FOIA & Public Records Tools

MuckRock, WhatDoTheyKnow, FOIA Machine — software for filing public-records requests in the US, UK, and EU.

The right to ask "what is the government doing with my money?" is on paper in every democracy, and a thin layer of FOSS makes it actually usable. Pair with Civic Tech Overview, Investigative Journalism Tools, Court Records, and OSINT & Reconnaissance.

Free / FOSS / free-for-public (start here)

★ ★ MuckRock — free for individuals, paid plans for newsrooms / orgs; non-profit; the dominant US FOIA platform. Files federal FOIA + state public-records requests in all 50 states; tracks responses; embargoes; document hosting; 80,000+ requests filed since 2010. Built by journalists. The Python codebase is open (MIT) on GitHub but the production service is operated by MuckRock News, Inc.
★ ★ WhatDoTheyKnow (UK) — AGPL-3.0; completely free; mySociety project; runs on the Alaveteli FOSS platform. Files UK Freedom of Information Act requests; every request and response is published publicly. One of the longest-running civic-tech successes in the world (since 2008).
★ ★ Alaveteli — AGPL-3.0; the FOSS platform under WhatDoTheyKnow. Self-hostable. Used by AskTheEU (EU institutions), TuDerechoaSaber (Spain, archived), Frag den Staat (Germany; runs a fork), Right To Know (Australia), Que Sabes (Uruguay), and others. The reference FOSS FOIA platform globally.
★ FragDenStaat — German FOIA platform; FOSS Django codebase; operated by Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland.
FOIA Machine — free; older US-focused tool; mostly superseded by MuckRock.
FOIA Mapper — free; visualizes the records-system landscape (which agency holds what).
Document Cloud — free for verified journalists; see Investigative Tools.

★ FOIA.gov — federal portal; free; central tracker for federal-agency FOIA backlogs.
★ NFOIC (National Freedom of Information Coalition) — free; state-level FOI guidance.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) — free; Open Government Guide by state; legal hotline for journalists.
iFOIA (RCFP) — free; web tool to file and track federal FOIA requests.

★ ★ DocumentCloud — free for verified journalists; OCR + redaction + annotation; see Investigative Tools.
Aleph — see Investigative Tools; FOSS document-investigation platform from OCCRP.
Datasette — see Investigative Tools; SQLite-as-website for FOIA-released spreadsheets.

Always cite the statute. US: 5 U.S.C. § 552. UK: Freedom of Information Act 2000. EU: Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Be specific. Vague requests get denied or buried. Name the records, the date range, and the format you want.
Public-records portals exist for many state-level US requests — check before paying for a service.
Keep your request public when possible — WhatDoTheyKnow forces this; MuckRock supports it. Public requests get answered faster on average and create precedent for others.
Fees are real. Most agencies waive fees for journalists / non-commercial public interest, but the burden is on you to ask.
Appeal denials. A surprising fraction of denials are reversed on appeal — agencies often deny on autopilot.

MuckRock and WhatDoTheyKnow are the only two FOIA platforms that genuinely matter for individuals and small newsrooms.
Alaveteli is the export-grade software: if you're starting a FOIA platform in a new country, fork Alaveteli, find a fiscal sponsor, and ship.
FOIA backlogs are getting worse, not better. Federal agencies are cutting transparency staff post-2025; most US state PRR processes have gotten slower since 2020.
AI-assisted FOIA review — agencies are starting to use LLMs to redact / process requests, raising serious due-process concerns. Expect public-interest litigation.

US FOIA, single requestor, you don't run a newsroom: MuckRock free tier.
US FOIA, newsroom with many reporters: MuckRock Pro / Enterprise or your own Alaveteli instance.
UK FOI: WhatDoTheyKnow.
EU institutions: AskTheEU.
You want to start a FOIA platform in your country: fork Alaveteli; see mySociety.
You want to host released documents: DocumentCloud (journalists) or Aleph / Datasette (everyone else).