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
354 lines
18 KiB
TypeScript
354 lines
18 KiB
TypeScript
import Link from "next/link";
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import {
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BarChart2,
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Bell,
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Bookmark,
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Calendar,
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Clock,
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FileText,
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Filter,
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Heart,
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HelpCircle,
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ListChecks,
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Mail,
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MessageSquare,
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Rss,
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Shield,
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Share2,
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StickyNote,
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TrendingUp,
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Users,
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Zap,
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} from "lucide-react";
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function Section({ id, title, icon: Icon, children }: {
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id: string;
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title: string;
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icon: React.ElementType;
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children: React.ReactNode;
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}) {
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return (
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<section id={id} className="bg-card border border-border rounded-lg p-6 space-y-4 scroll-mt-6">
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<h2 className="text-lg font-semibold flex items-center gap-2">
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<Icon className="w-5 h-5 text-primary" />
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{title}
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</h2>
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{children}
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</section>
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);
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}
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function Item({ icon: Icon, color, title, children }: {
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icon: React.ElementType;
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color: string;
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title: string;
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children: React.ReactNode;
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}) {
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return (
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<div className="flex gap-3">
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<div className={`mt-0.5 shrink-0 w-7 h-7 rounded-full flex items-center justify-center ${color}`}>
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<Icon className="w-3.5 h-3.5" />
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</div>
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<div>
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<p className="text-sm font-medium">{title}</p>
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<p className="text-xs text-muted-foreground mt-0.5 leading-relaxed">{children}</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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);
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}
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export default function HowItWorksPage() {
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return (
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<div className="max-w-2xl mx-auto space-y-6">
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<div>
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<h1 className="text-2xl font-bold flex items-center gap-2">
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<HelpCircle className="w-5 h-5" /> How it works
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</h1>
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<p className="text-muted-foreground text-sm mt-1">
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A quick guide to PocketVeto's features.
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</p>
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{/* Jump links */}
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<div className="flex flex-wrap gap-2 mt-3">
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{[
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{ href: "#follow", label: "Following" },
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{ href: "#collections", label: "Collections" },
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{ href: "#notifications", label: "Notifications" },
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{ href: "#briefs", label: "AI Briefs" },
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{ href: "#votes", label: "Votes" },
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{ href: "#alignment", label: "Alignment" },
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{ href: "#notes", label: "Notes" },
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{ href: "#bills", label: "Bills" },
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{ href: "#members-topics", label: "Members & Topics" },
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{ href: "#dashboard", label: "Dashboard" },
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].map(({ href, label }) => (
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<a
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key={href}
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href={href}
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className="text-xs px-2.5 py-1 bg-muted rounded-full hover:bg-accent transition-colors"
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>
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{label}
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</a>
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))}
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</div>
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</div>
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{/* Following */}
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<Section id="follow" title="Following bills" icon={Heart}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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Follow any bill to track it. PocketVeto checks for changes and notifies you through your
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configured channels. Three modes let you tune the signal to your interest level — each
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with its own independent set of alert filters.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3">
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<Item icon={Heart} color="bg-red-100 text-red-600 dark:bg-red-900/30 dark:text-red-400" title="Follow">
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The standard mode. Default alerts: new bill text, amendments filed, chamber votes,
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presidential action, and committee reports.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Shield} color="bg-amber-100 text-amber-700 dark:bg-amber-900/30 dark:text-amber-400" title="Pocket Veto">
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For bills you oppose and only want to hear about if they gain real traction. Default
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alerts: chamber votes and presidential action only — no noise from early committee or
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document activity.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Zap} color="bg-green-100 text-green-700 dark:bg-green-900/30 dark:text-green-400" title="Pocket Boost">
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For bills you actively support. Default alerts: everything — new text, amendments,
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votes, presidential action, committee reports, calendar placement, procedural moves,
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and committee referrals. Also adds “Find Your Rep” action buttons to push
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notifications.
