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Clause Specification

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Clause

Systems Matter.

Overview

Clause is an open-source civic simulation platform that models real-world governance through laws, budgets, infrastructure, economics, and population behavior. Rather than constructing fictional cities, Clause allows users to select real municipalities and simulate how policy decisions influence long-term sustainability, resilience, and prosperity.

The platform combines municipal finance, legal systems, demographics, infrastructure, environmental factors, and artificial intelligence into a transparent simulation engine capable of modeling years or decades of change. Every decision has measurable consequences, allowing users to explore complex interactions before similar policies are implemented in the real world.

Clause is designed for educators, researchers, civic technologists, urban planners, developers, students, elected officials, and anyone interested in understanding how communities function as interconnected systems.

Core Principles

  • Open Source
  • Transparent Simulation
  • Real Data First
  • Modular Architecture
  • AI Assisted Analysis
  • Explainable Decision Making
  • Local First
  • Privacy Respecting
  • Community Driven
  • Extensible by Design

Primary Objectives

  • Simulate real municipalities
  • Understand policy impacts
  • Improve civic literacy
  • Encourage evidence-based governance
  • Explore sustainable development
  • Test long-term scenarios
  • Eliminate “trial by fire” decision making
  • Promote transparent public policy

Core Simulation Engine

Governance Engine

Simulates:

  • Municipal governments
  • County governments
  • State interactions
  • Federal funding impacts
  • Public agencies
  • Regulatory authorities
  • Election cycles
  • Public administration

Features:

  • Ordinance management
  • Policy creation
  • Policy repeal
  • Law modification
  • Executive actions
  • Budget approvals
  • Emergency declarations
  • Regulatory enforcement
  • Administrative efficiency

Municipal Budget Engine

Models complete public finances.

Revenue

  • Property taxes
  • Sales taxes
  • Income taxes
  • Utility revenue
  • Fees
  • Licensing
  • Permits
  • Grants
  • State aid
  • Federal aid
  • Bonds
  • Investment income

Expenses

  • Police
  • Fire
  • EMS
  • Schools
  • Roads
  • Parks
  • Utilities
  • Administration
  • Debt service
  • Pension obligations
  • Insurance
  • Public health
  • Housing programs
  • Economic development
  • Capital projects

Features

  • Multi-year forecasting
  • Deficit projections
  • Cash flow
  • Bond ratings
  • Debt sustainability
  • Reserve analysis
  • Capital improvement planning

Economic Simulation

Models:

  • Employment
  • Wages
  • Inflation
  • Cost of living
  • Housing prices
  • Commercial investment
  • Industrial growth
  • Small business creation
  • Startup ecosystems
  • Tourism
  • Agriculture
  • Manufacturing
  • Consumer spending
  • Tax base evolution

AI evaluates:

  • Economic resilience
  • Boom cycles
  • Recession impacts
  • Investment attraction
  • Business failures
  • Market saturation

Population Engine

Each resident behaves independently.

Models:

  • Age
  • Income
  • Occupation
  • Household size
  • Education
  • Mobility
  • Housing preferences
  • Transportation
  • Political preferences
  • Community engagement

Population responses include:

  • Happiness
  • Trust
  • Migration
  • Business creation
  • Crime
  • Volunteerism
  • Civic participation
  • Protest activity
  • Economic confidence

Housing System

Supports:

  • Single family
  • Duplex
  • Multifamily
  • Apartments
  • Mixed use
  • Manufactured housing
  • Accessory dwelling units
  • Tiny homes
  • Workforce housing
  • Affordable housing
  • Luxury housing

Models:

  • Supply
  • Demand
  • Vacancy
  • Rent
  • Home ownership
  • Foreclosures
  • New construction
  • Redevelopment

Zoning Engine

Supports:

  • Residential zoning
  • Commercial zoning
  • Industrial zoning
  • Agricultural zoning
  • Historic districts
  • Overlay districts
  • Mixed use
  • Transit oriented development

Features:

  • Rezoning
  • Variances
  • Conditional use
  • Density calculations
  • Height restrictions
  • Parking minimums
  • Lot coverage
  • Setbacks
  • Environmental overlays

Infrastructure Engine

  • Roads
  • Bridges
  • Water
  • Wastewater
  • Stormwater
  • Electric
  • Natural gas
  • Fiber
  • Broadband
  • Transit
  • Airports
  • Rail
  • Ports
  • Sidewalks
  • Bike infrastructure

