User Manual

The Home page features a powerful search engine designed for parliamentary procedure. You can choose between two search modes:

• Keyword Search: Finds rulings containing exact matches for your terms in the Title, Body, or AI Summary.
• Semantic Search: Uses Artificial Intelligence to find rulings based on meaning and concepts, even if the exact words are missing. For example, searching for "insults" might find rulings about "unparliamentary language".

Filters

Refine your results using the dropdown menus:

• Tags: Filter by specific procedural keywords (e.g., #Debate, #Privilege).
• Standing Orders: Show only rulings that cite a specific Standing Order.
• Speaker: Limit results to a specific Speaker's tenure.
• Type: Filter by Ruling or Statement.

The "Browse" page features a rich <strong>Card Layout</strong> with integrated <strong>Search and Filtering</strong>. It allows you to explore the entire database with the same powerful tools as the home page.

Filter by Chapter, Speaker, or Ruling Type, and toggle between <strong>Text Preview</strong> and <strong>AI Summary</strong> for each result. You can also sort by Relevance or Date.

The "Topics" page is divided into three main areas:

1. Standing Orders: Clicking a rule (e.g., S.O. 31) will show all rulings that cite it.
2. Selected Decisions: Rulings organized by the chapters of the "Selected Decisions" book. This is a thematic organization of precedents.
3. Terminology: A cloud of Procedural Terms and AI Keywords. The larger the term, the more rulings are associated with it.

The "Speakers" page lists all Speakers of the House included in the database. Each card shows:

• Name and Portrait
• Years of Service
• Total number of rulings in the database

Clicking on a Speaker's card will take you to a pre-filtered search result showing only their rulings.

When viewing a specific ruling, you will see the full text alongside rich metadata and AI analysis.

When a new ruling is fetched from the House of Commons website, our AI reads the entire text and extracts structured data to help you search and organize the precedents. The AI captures:

• Summary: A concise, factual summary of the events that led to the ruling and the Speaker's final decision.
• Outcome: It categorizes the final result (e.g., Sustained, Denied, Taken under advisement).
• Tone: It analyzes the rhetorical tone of the Speaker (e.g., Educational, Stern, Conciliatory) to help you find rulings with a specific "feel".
• Significance Score: A score from 1-10 indicating the procedural importance of the precedent. A higher score means it established a strong new rule or clarified a major issue.
• Tags & Keywords: The AI automatically tags the ruling with the relevant Standing Orders, Procedural Terms, and Book Chapters it relates to.

The Binder allows you to collect rulings for research or drafting purposes.

1. Add to Binder: Click the "Add to Binder" button on any ruling page to save it.
2. Review: Go to "My Binder" to see your saved items. You can remove items or export them.
3. Drafting Lab (How AI Works Here): Located in the top navigation, the Lab allows you to draft a formal Speaker's Ruling from scratch. You provide the facts, the desired tone, and the outcome. Crucially, the AI uses the precedents you saved in your binder as "Style Guides". It reads those old rulings and mimics their exact language, structure, and dignified tone so the output sounds genuinely like the Speaker of the House.
4. Member's Draft Arguments (How AI Works Here): A specialized tool for MPs and staff. You describe a raw concern or grievance. The AI acts as your Senior Procedural Advisor. First, it analyzes your concern and decides if it is procedurally stronger as a Point of Order or a Question of Privilege. Then, it writes a fully formatted speech for the MP to read in the Chamber. It will specifically cite the precedents from your binder (by title and date) and weave their procedural logic into your argument to make it as persuasive as possible.
5. Referenced Precedents: Both drafting tools now include a dynamic list of "Referenced Precedents" in the AI Results box. These provide one-click links to the full rulings the AI utilized, allowing for instant verification of citations.

Authorized users can manage the application data via the Settings page. This includes:

• Sync MPs: Fetches the latest Member of Parliament roster from OurCommons.ca.
• Fetch New Rulings: Scans Hansard for recent rulings, statement and points of order. This process runs in the background to prevent timeouts.
• Live AI Analysis Progress: Monitor the total number of rulings and track exactly how many are waiting for Gemini AI analysis. Simply click "Fetch New Rulings" to automatically process any pending items in the background.
• Background Monitoring: Data fetching now uses non-blocking threads. You can monitor progress directly on the Settings page via the status indicators.