Akashic documentation

Akashic is a source-first atlas of American political geography. These documents explain what the product contains, how its figures are made, where the source data comes from, what the public interfaces guarantee, and how to cite or reuse the work.

Choose your path

I am reading a place page

Begin with Getting started. It explains margins, swing, election history, demographics, comparison geographies, provenance, and the difference between native and estimated local results.

I am a journalist or creator

Use the Citation and reuse guide for attribution language, stable links, embeds, screenshots, and the evidence to capture when publishing a figure.

I am a researcher or data reuser

Start in the Data overview, then use the data dictionary, coverage contract, and source register. The methodology pages document transformations and limitations.

I am a developer

Start with the API overview. Akashic exposes versioned JSON manifests, static data records, long-tail place responses, oEmbed, iframe widgets, and a read-only MCP server. Public read interfaces do not require an API key unless a page explicitly says otherwise.

Documentation layers

Every page declares its layer:

• Orientation — what this area is and where to begin.
• Concept — the mental model behind a feature or method.
• Reference — exact fields, routes, formats, commands, and contracts.
• Deep dive — evidence, transformations, edge cases, and limitations.

Orientation pages point to detail instead of copying it. Reference pages state exactly what is shipped; planned interfaces are not documented as live.

Core factual contract

• The complete presidential record presented as a continuous national product is 1892–2024.
• Earlier 1876–1888 returns are partial and are labeled partial wherever they appear.
• Place pages span national, regional, state, county, metropolitan, media-market, congressional, state-legislative, city, Census-place, American Nation, and user-created Place geographies at different depths.
• Sub-county election history depends on available precinct and block geography and does not have the same historical depth as county-level results.
• Every published number should have a provenance path: source, vintage, geography, method, and known limitation.

Public documentation status

The documentation is maintained in the same repository as the product. Each page identifies its owner, evidence level, lifecycle status, and review date. The changelog records material documentation and data-contract changes.

When a current production observation conflicts with a document, trust the source and report the mismatch. Documentation is a contract, not a substitute for checking the underlying record.