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</Item>
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</div>
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<div className="rounded-md bg-muted/60 px-4 py-3 space-y-1.5">
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<p className="text-xs font-medium flex items-center gap-1.5">
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<Filter className="w-3.5 h-3.5" /> Adjusting alert filters
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</p>
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<p className="text-xs text-muted-foreground leading-relaxed">
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The defaults above are starting points. In{" "}
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<Link href="/notifications" className="text-primary hover:underline">Notifications → Alert Filters</Link>,
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each mode has its own tab with eight independently toggleable alert types. For example,
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a Follow bill where you don't care about committee reports — uncheck it and only
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that mode is affected. Hit <strong>Load defaults</strong> on any tab to revert to the
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preset above.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p className="text-xs text-muted-foreground">
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You can also follow <strong>members</strong> and <strong>topics</strong>.
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When a followed member sponsors a bill, or a new bill matches a followed topic, you'll
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receive a <em>Discovery</em> alert. These have their own independent filter set in{" "}
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<Link href="/notifications" className="text-primary hover:underline">Notifications → Alert Filters → Discovery</Link>.
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By default, all followed members and topics trigger notifications — you can mute individual
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ones without unfollowing them.
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</p>
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</Section>
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{/* Collections */}
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<Section id="collections" title="Collections" icon={Bookmark}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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A collection is a named, curated group of bills — like a playlist for legislation. Use
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collections to track a policy area, build a watchlist for an advocacy campaign, or share
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research with colleagues.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3">
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<Item icon={Bookmark} color="bg-blue-100 text-blue-600 dark:bg-blue-900/30 dark:text-blue-400" title="Creating a collection">
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Give it a name (e.g. “Healthcare Watch”) and add bills from any bill detail
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page using the bookmark icon next to the Follow button.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Share2} color="bg-purple-100 text-purple-600 dark:bg-purple-900/30 dark:text-purple-400" title="Sharing">
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Every collection has a unique share link. Anyone with the link can view the collection —
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no account required.
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</Item>
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</div>
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<p className="text-xs text-muted-foreground">
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<strong>Public vs. private:</strong> Both have share links. Marking a collection public
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signals it may appear in a future public directory; private collections are invisible to
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anyone without your link.
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</p>
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</Section>
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{/* Notifications */}
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<Section id="notifications" title="Notifications" icon={Bell}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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PocketVeto delivers alerts through three independent channels — use any combination.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3">
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<Item icon={Bell} color="bg-blue-100 text-blue-600 dark:bg-blue-900/30 dark:text-blue-400" title="Push via ntfy">
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<a href="https://ntfy.sh" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" className="text-primary hover:underline">ntfy</a>
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{" "}is a free, open-source push notification service. Configure a topic URL in{" "}
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<Link href="/notifications" className="text-primary hover:underline">Notifications</Link>{" "}
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and receive real-time alerts on any device with the ntfy app.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Mail} color="bg-indigo-100 text-indigo-600 dark:bg-indigo-900/30 dark:text-indigo-400" title="Email">
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Receive alerts as plain-text emails. Add your address in{" "}
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<Link href="/notifications" className="text-primary hover:underline">Notifications → Email</Link>.
