with this proposal. Wolfbert (talk) 17:23, 28 June 2026 (UTC)