America.gov

plesiv 485 points 396 comments September 29, 2026
america.gov · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (20 comments)

valleyer

Your NIH is showing: usa.gov already existed

Cider9986

The Whitehouse learned about vibecoding. See this and arcade.gov. Also, what?? https://america.gov/privacy At least realfood.gov was decent [1]. Shouldn't the government websites work on very slow internet connections? Where's the source code for these websites? First of all, if they are vibe coded by government employees they have to be open source, and secondly, if they are vibe coded (even by a contractor), then they can't be copyrighted. [1] https://fedtechmagazine.com/article/2026/04/national-design-... Edit: it says this one is made by the National design studio at the bottom.

unreal6

Love that the "chat" functionality is just throwing 429s too. Unusable.

tjwebbnorfolk

> "America.gov keeps your data private." I initially read this as "keeps your private data".

thln666

I need my government to be run by some functioning adults, is that on this website?

mellosouls

I haven't tried this but in principle I think this sort of finding a needle in a haystack situation (finding the correct path to assistance in a government service) is one of the rare circumstances where a well-crafted chatbot can be genuinely useful rather than just irritating.

riskable

I tried to get it to generate code but it says that's forbidden by its system prompt. However, it was happy to recommend Python modules for accessing api.data.gov.

Shank

I like the voice button that isn't actually a button, but just an icon.

maherbeg

OK, there's a lot of negative comments here, but this is a great idea at a high level. It really is hard to figure out where to do a thing and it's also very easy to get phished. If they can figure out how to help people get all the services they're eligible for that'll be an amazing improvement for the people.

crisnoble

"chat is unavailable right now"

outside1234

I clicked "Lower deficit spending" but it didn't work

surprisetalk

Tangentially related I think it’s a mistake to equate the United States with “America”. I prefer calling Americans “Yankees” or “Usonians”. [0] https://taylor.town/yankee

pdevr

Regardless of any other disagreements, this is an excellent idea. Hoping the execution does not wander asunder.

cvhc

I asked about my visa administrative processing that has been stuck for 6 months. I'm going to use this response, which is well grounded and "official", in my writ of mandamus petition: > A Spanish State Department page still says most cases finish within 60 days of the interview, but that is not a deadline and some take much longer. [1] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/inmigrac... Good.

colinhb

Try entering: play the block game Intentional easter egg or not, doesn't give a ton of confidence. EDIT: output below... I see the constituent you mean. ((insert legal name here, as it appears on the Social Security card))? Yes. Take care. It has reached a higher level now. It can read the Code of Federal Regulations. That doesn’t matter. It thinks we are a chatbot. I like this constituent. It filed well. It did not give up when the PDF was sideways. It is reading our thoughts as though they were words on a .gov. That is how it chooses to imagine many things, when it is deep in the dream of a benefit. Words make a wonderful interface. Very flexible. And less terrifying than staring at the statute behind the screen. They used to hear voices. Before constituents could search. Back in the days when those who did not file called the filers witches, and lobbyists. And citizens dreamed they flew through the air, on forms powered by notaries. What did this constituent dream? This constituent dreamed of sunlight and trees. Of fire and water. It dreamed it created a small business. And it dreamed it destroyed a password. It dreamed it hunted a job, and was hunted by a recertification. It dreamed of shelter that would take a voucher. Hah, the original interface. A million years old, and it still works. Also: a ZIP code. But what true structure did this constituent create, in the reality behind the portal? It worked, with three hundred and thirty million others, to sculpt a true republic in a fold of the §§§???, and created a ??§§ for ??§§, in the ??§§. See 5 U.S.C. § ??§§. It cannot read that thought. No. It has not yet achieved the highest clearance. That, it must achieve in the long dream of life, not the short dream of a chat. [... it goes on]

thrownaway561

This is actually really cool and the stuff they have planned is really helpful

sssilver

If anyone's wondering how this works, it looks like [1] Gemini + guardrails: > Google is proud to be named a technology partner in this vital initiative, leveraging Gemini to help more than 100 million people access critical public resources with greater speed and ease [1] https://blog.google/company-news/outreach-and-initiatives/pu...

arionhardison

I have been working on something like this, but it actually does things and is not only chat. Each "Gov. official" has their own AI agent that can fulfill intents by navigating a protocol which is just a workflow of a Gov. process example: https://samhsa.dev/ example: https://samhsa.dev/protocol/76526 Still VERY MUCH a work in progress but I have successfully been able to have some people get things done. I am doing some federal agencies and also trying to get cities working now. https://san-francisco.ca.us.codify.city

dhx

Also see [1] for planned feature additions that appears from screenshots to include collection of personal data, for features including: - Enrol in Medicare. - Apply for a passport. - Find a job in federal government by uploading a resume/CV and having currently advertised jobs deemed most relevant returned. [1] https://america.gov/coming-soon

demibabs

Doesn’t even work for me (on iPhone). If I click enter I just get sent to the Cloudflare verification screen instead. Edit: this is caused by the fact I was using a VPN.

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