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Every email includes a one-click unsubscribe link, and your address is never used for
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anything other than bill alerts.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Rss} color="bg-orange-100 text-orange-600 dark:bg-orange-900/30 dark:text-orange-400" title="RSS feed">
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A private, tokenized RSS feed of all your bill alerts. Subscribe in any RSS reader
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(Feedly, NetNewsWire, etc.). Always real-time, completely independent of the other channels.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Clock} color="bg-amber-100 text-amber-700 dark:bg-amber-900/30 dark:text-amber-400" title="Quiet hours">
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Pause push and email notifications during set hours (e.g. 10 PM – 8 AM). Events that
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arrive during quiet hours are queued and sent as a batch when the window ends.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Calendar} color="bg-green-100 text-green-700 dark:bg-green-900/30 dark:text-green-400" title="Digest mode">
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Instead of one alert per event, receive a single bundled summary on a daily or weekly
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schedule. Your RSS feed is always real-time regardless of this setting.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={MessageSquare} color="bg-teal-100 text-teal-700 dark:bg-teal-900/30 dark:text-teal-400" title="Discovery alerts">
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Member and topic follows generate Discovery alerts — separate from the bills you follow
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directly. In{" "}
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<Link href="/notifications" className="text-primary hover:underline">Alert Filters → Discovery</Link>,
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you can enable or disable these independently, tune which event types trigger them, and
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mute specific members or topics without unfollowing them. Each notification includes a
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“why” line so you always know which follow triggered it.
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</Item>
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</div>
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</Section>
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{/* AI Briefs */}
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<Section id="briefs" title="AI Briefs" icon={FileText}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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For bills with published official text, PocketVeto generates a plain-English AI brief
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automatically — no action needed on your part.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3">
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<Item icon={FileText} color="bg-blue-100 text-blue-600 dark:bg-blue-900/30 dark:text-blue-400" title="What's in a brief">
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A plain-English summary, key policy points with references to specific bill sections
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(§ chips you can expand to see the quoted source text), and a risks section that flags
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potential unintended consequences or contested provisions.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Share2} color="bg-purple-100 text-purple-600 dark:bg-purple-900/30 dark:text-purple-400" title="Sharing a brief">
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Click the share icon in the brief panel to copy a public link. Anyone can read the
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brief at that URL — no login required.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Zap} color="bg-green-100 text-green-700 dark:bg-green-900/30 dark:text-green-400" title="Draft a letter">
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Use the Draft Letter panel in the Analysis tab to generate a personalised letter to
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your representative based on the brief's key points.
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</Item>
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</div>
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<p className="text-xs text-muted-foreground">
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Briefs are only generated for bills where GovInfo has published official text. Bills
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without text show a “No text” badge on their card. When a bill is amended,
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a new “What Changed” brief is generated automatically alongside the original.
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</p>
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</Section>
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{/* Votes */}
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<Section id="votes" title="Roll-call votes" icon={ListChecks}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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The <strong>Votes</strong> tab on any bill page shows every recorded roll-call vote for
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that bill, fetched directly from official House and Senate XML sources.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3">
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<Item icon={ListChecks} color="bg-blue-100 text-blue-600 dark:bg-blue-900/30 dark:text-blue-400" title="Vote breakdown">
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Each vote shows the result, chamber, roll number, date, and a visual Yea/Nay bar with
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exact counts.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Users} color="bg-purple-100 text-purple-600 dark:bg-purple-900/30 dark:text-purple-400" title="Followed member positions">
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If any of your followed members voted on the bill, their individual Yea/Nay positions
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are surfaced directly in the vote row — no need to dig through the full member list.
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</Item>
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</div>
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</Section>
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{/* Alignment */}
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<Section id="alignment" title="Representation Alignment" icon={BarChart2}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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The <Link href="/alignment" className="text-primary hover:underline">Alignment</Link> page
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shows how often your followed members vote in line with your stated bill positions.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3">
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<Item icon={Zap} color="bg-green-100 text-green-700 dark:bg-green-900/30 dark:text-green-400" title="How it's calculated">
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For every bill you follow with Pocket Boost or Pocket Veto, PocketVeto checks how each
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of your followed members voted. A Yea on a boosted bill counts as aligned; a Nay on a
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vetoed bill counts as aligned. Not Voting and Present are excluded.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={BarChart2} color="bg-blue-100 text-blue-600 dark:bg-blue-900/30 dark:text-blue-400" title="Alignment score">
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Each followed member gets an alignment percentage based on all overlapping votes. Members
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are ranked from most to least aligned with your positions.
