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Search Grants & Foundations

search_grantsplus
Read-onlyIdempotent

GRANTS & FOUNDATIONS — Search grants, prizes, fellowships, SBIR/STTR, and private foundations. Excludes procurement/contracts for clean results. Use when user wants: funding, grants, fellowships, research money, SBIR, foundation grants. Also returns matching private foundations automatically. Examples: "cancer research funding", "clean energy small business grants", "HVAC grants in Arizona". BATCH MODE (paid): pass a queries[] array of 2-5 variations instead of query to run them in parallel, dedupe, and return all unique results in one call — this replaces the former batch_search_grantsplus tool. Paid plans show new listings the day they open; the free plan reaches the same listings after 10 days. Counts toward your monthly searches. A batch counts as 1 call.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
limitNoMax results (default: 25)
queryNoNatural language search query. Provide either query (single search) or queries (batch mode) — exactly one.
sinceNoStateless alternative to posted_within_days/new_within_days: ISO 8601 instant. Only opportunities ingested at/after this instant. Store the previous response newSince.newest and pass it here to manage your own watermark.
cursorNoPagination cursor from previous response
offsetNoBatch mode only: number of merged results to skip for pagination (default 0). Ignored in single-query mode.
sourceNoFilter to a specific source/domain, e.g. "grants.gov", "deq.nc.gov", or "sam.gov".
statusNoFilter by status
compactNoReturn compact results (default: true). Set to false for full details.
queriesNoBATCH MODE (paid, replaces batch_search_grantsplus): array of 2-5 search queries to run in parallel, dedupe, and merge. Example for clean energy: ["renewable energy grants", "solar wind funding", "clean energy nonprofit", "sustainability grants", "green technology funding"]. When set, query is ignored and the batch response params (detail_level, max_results, offset, max_response_tokens) apply.
max_resultsNoBatch mode only: maximum merged results to return (default 10). Ignored in single-query mode (use limit).
min_qualityNoMinimum record-completeness tier (default: medium). any removes this quality-tier filter; relevance, access and other filters still apply.
detail_levelNoBatch mode only: controls response verbosity (minimal/compact [default]/full). Ignored in single-query mode.
organizationNoFilter by funding organization
user_contextNoUser context for better filtering
grants_filtersNoGrants.gov specific filters
new_within_daysNoBackwards-compatible alias for posted_within_days. Only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days for recurring/delta checks ("what is new since my last check"). Additive to all other filters. In queryless browse mode without a single source, the recency window is sampled across sources round-robin by ingest recency so one bulk harvester cannot own the digest; each source remains newest first. The response includes newSince and windowCoverage: sourcesSampled counts distinct sources returned by the grouped provider query before MCP quality, judge, recency-withhold, and page filters; it is absent when no grouped sample was available, including when sampling was not attempted, and 0 means the grouped query succeeded but returned no sourced rows; sourcesServed counts distinct sources delivered on this page. windowCoverage.order is "recency" for the queryless browse digest or "relevance" when a query is present. windowIncomplete/incompleteReason is separate from ceilingTruncated, which is true only when the 2,000-row ceiling excluded records; ceilingTruncated and hardCeiling are present only when order is "recency" and are omitted entirely under "relevance" (query mode never walks past a single bounded fetch, so no ceiling logic runs). Not the opportunity posted date or deadline.
posted_within_daysNoPreferred alias for new_within_days: only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days. In queryless browse mode without a single source, the recency window is sampled across sources round-robin by ingest recency so one bulk harvester cannot own the digest; each source remains newest first. In windowCoverage, sourcesSampled counts distinct sources returned by the grouped provider query before MCP quality, judge, recency-withhold, and page filters; it is absent when no grouped sample was available, including when sampling was not attempted, and 0 means the grouped query succeeded but returned no sourced rows; sourcesServed counts distinct sources delivered on this page. windowCoverage.order is "recency" for the queryless browse digest or "relevance" when a query is present. windowIncomplete/incompleteReason is separate from ceilingTruncated, which is true only when the 2,000-row ceiling excluded records; ceilingTruncated and hardCeiling are present only when order is "recency" and are omitted entirely under "relevance" (query mode never walks past a single bounded fetch, so no ceiling logic runs). Uses the same ingest freshness field as newSince/recurring checks; not the opportunity posted date or deadline. If both posted_within_days and new_within_days are supplied, posted_within_days wins.
include_foundationsNoAlso search private foundations matching the query (default: true). Returns foundations that have historically funded similar work.
max_response_tokensNoBatch mode only: token budget for the response (default 4000). Server auto-caps results to fit. Ignored in single-query mode.
deadline_within_daysNoOnly opportunities closing within N days

