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 API contracts indexed 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.

The Department of Better Technology catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

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

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

31.1/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 18/100 agent aware Heartbeat 0/100 dormant saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

1 published contract 3 Agent Skills

Company Forms Government GovTech Civic Technology Workflows Data CollectionScreendoorPublic Sector Forms API

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 31.1/100 · thin

Contract Quality 2.5 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 7.1 / 15

Access Clarity 3.6 / 15

Operational Transparency 2.8 / 10

Contract Governance 1.6 / 9

Discoverability 5.5 / 8

Regulatory Posture 3.1 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 18/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 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 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 0 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Government & Public Sector regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Agentic Access Contract +10 pts — agentic_access artifact present (x-agentic-access), graded by author
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Rate-Limit Signaling +7 pts — OpenAPI responses document X-RateLimit-* / RateLimit headers (verified), else a rate_limits artifact or RateLimits link (documented)
Request/Response Examples +7 pts — share of operations carrying request/response examples; else an Examples / Code Samples link

10 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Contract Quality scores 13.2 — up to +21.7 composite points
Access Clarity scores 23.7 — up to +15.3 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 47.0 — up to +10.6 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/department-of-better-technology/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/department-of-better-technology to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
Surveys, Market Research and Experience Management	undeclared	-	-	1

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 1

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

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

Open Collections 8

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

Screendoor Files API

OPEN COLLECTION

Screendoor Files Forms API

OPEN COLLECTION

Screendoor Files Labels API

OPEN COLLECTION

Screendoor Files Projects API

OPEN COLLECTION

Screendoor Files Response Assignments API

OPEN COLLECTION

Screendoor Files Response Labels API

OPEN COLLECTION

Screendoor Files Responses API

OPEN COLLECTION

Screendoor Files Statuses API

OPEN COLLECTION

Scroll for all 8

Agent Skills 3

Packaged agent skills for driving this provider's APIs from an AI assistant.

Assign and review a submission

AGENT SKILL

Build a Screendoor form

AGENT SKILL

Collect and triage submissions

AGENT SKILL

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Department of Better Technology API Rules

63 rules · 57 errors 5 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

OpenAPI Overlays 1

Overlays applied on top of this provider's contracts. Each card says who wrote it: a document the provider publishes, or one API Evangelist derived or generated.

Department Of Better Technology Screendoor Overlay

2 actions · update · department-of-better-technology-screendoor-openapi.yml

DERIVED

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

X-MCPServerCandidate

WellKnown

LLMsTxt

AgentSkill

Design & Contract 5

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conventions

ErrorCatalog

Lifecycle

DataModel

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)

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.
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source:
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  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: '0.23'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-18'
tags:
- Company
- Forms
- Government
- GovTech
- Civic Technology
- Workflows
- Data Collection
- Screendoor
- Public Sector
- Forms API
tags_raw:
- 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:
  - File
  tags_raw:
  - 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:
  - Project
  tags_raw:
  - 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:
  - Status
  tags_raw:
  - 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: X-MCPServerCandidate
  url: mcp/department-of-better-technology-mcp.yml
  note: 'Renamed from MCPServer 2026-09-03 (roadmap#247): the manifest self-describes as status: candidate — a tool list derived
    from the published API contracts, not an existing server. The scorer already read the manifest and reported mcp_server
    correctly; the MCPServer type was crediting the artifact-type surfaces with a server that does not exist.'
- 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

Department of Better Technology API — frequently asked questions

Does Department of Better Technology have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 8 APIs from Department of Better Technology, including Department of Better Technology Files API, Department of Better Technology Forms API and Department of Better Technology Labels API, and 5 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Department of Better Technology API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 8 OpenAPI specifications for Department of Better Technology, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the Department of Better Technology API?

Department of Better Technology uses bearer-token authentication (apiKey · 1 scheme). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Department Of Better Technology Authentication.

Is the Department of Better Technology API ready for AI agents?

Department of Better Technology has a Kin Score of 31.1 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 18.2 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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