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</Item>
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</div>
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<p className="text-xs text-muted-foreground">
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Alignment only appears for members who have actually voted on bills you've stanced.
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Follow more members and stake positions on more bills to build a fuller picture.
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</p>
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</Section>
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{/* Notes */}
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<Section id="notes" title="Notes" icon={StickyNote}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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Add a personal note to any bill — visible only to you. Find it in the{" "}
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<strong>Notes</strong> tab on any bill detail page.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3">
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<Item icon={StickyNote} color="bg-yellow-100 text-yellow-700 dark:bg-yellow-900/30 dark:text-yellow-400" title="Pinning">
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Pin a note to float it above the tab bar so it's always visible when you open the
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bill, regardless of which tab you're on.
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</Item>
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</div>
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</Section>
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{/* Bills */}
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<Section id="bills" title="Browsing bills" icon={FileText}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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The <Link href="/bills" className="text-primary hover:underline">Bills</Link> page lists
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all tracked legislation. Use the filters to narrow your search.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-2 text-xs text-muted-foreground">
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<p><strong className="text-foreground">Search</strong> — matches bill ID, title, and short title.</p>
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<p><strong className="text-foreground">Chamber</strong> — House or Senate.</p>
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<p><strong className="text-foreground">Topic</strong> — AI-tagged policy area (healthcare, defense, etc.).</p>
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<p><strong className="text-foreground">Has text</strong> — show only bills with published official text. On by default.</p>
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</div>
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<p className="text-xs text-muted-foreground">
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Each bill page is organised into four tabs: <strong>Analysis</strong> (AI brief + draft
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letter), <strong>Timeline</strong> (action history), <strong>Votes</strong> (roll-call
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records), and <strong>Notes</strong> (your personal note).
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Topic tags appear just below the tab bar — click any tag to jump to that filtered view.
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</p>
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</Section>
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{/* Members & Topics */}
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<Section id="members-topics" title="Members & Topics" icon={Users}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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Browse and follow legislators and policy topics independently of specific bills.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3">
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<Item icon={Users} color="bg-blue-100 text-blue-600 dark:bg-blue-900/30 dark:text-blue-400" title="Members">
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The <Link href="/members" className="text-primary hover:underline">Members</Link> page
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lists all current members of Congress. Each member page shows their sponsored bills,
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news coverage, voting trend, and — once enough votes are recorded —
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an <strong>effectiveness score</strong> ranking how often their sponsored bills advance.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={Filter} color="bg-teal-100 text-teal-700 dark:bg-teal-900/30 dark:text-teal-400" title="Topics">
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The <Link href="/topics" className="text-primary hover:underline">Topics</Link> page
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lists all AI-tagged policy areas. Following a topic sends you a Discovery alert whenever
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a new bill is tagged with it — useful for staying on top of a policy area without
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tracking individual bills.
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</Item>
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</div>
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</Section>
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{/* Dashboard */}
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<Section id="dashboard" title="Dashboard" icon={TrendingUp}>
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<p className="text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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The <Link href="/" className="text-primary hover:underline">Dashboard</Link> is your
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personalised home view, split into two areas.
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</p>
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<div className="space-y-3">
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<Item icon={Heart} color="bg-red-100 text-red-600 dark:bg-red-900/30 dark:text-red-400" title="Your feed">
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Bills from your follows — directly followed bills, bills sponsored by followed members,
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and bills matching followed topics — sorted by latest activity.
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</Item>
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<Item icon={TrendingUp} color="bg-green-100 text-green-700 dark:bg-green-900/30 dark:text-green-400" title="Trending">
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The top 10 bills by composite trend score, calculated nightly from news article volume
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(NewsAPI + Google News) and Google Trends interest. A bill climbing here is getting real
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public attention regardless of whether you follow it.
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</Item>
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</div>
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</Section>
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</div>
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);
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}
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