Open infrastructure for transparent local government.
CivicPress is an open-source, free platform that helps municipalities publish records, meetings, and maps in formats people can read, verify, and trust.
Developed in the open, guided by civic principles, and free for everyone to use.
Citizens deserve systems they can see, trust, and afford.
Most public systems still lock public information behind PDFs, portals, or proprietary software. The result is the same everywhere: citizens can't see what's happening, civic staff struggle to maintain broken tools, and trust keeps eroding. Every hidden document or delayed update makes the work of government feel distant, fragile, and expensive.
CivicPress takes the opposite path: open formats, clear links, and records you can audit or improve. By making data inspectable and durable, it restores a foundation of trust between citizens and institutions. A non-profit structure is being developed to preserve public ownership and ensure CivicPress remains truly public infrastructure. It’s not just software; it’s public infrastructure built to last.
Why CivicPress exists
Modern municipalities rely on digital systems to function — yet most of those systems were never designed for public life. They are expensive, closed, and built around commercial priorities instead of civic ones. Small towns are often left behind, and larger cities become dependent on tools they cannot audit, cannot repair, and cannot trust.
CivicPress exists to change this pattern.
It starts from a simple idea: public information should live in public formats, under public control. When the tools that manage records, meetings, and civic processes are open, portable, and understandable, governments become more resilient. Staff gain clarity. Citizens gain trust. And the work of democracy becomes a little more visible — and a lot more durable.
CivicPress is built to serve that purpose: a shared, open, community-governed infrastructure that any municipality can rely on, no matter its size or budget, and that everyone can inspect, improve, or help build.
Modern transparency. Less work. Better service for citizens.
Municipalities carry decades of decisions, bylaws, plans, and public commitments. Yet much of this history remains locked inside PDFs, old portals, and folders only staff can navigate. CivicPress transforms this complexity into a clear, durable, and trustworthy public record - without adding extra work.
Designed for the real work of municipal staff
Municipal employees don't need more systems to maintain. They need fewer obstacles. CivicPress reduces time spent searching for documents, confusion caused by multiple versions, repetitive publishing steps, dependency on outdated platforms, and stress during council meetings or audits. It's simple to operate, quick to learn, and reliable for years.
A unified civic registry your community can trust
CivicPress is more than a publishing tool - it is digital civic infrastructure. It provides a consistent structure for bylaws, minutes, agendas, notices, and resolutions, with clean navigation that citizens can actually understand. Automatic versioning backed by Git keeps a verifiable history, and clear links between documents, meetings, and decisions bring order and transparency to the records that shape daily life.
Reduce CAI workload and improve compliance
Access-to-information (CAI) requests are rising, and deadlines are strict. CivicPress helps municipalities meet their obligations by making documents clear, organized, and accessible - often reducing the need for formal CAI requests in the first place. This strengthens compliance, staff capacity, citizen trust, and a culture of transparency. Less time searching. More time serving the community.
Digital sovereignty, built-in
CivicPress protects your municipality's independence and long-term stability. It can run locally in your town hall, in the cloud, or in a hybrid setup - and it relies only on open formats like Markdown, CSV, and GeoJSON. There is no vendor lock-in: your data is always exportable, your stack is transparent, and your civic records belong to your community, not to a supplier.
These features are practical expressions of CivicPress values, transparency, trust, and openness made visible in everyday use.
Every record, readable.
Store civic records in human-readable Markdown with structured YAML. Version with Git, publish with confidence.
Each change is traceable and preserved, ensuring transparency and long-term accountability. No proprietary software is needed, anyone can open, read, or review a CivicPress record with a simple text editor.
Every meeting, visible.
From agendas to minutes and recordings, keep council sessions in one place, linkable and archivable.
When every meeting is accessible, decisions gain context and citizens regain confidence in their institutions.
Every law, traceable.
Bylaws and decisions with clear IDs, cross-references, and change history.
Legal clarity depends on being able to see when, why, and how a rule changed.
Place matters.
Visualize districts, zones, or assets and connect records to the places they affect.
Seeing decisions on a map makes civic action tangible. Geography brings context, not just coordinates.
Complete records, not just text.
Link large media (video, images, or audio) whether stored locally or in AWS/Azure. Keep Git lean while records stay complete.
Civic decisions deserve their full context. Meeting videos, reports, and visuals tell the whole story, helping citizens and staff understand not just what changed, but why.
Resilient by design.
