Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data search tool

Posted by ajigarjian on Sunday April 13, 2025 @02:23PM
from the show-hn dept.

Hi everyone! We're relaunching Crystal, which lets you search and analyze 300k+ government datasets using plain English. For example, prompting "Air quality since 2020 in NYC" will find the most relevant datasets for you.

We find it's way better than any search tool out there today, like data.gov. We're hoping anyone who uses public data as a resource, like researchers, consultants, journalists, etc. will find it helpful.

Crystal is straightforward - it's in alpha, so there's only a few queries per person, and the app itself is in its infancy. We're invested in making this better for people, and we'd love feedback + beta signups - you can provide either via https://www.askcrystal.info or down below!

If you'd like to partner with us more closely or have other thoughts, please email us at [email protected] or [email protected]

( 9 comments | 19 points | on HN )

Re:Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data searc... by mentalgear on Sunday April 13, 2025 @04:07PM (#43675461)

A worthwhile mission for sure, yet I feel claims like the "most accurate" require benchmarks.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data searc... by ajigarjian on Sunday April 13, 2025 @04:44PM (#43675709)

Agreed, at this moment it’s an anecdotal labeling. Honestly if anyone can point us towards some other great tooling in this space, we’d love to compare and contrast more deeply. Right now we’re benchmarking against data.gov

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data searc... by WarOnPrivacy on Sunday April 13, 2025 @02:42PM (#43674896)

from the About:

    Our Vision: We built Crystal with a simple but powerful belief: government data belongs to everyone, but too often it remains locked away in difficult-to-access systems, scattered across agencies, or buried in complex formats.

    We're building Crystal for you: citizens, researchers, journalists, students, consultants, businesses, and anyone else who believes in the power of accessible public data.

    (buttons) [Join the Beta Waitlist]  [Try Crystal Now]

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data searc... by ajigarjian on Sunday April 13, 2025 @04:04PM (#43675438)

Hi, yeah we have our mission on the About page. Appreciate you posting the additional context

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data searc... by orsorna on Sunday April 13, 2025 @04:24PM (#43675579)

What is the impetus to make money or sustain itself? How do I know this isn't another tool that will transition to a revenue extraction model down the line?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data searc... by ajigarjian on Sunday April 13, 2025 @04:43PM (#43675696)

We only want people to pay for Crystal if they feel they get outsized value out of it; we’d never ask you to pay just to make a few searches.

That being said, each query makes a few LLM calls to make sure we’re returning the most relevant datasets, which costs money. So at some point we would expect power users to contribute, which seems reasonable.

Ultimately our goal is to democratize access to this data. So the cost would never be more than a nominal amount

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data searc... by ratatoskrt on Sunday April 13, 2025 @04:25PM (#43675589)

So, is this government data from Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, or Andorra? There are more than 190 countries - I think you need to be a bit more specific.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data searc... by ajigarjian on Sunday April 13, 2025 @04:39PM (#43675673)

It’s U.S. data as per the title - but our goal is to integrate datasets from every country to make it comprehensive, no matter what you’re looking for

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: Crystal, the most accurate U.S. gov't data searc... by foundart on Sunday April 13, 2025 @07:51PM (#43676759)

One user's report: I've been working on a small personal research project with various LLMs. I tried Crystal and it dug up a helpful data source I hadn't seen before.

I signed up for the beta and look forward to seeing further developments.

[ Parent | on HN ]