Methodology hub.
Every analytical output on The Blueprint Lab has a Methods link. This page is the global methodology hub. It is where the platform documents — with full transparency — how its outputs are generated, what data sources they depend on, what their limitations are, and how they can be audited or reproduced.
Data sources
- Congress.gov — Bill text, status, sponsors, and amendment history.
- CRS — Congressional Research Service reports — analytical context.
- CBO — Congressional Budget Office cost estimates and projections.
- GPO — Government Publishing Office — primary statute and regulatory text.
- FRED — Federal Reserve Economic Data — macroeconomic series.
- USAspending — Federal contract, grant, and award disclosure.
- Census — Demographic and apportionment data; basis for districting work.
- BLS — Bureau of Labor Statistics — employment, wage, and inflation series.
- EPA — Environmental Protection Agency — regulatory and emissions data.
- FEMA — Federal Emergency Management Agency — disaster declarations and obligations.
These are starting sources. The list expands as additional modules ship.
Model use
The Engine uses Claude (and comparable frontier models) for the initial analytical pass on each bill, with human review by the editorial team before publication. Model version is recorded on each output. Prompts, run metadata, and review logs are committed to the public repository alongside the output.
Uncertainty framing
Every projection on the Lab carries an uncertainty range. Uncertainty is displayed on the output itself, not buried in a footnote. Confidence levels are explicit on every distributional projection.
Lucas Critique disclaimer
Audit pathway
Any published output on the Lab can be reproduced from the public repository. Each output records its data snapshot, its prompt, its model version, and the editorial reviewer. Pull the repository, check out the commit referenced on the output, and re-run the published methodology to obtain the same result. The repository lives at github.com/blueprint-lab (placeholder pending public launch).
Corrections and bug reports
Errors of fact, methodology, or interpretation should be reported via the public repository's issue tracker, or directly through /contribute. Corrections are logged in the commit history attached to the original output, never silently overwritten.