Home/Product/AI Document Search
VIII. AI Document Search Plain-language Q&A · with citations

Ask a question.
Get a cited answer.

CivicCA’s AI search reads every agenda, minute, and report your agency has ever published — and answers plain-language questions like “when did we approve the Maple Street project?” with the source meeting cited inline.

§ 01 / Three searchers

Three audiences.
One search bar.

Clerks, members, and residents all use the same AI search — with role-aware answers and access controls.

01

Clerk & staff

“What were last quarter’s motions on the Maple Street rezone?” Returns the motions, votes, and meeting links.

Internal use
02

Council members

“Who voted no on the budget last year?” Returns the voting record with member names and meeting links.

Member use
03

Public

“When does the council discuss water rates?” Public-facing answers from the public archive only.

Resident use
§ 02 / How it works

RAG-powered.
No hallucinations.

Retrieval-augmented generation: the AI only answers from your actual archive, with the source meeting always cited.

I

Indexed Archive

Every agenda, minute, report, and resolution is indexed into a searchable vector database. Updated automatically.

Vector DB
II

Plain Language

Ask in plain English — “when did we last discuss zoning?” No keyword guessing, no SQL.

Natural Q&A
III

Inline Citations

Every claim cites the source meeting and document. Click to jump directly to that meeting’s record.

Always cited
IV

Role-Aware

Clerks see closed-session minutes; residents see public-only. Same search bar, different boundaries.

Access-aware
V

Public Search

Available on the public portal so residents can self-serve answers without filing public-records requests.

Resident self-serve
VI

Audit Trail

Every AI query is logged with the response — useful for transparency reports and FOIA defensibility.

Logged

Make the archive useful. Not just stored.