Red Tape Reporter

A web application for collecting, verifying, and publicly sharing reports of bureaucratic inefficiencies in Los Angeles government. Residents can submit reports anonymously or with attribution, and approved reports are published as stories that the public can browse, vote on, and comment on.

Features

• Report submission — Public form with email verification
• Admin review — Approve, export (PDF), or delete incoming reports
• Public stories — Browse and filter approved reports
• Engagement — Token-based anonymous voting and commenting on stories
• Issues — Curated issues with community support and threaded comments
• Audit logging — Admin actions are logged with IP and metadata
• Rate limiting — Per-IP and per-email limits on submissions and password resets
• Email notifications — Verification, approval, and admin alerts via Resend
• Sitemap — Auto-generated for SEO

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Language	Ruby 3.4.6
Framework	Rails 8.0.3
Database	PostgreSQL (SQLite in development)
Frontend	Hotwire (Turbo + Stimulus), Propshaft
Background jobs	Solid Queue
Caching	Solid Cache
WebSockets	Solid Cable
Web server	Puma + Thruster
Email	Resend
PDF generation	Prawn
Security	Rack::Attack, Brakeman
Deployment	Kamal
Error tracking	Sentry

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Ruby 3.4.6
• PostgreSQL (or SQLite for local development)
• Node.js (for importmap auditing)

Setup

git clone <repo-url>
cd red_tape_reporter

bundle install
bin/rails db:setup
bin/rails server

The app will be available at http://localhost:3000.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
RAILS_MASTER_KEY	Decrypts config/credentials.yml.enc
DATABASE_URL	Database connection string (production)
DB_HOST / DB_PORT / DB_USER / DB_PASSWORD	Individual DB config (alternative to DATABASE_URL)
RAILS_ENV	development, test, or production
RAILS_LOG_LEVEL	Log verbosity
RAILS_MAX_THREADS	Puma thread count

Running Tests

bin/rails test
bin/rails test:system   # Capybara + Chrome system tests

Linting & Security

bundle exec rubocop          # Style checks
bundle exec brakeman         # Security vulnerability scan
bin/rails importmap:audit    # JS dependency audit

CI/CD

GitHub Actions runs on every push:

1. Brakeman security scan
2. ImportMap JS audit
3. RuboCop
4. Full test suite (including system tests)

Deployment

The app is deployed with Kamal. See config/deploy.yml for configuration.

kamal deploy

Key Routes

Route	Description
GET /	Landing page
POST /reports	Submit a report
GET /verify/:token	Email verification
GET /stories	Browse approved reports
GET /stories/:id	Individual story
POST /stories/:id/vote	Vote on a story
POST /stories/:id/comments	Comment on a story
GET /issues	Browse curated issues
GET /admin/reports	Admin dashboard

Admin Access

Admin accounts are managed via the User model with has_secure_password. There is no public registration — admin users must be created via the Rails console.

User.create!(email: "admin@example.com", password: "...", password_confirmation: "...")

Rate Limits

• 30 report submissions per hour per IP
• 30 report submissions per day per email address
• 5 password reset requests per hour per IP

License

See LICENSE for details.