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Structured research · Policy & government

Stay with the text and its status. What the instrument does, where it is in the process, who administers it.

Most policy coverage reports intent; what governs is operative language and status. This is research for the staffer, the implementation analyst and the reporter who need the instrument as written — proposed, enacted or in force — the agency that holds the authority, what implementation actually requires by when, and every position mapped by who holds it and what leverage they have, without the analysis taking a side.

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Start here · Policy7 ways in
Policy Analysis — Read a bill or regulatory action across stakeholders
Ask — Get a direct answer to any policy question
Policy / Regulation — Profile a statute, regulation, or ruling
Stakeholder Positions — Map who supports or opposes a policy
Why It Changed — Why an official statistic actually moved
Agency & Committee — Profile an agency — mandate, docket, leadership
Policy Search — Search policy publications and government sources

The first screen of the Policy workbench, as the app lists it. Every scan comes back graded, sourced and exportable.

Who comes here

The questions policy research is built to answer.

Each one is a question a specialist actually brings, and each is answered by a scan this domain carries — not a generic report with the name swapped in.

Legislative staff

“What does the operative text actually do, and what stage is the instrument really at?”

Implementation analyst

“Which agency holds the authority, and what does implementation require, by when?”

Political reporter

“Who holds which position on this, and what leverage do they actually have?”

Think-tank researcher

“What was obligated against this program, and where did the money land?”

Answered byFollow the Money
How it holds up

What a policy scan rests on.

Every judgment carries a grade for how it is actually known, every figure carries who reported it, and the structured record below is read on every scan before the model writes a word.

What grounds itCongress.gov for every bill or public law the subject names by number, with its recorded stage; the Federal Register with effective dates and comment deadlines, and Regulations.gov dockets; USAspending for what was actually obligated and Treasury fiscal data for the denominator; OpenFEMA where a US state is in play; BLS labor series for the workforce scans — plus the operative text itself and the policy press through live search, tiered toward the primary record (CBO, GAO, CRS, GovInfo, the courts) and a balanced set of research institutions.
Proposed, enacted, in forceAn instrument’s stage is read from the latest recorded action when the subject names the bill, and from the text rather than the announcement otherwise; what implementation requires — the agency, the authority, the timeline — comes from the operative language. A court challenge is followed through the public record in live search.
What it will not doNon-partisan by contract. No advocacy, no scoring of a position as right or wrong. The research says who holds a position, why, what leverage they have and what would move them — and stops there.
Every claim comes back stamped
✓ VERIFIED✓ GROUNDED○ PARTIAL◑ CONTESTED⚠ GAP
Live search is steered toward
politico.comthehill.comrollcall.comlawfaremedia.orgscotusblog.comgovtrack.usbrookings.educfr.orgcarnegieendowment.orgheritage.orgaei.orgcato.org

41 first-tier sources for policy, and 20 blocked outright. Search results are one input; every figure is graded on where it came from, not on being found. How the grades work →

How FLOW reads it

Sized for policy, in policy’s own terms.

Scale here is policy weight — the jurisdictions, the budgets and the constituencies a connection reaches — and Complexity is how contested and uncertain the path from text to effect still is.

ARoutine Monitoring

Small policy weight, easy to understand. Standard legislative and regulatory processes explain the connection.

BPolicy Relevant

Meaningful legislative weight and the implications are clear. Established precedent applies.

CPolitically Complex

Meaningful stakes with real uncertainty. Competing stakeholder interests, jurisdictional questions, or regulatory tradeoffs make the outcome hard to predict.

DNational Priority

Very high stakes at national or cross-jurisdictional scale. The sheer legislative magnitude makes this one of the most important connections, regardless of complexity.

SPolicy Inflection Point

No precedent. A fundamental shift in the governance landscape that existing frameworks may not cover.

Rule 1 · FLOW C cannot exist at national scale

When policy weight grows to national or cross-jurisdictional scale, FLOW C reclassifies to FLOW D immediately. The priority shifts from 'analyze carefully' to 'mobilize response.'

Rule 2 · Scale alone drives FLOW D

National policy weight means FLOW D regardless of complexity. A straightforward regulation affecting millions of people is FLOW D, not FLOW A.

Rule 3 · When debating D vs S — use D

FLOW S requires conditions that fall entirely outside existing policy frameworks — max 1-2 per analysis. The test: do existing legislative and regulatory mechanisms apply at all?

One vocabulary across every domain — a FLOW D here reads at the same weight as a FLOW D in any other — so the classification travels, and so does your judgment. The framework in full →

The catalog · Policy

80 scans, grouped by the move you’re making.

7 ways in, then the rest of the catalog organised as the Policy workbench organises it — establish the background, map the argument, work the record, analyse the connections, decide what to do. Every one comes back graded, sourced and exportable.

