Accela Civic Platform API
Browse all Accela APIs★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentProductivityCollaborationoauth286 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Read and update Accela civic records, inspections, contacts, parcels, and documents on behalf of a government agency so agents can automate permitting, licensing, and inspection workflows.
Use for: I want to look up a building permit by address, Schedule a plumbing inspection for an existing record, Retrieve all inspections completed in the last 30 days for a record, Find all contacts associated with a specific permit
Not supported: Does not handle card payment capture, GIS map rendering, or constituent identity verification — use for civic record, inspection, and case management on the Accela Civic Platform only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Accela Civic Platform API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The Accela Civic Platform v4 API powers government-facing applications for permitting, code enforcement, licensing, and service requests, exposing 86 endpoints across records, inspections, contacts, addresses, parcels, documents, payments, and workflow operations. Authentication is OAuth 2.0 against auth.accela.com with the agency scoped via the X-Accela-Agency header. It is used by civic engagement portals, contractor-facing tools, and inspection mobile apps that need to read and update agency case data.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Accela Civic Platform API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Accela Civic Platform API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Accela Civic Platform API.
Search Accela records by address, parcel, or contact and retrieve case detail
Schedule and update inspections tied to a permit or licensing record
Attach documents to a record and retrieve existing attachments by record id
Look up parcel and address data to populate civic application forms
Manage contacts (applicants, owners, professionals) associated with a record
Retrieve agency-level settings and reference data such as record types and modules
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Accela Civic Platform API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Contractor Permit Lookup Portal
A contractor-facing portal queries the Accela Civic Platform API to fetch every active permit tied to a contractor's license, including inspection status and outstanding fees. The portal calls GET /v4/records with a professional id filter, then loads inspection detail per record. This avoids contractors having to log into the agency's Accela Citizen Access (ACA) site for each city they work in.
Call GET /v4/records filtered by a contractor's professional id and aggregate inspection status across all returned records
Automated Inspection Scheduling from a Field App
Field inspectors and applicants use a mobile app that calls the Accela inspections endpoints to request, reschedule, and update inspection results in the field. POST /v4/inspections schedules a new inspection on a record, and PUT updates result codes and notes. This shortens the loop between site visit and case closure compared to phone-based scheduling.
Schedule a framing inspection on permit record id ABC-2026-001 for next available date and post the resulting inspection id back
Code Enforcement Case Triage
A code enforcement officer triages incoming complaints by querying GET /v4/records filtered by record type and status, then attaches photographic evidence via the documents endpoint. Search by address allows the officer to surface prior cases on the same property. The result is a faster first-response cycle and a complete audit trail in the agency's Accela environment.
Search Accela records for open code enforcement cases on a given parcel and attach a photo document to the most recent record
Agent-Driven Civic Records Workflow via Jentic
An AI assistant deployed at a government agency uses the Accela Civic Platform API through Jentic to handle routine constituent questions: looking up a permit's status, finding the next inspection date, or retrieving contact information for a record. The agent searches Jentic for the right operation, the OAuth flow is brokered by Jentic, and the agent never sees the raw access token.
Through Jentic, search 'look up a building permit by address', load GET /v4/records, and return the most recent permit and its inspection status
Key Endpoints
86 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for accela civic platform api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/v4/records
Search agency records with filters
GET
/v4/records/{ids}
Retrieve specific records by id
GET
/v4/inspections
List inspections matching filter criteria
GET
/v4/contacts
Search contacts associated with records
GET
/v4/addresses
Search addresses in the agency's data
GET
/v4/parcels
Search parcels by APN or location
POST
/oauth2/token
Obtain an OAuth access token for an agency
GET
/v4/records
Search agency records with filters
GET
/v4/records/{ids}
Retrieve specific records by id
GET
/v4/inspections
List inspections matching filter criteria
GET
/v4/contacts
Search contacts associated with records
GET
/v4/addresses
Search addresses in the agency's data
GET
/v4/parcels
Search parcels by APN or location
POST
/oauth2/token
Obtain an OAuth access token for an agency
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
Accela OAuth client credentials and agency scopes are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Jentic brokers the OAuth flow and injects access tokens at execution time, so raw client secrets never enter agent context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent — for example, 'look up a building permit by address' — and Jentic returns the matching GET /v4/records operation with its filter parameters and required headers.
Time to first call
Direct integration with Accela: 3-7 days to handle OAuth, the X-Accela-Agency header model, and per-agency configuration. Through Jentic: under 1 hour for the first working call.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
Complementary
Stripe API
Process the actual card payment for a civic fee, then write the payment record back into Accela.
Use Stripe to take the payment from a citizen, then call Accela /v4/records payment endpoints to mark the fee as paid in the agency record.
FAQs
Specific to using Accela Civic Platform API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Accela Civic Platform API?
Accela does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Accela Civic Platform API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.
What authentication does the Accela Civic Platform API use?
OAuth 2.0 with the authorization endpoint at GET /oauth2/authorize and token exchange at POST /oauth2/token. Calls also require an X-Accela-Agency header to scope requests to a specific agency. Through Jentic, the OAuth flow is brokered and tokens are stored encrypted in the vault.
Can I schedule and update inspections with the Accela Civic Platform API?
Yes. The /v4/inspections endpoints schedule new inspections, retrieve inspection detail, and update results and notes once an inspector completes a site visit. Inspections are linked to a parent record id, so you must look up or create the record first.
What are the rate limits for the Accela Civic Platform API?
The OpenAPI spec does not document explicit rate limits. Accela publishes per-agency limits in their developer portal that vary by environment (sandbox vs production). Implement exponential backoff on HTTP 429 and treat the limits as agency-specific.
How do I look up a permit by address through Jentic?
Run pip install jentic, then search 'look up a building permit by address'. Jentic returns the GET /v4/records operation with its address filter parameter. Load the schema, supply the address and X-Accela-Agency header, and execute. Three async calls, no manual OAuth wiring.
Does the Accela Civic Platform API expose payment processing?
It exposes fee and payment record data tied to permits and licenses, but it does not itself process card payments. For card capture, agencies typically integrate a separate gateway and post the resulting payment record back into Accela via this API.
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