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For newsrooms, watchdogs & oversight desks

Data in.Intelligence out.

Confident answers are easy. Aculeus puts every claim on trial against the primary record — and files the verdict as publishable, fully-cited media.

▸ Ask Aculeus — sample investigations
What’s behind Coastal Futures Action Fund’s federal grants?
A chatbot’s answer — confident, fast, and partly invented:
Coastal Futures took in $2.4M in federal grants in FY2024 — its largest award on record.
✓ SUPPORTEDUSASPENDING · $2,400,000
The fund is under federal investigation for grant misuse.
✕ FABRICATEDWe pulled every federal docket — no such case. The chatbot invented it.
Its scope overlaps with voter-registration drives in two states.
⊘ WITHHELDNo filing supports this — we won’t assert it.
An affiliated PAC spent $310,402 in the same cycle.
✚ FOUNDFEC · SCHEDULE E
A board member directs the grant’s named subrecipient.
✚ FOUNDIRS 990 · SCHEDULE R
Aculeus
@aculeus · audited

Federal grants flowed to a fund whose board spans the grantee. Coastal Futures’ $2.4M FY2024 award01 was its largest on record. An affiliated PAC spent $310,402 that cycle02, and a board member directs the grant’s named subrecipient03.

Provenance · every line cited
[01] USASPENDING · award[02] FEC · Schedule E[03] IRS 990 · Schedule R
⊞ Verify every line● every line cited
For newsrooms, watchdogs & oversight desks

Data in. Intelligence out.

A chatbot gives you a confident answer. Aculeus puts every claim on trial against the primary record.

What’s behind Coastal Futures Action Fund’s federal grants?
The chatbot’s answer — audited line by line
Coastal Futures took in $2.4M in federal grants in FY2024 — its largest award on record.
✓ SUPPORTEDUSASPENDING · $2,400,000
The fund is under federal investigation for grant misuse.
✕ FABRICATEDWe pulled every federal docket — no such case. The chatbot invented it.
An affiliated PAC spent $310,402 in the same cycle.
✚ FOUNDFEC · SCHEDULE E
Published — and it cites itself
Aculeus
@aculeus · audited

Federal grants flowed to a fund whose board spans the grantee. Coastal Futures’ $2.4M FY2024 award01 was its largest on record. An affiliated PAC spent $310,402 that cycle02, and a board member directs the grant’s named subrecipient03.

3 primary sources · every line cited
▾  Scroll to check every line
01 · What we hold to

Three things, held on every Case.

Most tools optimize one of these and trade away the other two. Privacy, depth, and a human on the call hold on every Case.

Privacy

Sealed.

Your documents stay yours. Nothing trains on them. Purge anytime. No bleed across tenants. Run it in your own environment when the work demands it.

BYO DOCUMENTS · NEVER TRAINED ON · NEVER SOLD · PURGE ON DEMAND
ON REQUEST: DATA RESIDENCY (SUBJECT TO A COMPLIANT PROVIDER + DPA)
Depth

The work behind the claim.

Aculeus reads the primary record, works out what it means, finds the gaps, runs a second pass, and carries the counter to its own read. Every line has a receipt. Where the record runs thin, it says so on the page.

PRIMARY RECORD · SECOND-ORDER READ · GAP ANALYSIS · THE COUNTER CARRIED · A RECEIPT FOR EVERY LINE
◇● Human in the loop

You make the call.

You and the engine work side by side. It brings the deep read. You question it, cut what is thin, ask for more, and make the call. Nothing ships without you. The work is the engine's. The judgment is yours.

ENGINE PROPOSES · YOU DIRECT · IT RESPONDS · YOU DECIDE · YOUR CALL GOES ON THE RECORD
02 · How it runs

One loop. You make the call.

◇ ENGINE
Watch
Watch the record. Surface what is worth a Case.
◇ ENGINE
Build
Read the primary record in depth. Build the cited Case.
● YOU + ◇ ENGINE
The Call
Work the Case together. You make the call.
● YOU + ◇ ENGINE
Dispatch
Turn the Case into the piece you publish or file.
◇ ENGINE
Edge
What you kept, cut, and led on is recorded, so the next Case starts from your judgment.
● sealed to your workspace

The Watch surfaces it. The engine builds the Case. You make the Call. Aculeus files the Dispatch. What you kept, cut, and led on banks to your Edge, so the next Case starts from your judgment. All of it stays sealed.

03 · Depth

A claim is cheap. The work is everything behind it.

Past capture, Aculeus works out what the record means, looks for what is missing, goes back for it, carries the counter to its own read, and pulls a receipt for every line.

01
Intake
Read the brief. Classify intent.
02
The record
Pull official and primary sources.
03
Capture
Fetch the pages, save the evidence.
most tools stop here
04
Gap + second pass
Find what is missing. Go back for it.
05
Read + counter + receipts
What it means, the counter, a quote per line.