Models:

  • Maintenance
  • Capacity
  • Lifespan
  • Failure probability
  • Replacement costs
  • Deferred maintenance
  • Asset condition

Utilities Module

  • Water systems
  • Electric grids
  • Natural gas
  • Renewables
  • Solar
  • Wind
  • Battery storage
  • Microgrids
  • District energy
  • Waste management
  • Recycling
  • Composting

Environmental Module

  • Air quality
  • Water quality
  • Flood risk
  • Wildfire
  • Drought
  • Sea level rise
  • Watersheds
  • Wetlands
  • Urban forests
  • Carbon emissions
  • Green infrastructure
  • Biodiversity

Agriculture Module

  • Food production
  • Community gardens
  • Urban farming
  • Regional agriculture
  • Food imports
  • Food exports
  • Livestock
  • Crop diversity
  • Water usage
  • Food security
  • Supply chains

Transportation Module

  • Walking
  • Cycling
  • Transit
  • Ride sharing
  • Freight
  • Personal vehicles
  • Electric vehicles
  • Parking
  • Traffic
  • Commute patterns
  • Mobility equity

Public Safety Module

  • Police
  • Fire
  • EMS
  • Emergency management
  • Disaster recovery
  • Public health
  • Preparedness
  • Community resilience

Education Module

  • Schools
  • Universities
  • Trade schools
  • Libraries
  • Workforce training
  • Educational outcomes
  • Funding models

Healthcare Module

  • Hospitals
  • Clinics
  • Mental health
  • Emergency care
  • Primary care
  • Healthcare accessibility
  • Population health

AI Systems

Legal Analysis

Interprets:

  • Municipal code
  • State law
  • Federal law
  • Zoning ordinances
  • Building regulations

Identifies:

  • Conflicts
  • Dependencies
  • Regulatory burden
  • Simplification opportunities

Scenario Engine

Simulates:

  • Five years
  • Ten years
  • Twenty years
  • Fifty years

Projects:

  • Economic outcomes
  • Population trends
  • Budget health
  • Infrastructure conditions
  • Housing affordability
  • Sustainability

Consequence Engine

Evaluates:

  • Immediate impacts
  • Delayed impacts
  • Unintended consequences
  • Feedback loops
  • Compounding effects

Recommendation Engine

Suggests:

  • Policy improvements
  • Budget optimization
  • Regulatory reform
  • Infrastructure priorities
  • Housing strategies
  • Economic development opportunities

AI Assisted Data Import

Imports:

  • Municipal budgets
  • Annual reports
  • Financial statements
  • Zoning maps
  • Planning documents
  • Municipal code
  • Open datasets
  • GIS files
  • Spreadsheets
  • CSV
  • GeoJSON
  • Shape files
  • PDF reports

Visualization

  • Interactive maps
  • Heat maps
  • Budget dashboards
  • Infrastructure condition maps
  • Population movement
  • Housing analytics
  • Economic indicators
  • Environmental monitoring
  • Timeline playback
  • Scenario comparison

Multiplayer

  • Collaborative planning
  • Scenario sharing
  • Public participation
  • Community workshops
  • Educational simulations
  • Government collaboration

Plugin System

Supports community extensions.

Modules:

  • New policy packs
  • Country support
  • AI providers
  • Data connectors
  • Visualization tools
  • Economic models
  • Environmental models
  • Population models

Specification Branding License (SBL)

Standard

Optional

License & Notice Requirements

Clause is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.

Please note the following:

  • All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
  • Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to Roxanne Ardary and https://www.roxanneardary.com/.
  • Clause specifications are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
  • The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments.
  • Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution must also update notice.md.
  • When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain attribution headers where applicable.
  • Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.

For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.

Notice – Clause

Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.

Contributors

This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.

  • Roxanne Ardary, roxanneardary.com – March 19, 2026
    Created the repository for Clause. Established the initial concept, scope, and governance simulation framework.
  • [Add other contributors here] – [Date]
    [Describe contribution in one sentence]

License – Clause

This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

Key Points:

  • You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
  • All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com as required under Section 7 of the license.
  • The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.

For the full license text, see GNU AGPL-3.0 License.

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