Bills made simple. — A civic AI tool for the Governance & Accessibility Hackathon.

Paste any government bill, ordinance, or public notice and get a clear, neutral, plain-English explanation in seconds.

• Plain-English Summary — 3 key bullet points from any policy document
• Who This Affects — tagged groups impacted by the bill
• Potential Benefits — balanced upside analysis
• Possible Concerns — balanced risk analysis
• Why This Matters — one powerful civic framing sentence
• Questions to Ask Officials — ready-to-use town hall questions
• Accessibility modes — Basic / Standard / Detailed reading levels
• Multi-language ready — 50+ languages via AI translation

• Node.js 18+ installed
• VS Code with the integrated terminal

# 1. Open the project folder in VS Code
# File → Open Folder → select the `simpbill` folder

# 2. Open the integrated terminal
# Terminal → New Terminal  (or Ctrl+` / Cmd+`)

# 3. Install dependencies
npm install

# 4. Start the development server
npm run dev

Your app will be running at http://localhost:5173 — open it in your browser!

npm run build
# Output goes to the `dist/` folder — ready to deploy to Netlify, Vercel, or GitHub Pages

simpbill/
├── index.html              # Entry point HTML
├── vite.config.js          # Vite config
├── tailwind.config.js      # Tailwind config
├── postcss.config.js       # PostCSS config
├── package.json            # Dependencies
└── src/
    ├── main.jsx            # React entry point
    ├── index.css           # Tailwind + global styles
    ├── App.jsx             # Main app component (all sections)
    └── data.js             # Mock data + constants

• Fonts: Sora (headings) + DM Sans (body) via Google Fonts
• Color: Blue-600 accent (#1A56DB) on white/gray-50 background
• Components: Rounded cards (rounded-2xl), subtle borders, hover shadows
• Animations: CSS keyframes — fade-up, pulse, spin, slide-in

The app currently uses a mock response for demo purposes. To connect a real AI backend:

1. Add your Anthropic or OpenAI API key to a .env file:

   VITE_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key_here
   

2. Replace the setTimeout in ToolSection (src/App.jsx) with an actual API call.

3. Use this prompt template:

   You are a neutral civic assistant. Summarize this bill for a general audience.
   Return JSON with: summary (3 bullets), who (tags), benefits (3 bullets),
   concerns (3 bullets), why (1 sentence), questions (3 questions).
   Bill text: [USER INPUT]
   

Governance & Accessibility — This project demonstrates how AI can:

• Reduce the civic participation gap by making policy language accessible
• Empower residents to engage meaningfully in local government
• Provide neutral, multi-perspective analysis without political bias
• Scale civic literacy across languages and reading levels

MIT — free to use, modify, and build on.

Built with ❤️ for a more accessible democracy.