Contribute to CivicByte

Share your tool with
communities that need it

Built a free, open-source civic tech tool? Submit it in 2 minutes via GitHub. We’ll review it and list it for the people who need it most.

Submit Your Tool → See How It Works

How It Works
Three steps to get listed
Submitting a tool is a simple, GitHub-based process. No accounts to create, no forms to fill out.
1
📦

Prepare your tool

Make sure your tool is publicly accessible, open-source, and solves a real civic problem. It should be usable by non-technical community members.

2
📝

Open a GitHub Issue

Go to our GitHub repository and open a new issue using the "Submit a Tool" template. Include your tool's name, description, URL, category, and source code link.

3

Review & listing

Our team reviews your submission against our platform standards. Approved tools get listed in the directory with full attribution to you as the creator.


Requirements
What we look for
Every tool on CivicByte must meet these standards. They exist to protect communities and ensure quality.

Free to use

No paywalls, no premium tiers, no required sign-ups. The tool must be freely accessible to everyone.

Open source

Source code must be publicly available under an open-source license (MIT, GPL, Apache, etc.).

Solves a civic problem

The tool must address a specific community need — education, housing, public health, transit, municipal services, etc.

Usable by non-developers

Clear, accessible interface built for community members, parents, and advocates — not just programmers.

Deployed and accessible

The tool must be live on the web with a public URL. We don't list tools requiring local installation or command-line usage.

Maintained

You commit to keeping the tool functional. If data sources change or links break, you'll update them. Abandoned tools are archived.

Meet the requirements? You’re ready.

Submit Your Tool Now →

FAQ
Common questions
Everything you need to know about submitting a tool to CivicByte.
Does my tool have to be NYC-focused?

No. CivicByte started in NYC, but we accept tools serving any community, city, or region. Civic needs are universal — if your tool helps a community understand or act on public data, it belongs here.

Do I need to be a student to submit?

No. While CivicByte is student-founded, we welcome submissions from developers, civic hackers, nonprofits, and organizations of all kinds. Good civic technology has no age requirement.

What tech stack should I use?

Whatever works best for your tool. We have no framework or language requirements. Static HTML, React, Python, R Shiny — we care about impact and accessibility, not what's under the hood.

How long does the review process take?

We aim to review submissions within one week. We'll communicate through the GitHub issue thread if we have questions or suggestions before listing your tool.

Can I submit a tool still in development?

Yes, but it must have a functional prototype that's publicly accessible. We'll list it with an "In Development" status tag so users know it's a work in progress.

Who gets credit for the tool?

You do. Every tool listing shows the creator or team name with a link to the source repository. CivicByte is a platform, not a publisher — your work stays yours.


Ready to submit?

Open a GitHub issue using our submission template. Include your tool's name, live URL, description, and source code link. We'll take it from there.

Open Submission Issue → View on GitHub
Submit Your Tool →