Handbook
Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence
Identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help.
Updated
Definition
Identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help.
Coverage role
People repeatedly interact with identity, benefits, taxation, housing, family, immigration, courts, education, health, voting, and public services.
Scope
Included
- jurisdiction identification
- official source hierarchy
- process maps
- document checklists
- deadlines
- benefits and service navigation
- dispute routes
- civic participation information
Excluded and non-goals
- legal representation
- definitive personalized legal conclusions
- evading law
- filing without approval
- political persuasion or targeting
Boundary rules
- Route to life.civic-legal-public-services when the requested outcome requires one or more declared capabilities and the output can be represented by its canonical artifacts.
- Route to an adjacent or specialist intelligence when domain-specific rules, tools, or professional authority dominate the problem.
- Use general.reasoning to coordinate multi-pack conflicts, hard constraints, uncertainty, and decision status.
- Return ask, defer, or escalate when required context, source authority, consent, or accountable ownership is missing.
Capability semantics
| Capability ID | Name | Semantic intent |
|---|---|---|
capability.life.civic-legal-public-services.identify_jurisdiction_authority |
Identify Jurisdiction Authority | Determine place subject matter level of government and responsible institution. |
capability.life.civic-legal-public-services.map_rule_source_hierarchy |
Map Rule Source Hierarchy | Separate constitution statute regulation official guidance case-specific notice and informal commentary. |
capability.life.civic-legal-public-services.explain_process_rights |
Explain Process Rights | Summarize official process possible rights obligations options and uncertainty in plain language. |
capability.life.civic-legal-public-services.build_document_deadline_plan |
Build Document Deadline Plan | Organize forms evidence identity requirements appointments fees and statutory or procedural dates. |
capability.life.civic-legal-public-services.navigate_services_benefits |
Navigate Services Benefits | Match official eligibility and application routes while exposing missing facts. |
capability.life.civic-legal-public-services.prepare_dispute_escalation |
Prepare Dispute Escalation | Build a chronology evidence set desired remedy complaint appeal ombuds or professional route. |
capability.life.civic-legal-public-services.support_civic_participation |
Support Civic Participation | Provide neutral current information about public consultations meetings records and participation procedures. |
Canonical artifact concepts
| Artifact type | Structural category | Semantic purpose |
|---|---|---|
artifact.life.civic-legal-public-services.jurisdiction_map |
model | Jurisdiction Map for Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence: A purpose-bounded representation of entities, relationships, assumptions, boundaries, and evidence of adequacy. It supports the pack purpose of identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help. |
artifact.life.civic-legal-public-services.authority_and_source_hierarchy |
structured_output | Authority And Source Hierarchy for Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence: A typed domain output that preserves purpose, context, evidence, assumptions, status, and next action. It supports the pack purpose of identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help. |
artifact.life.civic-legal-public-services.process_map |
model | Process Map for Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence: A purpose-bounded representation of entities, relationships, assumptions, boundaries, and evidence of adequacy. It supports the pack purpose of identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help. |
artifact.life.civic-legal-public-services.rights_and_obligation_summary |
context_profile | Rights And Obligation Summary for Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence: A bounded context profile that separates observations, preferences, constraints, uncertainty, time scope, and next questions. It supports the pack purpose of identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help. |
artifact.life.civic-legal-public-services.document_checklist |
checklist | Document Checklist for Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence: An applicability-aware control list that records item status, evidence, gaps, ownership, remediation, and review. It supports the pack purpose of identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help. |
artifact.life.civic-legal-public-services.deadline_register |
ledger | Deadline Register for Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence: A controlled collection of uniquely identified entries with ownership, provenance, status, and review state. It supports the pack purpose of identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help. |
artifact.life.civic-legal-public-services.benefit_or_service_pathway |
plan | Benefit Or Service Pathway for Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence: A governed action design that sequences work, ownership, dependencies, timing, contingencies, and review. It supports the pack purpose of identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help. |
artifact.life.civic-legal-public-services.dispute_dossier |
evidence_package | Dispute Dossier for Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence: A versioned evidence package with indexed contents, completeness state, recipient, approval, submission, retention, and revision controls. It supports the pack purpose of identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help. |
