Pick two world leaders. Watch an AI agent trace the hidden offshore connections between them through shell companies, intermediaries, and tax havens — all backed by real ICIJ data.
Live Demo · Devpost · Built for JacHacks 2026
- Pick Power Players — A grid of 94 politically exposed persons (heads of state, PMs, intelligence chiefs) sourced from ICIJ's official database
- Agent Investigates — A Jac PathFinder walker traces connections through shell companies, intermediaries, and shared addresses across jurisdictions
- Graph Reveals — A 3D force-directed network visualizes the discovered path with labeled nodes, typed edges, and particle flow
- AI Summarizes — Jac's
by llm()generates a structural narrative constrained to graph facts. No speculation, no editorializing.
| Scenario | Power Players | What It Shows |
|---|---|---|
| The Annan Network | UN Sec Gen's son, Cambodia's justice minister, Malaysian PM's son, Nigerian governor | 51-node web of shared offshore infrastructure across BVI, Samoa, Hong Kong |
| Sudan · Iraq · UAE | Former president of Sudan, ex-PM of Iraq, UAE president/emir | Connected through Child & Child (London law firm) and BVI shell companies |
| Shared Address in Tortola | El Salvador president, Lebanese PM, Putin's associate | All sharing one registered address: 3rd Floor, Yamraj Building, Road Town, BVI |
Frontend (Vercel) Backend (Railway)
┌─────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────┐
│ 3D Force Graph │──API──▶│ Jac API Server │
│ Three.js │ proxy │ PathFinder Walker (agent) │
│ PP Face Grid │◀──────│ by llm() summaries │
└─────────────────┘ │ SQLite (2M nodes, 3.3M │
│ edges, FTS5 search) │
└──────────────────────────┘
| Feature | How We Use It |
|---|---|
| Walkers | PathFinder — stateful agent that receives targets, discovers paths via BFS, materializes a Jac graph, traverses it node by node, and generates AI summaries |
by llm() |
summarize_connection() — inline LLM call that narrates graph structure. Constrained to facts via docstring prompt. |
| Nodes & Edges | Entity nodes (officers, shell companies, addresses, intermediaries) + LinkedTo edges (officer_of, registered_address, intermediary_of) |
:pub endpoints |
search, investigate, find_connections, get_power_players, get_node_detail — auto-generated REST API via jac start |
| Python interop | Jac imports db.icij_db (Python SQLite module) directly for BFS pathfinding and FTS5 search |
The PathFinder walker narrates every decision:
🔍 Starting investigation from AYAD ALLAWI
→ Exploring I.M.F. HOLDINGS INC. — Shell company registered in PMA
Passed on 1 other connection: FOXWOOD ESTATES LIMITED
→ Exploring CHILD & CHILD — Intermediary firms connect many offshore entities
Passed on 2 other connections: THE BEARER, THE BEARER
→ Exploring HILGARD MANAGEMENT LIMITED — Shell company registered in BVI
Passed on 48 other connections: TROY DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED, EPSILON CONTROL SYSTEMS... +45 more
★ Exploring Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Power Player detected — UAE President, Abu Dhabi emir
✓ Connection established: AYAD ALLAWI to Khalifa bin Zayed — 6 hops through 3 entities
# Clone
git clone https://github.com/drPod/tracelight.git
cd tracelight
# Download ICIJ data (~70MB) and build SQLite database (~50s)
python scripts/download_icij.py
python scripts/ingest_icij.py
# Set up API key for AI summaries
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Anthropic API key
# Start the Jac API server
jac start main.jac
# Open frontend (or use python3 -m http.server 8888)
open frontend/index.html| Endpoint | Body | Description |
|---|---|---|
POST /function/get_power_players |
{} |
94 Power Players with images, titles, connectivity data |
POST /function/find_connections |
{node_ids: [...]} |
Bidirectional BFS pathfinding between selected PPs + AI summaries |
POST /function/search |
{query, limit?} |
FTS5 name search across 2M+ nodes |
POST /function/investigate |
{node_id, max_depth?, max_nodes?} |
BFS subgraph expansion from a single node |
POST /function/get_node_detail |
{node_id} |
Full node metadata + immediate connections + ICIJ source link |
- Source: ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database — Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers, Bahamas Leaks, Offshore Leaks
- Scale: 2,016,523 nodes · 3,339,267 relationships · 157 tagged Power Players
- Power Players: ICIJ Power Players list — 181 politically exposed persons (94 with database matches)
- Storage: SQLite with FTS5 full-text search, indexed on node_id and relationships
Jac · Python · SQLite · Three.js · 3d-force-graph · Claude API (Haiku) · Vercel · Railway · Docker
MIT — see LICENSE