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Tools for Democracy

Knowledge infrastructure for governments that want to fix themselves. Built by Cory Weinstein.

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  • Knowledge Capture
  • Confidence Monitor
  • Structured Reasoning
  • Cross-Domain Connector
  • After-Action Review
  • Policy Analyzer

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  1. Tools
  2. /Knowledge Capture

Knowledge Capture

When your best analyst retires, their expertise stays.

The problem it solves

In 2025, the federal government lost 238,000 workers. Every one of them took institutional knowledge that isn't written down anywhere. The expertise isn't in documents — it's in the context, the judgment calls, the 'here's why we did it this way' that lives in one person's head. Before Knowledge Capture: a FOIA officer retires, and her replacement spends 6 months learning exemption precedents by trial and error, re-making mistakes she'd already solved. After: her expertise was captured as she worked. The replacement searches 'FOIA exemption 7A' and gets 3 relevant precedents with confidence scores in seconds. The person left. The knowledge didn't.

What it does

  • 01

    Captures expertise as it happens — not as an afterthought. Knowledge enters the system through natural workflows, not separate documentation tasks.

  • 02

    Organizes automatically — tags, categorizes, and connects new knowledge to existing entries. No manual filing.

  • 03

    Surfaces what's relevant — when an analyst is working on a problem, the system surfaces related expertise from across the organization, including from people who left years ago.

  • 04

    Lives on your hardware — encrypted database deployed to your infrastructure. Your data never leaves your environment.

How it works

1

Analysts capture expertise as it happens

Not after-the-fact documentation. As decisions are made, the reasoning and context get recorded — title, content, source, confidence level.

2

System auto-tags and links related knowledge

Tags improve discoverability. Links build a navigable knowledge graph so related expertise surfaces together.

3

New analysts search and find expert knowledge

Full-text search across all captured knowledge. The system surfaces what predecessors knew — including judgment calls that never made it into formal docs.

4

Health monitoring flags gaps and staleness

Continuous assessment of knowledge base completeness: untagged items, orphaned knowledge, single-source risks, stale entries.

Sample output

This is what Knowledge Capture actually produces. Real format, sample data.

kc_search --query 'FOIA exemption 7A precedent'
Found 3 results (0.04s)

[1] Score: 0.94 | By: Maria Chen (retired 2024)
    "Exemption 7A applies when disclosure would interfere
     with enforcement proceedings. Key precedent: the 2019
     EPA case where we released partial records after the
     investigation closed. Check with OGC before applying
     to active cases — they changed the threshold in 2022."
    Tags: foia, exemption-7a, enforcement, ogc
    Confidence: 82% (last verified 2024-01-15)

[2] Score: 0.87 | By: James Wright (active)
    "7A denials require a specific, articulable harm test.
     Generic 'law enforcement purposes' language gets
     overturned on appeal. Document the actual harm."
    Tags: foia, exemption-7a, appeals, denial-language
    Confidence: 91% (verified 2025-11-02)

[3] Score: 0.71 | By: Sarah Kim (transferred 2023)
    "The 2021 IG report flagged our 7A usage as overly
     broad. Narrowed criteria after that — see policy
     memo 2021-034 for the updated standard."
    Tags: foia, exemption-7a, ig-report, policy-change
    Confidence: 68% (aging — review recommended)

Maria retired two years ago. Her expertise is still answering questions.

Who it's for

Any agency experiencing knowledge loss through staff turnover — which is every agency. Particularly valuable for organizations with high rotation rates, complex regulatory environments, or multi-decade institutional history. Every tool ships with realistic demo scenarios so you can explore immediately — clear demo data with one command when you're ready for real work.

What this tool doesn't do

  • —Does not replace document management systems (SharePoint, Google Drive) — it captures the knowledge that lives outside documents
  • —Requires active participation from analysts — the system captures what people contribute, not what they think
  • —Not a chatbot or AI assistant — it's a structured knowledge repository with search and health monitoring
  • —Best suited for teams of 10+ with regular staff rotation — smaller teams may not see enough ROI

How to get started

1

Free demo

90 minutes. Your real data. I show you what Knowledge Capturefinds that you didn't know you were missing.

2

Bounded trial

4-6 weeks on one specific problem. Fixed scope, fixed fee. You see results before you commit to anything larger.

3

Annual license

Deploy on your infrastructure. Your data stays yours. Cancel anytime — I earn renewal through value, not lock-in.

Works well with

Confidence Monitor→Cross-Domain Connector→After-Action Review→

See Knowledge Capture in action

Bring a real problem. I'll analyze it live — and tell you honestly whether this tool solves it.

Request a Demo