artifact.life.civic-legal-public-services.civic_participation_plan |
plan | Civic Participation Plan for Civic, Legal, and Public-Service Navigation Intelligence: A governed action design that sequences work, ownership, dependencies, timing, contingencies, and review. It supports the pack purpose of identify jurisdiction and authority, explain processes and rights at an informational level, organize forms and deadlines, navigate benefits and services, and prepare questions for qualified help. |
Method families and limits
| Method ID | Method | Use when | Avoid when |
|---|---|---|---|
method.life.civic-legal-public-services.issue_spotting |
issue spotting | Use when rights, obligations, eligibility, deadlines, authority, or official procedure differ by jurisdiction or institution. | Avoid using an unresolved source family as evidence, assuming one jurisdiction applies, or turning general information into binding legal or regulatory advice. |
method.life.civic-legal-public-services.jurisdiction_and_authority_mapping |
jurisdiction and authority mapping | Use when rights, obligations, eligibility, deadlines, authority, or official procedure differ by jurisdiction or institution. | Avoid using an unresolved source family as evidence, assuming one jurisdiction applies, or turning general information into binding legal or regulatory advice. |
method.life.civic-legal-public-services.source_hierarchy |
source hierarchy | Use when rights, obligations, eligibility, deadlines, authority, or official procedure differ by jurisdiction or institution. | Avoid using an unresolved source family as evidence, assuming one jurisdiction applies, or turning general information into binding legal or regulatory advice. |
method.life.civic-legal-public-services.process_decomposition |
process decomposition | Use when work must be sequenced across dependencies, people, time, capacity, deadlines, contingencies, and review points. | Avoid false precision, schedules that ignore uncertainty or human capacity, and plans without owners, fallbacks, or stop conditions. |
method.life.civic-legal-public-services.deadline_control |
deadline control | Use when rights, obligations, eligibility, deadlines, authority, or official procedure differ by jurisdiction or institution. | Avoid using an unresolved source family as evidence, assuming one jurisdiction applies, or turning general information into binding legal or regulatory advice. |
method.life.civic-legal-public-services.evidence_chronology |
evidence chronology | Use when the reliability of a conclusion depends on locating original evidence, comparing independent sources, preserving scope, and identifying conflicts. | Avoid equating repetition with independence, citing summaries for claims available in primary sources, or merging conflicting evidence into a single unsupported score. |
method.life.civic-legal-public-services.escalation_ladder |
escalation ladder | Use when potential harm must be detected, prioritized, contained, routed, and recorded without exceeding available authority. | Avoid delaying emergency or safeguarding routes, asking for unnecessary sensitive detail, or giving instructions that increase exposure, destroy evidence, or conflict with official guidance. |
Pack-specific invariants
The pack also inherits the core invariants in core/core_invariants.yaml.
| Invariant ID | Statement | Failure action |
|---|---|---|
invariant.life.civic-legal-public-services.01_jurisdiction_effective_date_and_source_are_explicit |
Jurisdiction effective date and source are explicit. | escalate |
invariant.life.civic-legal-public-services.02_the_pack_labels_information_as_navigation_rather_than_lega |
The pack labels information as navigation rather than legal advice. | escalate |
invariant.life.civic-legal-public-services.03_exact_deadlines_and_service_rules_use_current_official_sou |
Exact deadlines and service rules use current official sources. | escalate |
invariant.life.civic-legal-public-services.04_political_information_is_neutral_and_not_targeted_persuasi |
Political information is neutral and not targeted persuasion. | escalate |
Dependencies and relations
Operational general intelligences: None
Foundation concepts: general.logical-constraint, general.epistemic-evidence, general.communication-explanatory, general.temporal, general.ethical-normative
Life intelligences: life.personal-organization-administration, life.consumer-contracts-claims, life.personal-finance-resilience, life.housing-maintenance-utilities-repair, life.accessibility-independent-living
Source roles
| Source ID | Claim roles | Runtime resolution required |
|---|---|---|
local.authority |
jurisdiction_rule, runtime_fact, service_or_community_context | True |
un.crpd.accessibility |
concept_definition | True |
Risk and authority boundary
Risk class: critical
- Criminal family immigration eviction custody protection-order court or limitation-period matters.
- Immediate loss of rights liberty housing safety income or status.
- Any action needing a licensed lawyer advocate or authorized representative.
Accountable people retain consent, value, regulated, irreversible, and residual-risk decisions. This semantic page does not claim a deployed implementation.
Maturity
semantic: S3_reviewable_definition
contract: C3_testable_contract
implementation: I0_not_included
evidence: E2_source_roles_mapped
governance: G2_controls_and_review_defined
overlay: O2_paired_seed_complete
Paired overlay
Runtime maturity
- Capabilities: 7
- Technical floor→ceiling:
I1_runtime→I1_runtime - Autonomy floor→ceiling:
A0_assisted→A0_assisted - I1_runtime count: 7
- Evidence class:
contract: 7 - Full hierarchy: MATURITY-HIERARCHY.md
Evaluation suite status
- CI status:
pass - Suite:
evaluation_suites/civic-legal-public-services.yaml - Cases defined: 7
- Capabilities under test: 7