iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

oooooh... taking this to the Discord now!

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Id imagine any dialect, so DuckDB-style SQL would work fine. But the API response format, params like _shape, etc would be the same as Datasette And other Datasette-isms, like `.csv`/``.json` to return results in different formats, the facetting API, `/$DB/$TABLE` urls, etc

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In the past, Simon has talked about making Datasette a "specification" of HTTP APIs. Meaning one can make an implementation of Datasette that uses the same HTTP API, but is backed by DuckDB/Postgres etc all to say: a duckdb-backed Datasette compliant tool would be very cool to see!

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 22/05/2026

I think if DuckDB was around when Datasette was first created, it very likely would have! Tho I'd say the "new" Datasette features we're working on, mostly writes + interactive UIs, it wouldnt make much sense on DuckDB (and we're doing a terrible job at promoting the new features btw)

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The city of Garden Grove in CA has an active chemical emergency right now, and they posted an evacuation map that's obviously created with AI And honestly, it looks great. Can't imagine being in a time crunch to get something like this out. ggcity.org/emergency

Screenshot of the Garden Grove emergency page. Titled "Evacuation Zone - Chemical Incident" with a map showing the evacuation zone, and a list of "open evacuation centers" labled as Garden Grove Sports and REcreation Center and Cypress Community Center

Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 21/05/2026

Reposted by Alex Garcia

I released the first alpha of Datasette Agent - a conversational AI assistant for Datasette that can answer questions about data in SQLite databases, and can be extended with plugins to add extra tools and features You can watch a demo video or try it out yourself on agent.datasette.io

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Reposted by Alex Garcia

Allan Lasser @allanlasser.com · 13/05/2026

On Friday, I’ll be revisiting the session I led at NICAR, *Enhancing public records work with LLMs*. I’ll show off some workflows that combine LLM tools with @documentcloud.org and @muckrock.com. If you missed it at NICAR, now's your chance! Registration: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

us02web.zoom.us

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Building with MuckRock. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

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Reposted by Alex Garcia

MuckRock @muckrock.com · 13/05/2026

Join us this Friday and explore Python libraries for the MuckRock Requests and DocumentCloud APIs, and how they can be used with large language models (LLMs) to streamline records requests and assist in analyzing responsive documents. buff.ly/snxwvd1

us02web.zoom.us

Building with MuckRock

Miss this session at NICAR 2026? Join this session of Building with MuckRock!

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 12/05/2026

re the tanstack hack: It took a lot of digging but I finally found a good summary of "here's what we're doing to avoid this in the future" Also TIL about zizmor, a CLI that statically analyzes github action YAML for security vulns, with autofix support! news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4810...

We had a few revisions of the postmortem with this included, but ultimately felt premature to include given how quickly we released this notice.

That's not to say that we're not working hard on preventative work, however. We:

- [x] Temporarily removed the cache from our PNPM setup

- [x] Removed all caches from GitHub Actions

- [x] Locked down all GitHub actions on the org to commit IDs instead of version numbers

- [x] Enforced non-SMS GitHub 2FA (NPM & GitHub 2FA was already enforced, but SMS was previously allowed)

- [x] Removed all usage of `pull_request_target` from our CI pipeline (already wasn't in our CD)

- [ ] Are introducing `zizmor` as action linting to every repo via a PR check

- [ ] Are likely introducing `CODEOWNERS` on `.github` folders to restrict merging to only the 7 core maintainers

- [ ] Will replace the PNPM setup cache with `actions/cache/restore`, which has more secure defaults

- [ ] Will replace the PNPM setup cache to be isolated between release and PR envs

- [ ] May close the ability to make a TanStack PR as an external contributor (But we're absolutely not going closed source)

We'll have a follow-up blog post that outlines all of this and how maintainers are able to secure themselves simiarly.

Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 15/04/2026

Happy #FECFilingDay ! If you're a journalist/researcher covering today's filings, consider my `libfec` CLI tool to make your life a bit easier! Learn how to use libfec for bulk exports, live updates from the FEC RSS feed, and alerting on individual donations! alexgarcia.xyz/blog/2026/li...

alexgarcia.xyz

Using libfec for FEC Filing Days, April 2026 Edition

A short guide on using the libfec CLI to cover today's FEC filing deadline

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 17/03/2026

a semantic search over embedded images in political emails sounds VERY interesting...

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 10/03/2026

ALSO: I made a Google Group for libfec. If you have questions, bug reports, feature requests, or just want to talk about federal campaign finance, check it out! New features and releases for the libfec CLI will be announced here Mailing lists are SO back groups.google.com/g/libfec

groups.google.com

libfec - Google Groups

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 10/03/2026

Big thanks to everyone who came to my #NICAR26 session for libfec last week, it was a lot of fun! NICAR is the only place where you can chat about federal campaign finance data and actually enjoy it... It wasn't recorded, but I made a video version of it here! youtu.be/UdkQ5HEiF20

youtu.be

Introduction to libfec! (NICAR26 re-record)

YouTube video by Alex Garcia

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 04/03/2026

I will be at #NICAR26 this week teaching classes! For campaign finance folks: come to my Thursday 11:30am class on libfec, a new fast CLI tool for working with FEC data! Also get limited-edition libfec stickers + a campfin "zine"! (Bonus: find @simonwillison.net and I for Datasette stickers)

Assorted stickers and documents on a desk. One group of stickers says "libfec" in green font. The other group says "Datasette" in purple. One document stack has the title "NICAR26 libfec manual". The document says "libfec cheatsheet".

