ProjectPermit / BuildRequirements — Phase 0

ProjectPermit is an evidence-linked municipal permit preflight engine for construction and renovation projects. BuildRequirements is the deterministic rules engine inside it.

Phase 0 supports:

• gatineau_qc

• ottawa_on

• 8 project families

• address resolution using municipal GIS/geocoders

• rule-version and overlay-aware results

• official-source evidence on every rule result

• a FastAPI endpoint and a standard MCP tool

• x402-ready separation between the paid transport layer and the rules engine

The engine deliberately does not call an LLM. A calling agent normalizes natural-language scope into structured facts; BuildRequirements applies deterministic municipal rules.

Quick start

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
uvicorn projectpermit.api:app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

For MCP support:

pip install -e '.[mcp]'
projectpermit-mcp

projectpermit-mcp uses MCP Python SDK v2 Streamable HTTP, JSON responses, and stateless HTTP. It listens on 127.0.0.1:8001 by default. Override with PROJECTPERMIT_MCP_HOST and PROJECTPERMIT_MCP_PORT.

Run tests:

PYTHONPATH=src python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Related MCP server: Canadian Building Code MCP Server

API

POST /v1/check-project-requirements

Example:

{
  "jurisdiction": "ottawa_on",
  "address": "110 Laurier Ave W, Ottawa, ON",
  "resolve_address": false,
  "project": {
    "family": "window_door",
    "action": "enlarge_existing_window",
    "structural_change": true
  }
}

The result is a preflight information package, not municipal authorization, legal advice, engineering certification, or building-code design approval.

Repository map

• src/projectpermit/engine.py — deterministic rule engine

• src/projectpermit/address.py — municipal address/GIS adapters

• src/projectpermit/api.py — HTTP API

• src/projectpermit/mcp_server.py — standard MCP server

• data/golden_cases.json — deterministic regression corpus

• data/source_manifest.json — official source registry/freshness metadata

• schemas/ — public request/response schemas

• docs/PHASE0_SPEC.md — product and engineering scope

• docs/X402_ARCHITECTURE.md — payment/discovery design

Base Sepolia x402 smoke profile

A public-values-only testnet profile is provided at config/x402.base-sepolia.env.example. It targets Base Sepolia (eip155:84532) and the x402.org testnet facilitator. The receiving address is public; never put a private key or seed phrase in this repository.

set -a
source config/x402.base-sepolia.env.example
set +a
pip install -e '.[x402]'
uvicorn projectpermit.api:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

The protected resource is POST /v1/check-project-requirements. /health remains free for deployment monitoring.

Real paid smoke test

Run this only on your own machine. Keep the payer private key local; never paste or commit it.

python -m venv .venv-buyer
source .venv-buyer/bin/activate
pip install -e '.[buyer]'
export EVM_PRIVATE_KEY='0x...'
python scripts/x402_paid_smoke.py

The payer wallet must have enough Base Sepolia USDC for the $0.01 test payment. A successful run should return HTTP 200 and a decoded settlement response. The server itself never needs the payer private key.

Phase 0 safety boundary

Determinations intentionally use preflight language such as LIKELY_REQUIRED, LIKELY_NOT_REQUIRED, ADDITIONAL_REVIEW_REQUIRED, and MUNICIPAL_CONFIRMATION_REQUIRED where uncertainty exists. The engine should not be presented as a municipality, permit issuer, lawyer, architect, or engineer.