Start a group's Civicsmith
For a group that has decided to create its own copy. This page says what you need, who should hold what, what happens step by step, and what it costs. Reading it takes five minutes; the installer takes about twenty.
Is it right for your group?
It fits if your group wants to find out whether a government, agency or public body is keeping the laws, rules and promises that bind it, and to show what the records say in a way others can check. It does not fit a group that wants a place to post opinions, or one that needs a lawyer's advice: Civicsmith gives neither.
What you need
- A Cloudflare account on the Workers Paid plan, $5 a month, with a payment method. Cloudflare is the company whose computers will run your group's copy. Open the account in your group's name, not a person's.
- About twenty minutes at a computer.
- Nothing else. No server, no company, no technical knowledge, and no Claude account: the assistant is optional, and members connect their own accounts later if they want it. The installer asks you two things and does the rest.
Decide first: who holds the Cloudflare account
Whoever can sign in to that account controls your group's Civicsmith. They can read everything in it, and they are the way back in if every administrator is ever locked out. Agree as a group on who that is, and add a second trusted person to the account, so it never depends on one person. The installer says this again at the moment it matters.
What happens, step by step
- You choose a short name and your places. The short name is a fixed label in your group's addresses and beside every signature; it never changes. The places are the city, county and state whose rules apply to you. Places ready now: City of Oakland and Alameda County. For each, Civicsmith already holds the local facts it works from: its offices, where its records are published, its deadlines and its holidays.
- Cloudflare asks your permission, on its own page, to let the installer create your group's copy in your account.
- The installer puts your group's Civicsmith in place and checks it. About ten minutes. If a step stops, the installer says why and what to do; a stop before setup has begun creates nothing.
- You claim it. The installer shows you a one-time password; you use it once, choose your own password, and become the group's first administrator. More administrators can be added later.
- You set it up. Your group's name, the languages its members use, and whether members may use the assistant. All of it can be changed later.
- You invite members. Each gets a link you send yourself, by whatever means you trust; Civicsmith sends no email. Each member chooses the name their work will carry.
What it costs
$5 a month to Cloudflare for the account. If members use the assistant, its use is paid to Anthropic by whoever connected the account that serves it, and the group can set limits. Nothing is paid to the people who make Civicsmith.