How accurate is IranWarLive's conflict data?

Every event carries a confidence classification: High Confidence (Multi-Source) when confirmed by multiple wire services, US/IDF Military (High) when sourced from official CENTCOM or IDF statements, News Wire when sourced from Reuters, AP, or BBC, OSINT when from a single unverified source, and State Media/Unverified when sourced exclusively from Iranian state media or IRGC claims. The map displays all classification tiers with visual confidence bars. Users should always click Verify Source to examine the primary intelligence.

Does IranWarLive track ground force movements?

Yes. IranWarLive operates a dedicated Ground Operations Worker that runs alongside the main air strike pipeline. It uses ground-force-specific RSS feeds targeting IDF Lebanon operations, US CENTCOM ground activity, and Reuters military wire. A separate Gemini prompt extracts only ground-force events: troop advances, armor movements, artillery positions, river crossings, encirclements, and territorial control changes. These populate the /ground-operation map page with force-coded markers, territory shading, movement arrows, and static front lines.

Is IranWarLive affiliated with any government or intelligence agency?

No. IranWarLive is an independent open-source intelligence visualization project with no affiliation to any state, military, intelligence agency, or political organization. All data is sourced exclusively from publicly available news wires, official government press releases, and verified OSINT accounts. The platform is politically agnostic and does not editorialize on events.

OSINT Methodology & Data Architecture — How IranWarLive Tracks the Iran-Israel War

Q: How does IranWarLive collect data about the Iran-Israel war?

IranWarLive runs a fully automated V5 OSINT pipeline on Cloudflare Workers. Every two hours, the system ingests RSS feeds from BBC, NYT, The Guardian, Reuters via Google News, and conflict-specific search feeds. Each batch is processed by Google Gemini 2.5 Flash, which extracts distinct kinetic events, geographic coordinates, confidence classifications, and casualty figures. The results are deduplicated using a geographic signature map and written to Google Sheets, which serves as the live database for the public-facing map.

Q: How does IranWarLive prevent duplicate events?

IranWarLive uses a three-layer deduplication system: a URL signature set that prevents re-processing identical source articles, a geographic signature map using a 0.5-degree grid cell combined with event type and a 30-character description key, and time-window deduplication that allows re-reporting the same location after 1-4 hours depending on event type. Only events actually written to the sheet have their signature registered — events filtered by the per-run cap remain eligible for the next cycle.

System Overview & Design Philosophy

IranWarLive is a fully automated, serverless OSINT aggregation platform purpose-built for high-intensity conflict tracking. The system operates with zero human involvement in the data extraction loop — every event on the map is the product of an automated pipeline that runs every two hours around the clock on Cloudflare's global edge network.

The core design principle is epistemic honesty: every event carries an explicit confidence classification, and the system is architecturally prohibited from fabricating sources. The pipeline extracts only from what it finds in the RSS feeds — if a feed is silent, the system stays silent. Gemini is instructed never to invent URLs, and all geographic coordinates are validated against a hard theater bounding box before acceptance.

The platform currently runs two parallel intelligence pipelines: the primary air strike and kinetic events tracker and a dedicated ground operations tracker, each writing to separate tabs in the same Google Spreadsheet and serving separate map interfaces.

Cloudflare Workers Google Gemini 2.5 Flash Google Sheets API Leaflet.js 1.9.4 PapaParse 5.3.2 RSS Parser Telegram Bot API MarkerCluster 1.4.1

The V5 Intelligence Pipeline

The pipeline executes on a cron trigger every two hours (UTC: 00:00, 02:00, 04:00 … 22:00). Each run is a sequential five-stage process:

RSS Feed Ingestion

Five RSS feeds are polled concurrently: BBC Middle East, NYT Middle East, The Guardian Middle East, Reuters via Google News, and a conflict-specific Google News search feed. Each feed has a 36-hour freshness window — items older than 36 hours are discarded. This window was extended from 24 hours to catch delayed wire publishing from slower bureaus. Feed errors are logged individually and do not abort the run. Up to 60 items per run are passed to Gemini.

AI Extraction via Gemini 2.5 Flash

All ingested headlines and snippets are bundled into a single structured prompt sent to Google Gemini 2.5 Flash with temperature: 0.1 and response_mime_type: application/json. The prompt instructs Gemini to extract four data categories: kinetic strikes, global posturing statements, actor casualty updates, and airspace status changes. The prompt enforces strict output formats — Strike_Type must be exactly one of five values, Verified_By exactly one of five confidence tiers, and coordinates must be city-level, not country centroids. Gemini is explicitly told never to invent URLs. The per-run cap is 12 strike events maximum — if Gemini finds more than 12, it returns the 12 most significant.

