Think of substrate as the base layer—the common ground where we can all work together to understand problems and drive solutions forward. Instead of fragmented discussions and reinventing the wheel, Substrate gives us one place to:
- Document problems → What's actually broken, with evidence
- Track solutions → What works, what doesn't, with results
- Connect progress → Link people, organizations, and projects actually moving things forward
- Build on each other → Arguments and ideas that build on shared evidence
- Measure outcomes → Did it work? What actually changed?
The Purpose: Accelerate Human Progress
We can't solve problems we don't understand. We can't build on solutions we can't find. Substrate provides:
- 🎯 Shared understanding → One place to understand what's wrong and what works
- 🚀 Faster progress → Build on existing knowledge instead of starting over
- 📊 Evidence-based action → Ground decisions in authoritative data, not opinions
- 🔗 Connected knowledge → See how problems, solutions, people, and data interconnect
- 🌍 Collective intelligence → Human insight + AI analysis working together toward progress
An open-source framework connecting 17+ knowledge components:
graph TB
subgraph "🌍 The Substrate"
A[🧩 Problems]
B[💡 Solutions]
C[📊 Data Sources]
D[🗣️ Arguments]
E[📋 Claims]
F[👥 People]
G[🏢 Organizations]
H[🚀 Projects]
I[📈 Plans]
J[🎯 Values]
K[💭 Ideas]
end
L[👤 Human Contributors] --> A
L --> B
L --> D
M[🤖 AI Analysis] --> A
M --> B
M --> D
A -.connects to.-> B
B -.connects to.-> C
D -.connects to.-> C
E -.connects to.-> C
F -.connects to.-> G
G -.connects to.-> H
H -.connects to.-> B
A --> N[🔍 Shared Understanding]
B --> N
C --> N
D --> N
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Tip
October 2025 - Massive Data Expansion!
We just added 8 authoritative data sources measuring human wellbeing beyond traditional economic metrics. Now track financial stress, health crises, social connection, worker agency, and environmental health.
📅 Latest Updates (Click to expand)
5 NEW US Wellbeing Data Sources:
| Added | Source | What It Measures |
|---|---|---|
| 🆕 | DS-00004 FRED Economic Wellbeing | Debt stress, unemployment, inequality |
| 🆕 | DS-00005 CDC WONDER Mortality | Overdoses, suicides, deaths of despair |
| 🆕 | DS-00006 Census ACS Social | Living alone, commute times, isolation |
| 🆕 | DS-00007 BLS JOLTS Labor | Worker "permission to quit" index |
| 🆕 | DS-00008 EPA Air Quality | PM2.5, ozone, environmental health |
Why This Matters:
"If we measure only GDP and unemployment, we will miss the slow-motion collapse of human thriving happening in plain sight."
These sources capture:
- 💰 Leading indicators - Financial stress predicts recessions
- 🎭 Behavioral truth - Actions reveal what surveys miss
- 🏗️ Structural determinants - Air quality you can't "self-care" out of
- 🚨 Crisis detection - County-level suffering visibility
- 🆓 Worker agency - Quit rate = economic freedom measure
- ✅ Pulitzer Prize, GDP, inflation data refreshed
- ✅ Knowledge Worker Salaries validation completed
- 🏗️ Library science methodology (8-dimension evaluation)
- ⚡ TypeScript automation with auto-discovery
- 📊 Central logging and health monitoring
- 📚 Complete documentation suite
📜 Previous Updates (Click to expand)
- ✅ Claims, Arguments, and Values frameworks
- ✅ 6+ community contributors
- ✅ 10+ merged pull requests
- ✅ TELOS integration
- ✅ Extended component types (Plans, Ideas, Models)
- ✅ Improved documentation structure
- ✅ Enhanced contribution guidelines
- ✅ Single-repo structure with 17+ object types
- ✅ Core framework and documentation
- ✅ Public launch with initial datasets
- ✅ Community contribution framework
Note
All data sources include complete library science cataloging with 8-dimension evaluation: Authority, Currency, Objectivity, Accuracy, Methodology, Coverage, Reliability, and Provenance.
