Liar's Ledger

Installation

  1. Go to github.com/ryanegauthier/liars-ledger/releases
  2. Download the latest liars-ledger-vX.X.X.zip
  3. Unzip it somewhere permanent on your computer
  4. Open the src folder and rename config.example.js to config.js
  5. Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions
  6. Enable Developer mode (toggle in the top right)
  7. Click Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder
  8. The Liar’s Ledger icon will appear in your toolbar

No API keys needed — everything runs through api.liarsledger.com.

From source

git clone https://github.com/ryanegauthier/liars-ledger.git
cd liars-ledger
cp src/config.example.js src/config.js

Load unpacked in chrome://extensions pointing at the project root.

Rebuilding the politician dictionary

The dictionary is committed to the repo and doesn’t need to be rebuilt for normal use. To rebuild against the latest Congress.gov data:

node build-dictionary.js YOUR_CONGRESS_API_KEY

Register for a free key at api.congress.gov/sign-up.

Running the backend proxy locally

See Backend Proxy — Local development.

Building a release zip

node build-release.js

Produces liars-ledger-vX.X.X.zip in the project root. The GitHub Actions workflow runs this automatically on every version tag push.

Usage

  1. Navigate to any political news article
  2. Click the Liar’s Ledger icon in your toolbar
  3. Click Scan This Page
  4. Results appear in the bottom bar within a few seconds

Click any politician card to expand their full record. Click ↗ Full Report to open a standalone report page with all available data.