Agora Is National Now, and New York Is the First Rung

On August 1, 2026 we revised the decision about where Agora begins. Its scope is the United States. Local and state data is deepest in New York, which is where the alpha and the writing start. Expansion follows population and available data, so California and Texas come next.

This updates what we wrote in April

In April we published a post called Choosing a First City, which argued for starting in one place and building outward. That framing is too narrow now, and we would rather correct it here than leave it standing.

What changed is the data. Federal legislative records are national and reachable through one set of public interfaces, so serving every address at the national level cost us far less than serving a second city at the local level. Building outward from a city was the right instinct with the wrong unit.

The rule we hold ourselves to

Our writing and our outreach must not run more than one step ahead of what the product can serve. A good explainer about a city Agora cannot cover spends a first impression to deliver a disappointment.

So the National lens is live everywhere, our local and state coverage is honest about where it is thin, and the app says so on screen rather than in a footnote.