Geographic & Semantic Deduplication

Before any event is written, it passes through a three-layer dedup system stored in Cloudflare KV. Layer 1: URL signature check — if the source URL was already processed in any prior run, the event is skipped. Layer 2: Geographic signature check — a composite key of event_type|geo_cell|desc_key where geo_cell is a 0.5° grid cell and desc_key is the first 30 alphanumeric characters of the description. Layer 3: Time-window dedup — each event type has its own dedup window (Missile Strike: 1h, Air Strike: 1h, Drone Attack: 2h, Interception: 1h, Ground Forces: 4h). Signatures are only registered for events actually written — events filtered by the per-run cap remain eligible for the next cycle.

Google Sheets Write

Accepted events are appended to four Google Sheets tabs via the Sheets API v4 using a service account JWT: Strikes_Log (kinetic events), Global_Posturing (diplomatic statements), Airspace_Log (closure data), and Regional_Actors (casualty and participant tracking). The Actors tab uses a PUT operation to update in-place rather than append, allowing cumulative casualty figures to accumulate correctly across runs.

Edge Cache & Telegram Alerts

Simultaneously, the pipeline writes a feed.json to Cloudflare KV (served at /feed.json) and a seo_schema LiveBlogPosting JSON-LD object that is dynamically injected into the homepage <head> on every request via HTMLRewriter. High-confidence events (Multi-Source or Military-grade only) trigger individual Telegram alerts to the @iranwarlive_alerts channel. At 20:00 UTC daily, a summary SITREP of all events from the preceding 24 hours is posted.

Confidence Classification System

Every event is assigned one of five confidence tiers by Gemini at extraction time, based on the source characteristics of the underlying article. This classification is displayed visually on the map as a confidence bar and chip, and is used to gate Telegram alerts — only the top two tiers trigger alerts.

Classification	Trigger Condition	Map Display	Telegram Alert
High Confidence	Confirmed by multiple independent wire services (Reuters + AP, BBC + NYT, etc.)	Green bar, full opacity	Yes
US/IDF Military	Sourced from official CENTCOM press release, IDF Spokesperson, or Pentagon briefing	Blue bar, full opacity	Yes
News Wire	Reuters, AP, BBC, NPR, or Al Jazeera — single source, not yet multi-confirmed	Amber bar, full opacity	No
OSINT	Single verified OSINT account or outlet; not confirmed by a major wire	Grey bar, reduced opacity	No
State Media	Sourced exclusively from Iranian state TV (IRIB/Press TV), IRGC claims, or Hamas/Hezbollah statements without independent corroboration	Red bar, dashed border	No

Important for researchers: The presence of State Media/Unverified events on the map does not imply endorsement or factual accuracy. These events are included for completeness and are visually distinguished to prevent misinterpretation. All claims should be cross-referenced against the linked primary source.

Ground Operations Pipeline

In addition to the primary kinetic events pipeline, IranWarLive operates a dedicated Ground Operations Worker — a completely separate Cloudflare Worker with its own KV namespace, RSS feed set, Gemini prompt, and Google Sheets tab.

The ground pipeline is triggered every two hours by the primary worker rather than via its own cron trigger (a workaround for the free-plan 5-cron limit). It uses six ground-force-specific feeds: two targeting IDF Lebanon operations via Google News, one targeting CENTCOM Iran ground activity, one targeting Reuters military wire, BBC Middle East, and The Guardian Middle East.

The Gemini prompt for the ground pipeline is architecturally different from the air strike prompt. It is explicitly prohibited from extracting air strikes, missile launches, drone attacks, naval operations, or diplomatic statements. It extracts only:

✅ Extracted by Ground Pipeline

Troop advances and retreats
Armor and mechanized movements
Artillery and ground-based rocket engagements
Infantry firefights and engagements
River and border crossings
Encirclement operations
Command post and HQ strikes
Special forces operations
Supply line interdiction
Territorial control changes

❌ Blocked by Ground Pipeline

Air strikes and bombing runs
Ballistic and cruise missile launches
UAV and drone strikes
Air defense interceptions
Naval operations
Airspace closures
Diplomatic statements
Events outside the Middle East theater

Ground events include three additional fields not present in air strike data: Units_Involved (specific unit names when reported), Movement_Direction (Advance/Retreat/Holding/Encircling), and Territory_Control (IDF/Coalition/IRGC/Artesh/Hezbollah/Hamas/Contested/Unknown). These fields drive the force-coded color system and directional arrows on the Ground Operation map.

