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FPDS · Developer Guide

The Federal Procurement Data System, Demystified

Every federal contract action (awards, mods, task orders, terminations) is reported into FPDS. It is the government’s system of record for contracting, the upstream source USASpending republishes, and the freshest public signal for who is winning what. Here is how it fits together and how to pull from it.

Where FPDS sits in the data pipeline

The three systems developers conflate, in order of the contract lifecycle:

  • SAM.gov (pre-award): opportunities are posted, vendors are registered. If you want open solicitations, this is the source (see the SAM.gov API guide).
  • FPDS (at-award): the contracting officer reports the action, generally within three business days. Award notices you see elsewhere trace back here.
  • USASpending (post-award publication): FPDS data, joined with assistance awards and account data, republished with a real API (see the USASpending API guide).

Pulling from the ATOM feed

FPDS’s programmatic interface is an ATOM (XML) feed with fielded queries. Ten records per page, paginated with start:

curl · fpds.gov ATOM feed
# contract actions for a vendor UEI, most recent first
curl -s "https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/FEEDS/ATOM?FEEDNAME=PUBLIC&q=VENDOR_UEI:%22XXXXXXXXXXXX%22" \
  | xmllint --format - | head -60

# actions signed in a date range under a NAICS code
curl -s "https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/FEEDS/ATOM?FEEDNAME=PUBLIC&q=PRINCIPAL_NAICS_CODE:%22541512%22+SIGNED_DATE:[2026/01/01,2026/07/01]&start=0"
  • Useful fields: VENDOR_UEI, AGENCY_CODE, CONTRACTING_OFFICE_ID, PRINCIPAL_NAICS_CODE, PIID, SIGNED_DATE ranges.
  • The XML uses versioned schemas and namespaces; parse defensively because field availability varies by action type and year.
  • For one-off research, skip the feed: ezSearch on fpds.gov exports CSV directly.

What FPDS is good for

  • Incumbent watching: new task orders and mods on a competitor’s vehicles appear here first.
  • Recompete timing: period-of-performance end dates across active actions are the raw material for forecasting what recompetes in 12 to 18 months.
  • Buying-office intelligence: which contracting offices actually sign for the work you sell, not just which agencies.

The honest cost of building on FPDS

Ten records a page of versioned XML, DoD’s 90-day publication delay, schema drift across years, and entity resolution against SAM.gov registrations: a durable FPDS pipeline is real engineering. The CLEATUS API runs that pipeline continuously and exposes the result as market intelligence (incumbents, buying offices, award histories, recompete forecasts) alongside live opportunities, over REST and MCP for AI agents.

Or skip the plumbing

CLEATUS ingests these sources continuously (SAM.gov, USASpending, FPDS, plus 40,000+ SLED portals), joins them, and serves the result through one REST API and MCP server your app or AI agent can use directly, with AI-ranked recommendations on top.

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FPDS FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

FPDS (fpds.gov) is the authoritative database of federal contract actions. The FAR requires contracting officers to report nearly every contract action above the micro-purchase threshold, typically within three business days, so FPDS is where contract awards, modifications, task orders, and terminations are recorded first.