Canopy for State Agency Evaluators

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What is Canopy?

Canopy is an open-source integrated eligibility system that determines eligibility for public benefit programs — SNAP (food stamps), TANF (cash assistance), Medicaid/CHIP, childcare (CAPS/CCDF), and WIC. It replaces proprietary eligibility systems with a transparent, auditable, federally-compliant platform that any state can deploy and customize.

Canopy was developed by the Georgia Department of Human Services to modernize its eligibility determination infrastructure. It is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later — there are no license fees, vendor lock-in, or proprietary dependencies.

Program Readiness

Program Status Notes

SNAP

UAT-ready (September 2026)

Full eligibility determination, deductions, benefit calculation, ABAWD tracking, categorical eligibility, IEVS verification, alien eligibility, EBT enrollment, renewals, appeals, IPV, federal reporting (FNS-388, FNS-7176), worker portal, 15 notice templates (run cargo xtask test for current test counts)

TANF

Implemented

Eligibility determination (incl. PAMMS 1351 sanction gate + personal-responsibility gate), FTI audit logging (Pub 1075, ADR-004), work requirements, time limits, SSA data, 3 JDM rulesets, overpayment recovery, federal reporting (ACF-199, WPR, ACF-196). SNAP remains the September 2026 UAT-gated program.

Medicaid/CHIP

Implemented

All 38 classes of assistance evaluable via JDM rulesets — MAGI, non-MAGI, CHIP (PeachCare), Q-Track, MN spenddown, EE15 hierarchy. HIPAA/FTI isolation (ADR-004), federal reporting (T-MSIS, CMS-64, CMS-416). SNAP remains the September 2026 UAT-gated program.

CAPS (CCDF)

Implemented

Income eligibility (50%/85% SMI), activity requirements, copayment tiers, provider authorization + registry. SNAP remains the September 2026 UAT-gated program.

WIC

Implemented

Categorical eligibility, income (185% FPL), adjunctive eligibility, nutritional risk gate, food-package families per 7 CFR 246.10(e)(1)-(7), certification periods (7 CFR 246.7(g)). SNAP remains the September 2026 UAT-gated program.

Why Canopy?

Open Source Advantage

  • No vendor lock-in — AGPL-3.0 license guarantees source code access forever. No recurring license fees.

  • Shared development costs — States that adopt Canopy share development costs. Georgia’s investment benefits every adopting state.

  • Federal cost sharing — Development eligible for 90% FFP (Design, Development, Implementation). Operations eligible for 75% FFP (Medicaid) or 50% FFP (SNAP).

  • Transparency — All code, decisions, and architecture publicly auditable. No "black box" eligibility logic.

Technical Architecture

  • Program service isolation (ADR-001) — Each benefit program runs as an independent service with its own database. SNAP cannot access TANF data. This architectural isolation is the foundation of federal data compliance.

  • Ruleset-as-data (ADR-003) — All eligibility logic lives in jurisdiction-configurable JSON decision tables, not code. When federal regulations change, states update a configuration file — no code deployment required.

  • Black-box determinations (ADR-002) — Every eligibility determination is cryptographically signed. Tampered results are automatically detected and rejected.

  • Modular deployment (ADR-005) — States can deploy any subset of programs. A SNAP-only deployment uses 19 services; adding TANF brings in 3 more. Programs degrade gracefully if not deployed.

Jurisdiction Customization

Canopy is designed for multi-state use:

  • Federal parameters (FPL, income limits, allotments) are versioned separately from state policy

  • State-specific thresholds live in jurisdiction.toml — no code changes needed

  • State-specific eligibility rules live in JDM ruleset files

  • State-specific notice templates use the Typst template system with jurisdiction branding

Georgia’s configuration serves as the reference implementation. A new state creates a directory (rulesets/texas/), copies the Georgia template, and modifies values to match their policy manual.

Deployment Options

State-Operated

The state’s IT division operates Canopy on their infrastructure (on-premise or cloud).

Requirements: * DevOps team with Docker/Kubernetes experience * Rust development capability for bug fixes and enhancements * DBA for PostgreSQL administration * Security team for compliance and incident response

Advantages: Full control, no third-party dependencies, data sovereignty.

Integrator-Managed

A systems integrator deploys and operates Canopy on behalf of the state.

Requirements: * Integrator with Rust expertise (growing but smaller talent pool than Java/.NET) * Cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP) * State retains data ownership and audit access

Advantages: Faster deployment, reduced staffing burden, managed operations.

Risk Factors

Risk Severity Mitigation

Rust expertise availability

Medium

Growing ecosystem; university programs increasing. Rust prevents entire classes of bugs (memory safety, data races), reducing maintenance burden long-term.

First production deployment

Medium

Georgia DHS is the first production deployment. Subsequent states benefit from Georgia’s operational experience, bug fixes, and infrastructure maturity.

Dependency on Georgia DHS roadmap

Low

Open source — any state can fork and develop independently. Coordination is beneficial but not required.

Federal regulation changes (HR1)

Medium

ADR-003 ruleset-as-data architecture means regulation changes are configuration changes, not code deployments. JDM rulesets can be updated and tested without recompilation.

Getting Started

  1. Review the project overview and why Canopy

  2. Read the Architecture Decision Records for technical design rationale

  3. Review the production deployment guide for infrastructure requirements

  4. Contact Georgia DHS for integration support and onboarding guidance

  5. Follow the jurisdiction onboarding runbook to configure for your state

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