Hand-testing the Spanish ("es") dossier on a Chicago address surfaced
two distinct failures the original "translate everything" prompt
directive caused:
(1) Empty advisor sections. Gemma 4 in Spanish mode helpfully
translated the technical enum values inside the JSON it returned —
"nfip_standard" became "nfip_estandar", bucket "drainage" became
"drenaje". The strict post-parse filter in advisor_agent.py then
silently dropped every insurance_recommendations entry (none matched
a catalog product_id) and the bucket-grouped action renderer
collapsed all mitigation_actions into the "other" bucket (or the
model emitted an empty array, same result). The dossier rendered
with "The advisor agent did not return insurance recommendations
for this address" and only the forced-passthrough city resources
in the action plan. Functionally broken Spanish.
(2) Mixed-language UI chrome. The model-generated prose translated
correctly (verdict, NRI narrative, vision findings, action descriptions
— all Sp…
v0.13: Tier-1 multi-city expansion — Chicago + NYC + SF + LA + Austin
Refactors the Chicago-only local_agent into a city-aware system driven
by a registry. Each registry entry encodes the city's Socrata dataset
IDs, field names, flood-related category codes, and a context blurb
that gets injected into the local-agent prompt so Gemma 4 reasons
about each city's actual sewer system (combined vs separated, dominant
flood mode, local hazard pattern).
Honest per-city availability — what each city's dossier actually shows:
Chicago: full — 311 (WIB/SFL) + permits with reported_cost
(e.g. $80M new medical office at 4822 S Cottage Grove)
NYC: 311 — 391 sewer-flood reports per 350 5th Ave query.
Permits intentionally deferred: DOB datasets are
fragmented (legacy is stale, modern lacks dates,
active is filtered to currently-open jobs).
SF: full — 941 sewer reports + 75 permits at $366M (Mission
test point: '595 basement reports, increa…
Adds a language dropdown in the chrome bar that controls the language
of all user-facing copy in the dossier. Hits the Digital Equity &
Inclusivity track, and is the strongest single demo moment for the
mission framing — a Pilsen homeowner getting their flood-risk briefing
in Spanish without having to translate jargon.
Backend:
- New backend/app/data/languages.py — registry of 7 supported codes
(en, es, zh, vi, ht, ar, tl) covering ~80% of non-English-speaking
households in US flood-prone metros (USCB ACS 2022). normalize()
collapses 'es-MX' → 'es' and unknown codes → 'en'.
- prompt_directive(code) emits the language directive injected into
the risk + advisor agent system prompts. Critical bilingual rule:
user-facing copy translates, but legal product names (NFIP flood
insurance, sewer/water-backup endorsement), URLs, phone numbers,
dollar amounts, and JSON keys stay English. Otherwise the homeowner
can't search/say the right thing to actually buy the product.
- Assess…
advisor: stop inventing insurance products — drive from a verified catalog
The advisor was generating insurance recommendations directly from
Gemma 4's training data, which produced two real inaccuracies in the
Chicago dossier:
- "NFIP Preferred Risk Policy $400-600/yr" — that product was retired
in October 2021 when Risk Rating 2.0 launched; there is no longer
a separate PRP tier.
- "Chicago DWM 312-747-7030" — wrong number. The real DWM line is
311 or 312-744-7000. (This came from the original spec; I propagated
it without verifying.)
For a tool whose mission is reducing the scariness of insurance,
making up products and phone numbers is the opposite of helpful.
Architectural fix:
- New backend/app/data/insurance_catalog.py — hand-curated list of
real, verified flood insurance products (sewer endorsement, NFIP
post-RR2.0, private flood via Neptune/Wright, parametric via
FloodFlash US/Arbol) and city-specific resources (Chicago: MWRD
rain barrels at correct $21.96, CNT RainReady, real DWM phone).
- Advisor agent now passes the catalog into…
