The format is improvised
Who speaks, for how long, in what order — decided live, differently every time, so quality depends on whoever happens to facilitate.
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Democracy Routes
01 / 12 · Overview
Democracy Routes
Turn a real problem into an organised, repeatable deliberation.
Democracy Routes is a working platform for structured collective work: design the process, decide who meets whom, run the rounds online or in the room, and keep the transcript, summary and outcome attached to the issue that started it.
- block types
- 18block types17 placeable in the builder
- API endpoints
- 251API endpointsroute handlers in the app
- services in production
- 17services in productionapp, rooms, transcription, workers, proxy
- unit tests
- 500+unit testson the core logic in src/lib
02 · Why this exists
Most collective discussion is useful in the moment and gone by the next one.
The energy is real; the continuity is not. A call ends, the recording is never opened, notes sit in someone's document, and the next session restarts the same argument from zero.
The record dissolves
Recordings go unwatched and notes lose their context. Weeks later nobody can say why a decision was taken, or by whom.
The next step is unowned
A discussion ends without producing the thing that would let the next one start further along.
03 · The core ideaShipped
A problem becomes a round table; round tables compose into a route.
This is the platform's central mechanic, and the reason it is not a meeting tool. An issue enters once and keeps its history as the work moves through sessions.
A problem is opened
Someone states an issue in the platform — it exists before any meeting does.
A process is designed
A template defines the rounds, prompts, timing and grouping rules the session will use.
The round runs
Participants meet in small groups, online or in person, with a facilitator view and a control room.
The record is produced
Transcript, speaker labels, summary and participation balance are attached to the meeting.
The route continues
The output becomes the starting point of the next round instead of a file nobody reopens.
04 · Design the processShipped
Build the deliberation before it happens, then run it exactly as designed.
The flow builder is where a session stops being improvised. Blocks are composed into an ordered flow with its own timing, then launched — the runtime walks participants through it step by step.
Grouping
Form rooms at random, by opposing stance, or to mix positions deliberately.
Discussion
A timed small-group round in an embedded video room.
Prompt
Put a question, poster or brief in front of everyone at the same moment.
Notes
Private written reflection captured against the block that produced it.
Form
Structured answers and choices, aggregated across participants.
Solo recording
One private spoken contribution per participant.
In-person table
A physical table with its own recorder, for rooms rather than calls.
Table move
Regroup the room between rounds so people meet new tables.
Embed
Bring approved external material into the flow.
Pause / Break
Deliberate silence and rest, timed like everything else.
Eleven interaction blocks ship today. Partner modules for external deliberation tools are in progress and are not presented here as working integrations.
05 · Who meets whomShipped
The platform decides who should talk to whom — and changes it every round.
Grouping is not shuffling. Rooms can be formed at random, split across opposing positions, or mixed to break echo chambers, and the algorithm avoids re-pairing people who have already met.
Random
A neutral baseline when the topic does not call for anything sharper.
Polar
Pairs participants across a stance divide so disagreement is actually met.
Anti-repeat
Prefers partners nobody has met yet, so a long route keeps widening contact.
The pairing logic is pure, unit-tested code (src/lib/services/flowMatching.ts). The animation runs the same repeat-avoidance rule.
06 · Core workspaceShipped
Community spaces are the long-term container for collaboration.
A community space keeps related people, meetings, templates, texts and analytics together, so a group builds a shared working memory instead of scattering the process across isolated pages.
Members
People connected to the same space, with shared visibility and collaboration rights.
Meetings
Live or in-person sessions tied to the same ongoing context.
Templates
Reusable deliberation structures that can be reopened, edited and launched again.
Texts
Asynchronous written material that complements meetings between sessions.
Analytics
Space-level summaries and recurring analysis across meetings and templates.
07 · Meeting lifecycleShipped
A meeting produces a record, not just a call.
Live rooms, transcription, summaries, speaker labels and participation balance all become part of the same meeting record — during the session and after it ends.
Embedded live room
The call runs inside the app, with participant context and facilitator controls.
Transcription
Live or post-call, across several providers depending on the meeting mode.
Speaker labels
Generic diarised speakers are mapped back to the real participants.
Participation balance
Speaking time per participant, as a post-call reflection aid.
08 · Entry pointShipped
The issue can exist before the meeting does.
Someone publishes an open problem, connects it to a community space, finds whether a similar issue already exists, and gathers people around it before deciding what session should follow.
Similar problems
Before opening a new issue, check whether a related one is already running.
Space connection
A problem can belong to a community space, or wait until the right context appears.
Join before meeting
People join the issue first, then decide together what the next round should be.
09 · AI supportShipped
AI is support infrastructure, not an invisible decider.
Transcription help, summaries, analysis and drafting assistance — each tied back to the meeting evidence that produced it, so the output can be checked rather than trusted blindly.
Transcription
Several providers, including a browser-based worker that runs Whisper locally.
Summaries
Post-call recaps and readable outputs generated from the meeting transcript.
Analysis
Meeting- and space-level analysis across templates, meetings and texts.
Assistants
Drafting help and configurable in-meeting agents that support, not replace, facilitation.
10 · Where it fitsShipped
One workflow, several very different rooms.
Civic groups, institutions, researchers and organisations enter for different reasons and share the same need: stronger continuity from one discussion to the next.
Civic groups
Recurring discussion around local issues, campaigns and shared texts.
Institutions
Better-structured input than a comment form, with an inspectable process.
Research
Study discussion formats, participation balance and how routes evolve.
Organisations
Team problem-solving, design sessions and cross-functional coordination.
11 · Under the hoodShipped
Already running as a coordinated multi-service stack.
Not a mockup: the live deployment combines the main app, embedded video rooms, transcription services, workers, event tracing and analysis.
- dr-appControl planeUsers, community spaces, meetings, templates, texts, open problems, admin.
- dr-videoLive roomEmbedded WebRTC room with recording, live transcription and media tracing.
- transcription-hubTranscript storeNormalised transcript sessions and deliberation artifacts.
- dr-event-hubEvent layerStructured runtime events for debugging and operational visibility.
- dr-remote-workerWorker runtimeBrowser-based post-call transcription with job claiming.
- audio-apiSpeech to textSelf-hosted Deepgram and Vosk transcription paths.
- dr-thinkerAnalysisMeeting and flow analysis surfaces used by the main app.
12 · Outcome
Built so every serious discussion leaves something behind.
Context, evidence, process memory and a route that can keep growing — the basis for the next round rather than a recording nobody opens.