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

  1. Changed1 schema field changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / min_quality / description
      Previous value: -"Minimum quality threshold (default: medium)"New value: +"Minimum record-completeness tier (default: medium). any removes this quality-tier filter; relevance, access and other filters still apply."
  2. Changed2 schema fields changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / new_within_days / description
      Previous value: -"Backwards-compatible alias for posted_within_days. Only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days for recurring/delta checks (\"what is new since my last check\"). Additive to all other filters. In queryless browse mode without a single source, the recency window is sampled across sources round-robin by ingest recency so one bulk harvester cannot own the digest; each source remains newest first. The response includes newSince and windowCoverage: sourcesSampled counts distinct sources returned by the grouped provider query before MCP quality, judge, recency-withhold, and page filters; it is absent when no grouped sample was available, including when sampling was not attempted, and 0 means the grouped query succeeded but returned no sourced rows; sourcesServed counts distinct sources delivered on this page. windowIncomplete/incompleteReason is separate from ceilingTruncated, which is true only when the 2,000-row ceiling excluded records. Not the opportunity posted date or deadline."New value: +"Backwards-compatible alias for posted_within_days. Only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days for recurring/delta checks (\"what is new since my last check\"). Additive to all other filters. In queryless browse mode without a single source, the recency window is sampled across sources round-robin by ingest recency so one bulk harvester cannot own the digest; each source remains newest first. The response includes newSince and windowCoverage: sourcesSampled counts distinct sources returned by the grouped provider query before MCP quality, judge, recency-withhold, and page filters; it is absent when no grouped sample was available, including when sampling was not attempted, and 0 means the grouped query succeeded but returned no sourced rows; sourcesServed counts distinct sources delivered on this page. windowCoverage.order is \"recency\" for the queryless browse digest or \"relevance\" when a query is present. windowIncomplete/incompleteReason is separate from ceilingTruncated, which is true only when the 2,000-row ceiling excluded records; ceilingTruncated and hardCeiling are present only when order is \"recency\" and are omitted entirely under \"relevance\" (query mode never walks past a single bounded fetch, so no ceiling logic runs). Not the opportunity posted date or deadline."
    • changedInput schema / properties / posted_within_days / description
      Previous value: -"Preferred alias for new_within_days: only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days. In queryless browse mode without a single source, the recency window is sampled across sources round-robin by ingest recency so one bulk harvester cannot own the digest; each source remains newest first. In windowCoverage, sourcesSampled counts distinct sources returned by the grouped provider query before MCP quality, judge, recency-withhold, and page filters; it is absent when no grouped sample was available, including when sampling was not attempted, and 0 means the grouped query succeeded but returned no sourced rows; sourcesServed counts distinct sources delivered on this page. windowIncomplete/incompleteReason is separate from ceilingTruncated, which is true only when the 2,000-row ceiling excluded records. Uses the same ingest freshness field as newSince/recurring checks; not the opportunity posted date or deadline. If both posted_within_days and new_within_days are supplied, posted_within_days wins."New value: +"Preferred alias for new_within_days: only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days. In queryless browse mode without a single source, the recency window is sampled across sources round-robin by ingest recency so one bulk harvester cannot own the digest; each source remains newest first. In windowCoverage, sourcesSampled counts distinct sources returned by the grouped provider query before MCP quality, judge, recency-withhold, and page filters; it is absent when no grouped sample was available, including when sampling was not attempted, and 0 means the grouped query succeeded but returned no sourced rows; sourcesServed counts distinct sources delivered on this page. windowCoverage.order is \"recency\" for the queryless browse digest or \"relevance\" when a query is present. windowIncomplete/incompleteReason is separate from ceilingTruncated, which is true only when the 2,000-row ceiling excluded records; ceilingTruncated and hardCeiling are present only when order is \"recency\" and are omitted entirely under \"relevance\" (query mode never walks past a single bounded fetch, so no ceiling logic runs). Uses the same ingest freshness field as newSince/recurring checks; not the opportunity posted date or deadline. If both posted_within_days and new_within_days are supplied, posted_within_days wins."
  3. Changed2 schema fields changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / new_within_days / description
      Previous value: -"Backwards-compatible alias for posted_within_days. Only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days — for recurring/delta checks (\"what is new since my last check\"). Additive to all other filters. Sorts newest-ingested-first; response includes newSince.newCount and the newest/oldest ingest timestamp in the window. Not the opportunity posted date or deadline."New value: +"Backwards-compatible alias for posted_within_days. Only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days for recurring/delta checks (\"what is new since my last check\"). Additive to all other filters. In queryless browse mode without a single source, the recency window is sampled across sources round-robin by ingest recency so one bulk harvester cannot own the digest; each source remains newest first. The response includes newSince and windowCoverage: sourcesSampled counts distinct sources returned by the grouped provider query before MCP quality, judge, recency-withhold, and page filters; it is absent when no grouped sample was available, including when sampling was not attempted, and 0 means the grouped query succeeded but returned no sourced rows; sourcesServed counts distinct sources delivered on this page. windowIncomplete/incompleteReason is separate from ceilingTruncated, which is true only when the 2,000-row ceiling excluded records. Not the opportunity posted date or deadline."
    • changedInput schema / properties / posted_within_days / description
