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Join a community

Everything in CivicOS is scoped to a community — a state + Local Government Area (LGA) pair. Issues, petitions, and representatives all belong to one. Joining a community is what unlocks civic action for that place.

Your first community​

When you land on CivicOS for the first time, you'll be prompted to pick a community:

  1. Choose your state (all 36 + FCT are listed).
  2. Choose your LGA — the list narrows based on the state you picked.
  3. Confirm.

Your first join sets both your primary community (see below) and your active community.

Primary vs. active community​

CivicOS distinguishes two things:

  • Primary community — your home constituency. This is the community where you can create issues, petitions, and (if you have the right role) representative profiles. Think of it as "where you actually live."
  • Active community — the community you're currently viewing and acting in for signatures, comments, and upvotes.

Most of the time these are the same. They diverge when you visit another community's page — you can still sign petitions and comment there, but you can't create new issues outside your primary community.

Joining another community​

You can be a member of multiple communities. To join another:

  1. Go to Communities in the top nav.
  2. Find the community you want to join (search by name, state, or LGA).
  3. Click Join community.

Joining doesn't change your primary — it just adds a new membership.

Switching your active community​

Use the community picker in the top nav to switch between communities you've joined. Your feed, notifications badge, and the "act" buttons on representative and issue pages all follow the active community.

Changing your primary community​

If you actually move — new city, new LGA — you can change your primary community.

  1. Go to Profile → Community.
  2. Click Change primary community.
  3. Pick the target (you must have already joined it).

One caveat: you can only change your primary community once every 30 days. This is deliberate — it stops people bouncing between communities to stack signatures or file issues in places they don't actually live. If you're within the 30-day cooldown, the UI shows the next date you can change.

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