Deadline Line - hear your real deadline

The people most likely to miss a benefits or eviction deadline are the least likely to have a smartphone, a data plan, or the energy to read one more letter. But everyone can make a phone call. And a missed deadline is usually permanent: Social Security's "60 days" to appeal start five days after the date on the letter; a California eviction summons gives ten court days, skipping weekends and court holidays. What it does Call the Deadline Line, or open it in a browser, say what letter you got and the date on it, and hear your real deadline: the date, how many days are left, what to do first, and a free legal-aid contact. Ask "how did you count?" and it walks through every mailing rule, weekend and court holiday. If it can't tell what kind of letter you have, it asks instead of guessing. How it's built - Speech-to-text: AssemblyAI Universal-Streaming (v3 WebSocket). Phone audio arrives at 8 kHz from Asterisk's AudioSocket; the browser streams 16 kHz audio straight to AssemblyAI with a short-lived token minted server-side, so the API key never leaves the server. Key-term prompting covers the words callers actually use. - Rules: every date comes from the Deadline Decoder MCP server, deadline rules written as tested code citing 20 CFR 404.901 and 404.933, CCP §§ 1161 and 1167, and W&I Code § 10951. No language model ever computes a date. - Voice: Piper on the phone line; the browser's voice on the web. Transcripts live in memory for the call and nothing is written to disk. - The public demo caps sessions at three minutes with per-visitor and daily budgets, since every call runs on a paid key. 55 automated tests, including a full simulated phone call, plus real SIP calls through a local Asterisk PBX transcribed live by AssemblyAI. What's next Barge-in, Spanish, a texted reminder, and a phone number TechEMPOWER, a California nonprofit, can print on flyers at libraries and food banks. Sample letters only. General information, not legal advice. MIT licensed.