Department of Better Technology website screenshot

Department of Better Technology

The Department of Better Technology (DOBT), founded in 2013 by former Presidential Innovation Fellows and later acquired by CityBase, builds Screendoor — a form-building and submission- management platform used by government agencies and organizations such as ProPublica, the Los Angeles Times, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Ford Foundation to run paperless intake, evaluation, and approval workflows. The Screendoor REST API programmatically manages sites, projects, forms and form fields, workflow statuses, labels, responses (submissions), response labels, and reviewer assignments, using API-key authentication, offset pagination with RFC 5988 Link headers, and an explicit API version.

Department of Better Technology publishes 8 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Files API, Forms API, Labels API, and 5 more. Tagged areas include Company, Forms, Government, GovTech, and Civic Technology.

Department of Better Technology’s developer surface includes documentation, API reference, support, engineering blog, signup flow, authentication, and 17 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
43.7/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 55/100 agent ready Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
AccessSelf serve
8 APIs 1 MCP Servers
CompanyFormsGovernmentGovTechCivic TechnologyWorkflowData CollectionScreendoorPublic SectorForms API

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
Composite quality — 43.7/100 · thin
Contract Quality 14.6 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 11.3 / 20
Commercial Clarity 4.7 / 20
Operational Transparency 2.7 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 10.0 / 10
Agent readiness — 55/100 · agent ready
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15
MCP Server 12 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 5 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 4 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/department-of-better-technology: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 8

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Department of Better Technology Files API

Upload files referenced by response fields.

Department of Better Technology Forms API

Manage the form fields collected for a project.

Department of Better Technology Labels API

Manage labels used to tag responses within a project.

Department of Better Technology Projects API

Manage projects (forms and their workflow) within a site.

Department of Better Technology Response Assignments API

Assign users or teams to an individual response.

Department of Better Technology Response Labels API

Attach or detach labels on an individual response.

Department of Better Technology Responses API

Create, read, update, trash, and recover form submissions.

Department of Better Technology Statuses API

Manage the status workflow stages for a project's responses.

Scroll for all 8

MCP Servers 1

Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.

department-of-better-technology-mcp.yml

MCP SERVER

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Department Of Better Technology Authentication

apiKey · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Department Of Better Technology Domain Security

TLSv1.3

SECURITY

Resources

Get Started 2

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

DeveloperPortal
DeveloperPortal
 SignUp
SignUp

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation
 APIReference
APIReference

Agent Surfaces 4

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

MCPServer
MCPServer
 WellKnown
WellKnown
 LLMsTxt
LLMsTxt
 AgentSkill
AgentSkill

Design & Contract 5

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conventions
Conventions
 ErrorCatalog
ErrorCatalog
 Lifecycle
Lifecycle
 DataModel
DataModel
 Conformance
Conformance

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
 Packages
Packages

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Authentication
Authentication
 DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support
Support
 StatusPage
StatusPage

Commercial 1

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

PrivacyPolicy
PrivacyPolicy

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website
Website
 Blog
Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Overlay
Overlay

