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AidRelay

How it decides

Who gets help, how much, and who decides.

The fund’s volunteers wrote these rules before the first application arrived. The AI case officer applies them to every case and names the rule behind each decision. The limits that protect the money live in code, where no application or prompt can talk its way past them.

How much a family receives

The grant depends on how hard the flood hit, not on how much someone asks for. Households of more than 4 receive $50 more for each extra person, up to $150 more.

  1. $100Minor lossSpoiled food, a short power outage or other small losses.
  2. $250Damaged homeReal damage to the home, but the family can still live there.
  3. $350DisplacedThe home is unsafe to live in, so the family has had to leave.
  4. $500High needDisplaced with children or other dependents, or with a medical need.

The rest, in plain words

  • Who can get help

    Any household whose home is in the declared flood area, which covers every zip code starting with 285. One photo of the damage is enough to apply, and each household can be helped once.

  • When a volunteer steps in

    The AI case officer pays on its own only when the grant is $250 or less, nothing about the case looks wrong, and a second, separate check agrees. Everything else waits for a volunteer, and only a volunteer can turn an application down.

  • When money runs short

    Families in the greatest need are paid first, then everyone else in the order they applied. Anyone approved but not yet paid is paid automatically when the next donation arrives.

  • How much the AI case officer can do alone

    Even within those limits, it pays at most 20 grants an hour and $5,000 a day without a person. Beyond that, cases wait for a volunteer.

  • What the AI case officer can never do

    Turn an application down, pay the same application twice or spend money the fund does not have, and a second application with the same photo, address or contact always goes to a volunteer. Those checks run in code, outside its reach.

  • What stays private

    The public ledger shows the first three digits of a zip code, the level of need, the amount and a one-line summary. Names, addresses and contact details are never published. In this demo the staff console is open to look at, so photos and applicants’ words can be seen there; documents such as a proof of address stay behind the sign-in. A real fund keeps everything behind it.

Read the complete rulebookThe exact text the AI case officer reads on every case. The rule numbers (P-1 to P-10) are what it cites when it explains a decision.

1. Scope

  • P-1 Event. Assistance is for households affected by the Cedar County Flood (fictional demo event), declared on 2026-11-01.
  • P-2 Area. Primary residence must be in the declared area: zip codes beginning 285 (demo). Applicants outside the area are needs_info (ask for proof of residence), not ineligible.

2. Eligibility

  • P-3 Evidence. At least one photo or document showing damage, displacement, or loss of income tied to the event. Photos are assessed for: standing water, structural damage, debris, destroyed belongings, evacuation notices.
  • P-4 One grant per household. Duplicate applicants (same address, contact, or photo) are flagged; the agent never pays a second grant to the same household.
  • P-5 Completeness. Missing household size, contact, or evidence → needs_info with follow-up questions in the applicant's language.

3. Tiers and amounts (USD)

Tier Description Amount
1 Minor loss (spoiled food, short outage) $100
2 Moderate damage, home habitable $250
3 Displaced or home uninhabitable $350
4 Displaced + dependents or medical need $500
  • P-6 Household adjustment. +$50 per household member beyond 4, max +$150.
  • P-7 Requested vs. recommended. The agent recommends by tier; it never recommends more than the tier maximum plus P-6. A human may approve a different amount, up to 2× the largest possible grant ($1,300 in this demo); anything higher needs a policy change, not an override.

4. Allocation when funds are short

  • P-8 Rule. Pay by tier descending (4 → 1), then first-come within a tier. Cases that cannot be funded are parked and re-evaluated automatically on every new donation.
  • Alternatives a fund could choose instead: first-come · lottery-within-tier. The order is computed in code, so switching takes a code change as well as this line.

5. Agent authority (enforced in code)

  • P-9 Auto-approve. The agent may approve and pay without a human when ALL are true:
    1. eligibility = eligible
    2. tier ≥ 1 (every tier qualifies in this demo; a fund may raise this minimum to keep low tiers out of auto-pay, the $250 cap in rule 3 is the real limit)
    3. recommended amount ≤ $250 (AUTO_APPROVE_LIMIT)
    4. confidence ≥ 0.85
    5. no red flags
    6. fund balance covers the amount after reservation
    7. no prior payout for this case
    8. at least one usable photo or document on file (P-3); a story alone is never enough
    9. a second, separate evaluation, which never sees the first answer, agrees on eligibility and tier
    10. the automation limits in P-10 are not exceeded
  • Anything else → human queue (needs_review / needs_info / parked).
  • P-10 Automation limits. Without a human, the agent pays at most 20 grants per rolling hour and at most $5,000 per rolling 24 hours. Cases beyond these limits wait in the human queue.
  • The agent may never set rejected. Only a signed-in volunteer can. The agent also never overrides a human decision: a case a human approved can only be paid or parked by the agent.

6. Communication

  • Follow-up questions and status messages are sent in the applicant's language (EN/ES in demo).
  • Tone: plain, short, no legal language, never ask for information not required by this policy.

7. Privacy

  • The public ledger shows: zip prefix (3 digits), tier, amount, PayPal batch ID, a one-line AI summary with no names, addresses, contact details or health information, and whether a human reviewed the case.
  • Contact details (name, email, phone, street address) are never public.
  • Photos and the applicant's own words are for the fund's volunteers. In this demo the staff console is open to look at, so anyone can see both there, with contact details hidden; documents an applicant sends (such as a proof of address) stay behind the staff sign-in, and nothing can be changed without it. A real fund keeps the whole console behind the sign-in.