The intelligence layer for the built world

Shovels captures the first signal of construction—using AI to turn fragmented permit data into Shovel-ready intelligence. Access via API, web app, or direct data warehouse integration.

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Clean and useful building permit data that's easy to understand

Because you want to get insights from building permits, not wrangle with raw data.

Building permits in our database: 130M+
Contractors in our database: 2.3M+
Jurisdictions covered: 1,800+
New permits added monthly: 5M+

How we're different

Our data is Shovel-ready

We make building permits easy to understand and use for market research, go-to-market, and sales. No data engineering required.

Fanatical customer service: We're a small company with a big heart. We're here to help you succeed.
Constant innovation: We ship fast. We ship often. We ship quality. We use the latest technology to make your life easier.
Transparency: We're not afraid to show you exactly where our coverage gaps are. We're the only company that's fully transparent about our data.
Residents and employees: We go beyond just the properties and contractors. We also include residents and employees with contact information.
Helpful documentation: Our documentation is comprehensive and easy to understand. We keep our API documentation and data dictionary up to date.
AI-powered from the start: We run hundreds of millions of records through our AI to make sure our data is accurate.
Pricing for everyone: We work with all budgets. Our customers range from climate and proptech startups to publicly-traded companies.
Multiple interfaces: We're more than just a data provider. We're both a data platform and a software company.

Work with us

We offer three interfaces to interact with our building permit, contractor, and government decision data.

Shovels Online

Purchase single or multiple seats to explore and download our building permit, contractor, and local government decision data.

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Shovels API

Automate access and integrate with other applications like CRMs, custom web apps, and more.

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Database Access

Get parquet files or private table shares into Snowflake, Databricks, or Big Query.

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From the blog

We write about building permits, contractors, government decisions, and the future of the built environment.

Jun 15, 2026 Company

Monthly Memo - June 2026

On June 2, Shovels launched its Decisions API—the first expansion beyond permits, connecting decisions, permits, and contractors through shared geo_ids. Ryan ties the launch to a bigger shift: Shovels now gathers its permits, contractors, decisions, and property data 100% on its own, with no licensed records. By the end of the year, the company will have four interconnected proprietary datasets, all "Shovel-ready" for your data teams.

Ryan Buckley

CEO