# Shovels API — US Building Permit Search (Pay-Per-Call)

> Shovels API — US Building Permit Search (Pay-Per-Call) is a paid API for AI agents from stable-shovels.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.5/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Search US building permits by date, location, and contractor with no subscription required — pay $0.50 USDC per call via x402.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://stable-shovels.dev/api/states/search
- Price: $0.5/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-us-building-permit-search-pay-per-call-16936169
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_QAFgVSbBh7QOnKb5QQY1k

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-us-building-permit-search-pay-per-call-16936169 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search Shovels for building permits filed in Texas between January 1 and March 31, 2024 for any contractor named 'Apex Roofing' — I want to see their recent permit activity.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need to search US building permits without committing to a subscription — ideal for one-off lookups, agent workflows that need on-demand permit data, or integrations that require pay-per-use economics. Prefer this over subscription APIs when query volume is unpredictable.

## Known failure modes

- Payment failure — insufficient USDC balance or x402 payment rejected, returns 402
- No results found — valid query but no matching permits in the dataset
- Invalid state or date format — malformed request parameters return 400
- Rate or network timeout — the upstream Shovels API is unreachable

## 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

A list of US building permit records matching the search criteria, including permit dates, locations, contractor details, and permit type/status information.

## 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-us-building-permit-search-pay-per-call-16936169/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)