Data is only valuable when it leads to clear answers.
That principle guides where Shovels is headed. We have built four proprietary datasets spanning building permits, contractors, government decisions, and properties. We don't resell someone else's file. We collect this information directly from the source, then clean, standardize, and connect it.
Together, these datasets can answer questions that no single source can: where construction will happen, when it will begin, how much will be built, and what it will cost.
We don’t claim to have finished the project. But it is the goal guiding everything we are building.
Today, we are releasing the foundation: a completely rebuilt Shovels Online, with Properties now searchable in the app (and Decisions soon). Charlie, our integrated AI agent, is now built into the platform. We also have a new website and a transparent public pricing page.
Here are the details on what’s available now.
Shovels Online, rebuilt from the ground up
The original Shovels Online did its job, but it was not designed to support the scale of the product we are building.
So we rebuilt it from the ground up with a new technology stack, framework, and design system. The result is a faster, more consistent app and a platform that’s easier to expand. With the right foundation in place, we can develop and release new features more quickly. You will see the difference in the pace of updates.
What's new in the app itself:
Coverage warnings in the filter panel. When you select a location and date range with gaps in the source data, the app now lets you know. Sparse results come with context, making it easier to distinguish limited coverage from a problem with your search.
Result cards that show only available data. Previously, cards displayed empty fields when information was unavailable, making otherwise complete records appear unfinished. Now they show only the data that exists, making permit and contractor results denser and easier to scan.
Redesigned contractor profiles. The underlying data is the same, but the new layout lets you see more at once.
Map view and list view. Switch between a scannable list of results and an interactive map. The new map is built on a tile server for fast and smooth navigation. More improvements are coming soon!
Charlie, our natural language AI agent, built in. Charlie is now integrated directly into Shovels Online. Describe what you are looking for, and Charlie can run the analysis, apply the appropriate filters, and help you find the right results. No need to build the query yourself.
For those interested in the technical foundation, the previous app was built on a no-code platform. It helped us get to market quickly, but eventually limited how fast we could expand the product. The new Shovels Online runs on our own codebase and is deployed on Vercel, giving us the flexibility to develop and release new capabilities much more quickly.
Properties, now in Shovels Online
Shovels Properties covers 159M+ U.S. addresses, about 98% of deliverable addresses nationwide, with coverage varying by state. Sourced from public records and assessor data across all 50 states, the data is collected continuously and refreshed at least twice a month.
The Properties beta now joins Permits and Contractors as a top-level dataset in Shovels Online. Every property record uses the same Shovels geographic IDs as our other datasets, so the connections that previously required manual joins are already built in.
That connection is what makes the dataset particularly valuable. A standalone county record shows what was true when the file was last updated. When that record is linked to permit history, contractor activity, and municipal decisions, it can show what is happening now. You can see an addition that expanded the building or a vote that changed the permitted land use, often years before the county record reflects it.
One important distinction: property and permit coverage are not the same. Properties covers 98% of U.S. addresses, while permit coverage reaches approximately 85% of the U.S. population. For any question involving a property’s permit history, the relevant measure is permit coverage. That is why API responses about the absence of a permit include trust fields that provide context for the answer, rather than returning an unsupported yes or no.
Already available via the API, Shovels Decisions will be added to the online experience in the coming days.
Human-readable permit descriptions
We rewrote more than 150 million permit descriptions into plain English.
Raw permit descriptions are hard to interpret. Abbreviations, measurements, model numbers, expiration language, and administrative notes can all appear in a single field. "Install (6) circuit breakers & (26) quadruplet outlets. Comply with department order dated 3/20/2009, permit to expire 30-days from date of issuance" now reads: "Install new circuit breakers and electrical outlets."
In Shovels Online, that clear, concise version is simply the permit description you see. It's easier to scan and search, easier to drop into a CRM or another workflow without building a custom parser first, and just easier to understand. The rewritten descriptions come back from the API as well, no integration changes required. Fields are documented in the data dictionary.
A new website
The expanded product needed a website that represented it clearly. So, we rebuilt Shovels.ai with clearer product pages, expanded industries with unique use cases, competitor comparison pages, better documentation paths, and a structure that reflects all datasets instead of one.
Public pricing
This is a change that took us longer than it should have.
Our pricing is now on the website. Each plan includes both Shovels Online and API access, giving you two ways to work with the data through a single subscription. API credits scale by plan, and every plan, including the free tier, now replenishes credits monthly. You can continue evaluating Shovels without requesting additional access.
Enterprise data licenses and bulk data shares still require a conversation with our team because they are tailored to each customer. Everything else is available to purchase directly.
Where this goes
Local government data is public by law, but often difficult to access in practice. That is the problem we have worked on since day one: turning information buried in PDFs, agendas, meeting minutes, and government portals into structured data that can be searched and analyzed.
Much of the underlying infrastructure is now in place: four proprietary datasets connected through a shared ID system and available from a single provider. The next step is to use them together to answer forward-looking questions about construction:
Where will it happen? When will it begin? How much will be built?
We can’t answer all of those questions yet. But everything we released this week lays the foundation. Crucially, owning all four datasets gives us the ability to build toward that goal.
For now: explore our new Shovels Online!
Ready to dig in? Sign up for a free Shovels account and try the new Shovels Online, or view pricing to find the plan that fits.
Need bulk or enterprise data? Contact sales about data licenses and warehouse shares.