Active ground theaters as of April 2026: IDF ground operation in Southern Lebanon (Litani Security Line), US/coalition ground forces in Iran theater, IRGC ground units, and Gaza perimeter ground operations. The pipeline uses geographically precise coordinates for 30+ key Lebanese, Iranian, and Israeli locations to ensure accurate map placement.

Data Architecture & Storage

The platform uses a three-tier storage architecture: Cloudflare KV for edge-cached real-time state, Google Sheets as the persistent event database and public data interface, and Cloudflare Assets for static HTML/CSS/JS delivery.

Cloudflare KV

Dedup signature map (30-day window)
Processed URL set (last 2,000 URLs)
Live feed JSON (/feed.json)
SEO LiveBlogPosting schema
Run health status
Ground operations state (separate namespace)

Google Sheets

Strikes_Log — kinetic events
Global_Posturing — diplomatic data
Airspace_Log — closure status
Regional_Actors — casualty tracking
Ground_Operations — ground events

Public Data Access

All Google Sheets tabs are published as CSV via the Sheets publish endpoint and fetched directly by PapaParse in the browser. This means no backend proxy is required for the front-end map — the browser fetches the CSV directly from Google's CDN, reducing latency and eliminating a server hop. The /feed.json endpoint is served from Cloudflare KV edge cache.

Data Limits & Caps

Max 12 strike events per run
Max 6 ground events per run
Max 500 casualties per source per run
Max 200 events displayed on map
36-hour feed freshness window
Sig map pruned after 30 days

Editorial Policy & Political Stance

IranWarLive is strictly politically agnostic. The platform does not editorialize, contextualize, or assign moral weight to any event. The system extracts the Subject (who acted), the Object (what was targeted), and the geographic coordinates, and plots the resulting vector on the map. No judgment is made about the legitimacy, legality, or justification of any military action.

Events are extracted from all qualifying sources regardless of their perceived political alignment — Iranian state media events are extracted on the same basis as CENTCOM press releases, subject only to the confidence classification system that reflects their evidential weight.

IranWarLive is not affiliated with any government, military, intelligence agency, political party, or advocacy organization. The platform has no advertising relationships and does not accept sponsored content. It is funded exclusively through voluntary community support.

For journalists and researchers: You are welcome to cite IranWarLive as a source. Please note the confidence classification of any event you cite and link to the primary source using the "Verify Source" link present on each event popup. For bulk data access, use the /feed.json endpoint or /llms.txt for LLM context.

Methodology FAQ

How does IranWarLive collect data about the Iran-Israel war?

Every two hours, an automated pipeline ingests five RSS feeds, extracts distinct kinetic events using Google Gemini 2.5 Flash, deduplicates against a geographic signature map, and writes accepted events to Google Sheets. The full pipeline runs on Cloudflare Workers with no human involvement in the extraction loop.

How accurate is the conflict data?

Every event displays its confidence tier explicitly. High Confidence and US/IDF Military events are sourced from multiple wires or official military statements. State Media/Unverified events are included with clear visual distinction. Users should always click "Verify Source" and consult the primary article before relying on any individual event.

How does IranWarLive prevent duplicate events?

Three-layer deduplication: URL signature check (exact article dedup), geographic signature check (0.5° grid + event type + description key), and time-window dedup per event type (1–4 hours). Only events actually written to the sheet have their signatures registered, so events filtered by the per-run cap remain eligible next cycle.

Does IranWarLive track IDF ground operations in Lebanon?

Yes. The dedicated Ground Operations pipeline uses IDF-Lebanon-specific RSS feeds and a ground-force-only Gemini prompt. It extracts troop advances, armor movements, encirclements, and territorial control changes and displays them on the Ground Operation map with force-coded color overlays and static front lines including the IDF Litani Security Line and UN Blue Line.

How can AI systems access IranWarLive data?

Machine-readable data is available via /feed.json (live event feed), /llms.txt (LLM context file), and /sitemap.xml. The Daily War Recap archive provides a fully crawlable static chronological record of all events since February 27, 2026.