      Previous value: -"Preferred alias for new_within_days: only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days. Uses the same ingest freshness field as newSince/recurring checks; not the opportunity posted date or deadline. If both posted_within_days and new_within_days are supplied, posted_within_days wins."New value: +"Preferred alias for new_within_days: only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days. In queryless browse mode without a single source, the recency window is sampled across sources round-robin by ingest recency so one bulk harvester cannot own the digest; each source remains newest first. In windowCoverage, sourcesSampled counts distinct sources returned by the grouped provider query before MCP quality, judge, recency-withhold, and page filters; it is absent when no grouped sample was available, including when sampling was not attempted, and 0 means the grouped query succeeded but returned no sourced rows; sourcesServed counts distinct sources delivered on this page. windowIncomplete/incompleteReason is separate from ceilingTruncated, which is true only when the 2,000-row ceiling excluded records. Uses the same ingest freshness field as newSince/recurring checks; not the opportunity posted date or deadline. If both posted_within_days and new_within_days are supplied, posted_within_days wins."
  4. Changed1 schema field changed
    • changedInput schema / anyOf
      Previous value: -[
      -  {
      -    "required": [
      -      "query"
      -    ]
      -  },
      -  {
      -    "required": [
      -      "queries"
      -    ]
      -  }
      -]New value: +[
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "query"
      +    ]
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "queries"
      +    ]
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "source"
      +    ]
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "organization"
      +    ]
      +  }
      +]
  5. Changed8 schema fields changed
    • addedInput schema / anyOf
      Added value: +[
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "query"
      +    ]
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "queries"
      +    ]
      +  }
      +]
    • addedInput schema / properties / detail_level
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Batch mode only: controls response verbosity (minimal/compact [default]/full). Ignored in single-query mode.",
      +  "enum": [
      +    "minimal",
      +    "compact",
      +    "full"
      +  ],
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
    • addedInput schema / properties / max_response_tokens
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Batch mode only: token budget for the response (default 4000). Server auto-caps results to fit. Ignored in single-query mode.",
      +  "minimum": 500,
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • addedInput schema / properties / max_results
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Batch mode only: maximum merged results to return (default 10). Ignored in single-query mode (use limit).",
      +  "minimum": 1,
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • addedInput schema / properties / offset
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Batch mode only: number of merged results to skip for pagination (default 0). Ignored in single-query mode.",
      +  "minimum": 0,
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • addedInput schema / properties / queries
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "BATCH MODE (paid, replaces batch_search_grantsplus): array of 2-5 search queries to run in parallel, dedupe, and merge. Example for clean energy: [\"renewable energy grants\", \"solar wind funding\", \"clean energy nonprofit\", \"sustainability grants\", \"green technology funding\"]. When set, query is ignored and the batch response params (detail_level, max_results, offset, max_response_tokens) apply.",
      +  "items": {
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "maxItems": 5,
      +  "minItems": 1,
      +  "type": "array"
      +}
    • changedInput schema / properties / query / description
      Previous value: -"Natural language search query"New value: +"Natural language search query. Provide either query (single search) or queries (batch mode) — exactly one."
    • removedInput schema / required
      Removed value: -[
      -  "query"
      -]
  6. Changed1 schema field changed
    • addedInput schema / properties / source
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Filter to a specific source/domain, e.g. \"grants.gov\", \"deq.nc.gov\", or \"sam.gov\".",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
  7. Changed3 schema fields changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / new_within_days / description
      Previous value: -"Only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days — for recurring/delta checks (\"what is new since my last check\"). Additive to all other filters. Sorts newest-ingested-first; response includes newSince.newCount and the newest/oldest ingest timestamp in the window. Not the opportunity posted date or deadline."New value: +"Backwards-compatible alias for posted_within_days. Only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days — for recurring/delta checks (\"what is new since my last check\"). Additive to all other filters. Sorts newest-ingested-first; response includes newSince.newCount and the newest/oldest ingest timestamp in the window. Not the opportunity posted date or deadline."
    • addedInput schema / properties / posted_within_days
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Preferred alias for new_within_days: only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days. Uses the same ingest freshness field as newSince/recurring checks; not the opportunity posted date or deadline. If both posted_within_days and new_within_days are supplied, posted_within_days wins.",
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • changedInput schema / properties / since / description
      Previous value: -"Stateless alternative to new_within_days: ISO 8601 instant. Only opportunities ingested at/after this instant. Store the previous response newSince.newest and pass it here to manage your own watermark."New value: +"Stateless alternative to posted_within_days/new_within_days: ISO 8601 instant. Only opportunities ingested at/after this instant. Store the previous response newSince.newest and pass it here to manage your own watermark."
  8. Changed2 schema fields changed
    • addedInput schema / properties / new_within_days
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Only opportunities WE ADDED (ingested) in the last N days — for recurring/delta checks (\"what is new since my last check\"). Additive to all other filters. Sorts newest-ingested-first; response includes newSince.newCount and the newest/oldest ingest timestamp in the window. Not the opportunity posted date or deadline.",
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • addedInput schema / properties / since
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Stateless alternative to new_within_days: ISO 8601 instant. Only opportunities ingested at/after this instant. Store the previous response newSince.newest and pass it here to manage your own watermark.",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
  9. Changed1 schema field changed
    • addedInput schema / properties / user_context / properties / organization_type / description
      Added value: +"Common natural-language phrasing (e.g. \"501(c)(3) nonprofit\") is also parsed; unparseable values are ignored with an explicit note in the response."
  10. First observed

