canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/highergov.com/highergov

# HigherGov API

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for HigherGov API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. HigherGov provides structured access to United States federal government contract records through a single GET `/api/contract` endpoint, which returns awarded contract data filtered by award ID, vendor, agency, NAICS code, and date range. The API uses an api_key passed as a query parameter and is intended for vendors, analysts, and procurement teams who need to enrich CRM or BI systems with federal spend data. Because the surface is intentionally narrow, integration is fast and the response payload is the primary point of complexity.

## For AI agents

Retrieve United States federal government contract records filtered by vendor, agency, NAICS code, and date. Authenticated with an api_key query parameter.

## Scope

Does not handle grants, state or local procurement, or contract document retrieval - use for U.S. federal contract metadata lookup only.

## Capabilities

- Pull federal contract records filtered by awarding agency or sub-agency
- Filter contract awards by NAICS code to scope by industry
- Search contracts by recipient or vendor name to enrich CRM accounts
- Page through contract results across a custom date range for trend analysis
- Look up a specific federal contract by its award ID
- Feed federal procurement data into BI dashboards or sales prospecting tools

## Use cases

### Government Sales Prospecting

B2G sales teams enrich CRM accounts with federal contract activity to prioritise outreach. The HigherGov API returns awarded contracts filtered by recipient name or NAICS, so an agent can score an account by recent federal spend and surface upcoming renewal windows. With a single endpoint, integration takes under an hour.

Example prompt: Pull all federal contracts awarded to 'Acme Defense Inc' in the last 24 months and write the totals back to the CRM account record.

### Procurement Market Research

Analysts tracking a market segment query HigherGov by NAICS code to size the federal opportunity and identify the agencies driving spend. The `/api/contract` endpoint accepts NAICS, agency, and date filters so an agent can build a quarterly market brief without scraping SAM.gov or USAspending.

Example prompt: Retrieve all NAICS 541512 contracts awarded by civilian agencies between 2025-01-01 and 2025-12-31 and produce a top-10 vendors summary.

### Compliance and Vendor Diligence

Procurement and compliance teams verify that prospective subcontractors have a clean federal contracting record. An agent can call `/api/contract` for the vendor name and review past awards, agency relationships, and contract values before approving onboarding.

Example prompt: For prospective subcontractor 'Beta Logistics LLC', list all federal contracts in the last 5 years and flag any award above 5 million USD.

### AI Agent Federal Spend Briefing

An AI assistant briefs a sales rep each morning with new federal contracts relevant to their territory. Through Jentic, the agent searches for the HigherGov contract operation, loads the schema, and executes the GET with the rep's saved filters. The api_key stays in your Jentic One instance and never enters the model context.

Example prompt: Each weekday morning, search Jentic for 'list federal contracts', execute GET `/api/contract` with the rep's NAICS and agency filters from yesterday, and post the new awards to Slack.

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/api/contract` | Retrieve federal contract records with filters |

## Key resources

- **Contracts** — Awarded United States federal contracts filtered by vendor, agency, NAICS, award ID, and date.

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the HigherGov API by hand means managing an api_key that travels as a query-string parameter and building the right filter set for federal contract lookups. Through Jentic you install once, import the HigherGov API from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** HigherGov exposes a single read operation, GET `/api/contract`, so scoping stays at the operation level: the agent is limited to that contract-lookup call. It reads federal contract metadata and nothing else, since no write or delete operation exists in this spec to add.
- **Credential handling:** Your HigherGov api_key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected into the query string at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'list federal contracts for a vendor', and Jentic returns the GET `/api/contract` operation with its query-parameter schema so the agent calls it with the right filters without reading the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Data.gov API** — Free U.S. government open data catalogue covering many datasets including procurement.
- **Clearbit API** — Company firmographic data; pair with HigherGov to enrich federal vendors with employee count and tech stack.
- **Abstract API** — Lightweight enrichment APIs for company, email, and phone validation alongside HigherGov contract data.

## FAQ

### Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for HigherGov API?

HigherGov does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call HigherGov API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### What authentication does the HigherGov API use?

The HigherGov API uses an api_key passed as a query parameter on every request to `/api/contract.` Through Jentic, the api_key is held in your Jentic One instance and injected at execution time so the value is never exposed to the agent or model context.

### Can I filter contracts by NAICS code or awarding agency?

Yes. GET `/api/contract` accepts filters for awarding agency, sub-agency, recipient name, NAICS code, award ID, and date range. Combine NAICS with agency to scope a market by industry and buyer.

### What are the rate limits for the HigherGov API?

The HigherGov OpenAPI specification does not declare rate limits. HigherGov enforces plan-based quotas on api_keys, so check your plan dashboard and add retry-with-backoff for batch enrichment jobs that page through large result sets.

### How do I enrich a CRM account with federal contract data through Jentic?

Run pip install jentic, then await client.search('list federal contracts for a vendor'), load the GET `/api/contract` schema, and execute with the recipient_name parameter set to the CRM account name. The returned contract list can be written back to a CRM custom field.

### Does HigherGov return contract documents or only metadata?

The `/api/contract` endpoint returns structured contract metadata such as award ID, recipient, agency, NAICS, and value. For raw contract documents you need the HigherGov web UI; the API is intended for analytics and CRM enrichment.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the HigherGov API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which HigherGov operations and credentials your agent may use. This API exposes a single read operation, GET `/api/contract`, so you can scope the agent to that contract-lookup call and nothing more, and it only reads federal contract metadata. There is no write or delete operation in the spec, so the agent cannot modify any HigherGov data.