Start here

The 7 ways in
Policy Analysis — Read a bill or regulatory action across stakeholders
Ask — Get a direct answer to any policy question
Policy / Regulation — Profile a statute, regulation, or ruling
Stakeholder Positions — Map who supports or opposes a policy
Why It Changed — Why an official statistic actually moved
Agency & Committee — Profile an agency — mandate, docket, leadership
Policy Search — Search policy publications and government sources

Discover

2 scans
After-Action Review — Review a debate, vote, or negotiation round
Policy Debate — Analyst, lobbyist, and commentator chatter

Explore

7 scans
Innovate — Grounded ideas for a problem
Scenario — Project a policy scenario forward
Uncertainty Map — The open questions — and how they could close
Response Options — Map policy response options with tradeoffs
Compare — Compare two bills, regulations, or actors
Political Landscape — Map a political landscape around an issue
Policy Precedents — Find historical enactments that parallel this

Background

17 scans
Chronology — Trace how a policy fight developed
Follow the Money — Follow the money behind a policy
Funding Map — Who funds this agenda — appropriations to grants
Litigation Docket — The litigation docket — challenges and rulings
Key Players — Profile the key actors on an issue
Who's On It — Which bodies are on it, under what authority
Open Case — What the inquiry record establishes, and what is still disputed
How It Works — Explain how a law or program works
Policy Momentum — An idea's real arc: introduced vs enacted
Emerging Agenda — Ideas moving from papers to first bills
Policy Innovation — New instruments: evaluated vs proposed
Proposal Stress-Test — Your proposal vs implementation records
Falsification Plan — The cheapest tests that could kill the hypothesis
Issue Convergence — Where two policy streams collide
Evidence Pulse — Evaluations and studies, graded by uptake
By the Numbers — Key policy figures, sourced and dated
Yield Read — What the market charges a treasury, state or city to borrow, and why

Positions

4 scans
Poll Check — What the polls really show — spread, not average
The Arguments — The case for and against a bill
Myths & Misconceptions — Common policy myths, corrected
Consensus Check — What forecasters expect a fight to produce

Cases

7 scans
Scene — Reconstruct one pivotal moment, in the room
Voices — Real quotes, exactly sourced
Primary Documents — The law verbatim — statutes, dockets, rulings
Budget Anatomy — A bill's budget anatomy — enacted vs proposed
Case Study — A real law or program, worked through
Playbook — The actionable steps, from analysis
Decision Review — Was the policy call right, given the record?

Profiles

13 scans
Actor Profile — Profile a legislator, agency, or political actor
Issue / Problem — Profile a policy problem, issue, or societal challenge
Person — Profile a legislator, agency head, or actor
Profile — Strengths, pros/cons, or roads/barriers for a policy
Track Record — Campaign and policy pledges vs. delivery
Why They Did It — Why an actor timed that move as they did
Method Study — A policy method and what evaluations show
Council — Your decision, read by thinkers' documented methods
Literature Review — What the evaluation literature shows
Options Appraisal — Instruments compared on the evaluation record
Fact Grid — A jurisdiction facts table, sources named
Read Grid — Approach and exposure, by jurisdiction
Document Breakdown — A policy doc in hand, checked vs the record

Connections

3 scans
Network Map — Map coalitions, lobbying groups, voting blocs
Bilateral Analysis — Relationship between two political actors
Synthesis — Combine multiple analyses into one assessment

Markets

10 scans
Market Research — Size a program or compliance market honestly
Buyer Research — Agency buyers — how programs actually purchase
Supply Chain — See which rules shape a supply chain, and where
Freight & Infrastructure — Map corridors, ports, and who funds the freight
Operator & Concession — Who operates the network, and what the state retained
Public Workforce — The public workforce and where it actually binds
Regulatory Map — The statutory perimeter, instrument by instrument
Deal Flow — Contract awards and M&A around a program area
Pricing Read — Program costs and fees — posted and sourced
Partnership Map — Coalitions and compacts — documented ties only

Act

8 scans
What You Need — What you need to hit an objective
Opposition Weaknesses — Where the opposition is exposed
Risk Assessment — Cascading policy risks across stakeholders
Action Plan — Build a structured policy action plan
Opportunity Brief — A solicitation's documented file and incumbents
Legislative Watch — Track legislation, regulations, and politics
Catalyst Calendar — Dated votes, deadlines, and rulings ahead
Briefing — Compile a decision-ready policy briefing

Investigate

1 scan
Inquiry — Verified deep research on any policy question

Tools

1 scan
Frameworks — Apply frameworks (SWOT, PESTLE, etc.)

Don’t know which one you need? The Router reads a plain question and picks one; the Planner takes a goal and designs a linked sequence. Every completed scan opens onto its own follow-ups — ask it a question, re-check what has changed, red-team its judgments, or push a signal onto your watchboard.

What leaves with you
Citations · BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSONPDF · print-grade, branded coverPublic link · read-only, revocableMarkdown · for Slack, Notion, emailAudio · to a personal podcast feedSummary deck · ready to post

And the Studio turns a set of policy scans into a planned, researched, edited report or book. Every format →

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The instrument, as written.

Open the policy workbench with a bill, a rule, an agency or a docket. What comes back is sourced to the text and mapped without a side.

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