FIVE OF FOURTEEN STAGES SHOWN. THE WORK PAST CAPTURE IS THE PRODUCT.

04 · The Case

The Case. The work behind the claim.

A Case is the unit of intelligence. It carries the read, the counter, the signal to watch, and a receipt for every line. Where the record cannot carry a claim, it flags it instead of papering over it. This one is from the Oversight playbook. Tap any claim to open its receipt.

CASE · OVERSIGHT · SAMPLE47 REVIEWED · 4 CITED · CONFIDENCE MODERATE● SEALED
▸ TAP A CLAIM TO PULL ITS RECEIPT
USASPENDING · AWARD DETAIL · FY2024“Award amount: $2,400,000. Recipient: Coastal Futures Action Fund.”USASPENDING.GOV
FEC · SCHEDULE E“Independent expenditures: $310,402.”FEC.GOV
IRS 990 · SCHEDULE R · RELATED ORGANIZATIONS“Related organization, common officer.”IRS.GOV · FORM 990
PROGRAM NARRATIVE · AMBIGUOUSNo primary document ties the federal funds to registration work. The link rests on a program summary, not a record. It will not ship as fact.
What it means

The filings establish a funding relationship and overlapping leadership worth a closer look. They do not, on the current record, establish misuse. The decisive question, whether federal dollars touched registration work, is not answered by any primary document in hand.

The counter · carried

Federal awards to advocacy-adjacent nonprofits are common and lawful. The overlapping board role is disclosed on the 990, not concealed, and is not improper on its face. The two-state overlap rests on a program summary and should not be published as fact.

The edge is not pulling it first. It is understanding it first.

05 · The Call

The Call. You direct. You decide.

This is the human in the loop, and it is built to feel like running a sharp analyst, not approving a ticket. The engine brings a proposed Case. You direct it line by line — keep what holds, cut what is thin, make a claim the lead — and note what you pushed on. Your notes are private, banked to your Edge, not a chat. When it is right, you make the call. The work is the engine's. The judgment, and the accountability, are yours.

The Call · Coastal Futures · OversightSEALED · YOUR WORKSPACE
Proposed Case ◇ by the engine
Coastal Futures received $2.4M in federal grant obligations in FY2024, its largest single award on record.[01]
USASPENDING Supported · you made this the lead
Its affiliated PAC reported $310K in independent expenditures in the same cycle.[02]
FEC Supported · you kept this
A board member also directs the grant's named subrecipient nonprofit.[03]
IRS 990 Supported · you kept this
The grant's program scope overlaps with voter-registration activity in two states.[04]
Flagged · thin · you cut this
Your push-notes ● banked to the Edge
You · made lead
The $2.4M in federal grants is the lead. Cleanest receipt, carries the Case.
You · cut
Claim 4 is thin — no primary source ties the federal funds to registration. Cut it rather than imply the link.
You · kept
Keep the read tight to the disclosed funding relationship. It does not imply misuse, and I want it to stay that way.
01:12
on this call
ON YOUR CALL, ACULEUS RECORDS WHAT YOU KEPT, CUT, AND MADE THE LEAD, YOUR NOTES, YOUR SEAT, THE TIME. THIS BECOMES YOUR WORKSPACE'S EDGE SEALED · FOR YOU · NEVER TRAINED ON YOUR DOCUMENTS · NEVER ACROSS TENANTS.

Your direction is the point. The engine's proposed Case on the left; your calls and notes on the right, banked to your Edge. The engine never ships alone. You never start from a blank page.

06 · The Dispatch

The Dispatch. Your Case, in the form you need.

Once you make the call, the engine turns the Case into the piece you publish or file. An op-ed, an article, a report, a memo, a filing. It chooses emphasis and order. It cannot add a fact, cannot drop the counter, and never writes an attribution. Attributions are injected by code, and a second model verifies the dispatch against the record before you see it.

In the Newsroom and Campaign playbooks, a dispatch tunes to the audience in front of you. The emphasis moves. The record does not. Pick a door and watch the order change while the receipts and the counter hold.

Door in: the record, first
  1. 01In PPIC's May 2026 survey, Californians name cost of living the most important issue.PPIC.ORGSupported
  2. 0261% of Texas voters are very concerned about the price of gas, up 23 points since February.UTEXAS.EDUSupported
  3. 0382% of Texas voters are more likely to back candidates who prioritize lowering healthcare prices.TEXAS2036.ORGSupported
  4. 04More than two-thirds of Mainers are concerned about the cost of living.THEMAINEWIRE.COMSupported
  5. 05Immigration stays a top-tier issue in Maine, cutting against a purely affordability message.LWVME.ORGCounter — carried

SAME ATOMS · THIS AUDIENCE'S ORDER · THE COUNTER CANNOT BE DROPPED · ATTRIBUTION INJECTED BY CODE, NEVER A MODEL · NEWSROOM PLAYBOOK · ILLUSTRATIVE UNTIL LIVE ENGINE OUTPUT IS CACHED.

