project file / jul–aug 2026
SACDEMS knowledge search
An authenticated workspace for finding organization knowledge and authorized volunteer or associate records with source links.
- my role
- Software engineering intern, Democratic Party of Sacramento County
- status
- Deployed admin beta
- field
- Civic software / search
- tools
- Next.js · TypeScript · Supabase · PostgreSQL · Google Cloud Run
01 / the problem
Why this exists
Useful information was spread across forms, operational records, and published documents. A search box had to answer ordinary questions while respecting the different access levels of those sources.
02 / the build
What I worked on
Built a Next.js and Supabase admin workspace that searches permitted people records and official organization sources from one interface.
Connected Google Forms to an idempotent ingestion function, added production health checks, and deployed a stateless application on Google Cloud Run.
Implemented role-scoped people search and an AI-assisted query planner that selects from allowlisted domains and filters. The server validates the plan and executes authorized database functions.
03 / engineering notes
Choices that mattered
- Authentication alone does not grant data access. An explicit role allowlist and database checks enforce which records a user may retrieve.
- The model does not receive database credentials or unrestricted SQL. Results preserve source links so a reader can inspect the underlying material.
04 / reflection
What I took away
A good answer is not enough when it might contain a private record. Search quality, source traceability, and authorization had to be designed together.