How CivicAnswer works
A transparent look at this local prototype and its limits.
Built for exploration
CivicAnswer is a fictional service concept. It has no connection to a city, agency, live staff, or government systems. Requests and receipts are simulations.
Answers and sources
The question tool uses a deterministic matcher against 60 synthetic pages. It does not use a language model. It only admits a limited set of exact questions and refuses others, including many reasonable paraphrases. Every returned answer links to its source.
Privacy in this demo
Drafts and simulated receipts are kept in this browser tab’s session storage. Closing the tab clears them. Do not enter personal information. No application code sends this data to a government service.
What still needs work
Real deployment would need agency-approved content, integrations, security and privacy review, human support, and usability and accessibility testing with residents.