ESG Hub

An open-access encyclopedia of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) knowledge by Ascent Partners Foundation — 350+ articles, 240+ curated resources, books, courses, AI search, a public REST API, and an MCP server. Available in English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong).

Live site: esg-hub.ascent.partners

Overview

• Knowledge base — 350+ ESG articles across standards (GRI, IFRS S1/S2, TCFD, TNFD, ESRS), regulations, frameworks, ratings, and regional (HK/APAC) guidance

• AI search — ask questions in natural language; answers grounded in the knowledge base (SurrealDB BM25 + vector search, DeepSeek, Brave Search across authoritative ESG domains)

• Public REST API — open access to all content: /api/v1

• MCP server — connect AI agents directly: @esg-hub/mcp-server

• Learning resources — free courses, books, and a curated video library

• i18n — English, Simplified Chinese (zh), Traditional Chinese — Hong Kong (hk)

Related MCP server: QwikVault MCP

Architecture

flowchart TB
  U["User / AI agent"] --> WEB["Next.js 16 App Router · React 19<br/>next-intl (en / zh / hk)"]
  WEB --> DB[("SurrealDB Cloud<br/>BM25 + vector search")]
  WEB --> AI["DeepSeek + Brave Search<br/>grounded answers"]
  WEB --> API["Public REST API · /api/v1"]
  API --> MCP["MCP server<br/>@simonmak-ascent/esg-hub-mcp"]
  V["APG ALB · esg-hub.ascent-partners.com"] --> WEB

How a query is answered

sequenceDiagram
  autonumber
  actor U as User
  participant W as Next.js app (App Router)
  participant API as /api/ai-search · /api/ai-chat
  participant S as search.ts
  participant DB as SurrealDB (page · section · embedding)
  participant AI as DeepSeek
  participant X as Brave / OpenAlex
  U->>W: ask a question
  W->>API: POST query (+ locale)
  API->>S: search(query)
  S->>DB: BM25 keyword + vector (embedding) hybrid ranking
  DB-->>S: ranked pages / sections + citations
  API->>AI: synthesize answer from ranked context
  API->>X: enrich (web + research)
  X-->>API: references
  API-->>W: streamed answer + citations
  W-->>U: grounded response

Data model

erDiagram
  PAGE ||--o{ SECTION : contains
  SECTION ||--o{ EMBEDDING : "vectorised as"
  FRAMEWORK ||--o{ PAGE : classifies
  INDUSTRY ||--o{ PAGE : tags
  TERM ||--o{ PAGE : defines
  PAGE {
    string id
    string slug
    string title
    string lang
  }
  SECTION {
    string id
    string heading
    text body
  }
  EMBEDDING {
    vector vector
    string model
  }

FRAMEWORK, INDUSTRY and TERM are the facets exposed by the /api/v1/* REST resources; page, section and embedding are the core SurrealDB tables.

Deployment

Production runs on the ecs-01/02/03 HA fleet as the digest-pinned container declared in container.json — the image is the deployable, not a release tree on a node. The fleet runs it as a container on :3210, and no node runs a routing web server. The ALB terminates TLS and routes esg-hub.ascent.partners to the container's port. The former Vercel project was retired. See apg-infra for the fleet deployment.

flowchart LR
  DEV["git push / PR"] --> CI["GitHub Actions<br/>lint · test · e2e · health-check"]
  CI -->|merge to main| IMG["digest-pinned image<br/>container.json"]
  IMG -->|the image is the deployable| PROD["container · :3210"]
  ALB["APG ALB · TLS termination"] -->|esg-hub.ascent.partners| PROD
  PROD --> SURF["/api/mcp · /api/v1<br/>MCP + REST surfaces"]

Tech Stack

Next.js 16 (App Router, React 19) · SurrealDB Cloud · Tailwind CSS v4 · next-intl · Vitest + Playwright · APG fleet (containerised)

Quick Start (≤ 5 minutes)

Fastest path — nothing to install: use the live site and the open API.

• Site: https://esg-hub.ascent.partners

• API (no auth): GET https://esg-hub.ascent.partners/api/v1/pages

Run a local copy:

git clone https://github.com/simonmak-ascent/esg-hub.git
cd esg-hub
pnpm install        # note: requires sibling repo ../tool_package (private)
cp .env.example .env  # fill in your own values
pnpm dev

Useful commands: pnpm lint · npx tsc --noEmit · npx vitest run · pnpm verify:db

Note: the app renders content from a SurrealDB database — you need your own instance and content to run a full copy. The public site and API are freely accessible without running anything.

API & MCP

• REST API: open, no auth — GET /api/v1/pages, /api/v1/search?q=..., /api/v1/resources, /api/v1/meta (docs)

• MCP server: see mcp-server/ — gives AI agents tools to search and read the knowledge base

Contributing

• Content errors (wrong/outdated info, dead links): open a content error issue

• Bugs and code changes: see CONTRIBUTING.md

• Security vulnerabilities: report privately via SECURITY.md

Use with Context7

Up-to-date ESG Hub documentation is indexed on Context7, so coding agents can pull it into context on demand. With the Context7 MCP server or ctx7 CLI installed, name the library in your prompt:

use library /simonmak-ascent/esg-hub for API and docs

License

• Code: MIT

• Encyclopedia content: CC BY-SA 4.0 by Ascent Partners Foundation

An Ascent Partners Foundation project.

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