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: department-of-better-technology
name: Department of Better Technology
description: The Department of Better Technology (DOBT), founded in 2013 by former Presidential Innovation Fellows and later
  acquired by CityBase, builds Screendoor — a form-building and submission- management platform used by government agencies
  and organizations such as ProPublica, the Los Angeles Times, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Ford Foundation
  to run paperless intake, evaluation, and approval workflows. The Screendoor REST API programmatically manages sites, projects,
  forms and form fields, workflow statuses, labels, responses (submissions), response labels, and reviewer assignments, using
  API-key authentication, offset pagination with RFC 5988 Link headers, and an explicit API version.
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dobtco/screendoor-api-docs/master/source/images/logo.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/department-of-better-technology/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- 500-global
x-tier: enriched
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-18'
tags:
- Company
- Forms
- Government
- GovTech
- Civic Technology
- Workflow
- Data Collection
- Screendoor
- Public Sector
- Forms API
apis:
- aid: department-of-better-technology:department-of-better-technology-files-api
  name: Department of Better Technology Files API
  description: Upload files referenced by response fields.
  humanURL: https://dobtco.github.io/screendoor-api-docs/
  baseURL: https://screendoor.dobt.co/api
  tags:
  - Files
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/department-of-better-technology-files-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/department-of-better-technology-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/department-of-better-technology-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/department-of-better-technology-problem-types.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/department-of-better-technology-data-model.yml
- aid: department-of-better-technology:department-of-better-technology-forms-api
  name: Department of Better Technology Forms API
  description: Manage the form fields collected for a project.
  humanURL: https://dobtco.github.io/screendoor-api-docs/
  baseURL: https://screendoor.dobt.co/api
  tags:
  - Forms
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/department-of-better-technology-forms-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/department-of-better-technology-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/department-of-better-technology-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/department-of-better-technology-problem-types.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/department-of-better-technology-data-model.yml
- aid: department-of-better-technology:department-of-better-technology-labels-api
  name: Department of Better Technology Labels API
  description: Manage labels used to tag responses within a project.
  humanURL: https://dobtco.github.io/screendoor-api-docs/
  baseURL: https://screendoor.dobt.co/api
  tags:
  - Labels
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/department-of-better-technology-labels-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/department-of-better-technology-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/department-of-better-technology-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/department-of-better-technology-problem-types.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/department-of-better-technology-data-model.yml
- aid: department-of-better-technology:department-of-better-technology-projects-api
  name: Department of Better Technology Projects API
  description: Manage projects (forms and their workflow) within a site.
  humanURL: https://dobtco.github.io/screendoor-api-docs/
  baseURL: https://screendoor.dobt.co/api
  tags:
  - Projects
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/department-of-better-technology-projects-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/department-of-better-technology-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/department-of-better-technology-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/department-of-better-technology-problem-types.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/department-of-better-technology-data-model.yml
- aid: department-of-better-technology:department-of-better-technology-response-assignments-api
  name: Department of Better Technology Response Assignments API
  description: Assign users or teams to an individual response.
  humanURL: https://dobtco.github.io/screendoor-api-docs/
  baseURL: https://screendoor.dobt.co/api
  tags:
  - Response Assignments
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/department-of-better-technology-response-assignments-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/department-of-better-technology-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/department-of-better-technology-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/department-of-better-technology-problem-types.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/department-of-better-technology-data-model.yml
- aid: department-of-better-technology:department-of-better-technology-response-labels-api
  name: Department of Better Technology Response Labels API
  description: Attach or detach labels on an individual response.
  humanURL: https://dobtco.github.io/screendoor-api-docs/
  baseURL: https://screendoor.dobt.co/api
  tags:
  - Response Labels
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/department-of-better-technology-response-labels-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/department-of-better-technology-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/department-of-better-technology-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/department-of-better-technology-problem-types.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/department-of-better-technology-data-model.yml
- aid: department-of-better-technology:department-of-better-technology-responses-api
  name: Department of Better Technology Responses API
  description: Create, read, update, trash, and recover form submissions.
  humanURL: https://dobtco.github.io/screendoor-api-docs/
  baseURL: https://screendoor.dobt.co/api
  tags:
  - Responses
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/department-of-better-technology-responses-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/department-of-better-technology-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/department-of-better-technology-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/department-of-better-technology-problem-types.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/department-of-better-technology-data-model.yml
- aid: department-of-better-technology:department-of-better-technology-statuses-api
  name: Department of Better Technology Statuses API
  description: Manage the status workflow stages for a project's responses.
  humanURL: https://dobtco.github.io/screendoor-api-docs/
  baseURL: https://screendoor.dobt.co/api
  tags:
  - Statuses
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/department-of-better-technology-statuses-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/department-of-better-technology-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/department-of-better-technology-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/department-of-better-technology-problem-types.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/department-of-better-technology-data-model.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://dobt.co
- type: DeveloperPortal
  url: https://help.dobt.co/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://help.dobt.co/
- type: APIReference
  url: https://dobtco.github.io/screendoor-api-docs/
- type: Support
  url: https://help.dobt.co/
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.dobt.co/blog/
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/dobtco
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://status.dobt.co/
- type: SignUp
  url: https://screendoor.dobt.co/
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://dashboard.dobt.co/privacy
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/department-of-better-technology-authentication.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/department-of-better-technology-conventions.yml
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/department-of-better-technology-problem-types.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/department-of-better-technology-lifecycle.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/department-of-better-technology-data-model.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/department-of-better-technology-conformance.yml
- type: Packages
  url: packages/department-of-better-technology-packages.yml
- type: MCPServer
  url: mcp/department-of-better-technology-mcp.yml
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/department-of-better-technology-well-known.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/department-of-better-technology-llms.txt
- type: Overlay
  url: overlays/department-of-better-technology-screendoor-overlay.yaml
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/department-of-better-technology-domain-security.yml
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-19'
  status: backfilled
  pass: local-v1
  note: backfilled from .gitignore signal + verified work evidence