DOGE Reportedly Plans to Construct ‘Mega API’ in IRS ‘Hackathon’

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is reportedly planning a “hackathon” at the IRS.

Per a report Saturday (April 5) by Wired, the goal here is to create a “mega API” (application programming interface) that offers access to the IRS’ taxpayer data.

The effort is reportedly being headed by a pair of DOGE staffers at the IRS: Gavin Kliger and Sam Corcos, CEO at healthtech startup Levels, the report said. It added that Corcos has been telling others at DOGE that his aim is to create “one new API to rule them all.”

With this, cloud providers would have an easier time accessing IRS data such as taxpayer names, addresses, Social Security numbers, tax returns and employment information, and move them to external systems. The report said a third-party party vendor would handle parts of the project, with software company Palantir “consistently”  being mentioned as a candidate. Palantir’s co-founder is billionaire Peter Thiel, a longtime associate of Elon Musk, who is overseeing DOGE’s broader efforts.

“It’s basically an open door controlled by Musk for all Americans’ most sensitive information with none of the rules that normally secure that data,” an anonymous IRS worker told Wired.

The news follows recent reports that DOGE also wants to overhaul the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems, migrating it off its longtime programming language. The system runs on COBOL, which is one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, with the goal to move it over to a more modern equivalent.

Meanwhile, Musk’s time with DOGE could be running short, per recent published reports that the world’s richest man would step away from his role at the end of May and take on more of a supporting position.

This end-of-May departure date coincides with the 130-day window to be a “special government employee” that Musk and the White House specified when DOGE was introduced.

Politico reporter Rachael Bade wrote in a post last week on X that President Donald Trump and Musk had recently concluded Musk should return to his businesses, which include Tesla, Starlink, and the recently merged X and xAI.

Bade added that Musk’s departure would be happening at a time when some Trump allies have started to view the billionaire as a “political liability” and that there had been a shift in his relationship with the president.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed Bade’s reporting, saying that both Musk and Trump had said that Musk would “depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.”