Shovels

Shovels is the intelligence layer for the built world, providing building permit data and contractor intelligence aggregated from 1,800+ jurisdictions across the United States. The platform offers 130M+ building permits, 2.3M+ contractor profiles, property details, resident information, and geographic market metrics. Shovels helps materials suppliers, construction tech companies, energy and climate firms, home services companies, real estate professionals, and telecommunications providers identify qualified contractors, understand work history, and power sales and marketing with rich permit data.

Shovels publishes 6 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Addresses API, Contractors API, Geography API, and 3 more. Tagged areas include Construction, Building Permits, Contractors, Real-Estate, and Property Data.

The Shovels catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

Shovels’ developer surface includes authentication, engineering blog, and 5 more developer resources.

📡 Source on GitHub

36.0/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 30/100 agent ready Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-25 · rubric v0.14.0

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

6 APIs

Construction Building Permits Contractors Real-Estate Property Data Market Intelligence

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-25 · rubric v0.14.0

Composite quality — 36.0/100 · thin

Contract Quality 17.6 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 2.9 / 20

Access Clarity 4.7 / 20

Operational Transparency 1.0 / 13

Contract Governance 1.6 / 12

Discoverability 8.2 / 10

Agent readiness — 30/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 6 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 4 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Surface 0 / 5

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/shovels: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 6

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Shovels Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

JSON Schema 2

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Examples 2

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

AGENTIC

Resources

Agent Surfaces 2

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

LlmsText

LlmsText

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

TrustCenter

TrustCenter

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: shovels
name: Shovels
description: Shovels is the intelligence layer for the built world, providing building permit data and contractor intelligence
  aggregated from 1,800+ jurisdictions across the United States. The platform offers 130M+ building permits, 2.3M+ contractor
  profiles, property details, resident information, and geographic market metrics. Shovels helps materials suppliers, construction
  tech companies, energy and climate firms, home services companies, real estate professionals, and telecommunications providers
  identify qualified contractors, understand work history, and power sales and marketing with rich permit data.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/shovels.png
tags:
- Construction
- Building Permits
- Contractors
- Real-Estate
- Property Data
- Market Intelligence
tags_raw:
- Construction
- Building Permits
- Contractors
- Real Estate
- Property Data
- Market Intelligence
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/shovels/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-05-02'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/shovels-agentic-access.yml
- type: TrustCenter
  url: security/shovels-trust-center.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/shovels-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/shovels-authentication.yml
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shovels
- type: LlmsText
  url: https://docs.shovels.ai/llms.txt
- url: https://www.shovels.ai/feeds/all.atom.xml
  type: Blog
apis:
- aid: shovels:shovels-addresses-api
  name: Shovels Addresses API
  description: The Addresses API from Shovels — 4 operation(s) for addresses.
  humanURL: https://www.shovels.ai/api
  baseURL: https://api.shovels.ai/v2
  tags:
  - Addresses
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/shovels-addresses-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Pricing
    url: https://www.shovels.ai/pricing
  - type: Signup
    url: https://app.shovels.ai
  - type: GitHubOrganization
    url: https://github.com/ShovelsAI
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-permit-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-contractor-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/shovels-permit-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/shovels-context.jsonld
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: rules/shovels-rules.yml
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/shovels-vocabulary.yml
- aid: shovels:shovels-contractors-api
  name: Shovels Contractors API
  description: The Contractors API from Shovels — 5 operation(s) for contractors.
  humanURL: https://www.shovels.ai/api
  baseURL: https://api.shovels.ai/v2
  tags:
  - Contractors
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/shovels-contractors-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Pricing
    url: https://www.shovels.ai/pricing
  - type: Signup
    url: https://app.shovels.ai
  - type: GitHubOrganization
    url: https://github.com/ShovelsAI
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-permit-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-contractor-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/shovels-permit-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/shovels-context.jsonld
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: rules/shovels-rules.yml
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/shovels-vocabulary.yml
- aid: shovels:shovels-geography-api
  name: Shovels Geography API
  description: The Geography API from Shovels — 7 operation(s) for geography.
  humanURL: https://www.shovels.ai/api
  baseURL: https://api.shovels.ai/v2
  tags:
  - Geography
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/shovels-geography-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Pricing
    url: https://www.shovels.ai/pricing
  - type: Signup
    url: https://app.shovels.ai
  - type: GitHubOrganization
    url: https://github.com/ShovelsAI
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-permit-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-contractor-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/shovels-permit-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/shovels-context.jsonld
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: rules/shovels-rules.yml
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/shovels-vocabulary.yml
- aid: shovels:shovels-lists-api
  name: Shovels Lists API
  description: The Lists API from Shovels — 1 operation(s) for lists.
  humanURL: https://www.shovels.ai/api
  baseURL: https://api.shovels.ai/v2
  tags:
  - List
  tags_raw:
  - Lists
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/shovels-lists-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Pricing
    url: https://www.shovels.ai/pricing
  - type: Signup
    url: https://app.shovels.ai
  - type: GitHubOrganization
    url: https://github.com/ShovelsAI
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-permit-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-contractor-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/shovels-permit-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/shovels-context.jsonld
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: rules/shovels-rules.yml
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/shovels-vocabulary.yml
- aid: shovels:shovels-meta-api
  name: Shovels Meta API
  description: The Meta API from Shovels — 2 operation(s) for meta.
  humanURL: https://www.shovels.ai/api
  baseURL: https://api.shovels.ai/v2
  tags:
  - Meta
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/shovels-meta-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Pricing
    url: https://www.shovels.ai/pricing
  - type: Signup
    url: https://app.shovels.ai
  - type: GitHubOrganization
    url: https://github.com/ShovelsAI
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-permit-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-contractor-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/shovels-permit-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/shovels-context.jsonld
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: rules/shovels-rules.yml
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/shovels-vocabulary.yml
- aid: shovels:shovels-permits-api
  name: Shovels Permits API
  description: The Permits API from Shovels — 2 operation(s) for permits.
  humanURL: https://www.shovels.ai/api
  baseURL: https://api.shovels.ai/v2
  tags:
  - Permits
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/shovels-permits-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.shovels.ai/docs/shovels-api-introduction
  - type: Pricing
    url: https://www.shovels.ai/pricing
  - type: Signup
    url: https://app.shovels.ai
  - type: GitHubOrganization
    url: https://github.com/ShovelsAI
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-permit-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/shovels-contractor-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/shovels-permit-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/shovels-context.jsonld
  - type: SpectralRules
    url: rules/shovels-rules.yml
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/shovels-vocabulary.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

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Shovels

APIs 6

Open Collections 8

Pricing Plans 1