Cloud or local server. Works offline in a pinch. Export everything. Built for continuity, audits, and daylight.
Democracy depends on continuity. CivicPress is built to survive outages, preserve history, and keep working even when the network fails.
How CivicPress works
CivicPress works like a civic foundation built from simple, open materials. Each record (whether a bylaw, a meeting, or a map) is stored in plain text formats that can be opened by anyone, anywhere. There's no need for special software or licenses, just honesty in the way information is kept.
Behind the scenes, Markdown and YAML structure each record so they can be versioned with Git. Every change is logged, every contributor is visible, and nothing is lost in translation between departments or years.
Maps and media give life to the data: you can link files, connect documents, or reference the places they describe. Whether hosted in the cloud or on a town’s local server, CivicPress keeps information consistent and durable.
By replacing costly licenses with open standards, CivicPress helps public institutions save money while keeping control of their own data. The goal isn't just efficiency, it's trust. By making civic work inspectable, portable, and future-proof, CivicPress turns technology into a public asset instead of an ongoing expense.
Values that shape CivicPress
Transparency
Decisions and changes should be visible by default.
Trust
Clear provenance, readable formats, verifiable history.
Open-source
Inspectable, forkable, repairable. No black boxes.
Ease of use
If staff can’t use it, it’s not done.
Equity
Access for all communities, not just the well-resourced.
Resilience
Operates in the cloud or locally; exports everything.
Roadmap & next steps
Current milestone
Current Milestone – v0.1.1
CivicPress v0.1.1 marks the first stable foundation of the platform, enough to publish, link, and visualize civic records openly. It demonstrates that public infrastructure can be built transparently, with modern tools and civic intent. The release focuses on core functionality, Markdown-based records, and the first working demo for municipal use.
Next steps
Toward a Public Foundation
The next phase isn't just technical, it's organizational. We're preparing a non-profit foundation or cooperative to steward CivicPress in the public interest (formalizing governance, defining contributor rights, and preserving public ownership of the platform). This structure will ensure long-term governance that reflects CivicPress's core values: transparency, openness, and trust.
In parallel, we're exploring pilot projects with municipalities interested in testing CivicPress in real contexts. Early conversations are underway with municipalities in Québec exploring pilot implementations. These collaborations will guide priorities, accessibility improvements, and policy integration.
This is how CivicPress grows, openly, slowly, and with care. Like any public infrastructure, it earns trust through clarity, reliability, and the people who choose to build it together.
Built for the public, governed by the public
Built by and for citizens, CivicPress emphasizes collective stewardship and long-term public benefit.
We’ve all seen what happens when civic systems are handed to closed, expensive vendors: budgets rise, trust falls, and citizens lose control of their own information. Civic software built for profit tends to overpromise, underdeliver, and leave municipalities dependent on outside contracts.
CivicPress exists to reverse that pattern. It's open-source, inspectable, and built for the public good. Every line of code, every record format, every improvement is meant to be shared, not sold.
When systems are open, communities can learn from each other, improve what exists, and trust that the tools they rely on truly belong to them.
That's why CivicPress will be governed by a non-profit foundation (to keep its mission clear, its code open, and its accountability public).
This is why CivicPress is open by design: transparency isn’t just a feature, it’s a responsibility.
Built carefully, like public infrastructure should be
CivicPress is being built carefully (the way public infrastructure should be): not rushed to market, but tested, refined, and proven in real contexts. We know earning trust takes time. That's why every release is documented, every decision explained, and every line of code open to inspection.
If your municipality wants to explore a pilot, we’d love to talk. CivicPress is open to collaboration from anyone who believes democracy works best in daylight.
FAQ (Common questions)
Is CivicPress ready for production use?
CivicPress v0.1.1 is functional for publishing records, meetings, and maps. It’s ready for pilot projects and early adopters who want to test in real municipal contexts. Production-grade releases will come as we refine based on real-world use.
How much does it cost to run?
The software is completely free and open-source. Municipalities can self-host on local servers or use cloud providers like AWS or Azure, depending on their needs.
Can we customize it for our needs?
Yes. CivicPress is modular and built with open standards, so new record types, workflows, or themes can be added easily without vendor lock-in.
What about security and privacy?
CivicPress is designed with security in mind: you control where your data lives, who has access, and how it's backed up. Transparency doesn't mean exposure, it means confidence through clarity.
CivicPress grows in the open, one record, one town, one act of trust at a time.
Start building transparency
Try the demo or join the contributors helping to build open civic infrastructure.