CivicNotice

CivicNotice is the CivicSuite module for public hearing notices, legal notices, bid notices, vacancy notices, statutory publication deadlines, statutory rule checks, notice drafting templates, accessibility and language-readiness review, publication-readiness review, channel planning, subscriber delivery planning, archive/handoff packets, and notice-record export checklists.

Release state: the latest published GitHub release is v0.1.1. The current in-tree source is v0.2.0, the notice-compliance foundation aligned to the civiccore v1.2.0 release wheel; v0.2.0 is bundled source, not yet published as a GitHub release (it ships only through the Windows Local city-core profile's commit-pinned bundle). This repo provides a FastAPI package, health/root endpoints, documentation gates, deterministic sample notice registry, CivicCore-backed statutory deadline plans, deterministic statutory rule checks, notice drafting templates, accessibility and language-readiness review packets, optional database-backed registry/deadline/publication-proof workpapers, publication-readiness checklists, channel-planning helpers, subscriber delivery planning, archive/handoff packets, notice/records export checklist, and accessible public sample UI at /civicnotice. It does not ship legal sufficiency decisions, legal advice, live LLM calls, official notice publication, publication-system write-back, or notice system-of-record integrations.

What CivicNotice Does

• Create sample notice registry stubs.
• Build statutory publication deadline reminder plans using the shared CivicCore notice helper.
• Check notice packets against deterministic staff-review rule packs for common notice types.
• Build staff-editable notice templates with required fields and unresolved placeholders.
• Build accessibility, plain-language, and human-approved translation readiness packets.
• Persist notice registry, deadline-plan, and publication-proof workpapers when CIVICNOTICE_WORKPAPER_DB_URL is configured.
• Store staff-reviewed publication proof packets linked to upstream Clerk, procurement, board, or manual source records.
• Assemble publication-readiness checklists for staff review.
• Plan notice channels and accessibility-review needs.
• Build subscriber delivery plans without sending notices or storing subscriber PII.
• Assemble archive/handoff packets for Clerk, Procure, Boards, Records, and manual staff files.
• Produce notice and records export checklists.
• Demonstrate a public notice-support UI at /civicnotice.

What CivicNotice Does Not Do

• It does not decide legal sufficiency.
• It does not publish official notices.
• It does not provide legal advice.
• It does not call live LLMs in v0.2.0.
• It does not write back to publication systems.
• It does not replace a notice system of record.

API Surface

• GET / returns the shipped/planned boundary.
• GET /health returns package and CivicCore versions.
• GET /civicnotice returns the accessible public sample UI.
• GET /docs opens the interactive FastAPI API documentation for local deployments.
• GET /openapi.json returns the machine-readable API schema, including accepted request and error shapes.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/registry returns a sample notice registry stub.
• GET /api/v1/civicnotice/registry/{record_id} retrieves a persisted notice registry record.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/deadlines returns statutory deadline reminders.
• GET /api/v1/civicnotice/deadlines/{plan_id} retrieves a persisted deadline plan.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/rule-check checks a notice packet against deterministic staff-review rules.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/templates returns a staff-editable notice template.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/publication-proof stores a durable publication proof workpaper.
• GET /api/v1/civicnotice/publication-proof/{proof_id} retrieves a persisted publication proof workpaper.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/publication-check returns a publication-readiness checklist.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/accessibility-review returns accessibility and language-readiness flags.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/channels returns channel planning flags.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/subscribers/plan returns a subscriber delivery plan.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/archive-packet returns archive and handoff readiness for a notice file.
• POST /api/v1/civicnotice/export returns a notice and records export checklist.

Start and Smoke-Check CivicNotice

Install the package with its development dependencies, start the ASGI app target civicnotice.main:app, and open the local /health and /civicnotice routes. A fresh user can reach the core stateless API and public sample UI without a database, model server, account, or API key.

Minimal workflow to smoke-check after startup:

1. Confirm /health reports service: civicnotice, version 0.2.0, and CivicCore 1.2.0.
2. Post a registry stub to /api/v1/civicnotice/registry without a database and confirm the response includes record_id: null, registry notes, and the staff-responsibility disclaimer.
3. Open /docs or /openapi.json to inspect accepted fields, then post a rule check to /api/v1/civicnotice/rule-check with a supported notice type, event date, publication dates, channels, content fields, and statutory basis. Unsupported notice types return a 422 response with supported choices.
4. Open /civicnotice and confirm the page is a static public sample with boundary copy, not an official publication workflow.

Persistence and Durable Writes

Without CIVICNOTICE_WORKPAPER_DB_URL, CivicNotice runs in deterministic stateless mode: registry and deadline POST requests return transient payloads, persisted GET routes return actionable 503 responses, and publication-proof storage is unavailable.

With CIVICNOTICE_WORKPAPER_DB_URL, registry, deadline, and publication-proof workpapers are durable. Persistence-backed write routes also require CIVICNOTICE_TRUSTED_WRITE_TOKEN and the matching X-CivicNotice-Write-Token request header. This is a minimal trusted-mode guard for local deployments; it is not a replacement for a production identity system.

Local Development

python -m pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest -q
bash scripts/verify-release.sh

The release gate requires CIVICNOTICE_POSTGRES_TEST_URL so PostgreSQL persistence coverage cannot be skipped. Plain unit tests may still run without PostgreSQL for local development.

License

Code is Apache License 2.0. Documentation is CC BY 4.0.