Get Shovel-ready intelligence delivered via our API. We capture permit, contractor, and property data from over 2,000 jurisdictions nationwide—using AI to clean, enrich, and unify it into standardized intelligence. Enhanced geo-search, expanded filtering, and lightning-fast responses.
API for the building trades
Everything built starts with a permit. Our API delivers that first signal—turning fragmented public records from over 2,000 jurisdictions nationwide into standardized, Shovel-ready intelligence. Built to be powerful, fast, and developer-friendly.
Building permit and contractor data
We built, simply put, the best API in the market to identify what's getting built and who's doing it.
The Shovels API provides building permit records, contractor profiles, property details, and resident information from over 2,000 jurisdictions nationwide across the United States. Data is AI-enriched and standardized into a clean JSON format with geographic search, advanced filtering, and derived quality metrics like inspection pass rates.
Sign up at app.shovels.ai to get your API key. The REST API uses standard HTTP requests and returns JSON responses. Full documentation, including endpoint references and quickstart guides, is available at docs.shovels.ai.
The API covers approximately 85% of the US population, sourcing building permit and contractor data from over 2,000 jurisdictions nationwide. You can search by address, zip code, city, county, or jurisdiction using the geo_id system.
Shovels updates its database monthly, with changes released on the 1st and 15th of each month. Each update cycle adds 5-10 million new records and 1-5 million status updates. Processing takes up to a week after the database refresh.
Yes. Shovels offers flexible licensing terms designed to give you the freedom to reuse and even resell API output without lengthy legal negotiations.
Yes. The API provides access to local government meeting intelligence, including city council decisions, planning board approvals, and zoning changes. This Decisions data gives you visibility months before permits are filed, enabling you to identify projects at the earliest stage of development.
