find-the-public-record

Find the public record

data_source_atlas returns a source-first research plan: which public record answers the question, how to reach it directly, what the answer is worth, and what the record cannot answer at all. It does not return the answer. You go and get that with web search.

The difference this makes: reading whatever a search engine surfaced versus pulling the administrative record that settles it.

Quick start

1. Call data_source_atlas with the real question, including the city and state. It returns a research_procedure, an output_schema for the finished deliverable, a quality_rubric and caveats.
2. Execute the research_procedure yourself with web search. Go to the named record — the county assessor's parcel search, the recorder of deeds, the city's licence or inspection portal, Census CBP or ACS, a BLS series, the state registry — not to an aggregator that resells it.
3. Produce the deliverable in the shape output_schema describes, and check it against quality_rubric before answering.
4. State the caveats. What the record cannot answer is part of the answer.

Rules

Name the record, cite the pull. Every figure carries where it came from and when it was pulled. "The county assessor shows $X, pulled today" beats "$X".

Non-disclosure states have no sale price. In Kansas, Texas, Utah and the other non-disclosure states, the recorded deed does not carry a price. Say so and pivot to what does exist — assessed value, the assessor's own ratio study, mortgage amount — instead of producing an estimate that reads like a record.

Distinguish the record from the vendor. A figure from CoStar, Zillow or a data reseller is a product, not a public record. It can be cited as such but it is not the administrative answer, and its methodology is usually undisclosed.

When the record does not exist, say that. The most valuable output of this tool is often "no public record answers this, and here is why." Commercial rent in Minnesota is the standing example: leases are not recorded anywhere.