SAM.gov — Federal Procurement and Entity Registration

The U.S. General Services Administration's System for Award Management. The authoritative source for federal contract opportunities, entity (vendor) registrations, set-aside designations, exclusion records (debarments), and assistance listings. Required reading for anyone selling to the federal government.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1394+ live data sources.

Why this matters for AI agents

Three distinct surfaces:

1. Contract opportunities (RFPs, RFQs, sources sought, etc.) — what the federal government is currently buying. → sam_search_opportunities({keyword}). For one specific solicitation: sam_get_opportunity({solicitation_number}).

2. Entity records — registered vendors with CAGE codes, UEIs, NAICS codes, certifications. → sam_entity_search({business_name}).

3. Set-aside opportunities — small business, veteran-owned, women-owned, HUBZone, etc. → sam_set_aside_opportunities({set_aside}).

Pair with USAspending (post-award contract data) and the govcon_contractor_profile compound for full agent flows.

Related MCP server: filed-mcp-server

Auth

SAM.gov requires a free API key from https://sam.gov/data-services. Pass via _apiKey. Production keys have generous limits; testing keys (no signup) are heavily throttled.

Use cases that work well

• "What's the federal government buying for cybersecurity?" → sam_search_opportunities({keyword: "cybersecurity"}) → active RFPs.

• "Find SBIR/STTR small-business set-asides for AI." → sam_set_aside_opportunities({set_aside: "SBIR"}) filtered by description.

• "Is X registered with the federal government?" → sam_entity_search({business_name: "X"}) → CAGE/UEI plus NAICS coverage.

• "Are they on the exclusion list?" → exclusion search via the same tool, filtered.

Common pitfalls

• Solicitation lifecycle states. "Active," "Archived," "Awarded," "Cancelled" — opportunities move between states. Filter to "Active" for current-action items.

• NAICS code matters. Companies register under specific NAICS codes; SAM.gov restricts which contracts they can compete for. An agent doing competitive intelligence needs to read NAICS, not just company name.

• UEI replaced DUNS. Since April 2022, SAM.gov uses Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) instead of DUNS numbers. Old data references DUNS; new data uses UEI. The sam_entity_search returns both for cross-referencing.

• Query language is keyword-based, not full-text. Searches match titles + key fields; long descriptive queries return fewer results than focused ones. Start narrow.

• Set-aside filtering. Common set-aside codes: SBA (Small Business), 8A (8(a) program), WOSB (Women-Owned), SDVOSBC (Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned), HZC (HUBZone), SBIR (SBIR/STTR). Wrong code = empty result, not error.

• Geography is loose. "Place of performance" is the contracting location, not the awarding agency's location.

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "samgov": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/samgov/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway for access to all 1394+ data sources:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Using with ask_pipeworx

Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English:

ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Samgov data" })

The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.

More

• Docs and guides

• pipeworx.io

License

MIT