Important
We know data can be controversial. That's exactly why we:
- 📊 Collect from multiple sources - Cross-reference data from different authoritative providers
- 🔍 Provide complete transparency - Every source fully documented with provenance, methodology, and limitations
- 📝 Full logging - All data pulls logged with timestamps, source versions, and processing steps
- 🔓 Open source everything - TypeScript update scripts show exactly how data is fetched and transformed
You can verify, audit, and challenge our data. That's the point.
| Dataset | Time Span | Data Points | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 US GDP | 1929-2025 | 96 years + 314 quarters | FRED/BEA | ✅ Active |
| 💵 US Inflation | 1947-2025 | 945 months | FRED/BLS | ✅ Active |
| 🦠 Bay Area COVID Wastewater | 2022-2025 | 161 weeks | CDPH | ✅ Active |
| 🏆 Pulitzer Prize Winners | 1918-2024 | 249 winners | Wikidata | ✅ Active |
| 💼 Knowledge Worker Salaries | Global | Multi-region | Research | ✅ Active |
🌍 Global Health & Development (Click to expand)
| ID | Name | Coverage | Indicators | Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DS-00001 | WHO Global Health Observatory | 194 countries | 2,000+ health indicators | Quarterly |
| DS-00002 | UN SDG Indicators | 193 countries | 231 SDG targets | Biannual |
| DS-00003 | World Bank Open Data | Global | Development metrics | Varies |
🇺🇸 US Human Wellbeing (October 2025)
| Source | Key Indicators | Why It Matters | Update Freq |
|---|---|---|---|
| DS-00004 FRED Economic |
• Debt service ratio • Credit card delinquency • Financial stress index • Underemployment (U-6) • Consumer sentiment • GINI inequality |
💰 Economic Security Foundation Debt >12% = stress, >14% = crisis. Leading indicator of recession. |
Weekly to Annual |
| DS-00005 CDC WONDER |
• Drug overdose deaths • Opioid-specific deaths • Suicide rates • All-cause mortality |
🚨 Crisis Detection Deaths of despair reveal community breakdown surveys miss. County-level visibility. |
Annual (1-2yr lag) |
| DS-00006 Census ACS |
• Living alone (isolation) • Commute times (time poverty) • No internet (digital divide) • Household demographics |
🤝 Social Connection Structural isolation and time poverty constrain flourishing. Census tract granularity. |
Annual |
| DS-00007 BLS JOLTS |
• Quit rate (worker agency) • Job openings • Hire rate • Layoff/discharge rate |
🆓 "Permission to Quit" People only quit when they have options. Measures economic freedom and dignity. |
Monthly |
| DS-00008 EPA Air Quality |
• PM2.5 (particulate matter) • Ozone (O3) • SO2, CO, NO2 • AQI exceedances |
🌫️ Environmental Health You can't "self-care" out of breathing toxic air. Structural wellbeing constraint. |
Real-time |
Tip
Combine multiple data sources to create powerful wellbeing metrics:
- 💸 Financial Stress Composite - Debt + delinquency + evictions + stress index
- 🚨 Crisis Alert Composite - Overdoses + suicides + long-term unemployment
- 🤝 Community Health Composite - Living alone + commute + digital divide (inverted)
- 🆓 Worker Agency Index - Quit rate + job openings / unemployment
- 🌫️ Environmental Health Index - PM2.5 + ozone (inverted)
→ Wellbeing Implementation Guide | → Data Directory
Substrate provides the pieces. You and your AI create the connections.
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Everything is designed for dual consumption:
- ✅ Human-readable - Markdown and CSV anyone can open
- ✅ Machine-parseable - Consistent formats AI can query
- ✅ Fully documented - Complete methodology for every dataset
- ✅ Linked with IDs - Unambiguous entity references
🔍 OSINT & Investigation
- Cross-reference public records, corporate filings, government data
- Link people → organizations → transactions → policies
- Surface connections invisible in isolated databases
- Build evidence chains from claims to verifiable records
- Pattern detection for fraud, corruption, illicit networks
📊 Research & Analysis
- Track claims against authoritative data sources
- Evaluate argument quality based on evidence backing
- Compare solutions across different implementations
- Measure progress toward stated goals with real metrics
- Cross-correlate economic, health, social, environmental data
🌐 Public Accountability
- Verify political claims against documented evidence
- Track campaign promises → policy outcomes → measured results
- Link donations → voting records → policy positions
- Monitor government spending against stated objectives
- Environmental justice analysis (who breathes toxic air?)
