Atlas

A public, source-linked directory of civic actors and the work they do in the United States.

Atlas helps users search by place, issue, organization, person, initiative, or civic concern to find who is working on public problems throughout the country. It connects each record to public sources, so researchers, journalists, organizers, developers, and residents can inspect the evidence before using the information.

Visit Atlas at atlas.rebuildingus.org.

Why Atlas Exists

Public-interest work is everywhere, but it is hard to find. Useful information is split across local news, organization websites, public meetings, nonprofit directories, government records, research reports, podcasts, campaign pages, and other public sources.

Atlas turns that scattered information into records that can be searched, filtered, reviewed, corrected, exported, and used through an API. A profile is useful only when it shows the actor, the place, the issue context, and the source evidence clearly enough for a human to decide what to do next.

What Atlas Includes

• Public discovery: Search and browse for people, organizations, initiatives, campaigns, events, places, and issue areas.
• Trust and provenance: Source titles, URLs, dates, excerpts, freshness, confidence, corrections, and clear public/private boundaries.
• Developer access: REST API, OpenAPI, MCP, Scout, and self-hosting paths for building on the same source-linked data.
• Workspace tools: Lists, briefs, watches, exports, and coverage workflows for teams that need to turn discovery into reusable work.

The public map is the center of the project. Hosted and workspace features should strengthen that public civic discovery experience, not replace it.

Using Atlas

The usage docs are published at atlas.rebuildingus.org/docs. Start there if you want to browse Atlas, understand the data model, use the API, connect an AI assistant, run Scout, or self-host an instance.

Need	Public Docs
Understand the product	Platform overview
Browse the public directory	Browse walkthrough
Interpret sources and confidence	Trust and provenance
Use the API	API guide
Connect MCP or agents	MCP overview
Run Scout	Scout overview
Self-host Atlas	Self-hosting guide

Working On This Repo

Use the repo docs when you are setting up a development environment, changing code, reviewing architecture, or checking project standards.

Need	Repo Docs
Run the project locally	Getting Started
Understand the codebase	Project Structure
Follow the development workflow	Development Workflow
Understand architecture	Architecture
Follow code and docs standards	Standards

If you edit the public docs site, validate it from the repo root:

pnpm docs:validate

Run Locally

Prerequisites: Python 3.12+, Node.js 24.18+ in the Node 24 release line, Corepack/pnpm, Git, and Make. See full prerequisites.

git clone https://github.com/RebuildingAmerica/atlas.git
cd atlas
make setup
pnpm dev

Service	Local URL
App	https://atlas.localhost
API	https://api.atlas.localhost
API docs	https://atlas.localhost/docs/api

The local stack uses Portless for stable HTTPS URLs. The development docs include app-only and API-only commands for environments where running the full stack is not the right first step.

Repository Map

Path	Purpose
app/	TanStack Start + React app for public discovery and workspace surfaces
api/	FastAPI service, catalog domains, discovery jobs, and public API
scout/	Local discovery CLI and review/sync workflow
libs/	Shared Python models, taxonomy, and discovery engine primitives
mintlify/	Source for the public docs site
docs/	Contributor, architecture, product, deployment, and standards docs

Contributing

Contributors are welcome. Atlas is developed like civic infrastructure: changes should be source-conscious, easy to verify, respectful of the people represented in the directory, and useful to someone trying to understand public work.

Start with CONTRIBUTORS.md for contribution guidance.

License

Atlas is released under the MIT License. You may use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and sell copies of the software, subject to the terms in LICENSE.