OpenCity Stack is a modular, open-source platform that helps local governments manage services, publish data, and interact with citizens online — without vendor lock-in.
It provides a common digital backbone for municipalities of any size, from small towns to large metropolitan areas.
Cities don’t need more apps, they need shared infrastructure.
Lead Architect, OpenCity Stack
If we design it openly and govern it together, every line of code we ship today can quietly make millions of lives a little easier tomorrow.
Most municipalities still run on fragmented legacy systems, paper workflows, and closed software from multiple vendors. As a result:
- citizens don’t have a single, consistent way to request services or track issues;
- public data is hard to access or locked inside proprietary tools;
- every new digital project becomes a one-off integration nightmare;
- long-term costs grow, while control over infrastructure shrinks.
OpenCity Stack is designed to change that.
The solution: a structured digital backbone for cities
OpenCity Stack provides a shared infrastructure layer that cities can adopt and extend:
- a unified way to model services, cases, and requests;
- open APIs for existing systems to plug into;
- built-in tools for publishing open data and dashboards;
- citizen-facing portals and forms that are easy to configure, not hard-coded.
Key capabilities
Monitoring & Observability
Dashboards and alerting for platform health, performance, and service usage, helping cities understand where infrastructure needs attention.
Service & Case Management
Configure municipal services (permits, requests, complaints, applications) as structured workflows with clear states, SLAs, and ownership.
Citizen Portal & Forms
Web and mobile-friendly interfaces where residents can submit requests, upload documents, and track status in real time.
Open Data & Transparency
Built-in open data portal with configurable datasets, automatic updates from transactional systems, and basic analytics dashboards.
API & Integration Layer
An API gateway and integration hub that connects legacy systems (billing, GIS, document management, CRM) into a single, standardized interface.
Identity & Access Control
Role-based access for municipal staff, external partners, and, where needed, citizen identity providers — with audit logs for every action.
Architecture & technology
OpenCity Stack is built as a modular, open-source platform:
- containerized services that can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud;
- API-first design to make integration with existing city systems straightforward;
- multi-tenant support for regional deployments serving multiple municipalities;
- configuration over customization: most behavior is driven by schemas and definitions, not hard-coded logic;
- fully documented public APIs and data models, so cities keep control of their own infrastructure.
All core components are released under a permissive open-source license to encourage reuse, contributions, and independent audits.
Governance and sustainability
OpenCity Stack is designed to be vendor-neutral:
- cities can self-host, work with local IT providers, or collaborate with each other;
- no proprietary lock-in — data models and APIs are open and documented;
- community governance model for roadmap decisions, with public RFCs and issue tracking.
This structure helps municipalities avoid repeating the same mistakes in parallel and instead share a common foundation.
How funding is used
Support for OpenCity Stack will be directed to:
- building and stabilizing core modules (service registry, workflow engine, open data portal, integration hub);
- pilots with early-adopter municipalities, including migration from legacy tools;
- security reviews and penetration testing of the public-facing components;
- localization (languages, regulatory specifics) for different regions;
- documentation, training materials, and community support channels.
By funding this project, supporters help create a reusable public digital infrastructure layer that any city can adopt, adapt, and extend.