All datasets are available as CSV and Markdown files you can browse directly:
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/danielmiessler/Substrate.git
cd Substrate
# Explore core datasets
ls Data/*/
# Explore wellbeing data sources
ls Data-Sources/*/Warning
Requires Bun runtime. Install: curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
# Install dependencies
bun install
# Update a specific dataset
cd Data/US-GDP
bun run update.ts
# Update a wellbeing source (requires API key)
export FRED_API_KEY="your_key_here"
cd Data-Sources/DS-00004—FRED_Economic_Wellbeing
bun run update.ts
# Update all datasets
bun run scripts/update-all.ts| Data Source | Get Key | Rate Limit |
|---|---|---|
| FRED Economic | fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api | 120 req/min |
| Census ACS | api.census.gov/data/key_signup | 500 req/day |
| EPA Air Quality | Email: aqs.support@epa.gov | 10 req/min |
| BLS JOLTS | bls.gov/developers/home | 500 req/day |
| CDC WONDER | No key required | Fair use |
→ Complete Getting Started Guide | → Quick Reference
Important
Anyone can submit components. No gatekeeping on ideas—just structured formats.
|
📋 Problems
💡 Solutions
📈 Plans
|
🗣️ Arguments
📊 Data
💭 Ideas
|
👥 People & Orgs
📏 Metrics
🎯 Values
|
- Fork the repository on GitHub
- Add your component in the appropriate directory (
Problems/,Solutions/, etc.) - Follow the format in that directory's README
- Submit a Pull Request
Note
We're building a web interface to make this easier for non-technical contributors!
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Phase 1: Foundation (July 2024)
- ✅ Single-repo structure with 17+ object types
- ✅ Core framework and documentation
- ✅ Public launch with initial datasets
- ✅ Community contribution framework
Phase 2: Community (Aug-Sep 2024)
- ✅ Claims, Arguments, and Values frameworks
- ✅ 6+ community contributors
- ✅ 10+ merged pull requests
- ✅ TELOS integration
Phase 3: Data Infrastructure (Oct 2025) 🔥
- ✅ 13 authoritative data sources (5 core + 8 wellbeing)
- ✅ Library science methodology (8-dimension evaluation)
- ✅ TypeScript automation system with Bun runtime
- ✅ 6,000+ lines of documentation across all sources
- ✅ Comprehensive wellbeing indicators (economic, health, social, labor, environmental)
- ✅ Free API access with rate limiting and retry logic
Phase 4: Enhanced Access (Q4 2025 - Q1 2026)
- 🎨 Web-based contribution interface (no coding required)
- 📊 Interactive data visualizations
- 🔌 RESTful API for programmatic access
- 📱 Mobile-friendly exploration
Phase 5: Dataset Expansion (2026)
- 🌍 Additional international sources (UNICEF, OECD, IHME)
- ⚡ Real-time data feeds integration
- 🗳️ Community-driven dataset requests
- 🤝 Partnerships with research institutions
Phase 6: Intelligence Layer (2026+)
- 🤖 Automated relationship discovery
- 📈 Confidence scoring for AI-suggested links
- 🎯 Pattern detection algorithms
- 🔔 Email/Slack notifications for data updates
- 📚 Machine-readable catalog (DCAT/CKAN compliance)
Substrate provides evidence. TELOS provides intention.
| TELOS (Goals & Strategy) | Substrate (Evidence & Solutions) |
|---|---|
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Together: Complete system for intention + evidence-based action.
Daniel Miessler • July 2024
Inspiration & Contributions:
- Jonathan Dunn @xssdoctor - Similar vision and collaboration
- Joel Parish - Structure wisdom and guidance
- Joseph Thacker - Continuous flow of innovative ideas
Community Contributors:
@ThatNateGuy • @JaymanW • @karai114 • @DesertEaglePWN • @ktfth
Data: 13 sources • 1,700+ data points • 107-year span (1918-2025)
Code: TypeScript automation • 6,000+ lines documentation • GitHub Actions
Community: 6+ contributors • 10+ PRs merged • 17 object types
Built with ❤️ for human understanding and progress
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