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 11/02/2026

Wow, never noticed that the SQLite docs have a sponsor message. Added in November of last year sqlite.org/cli.html

1.2. GUI Alternatives To The CLI

The sqlite3 program is written by and for the core SQLite developers and is the officially supported way to accessing SQLite database files interactively. However, some users might prefer a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Several such programs are available from third-parties. One of those is Visual DB, a sponsor of the SQLite project:

Thanks to Visual DB for helping us make SQLite better for everyone!

oopsie jk just saw your other reply

random thought: Could you have a local proxy server that keeps the API key? So you define a `AGENT_FECFILE_URL=localhost:6767`, and separately run a proxy on 6767 that tunnels requests to api.fec.gov?...api_key=SECRET? Would require running a separate service along claude tho

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(other parts of libfec does use an API key tho, like resolving filings from committee IDs in `libfec export`)

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but in general I agree. libfec has a LIBFEC_API_KEY to talk to the fec api, but there's always a way for Claude/Codex to read it. So I can never confidently share a transcript of the conversation without checking everything to avoid leaking something

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 23/01/2026

Been meaning to reach out to you re agent-fecfile and libfec. Try this: uvx libfec@latest

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I know jq terminal output when I see it

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 13/01/2026

One trick with this, using libfec + SQLite: - "Hollywood Democrats" has raised $216k in 2 years, treasurer is Benjamin Eisenberg - Has spent $88.5k (~40%) on "General Campaign Fundraising" exclusively to "Summit Campaign Strategies" - "Summit Campaign Strategies" is owned by... Benjamin Eisenberg

! libfec-dev export C00833129 -o hw-dems.db --clobber
.open hw-dems.db

Finished exporting 10 filings into hw-dems.db, in 1 second
Opened database at hw-dems.db

select sum(col_a_total_receipts)
from libfec_f3x;

sum(col_a_total_receipts)
216605.36
1 column × 1 row

select
treasurer_first_name,
treasurer_last_name,
treasurer_city,
treasurer_state
from libfec_f1;

treasurer_first_name treasurer_last_name treasurer_city treasurer_state
Benjamin Eisenberg La Canada Flintridge CA
4 columns × 1 row

select
payee_organization_name,
min(expenditure_date),
max(expenditure_date),
sum(expenditure_amount)
from libfec_schedule_b
where expenditure_purpose_descrip = 'General Campaign Consulting'
group by 1

payee_organization_name min(expenditure_date) max(expenditure_date) sum(expenditure_amount)
Summit Campaign Strategies 2023-06-12 2025-06-30 88500
4 columns × 1 row

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 20/12/2025

more info here: deno.com/deploy/sandb...

deno.com

Deno Sandboxes

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 18/12/2025

Agreed that they're burning more than needed — but 2025 isn't an election year. Operating expenses don't really kick in until 2026, no campaigns are buying a ton of ads now. Fundraising + consulting are also especially important for those trying to win in primaries

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 18/11/2025

this will be a fantastic semantic search demo/benchmark

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Reposted by Alex Garcia

Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 04/11/2025

Datasette 1.0a20 is out, with an entirely new SQL-powered permissions system. This is by far the most ambitious project I've attempted with the help of coding agents (Claude Code and Codex CLI) - notes on how it works and what I learned along the way: simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/4/d...

simonwillison.net

A new SQL-powered permissions system in Datasette 1.0a20

Datasette 1.0a20 is out with the biggest breaking API change on the road to 1.0, improving how Datasette’s permissions system works by migrating permission logic to SQL running in SQLite. …

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 21/10/2025

Seems like Democracy Engine offers "direct giving" services. Maybe this is how they're not required to disclose as earmarked? democracyengine.com/wp-content/u...

democracyengine.com

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 14/10/2025

New blog post: I've been working on a new parser for the Federal Election Commission's custom `.fec` file format. Written in Rust, completely open source, and the fastest FEC file parser out there. If you ever work with federal campaign finance data, check it out! alexgarcia.xyz/blog/2025/in...

alexgarcia.xyz

I'm working on libfec, a new FEC file parser and CLI tool

Parse federal campaign filings

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 17/09/2025

Here's a google search of all House websites that reference "utm_source=chatgpt". So ya they're using it a lot www.google.com/search?q=%22... Uses the trick from: bsky.app/profile/alex...

google.com

Google Search

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Alex Garcia @alexgarcia.xyz · 07/07/2025

Datasette Cloud! We've got a "publish this database/table" feature to expose it to the outside world (hit us up and we'll setup the space)