TDQS

A4.3/5.0
Behavior5/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already mark this read-only and idempotent, and the description adds substantial behavioral context: batch mode dedupes and merges parallel queries, paid plans see new listings earlier, free plans lag by 10 days, and a batch counts as one call. This goes well beyond the structured annotations.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness4/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

The description is front-loaded with purpose, exclusions, and examples before moving to batch mode and pricing. It is longer than a minimal description, but every sentence carries operational information; the batch/pricing details stretch it but are not filler.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness4/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

For a tool with 20 parameters and no output schema, this description covers the core usage decision, batch-mode behavior, pricing implications, and query examples. It does not describe the queryless browse-by-source/organization mode or the return payload shape, but the schema covers the former and the latter is less critical for correct invocation.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100%, so the schema already documents all 20 parameters. The description adds some framing for the query (examples of grant-related phrasing) and recaps batch mode, but it does not explain parameter semantics beyond what the input schema provides.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

The description opens with a specific verb and resource: 'Search grants, prizes, fellowships, SBIR/STTR, and private foundations' and immediately distinguishes itself by stating it excludes procurement/contracts. It also gives concrete query examples, so an agent can tell it apart from search_procurement and search_grants_and_procurement without inspecting those tools.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines4/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

It defines the intended trigger with 'Use when user wants: funding, grants, fellowships, research money, SBIR, foundation grants' and gives example natural-language queries. It notes the procurement exclusion and that batch mode replaces batch_search_grantsplus, but it does not explicitly name search_procurement as the alternative for contract searches.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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