CivStart Launches Clarity, a Free Decision-Support Tool Government Leaders Addressing Complex Challenges

NEW YORK — July 21, 2026 — CivStart today launched Clarity, a free application that helps state and local government leaders turn complex, hard-to-articulate challenges into clear, well-structured and immediate next steps with clarity, connection, and confidence they can act on. 

The launch takes place at BRIDGES, the public-sector AI conference hosted by Starbridge and CivStart in New York City on July 21-22.

Clarity helps government teams define the real problem — the kind with immense complexity that spans departments, stakeholders, and constraints — before evaluating any solution. It is grounded in a government's own public records, so leaders aren't starting from a blank page, and it surfaces how peer governments are working through similar challenges and provides next steps for immediate action. 
Clarity is free for government and nonprofit leaders.

The product was shaped over the last year by CivStart's Platform Partners User Group, a working cohort of practicing city managers, department directors, IT and finance leaders, and other subject matter experts who run and support the business government. This cohort designed the requirements of Clarity, tested its functionality, and challenged the product team to launch a product that enables leaders and their teams to do more with less.

"This level of analysis [from Clarity] is something I've never experienced before in a technology tool — it makes it so much easier to start examining a problem and define it more clearly," said Parrish Spisz of the City of Tempe, a member of the user group.

"Government leaders don't need another tool missing the forest for the trees," said Anthony Jamison, Co-Founder and CEO of CivStart. "They need clarity on the problem, connections to peers for validation, and confidence to take action. That's what Clarity does — and it exists in this form because government leaders told us, directly and repeatedly, what would actually be useful."

The user group also drove Clarity's peer network from a background capability into a core part of the experience, after leaders reported that seeing how comparable governments framed the same challenge was often more valuable than any single output.

"It's easy to feel like you're on an island facing unique public sector challenges," said Anthony Fischer, GovAI Coalition Founding Board Member. "But when you finally voice a struggle, you'll find peers saying, 'I just navigated that — here's the cheat sheet.' We [GovAI Coalition] believe in open collaboration, never gatekeeping information from our peers."

Clarity is available now, for free, at civstart.com. 

About CivStart

CivStart builds technology tools that help government leaders move from complexity to clarity. Its flagship product, Clarity, is a free workflow tool that helps state and local government leaders define their challenges, connect with peer governments, and act with confidence. Learn more at civstart.com.