# Shovels API — Building Permit Search by County

> Shovels API — Building Permit Search by County is a paid API for AI agents from stable-shovels.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.05/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Search US building permits by date, location, and contractor via pay-per-call POST endpoint with no subscription required

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://stable-shovels.dev/api/counties/search
- Price: $0.05/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/shovels-api-building-permit-search-by-county-e6e345be
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_PaYPAfOm5ir0VmGDvlu8c

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability shovels-api-building-permit-search-by-county-e6e345be -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search Shovels for building permits filed in Los Angeles County, California between January 1 2024 and June 30 2024 for the contractor ABC Roofing — show me what permits they pulled.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need on-demand, no-subscription access to US building permit data and want to pay only per query. Ideal for agents doing one-off contractor research, real estate due diligence, or construction activity lookups without committing to a monthly plan. Best when the query is scoped to a specific county with date or contractor filters.

## Known failure modes

- Payment not received or x402 payment header missing — returns 402 Payment Required
- Invalid county identifier or unsupported county — returns 404 or empty results
- Malformed POST body or missing required search fields — returns 400 Bad Request
- Rate limit or server overload — returns 429 or 503
- No permits match the search criteria — returns empty results array

## How this service works

Pay-per-call access to the Shovels building-permits search API over x402 and MPP. Search US building permits by date, location, and contractor — no accounts, no subscriptions, pay per request.

## Output

Returns a list of matching US building permit records filtered by the specified county, date range, and/or contractor, including permit details such as permit type, filing date, address, contractor name, and permit status.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "q": {
   "type": "string",
   "minLength": 1,
   "description": "The term to search for."
  },
  "size": {
   "type": "integer",
   "maximum": 100,
   "minimum": 1,
   "description": "Records to return per page (1–100, default 50). Determines the price — each record returned costs one credit."
  },
  "cursor": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Pagination cursor — pass the `next_cursor` from a prior page."
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/shovels-api-building-permit-search-by-county-e6e345be/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from stable-shovels.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/stable-shovels.dev/llms.txt)