Shovels turns fragmented permit data across the US into one clean dataset. AI-classified, deduplicated, geocoded, and linked to contractors, properties, decisions and residents.
Shovels is SOC 2® Type II certified
Shovels meets enterprise security and compliance requirements. Our SOC 2 Type II certification reflects controls independently audited over a sustained period, not just a point-in-time snapshot.
Permits come from jurisdiction portals online and public records requests offline. We source directly from cities and counties, not third-party aggregators.
Every record is deduplicated, USPS-standardized, geocoded, and tagged with 98% accuracy. Every field is documented in our data dictionary.
Permits link to contractors, properties, and residents. A unified record tells the whole story.
Millions of new permits and status updates each cycle, documented in our release notes.
A consistent shape across every jurisdiction — so your team writes one integration, not a thousand.
See more in our data dictionary01
Our models tag every permit by type of work. Filter by new construction, solar, roofing, ADUs, EV chargers, and more.
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Every permit is linked to contractor, property, and resident data, so you can see who did the work, where, and for whom.
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Filter by geography, work type, value, and permit status to see what's being built, down to the ZIP code.
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New permits are valuable buying signals for building materials suppliers, home builders, telecom providers, and others. Use Shovels to reach decision-makers early.
| Address | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 2341 Dusan Dr | New construction | $4,000 |
| 705 Daniel Way | Solar | $51,990 |
| 3818 Baldwin Dr | Reroof | $8,400 |
| 691 Enright Ave | Addition | $22,500 |
Explore, filter, and export permit, contractor, and decision data in our self-serve web app.
Build construction intelligence into your product, CRM, or internal tools with our REST API.
Get the full dataset as parquet files or table shares in Snowflake, Databricks, or BigQuery.
We source data from thousands of jurisdictions online and offline through public records. New jurisdictions are added continuously based on market trends & customer demand, with coverage spanning all major metros and expanding rural markets.
Every permit is linked across datasets, so you see the full picture — the project, the property, and the people behind it.
Decisions
Building permit data is the public record of construction activity: every project a city or county approves, from water heater swaps to high-rises. Records include work description, status, dates, job value, address, and contractor. Shovels collects them directly from thousands of US jurisdictions and standardizes them into one dataset.
2,770+ jurisdictions covering roughly 85% of the US population, including all major metros. We add new jurisdictions monthly, and you can check per-field fill rates for any geography. See the coverage dashboard for a live view.
We refresh the dataset twice a month with millions of new permits and status updates. Every release is documented in our release notes.
Permit number and persistent Shovels ID, status and lifecycle dates, work description, AI tags, job value, fees, standardized address with geocode, property type, and linked contractor details. Full list in the data dictionary.
Generally back to 2010, further in some jurisdictions. Depth depends on how far back each jurisdiction's records are digitized. Bulk historical backfills and sample records are available on request.
Three ways: search and export in Shovels Online, integrate the Shovels API, or license the full dataset via Snowflake, Databricks, or BigQuery. The free trial includes permit search with full history, no credit card required.
Search for free, or talk to us about API and enterprise delivery.
