Tools
Working software built by and for real neighborhoods. Each one can be remixed in Relational Builder — describe your block and the tool adapts. 50 in this collection.
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Tool
A community library for my coworking space
A mobile web app for the shared bookshelf at Z-Space. Any member or anyone visiting the space can browse the ~100 book community library,…
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Block Party Organizing
Plan and coordinate neighborhood block parties
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Claude Code
AI-assisted coding, good for prototypes as well as complex, long-term builds. Requires some effort and additional services move projects…
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Cobudget
Collaborative budgeting for real shared money: members propose 'buckets,' everyone allocates their share, projects get funded in the open.…
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Community Apps Dashboard
A directory of community-built digital tools and resources
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Community Clubs Platform
Start and run clubs that gather in real life — created by the BuildIRL team in San Francisco
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Community Income Sharing
Neighbors send a share of their monthly income directly to each other — a Baltimore-born club, concept by Alex Zhu
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CONSUL Democracy
Madrid's open-source citizen participation suite — debates, proposals with signature thresholds, participatory budgets — used by hundreds…
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Decidim
Barcelona's open-source participatory democracy framework — proposals, assemblies, participatory budgets — governed by its own community…
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Dyad
Free, local, open-source AI app builder - community-driven alternative for building apps with AI
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Field Papers + OpenStreetMap
Print a paper atlas of your blocks, walk them with a pen, photograph the pages, and turn the annotations into open map data. Neighborhood…
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Firecrawl
Used to scrape websites and calendars weekly to create a shared neighborhood calendar. It integrates fully into Lovable, allowing for…
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FixMyStreet Platform
mySociety's 'stick a pin in a map' issue-reporting pattern, running since 2007 and forked worldwide — every report public, every fix…
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Footer Component
A remixable footer component for neighborhood websites
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Gathio
No-signup event pages that delete themselves a week after the event. The potluck invite as ephemeral as the potluck.
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GitHub
Version control and collaboration
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Human Essentials
Free, open-source inventory and distribution software built by volunteers for diaper and essentials banks — 200+ banks run on it. The…
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Hyperlocal Neighbor Hub
Bring care, resources, and connection to your block
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Karrot
Groups, places, recurring pickups, and trust-based membership — built by the food-saving movement, and arguably the most…
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LittleSis + Oligrapher
'The opposite of Big Brother': a free who-knows-who database of business and government power, with an open-source relationship-mapping…
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Local Supplies Sharing
Lend and borrow party supplies and event materials with neighbors
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LocalWiki
Dead-simple editable pages and maps for one place's collective knowledge — born as DavisWiki, where one in seven residents contributed.…
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Loomio
Deliberation and formal decisions for small groups — proposals, consent rounds, time polls — from a Wellington worker co-op born out of…
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Lovable
AI-assisted coding, essentially a wrapper on Claude and other models. Relatively expensive if you're only prototyping, but great for…
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Mapeo / CoMapeo
Offline-first mapping and monitoring where data syncs phone-to-phone and never touches a server the community doesn't own. Built with…
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MCP Servers
Lets your apps and data talk to AI assistants directly. The RT MCP server gives your AI tool live access to the Studio library and network…
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Microgrant Management
Streamline microgrants for neighbor gatherings and community projects
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Microgrant Program System
The end-to-end system for running a neighborhood gathering microgrant program: a public application site, a review pipeline with…
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Mobilizon
Framasoft's federated events-and-groups platform — the de-Facebooked neighborhood events board, where RSVPs don't require accounts and…
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Neighbor Story Sharing
Collect and share personal stories from community members
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Neighborhood API
An open feed format for sharing local events and resources across neighborhood tools
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Neighborhood Association Hub
Manage association activities, communications, and member engagement
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Neighborhood Connector Site
Connect neighbors through shared interests, local groups, and community resources
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Neighborhood History (and Future) Walking App
A mobile-first neighborhood walking companion that layers local history, present-day life, and community dreams onto a quiet,…
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Open Food Network
Open-source marketplace software for farmers, food hubs, and buying clubs — 2,500+ enterprises across 15+ countries. A block's buying club…
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Open Referral / HSDS
Not an app — an open data standard for 'who provides what help, where' — so a community's resource directory can be maintained once and…
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Our Neighborhood Today
A community calendar to keep neighbors informed about local happenings
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Pol.is
The wiki-survey that maps a group's actual opinion landscape: everyone writes short statements and votes on each other's; clustering…
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Privacy & Terms Page
A privacy and terms page template for community websites
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Relational Tech Process Guide
The Builder's Spiral — a practice for building technology that deepens community, rooted in place and shaped by neighbors. The 90/10…
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Replit
Collaborative coding platform
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Resend
Email for developers
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Stanford Participatory Budgeting Platform
The free, open-source, multilingual digital ballot box for participatory budgeting — used in 150+ PB processes including New York City…
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Streetmix
Drag-and-drop cross-sections of your street — sidewalks, bike lanes, trees, parking — so a block can show the city what it wants instead…
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Supabase
Backend and database for your apps
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Terrastories
Place-based oral histories on a map the community controls — built with the Matawai Maroon communities of Suriname, offline-capable, and…
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Text-by-Tag
Send targeted texts to neighbors by tag
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Twilio
SMS and communication APIs
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Ushahidi
The Nairobi-born, open-source crowdsourced mapping platform — reports arrive by SMS, web, or email and land on a shared map. Built for…
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Vercel
Cloud hosting service, one option for where apps actually get deployed.