From-Scratch Build · 06 · Civic Tech & Microservices
Could a government make decisions the way an engineering team ships software — with data pipelines, simulations and dashboards instead of gut feel? This is a modular, open microservice stack for AI-enhanced policy making, rebuilt to learn how civic tech is architected.
What it is
This stack is a set of reusable microservices that together support evidence-based policy making: ingest data, simulate scenarios, run analytics, surface it on dashboards, and feed decision-support and strategy agents. The design philosophy is modularity — each capability is an independent module you can adopt on its own.
For me the draw isn't the politics; it's that this is a textbook example of service-oriented architecture aimed at a real domain — complete with the unglamorous-but-essential scaffolding that separates a hobby repo from a serious one: a code of conduct, contributing guide and security policy.
The core idea I wanted to learn: a "platform" is mostly a contract between small services. If ingestion, analytics and dashboards each do one thing and talk over an API, you can grow, swap or scale any one without rewriting the rest.
The stack
Dashboards & reporting via Metabase, plus ETL jobs and telemetry — the window into everything else.
Pulls raw data in from sources and normalises it so the rest of the stack can use it.
Models "what if we did X" so a policy can be tested before it touches the real world.
Strategy agents and decision-support tools that turn analysed data into recommendations.
The seam that lets the modules — and outside clients — talk to each other.
CONTRIBUTING, CODE_OF_CONDUCT, SECURITY, .env.example — the open-source paperwork that makes a stack reusable.
How it works
Source data flows into the stack through the ingestion module and gets cleaned up.
Scenario models project the likely effects of candidate policies.
Analytics and strategy agents weigh the outcomes against goals.
The Monitor module renders it all in Metabase dashboards for humans to read.
Decision-support tools turn the evidence into a recommendation a policymaker can act on.
Reflection