A reusable framework for creating and storing FollowTheMoney entities.

Warning

This is a work in progress. Expect breaking changes and incomplete features.

Muckrake

Muckrake is the data pipeline. It is partially inspired by zavod and other tools in the FollowTheMoney ecosystems.

Run uv run muckrake --help for a full list of available commands.

Install Python dependencies with uv sync. This now includes the external org-id package used for structured organization identifiers.

OpenLobbying-specific code now lives in the sibling ../openlobbying/ repository. That repo owns:

• the OpenLobbying dataset crawlers
• the OpenLobbying FastAPI application
• the OpenLobbying Svelte frontend
• any project-specific FtM schema extensions
• deployment assets for the public site

Crawlers

Muckrake discovers crawler configs from ./datasets/ in the current working directory and any paths listed in MUCKRAKE_DATASET_PATHS. At a minimum, each dataset consists of a config.yml with metadata and a crawler.py script that outputs FollowTheMoney statements in CSV format.

To crawl a dataset, run uv run muckrake crawl {dataset_name}. Run uv run muckrake list to see available datasets.

Each crawl now creates a dataset_runs record in Postgres and stores immutable artifacts under MUCKRAKE_ARTIFACT_PATH (defaults to data/artifacts). The latest successful run remains mirrored into data/datasets/{name}/statements.pack.csv for local compatibility.

Units of work and --retry-failed

A crawler can split its work into independently retryable units (one source file, one page, one record) by wrapping each in dataset.run_unit(key, func, *args). A unit's statements reach the pack only if func returns. If it raises, the unit is recorded as failed, nothing from it is emitted, and the crawl carries on. A crawl that completes with failed units finishes as partial: its output is usable by load and release-build, and the failures are counted by error type in the run's stats and the end-of-crawl log. Errors outside a unit still fail the whole crawl.

Each run writes a units.jsonl ledger next to its pack, recording where every succeeded unit sits in the pack. uv run muckrake crawl {dataset_name} --retry-failed copies the units that succeeded in the dataset's latest crawl into a new run and re-runs everything else. That covers both retrying failures (e.g. after a parser fix) and resuming a crawl that crashed or was killed partway. Pack and ledger are written in place under the run's artifact directory as the crawl goes, so even a killed crawl leaves its completed units behind.

Completeness warnings

When a crawler knows its output is missing something (a pagination cap was hit, an API returned fewer items than it reported, a linked file has gone), it records it with dataset.warn_incomplete(reason, **context) rather than only logging it. Keep reason a fixed phrase and put the specifics in context. The run finishes as partial, the warnings are counted by reason in the end-of-crawl log and listed in the run's stats, and warnings raised inside a unit are carried over by --retry-failed. release-build logs every partial input and records what it's missing (failed units and warnings by reason) in the release manifest.

AI-based NER

Many data sources have composite fields that contain multiple entities. We use LLMs to extract unique entities and relationships from these fields, and store them as candidates in the database for review and approval. See NER docs for details.

# Create extraction candidates for one dataset
uv run muckrake ner-extract open_access --extractor llm --limit 50

# Review candidates in a terminal UI
uv run muckrake ner-review

Dedupe

Our goal is to link entities across datasets to provide a unified view of lobbying and political finance for any given person, company, or organisation.

# Create dedupe candidates across all datasets
uv run muckrake xref

# Review candidates in a terminal UI
uv run muckrake dedupe

We also want to collapse duplicate relationship edges across datasets, especially for ORCL and PRCA. This is done automatically, no review step required.

uv run muckrake dedupe-edges

Loading

Statements are loaded into Postgres with uv run muckrake load. This reads the statements CSV files and applies any approved NER candidates before materialising entities and relationships.

A load is atomic: every dataset in it is cleared and reloaded in a single transaction, so a load that fails partway leaves the previously loaded statements in place. A dataset with no statements pack is skipped with a warning, and its loaded statements are kept.

To load from a specific immutable crawl snapshot instead of the local workspace copy:

uv run muckrake load gb_political_finance --run-id 123

For the published site, prefer the release workflow instead of loading directly into the serving database:

uv run muckrake release-build
uv run muckrake release-publish 1

Publishing is atomic: the previous release is cleared and the new one written in a single transaction, so readers keep seeing the previous release until the new one commits, and a failed publish leaves it in place.

OpenLobbying

The primary user of Muckrake data is OpenLobbying, an open database of lobbying and political finance data. See ../openlobbying/README.md for app setup, API serving, and frontend development.

Environment setup

• Copy .env.example to .env in the repo root.
• By default muckrake loads the nearest .env from the current working directory upward. Override that with MUCKRAKE_ENV_FILE if needed.
• Default local database setup:
  • working DB: sqlite:///data/muckrake.db
  • published DB: same as the working DB unless MUCKRAKE_PUBLISHED_DATABASE_URL is set
• Required only if you want Postgres:
  • MUCKRAKE_DATABASE_URL
• Common local settings:
  • MUCKRAKE_PUBLISHED_DATABASE_URL for a separate published API database
• Optional local overrides:
  • MUCKRAKE_DATA_PATH
  • MUCKRAKE_ARTIFACT_PATH
  • MUCKRAKE_DATASET_PATHS
  • MUCKRAKE_FTM_SCHEMA_PATHS
  • MUCKRAKE_ENV_FILE
  • FTM_MODEL_PATH if you need to override the merged FollowTheMoney model entirely
  • OPENROUTER_API_KEY, LLM_MODEL, NER_LLM_PROMPT_FILE, LOGFIRE_TOKEN
• Example:

cp .env.example .env

Consumers

• ../openlobbying/: OpenLobbying application repo built on top of muckrake
• ../us-congress-lobbying/: project-specific investigative sandbox