feat: PocketVeto v1.0.0 — initial public release

Self-hosted US Congress monitoring platform with AI policy briefs,
bill/member/topic follows, ntfy + RSS + email notifications,
alignment scoring, collections, and draft-letter generator.

Authored by: Jack Levy

README.md

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+# PocketVeto
+
+A self-hosted platform for monitoring US Congress. Follow bills and legislators, get AI-generated policy briefs, track trending legislation, and receive alerts when bills you care about move.
+
+## Features
+
+- **Bill tracking** — search and browse all active legislation with full text and status history
+- **AI policy briefs** — LLM-generated summaries, key points, risks, and deadlines for each bill
+- **Member profiles** — legislator bios, effectiveness scores, sponsored bills, vote history, and news
+- **Follows & alerts** — follow bills, members, or policy topics; choose between neutral, pocket-veto, or pocket-boost mode per follow
+- **Notifications** — ntfy, RSS, and email (SMTP); per-channel alert filters with quiet hours
+- **Collections** — curate shareable lists of bills with a public share link
+- **Alignment view** — see how legislators vote relative to your followed bills and stances
+- **Draft letter** — AI-assisted letter generator to contact your representative on any bill
+- **Admin panel** — pipeline controls, LLM switching, user management, API health checks
+
+## Tech stack
+
+| Layer | Technology |
+|---|---|
+| Backend | FastAPI, SQLAlchemy (async), Alembic, Celery, PostgreSQL, Redis |
+| Frontend | Next.js (App Router), TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, React Query, Zustand |
+| AI | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, or Ollama (switchable at runtime) |
+| Infrastructure | Docker Compose, Nginx |
+
+## Quick start
+
+**Prerequisites:** Docker Engine 24+ and Docker Compose v2 on a Linux server (2 GB RAM minimum).
+
+**API keys you'll need:**
+
+| Key | Where to get it | Required? |
+|---|---|---|
+| `DATA_GOV_API_KEY` | [api.data.gov/signup](https://api.data.gov/signup/) — free, instant | Yes |
+| LLM key (OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini) | Provider dashboard | Yes (or use Ollama) |
+| `NEWSAPI_KEY` | [newsapi.org](https://newsapi.org) — free tier (100 req/day) | Optional |
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/pocketveto.git
+cd pocketveto
+
+cp .env.example .env
+# Edit .env — set JWT_SECRET_KEY, ENCRYPTION_SECRET_KEY, DATA_GOV_API_KEY, and your LLM key at minimum
+
+docker compose up --build -d
+```
+
+Open `http://YOUR_SERVER_IP` in a browser. The first registered account becomes admin.
+
+After registering, go to **Settings** and click **Trigger Poll** to load the initial bill data, then **Sync Members** to load legislator profiles.
+
+For detailed instructions — including SSL setup, email configuration, and updating — see [DEPLOYING.md](DEPLOYING.md) and [UPDATING.md](UPDATING.md).
+
+## License
+
+[GNU General Public License v3.0](LICENSE)