datacenter.observer

Civic intelligence for the age of AI infrastructure.

A single, open-source platform that lets any citizen, journalist, or local organizer answer four questions about AI data centers in the United States:

• Where are they being built or planned?
• Who is building, funding, and approving them?
• When can the public weigh in?
• How are the companies, investors, utilities, and officials connected?

The current build ships with editorial seed data covering ~30 of the largest US AI data center projects and the federal + state officials representing them.

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Quick start

pnpm install
pnpm dev

Open http://localhost:3000 (or whichever port Next picks).

No API keys are required for the MVP. The map uses free CartoDB dark-matter tiles via MapLibre GL by default; if you want Mapbox styling, set NEXT_PUBLIC_MAPBOX_TOKEN in .env.local.

Pages

Route	Purpose
/	Full-viewport map. Click any marker to open the project detail panel.
/graph	3D / 2D force-directed graph of companies, officials, and projects.
/events	Filterable index of public-comment windows, hearings, votes, and protests.
/learn	Four primers: what AI data centers are, how to participate, follow the money, glossary.
/about	Mission, methodology, attribution, license, contributing.

API

All routes serve JSON; the same shape will be served whether the data layer is local seed files (today) or Supabase (soon).

GET /api/data-centers              ?status=&state=&q=&limit=
GET /api/data-centers/[slug]       full record with companies, officials, events
GET /api/graph                     { nodes, edges } for /graph
GET /api/events                    ?state=&type=&status=&upcoming=true
GET /api/officials                 ?state=&level=
GET /api/organizations/[slug]
GET /api/stats
GET /api/search                    ?q=

Project layout

app/                 Next.js App Router pages + API routes
components/          Map, Graph, Events, Shared components
content/learn/       Markdown primers (rendered via remark)
data/seed/           Typed seed datasets (DCs, orgs, officials, events, relationships)
lib/
  data/source.ts     Data-access layer. Single point of swap to Supabase.
  types.ts           Shared TypeScript types
  constants.ts       Status colors, node colors, labels
  hooks/             SWR fetch helper

The data-access layer (lib/data/source.ts) is the single point at which seed JSON can be swapped for a Supabase/Postgres client. The Next.js routes, hooks, and React components consume the same exported functions either way.

Tech stack

• Next.js 16 App Router · React 19 · TypeScript · Turbopack
• Tailwind CSS with custom dark-mode design tokens
• MapLibre GL (via react-map-gl/maplibre) — free, no key required; falls back to Mapbox if a token is set
• Supercluster for client-side marker clustering
• react-force-graph-3d / 2d (Three.js + WebGL) for the force-directed graph
• SWR for client data fetching
• gray-matter + remark for markdown rendering

Roadmap

v0.1 (current — MVP)

• ✅ Map view with clustering, filters, detail panel
• ✅ Force-graph view (3D + 2D) with category filters
• ✅ Events index
• ✅ Learn section + About + methodology
• ✅ Local JSON data layer (~30 projects, 60 officials, 23 orgs, 19 events)

v0.2 — automated pipeline

• Supabase + Postgres + PostGIS migration of the seed
• Automated ingestion from FracTracker, datacentertracker.org, Epoch AI
• Geocodio batch resolution of federal + state officials for every site
• Vercel Cron jobs for daily refresh
• "Last verified" timestamps surfaced everywhere

v0.3 — deep enrichment

• Senate LDA lobbying data
• OpenSecrets FEC campaign contributions
• SEC EDGAR filing links per company
• Utility PSC docket links
• Local officials seeded for ~30 highest-controversy jurisdictions

v0.4 — international

• UK, Canada, Australia data centers
• Localized officials lookup per country

See .claude/PRD-datacenter-observer.md for the full product spec and .claude/implementation-plan-datacenter-observer.md for the task graph.

Data attribution

The seed dataset draws from public reporting and from these openly-licensed sources:

• FracTracker Alliance — primary facility-level data
• datacentertracker.org — community actions & legislation (CC BY 4.0)
• Epoch AI — hyperscale + technical metrics (CC BY)
• unitedstates/congress-legislators — federal officials (CC0)
• Geocodio — federal + state officials by address (paid tier when deployed)

All editorial datapoints carry source URLs. Where the source is community-maintained, we follow upstream attribution.

License

• Code: AGPL-3.0-or-later
• Data: CC BY-SA 4.0
• Editorial content (content/learn/): CC BY-SA 4.0

Built in the open by Benjamin Life (@omniharmonic). Suggestions, corrections, and additions welcome — especially missing projects, local-official seeds, and lobbying disclosures.