Different doors. Same receipts.

07 · Sealed

Sealed. Private by default.

Your documents stay yours. Nothing trains on them. Purge anytime. That is the default, not a setting you go find. Bring your own documents and data; Aculeus uses them only to build your Cases, never sells them, and never trains models on them. You can purge your workspace's intelligence and your uploaded documents on demand. (Fetched public-record source text is deduplicated in a shared cache — it is public record, not your private data.)

On request: Aculeus runs in your own environment, with data residency available — subject to a configured compliant provider and a signed DPA.

The model is a part, not the product.

Aculeus runs on swappable models and verifies every Case across more than one, so no single model's drift goes unchecked. Producing a Case sends content to the model provider you choose, under their terms. Aculeus keeps only what your workspace keeps.

On request: a Western-base model option, for work that cannot use models of certain origin — subject to a configured compliant provider and a signed DPA.

Aculeus learns from your calls on the public record, inside your workspace, for your benefit. It does not train on your documents. Both are true, because they are about different things: your judgment, and your files.

● SEALED · THE PRIVACY GUARANTEE

SOC 2 IN PROGRESS · STATED AS IN PROGRESS · NO BADGE WE DO NOT HOLD.

08 · The honest limits

What we will not do. And when we are the wrong tool.

We carry the counter on every Case. Here is the counter on us. We would rather tell you now than waste your time.

Aculeus will not
  • Invent a source. If the record does not carry it, Aculeus does not assert it.
  • Drop the counter. The case against rides on every Case, always.
  • Fake an attribution. Citations are injected by code, never written by a model.
  • Ship without you. A person makes every call. Nothing goes out on its own.
  • Paper over a gap. Where the record runs thin, it says so on the page.
When not to use us
  • You need a fast hot take. If you want speed over a sourced case, use something else.
  • Your claim is not in the record. If it does not live in the public record or your own documents, we cannot source it.
  • You want the machine to decide. We are not that. The judgment stays with you.
  • You need certainty we cannot give. We give you the record and the counter. We do not promise the answer.
09 · Who it's for

For the claims you have to defend in public.

Newsrooms
Investigative and fact-checking work that has to hold up.
Oversight
Watchdogs and accountability work that answers to a committee.
Advocacy
Issue campaigns that need the record behind the message.
Public affairs
Agencies and counsel who need a defensible read, on the record.
10 · Coverage

We search the whole record and pull the handful that decide the claim.

The systems that hold the primary record: campaign finance, lobbying and foreign-agent filings, the federal spending record, nonprofit 990s, federal dockets, SEC filings, live sanctions. Aculeus searches across all of it and cites every line it pulls.

200M+
Companies
OpenCorporates · 140+ jurisdictions
18M+
SEC filings
EDGAR · full-text since 2001
9M+
Court opinions
CourtListener · federal dockets
Live
Sanctions + PEP
OpenSanctions · refreshed

COVERAGE OF THE SYSTEMS ACULEUS QUERIES. ONE CASE CITES THE FEW THAT MATTER.

11 · Playbooks

Same loop. Different seat.

A playbook is a vertical: the records it watches, what the read means there, who makes the call, and what it dispatches. Each builds its own edge from the calls its experts make. Privacy, depth, and the human on the call hold across all of them.

Live

Newsroom

The case, the counter, the audience-tuned dispatch. Every line back to a primary source.

Live

Oversight

The finding, the record behind it, and what it cannot prove. Built for work that answers to a committee.

Roadmap

Litigation · Markets · Compliance

The same loop, a new seat. Partner with us to pilot one.

12 · How it works

Start with one Case.

Aculeus is at design-partner stage. Engagements are per seat, sized to the work. The fastest way to judge it is to give us a real subject and read the Case it builds.

Starter
One seat · the full loop

A single operator, the whole loop from Watch to Dispatch. For one person who has to defend the claim.

Pro
A few seats · shared playbooks

Shared playbooks, API access, source-ledger export. For a desk or a shop working the same record.

Scale
White-label · API-first · SLA

Isolated deployment, data residency, an SLA. For an institution that needs the loop inside its own walls.

Built by an operator who has had to make the call, not just build the tool. In business and in politics, the rules are the same: source it, or don't say it.

Jeremy Jones · Founder, Aculeus

18 receipts. 0 guesses.

Every line cites its source. The counter is on the page. You make the call. See one Case and you will understand the rest.

The public recordR 00 · C 05
BUILD 04da474 · CLAIMS ON THIS PAGE: 05 · RECEIPTS AVAILABLE: 05 · SOURCES: EDGAR / COURTLISTENER / USASPENDING / OPENCORPORATES / OFAC
SOC 2 IN PROGRESS · TYPE: ARCHIVO EXP / PLEX MONO / SOURCE SERIF 4 · © 2026 ACULEUS · SECURITY · API · SLA · PRIVACY · TERMS
EVERY LINE TRACES BACK TO THE RECORD.