Welcome to Tango API Documentation¶

The Tango API provides comprehensive access to federal procurement and assistance data, including contracts, grants, entities, and opportunities. This documentation will help you integrate with our API quickly and effectively.

What is Tango?¶

Tango is an integrated platform that consolidates federal procurement and assistance data from multiple sources (FPDS, USAspending, SAM) into a unified system. Our API provides:

Contract Data: Federal contract awards, modifications, and transactions
Grant Data: Financial assistance awards and transactions
Entity Information: Vendor and recipient details with business classifications
Opportunity Data: Contract opportunities and solicitation notices (SAM.gov)
Agency Data: Government department, agency, and office information
Procurement Forecasts: Upcoming procurement opportunities across many agencies
Webhooks: Near-real-time notifications when new data is available (awards, opportunities, entities, grants, forecasts)
And much more to come...

Getting Started¶

Quick Start Guide ¶

Get up and running in 5 minutes.

Swagger documentation ¶

See the full documentation for the endpoints.

OpenAPI spec (JSON)¶

Full endpoint definitions, parameters, and response models in one fetch — for tools, scripts, and AI consumers.

API Reference ¶

Filtering, ordering, and pagination by endpoint (curated reference; Swagger remains canonical for full surface area).

Data Dictionary ¶

Field definitions for API resources.

Rate limits ¶

Learn how to read rate limit headers, handle 429s, and retry responsibly.

Machine-readable: For AI and scripts, use the OpenAPI spec (JSON), the single-page HTML reference, or the combined markdown (all docs in one file).

Key Features¶

🔐 Flexible Authentication¶

API Keys: Simple server-to-server integration
OAuth2: For web applications and user tokens

📊 Rich Data Model¶

Comprehensive Coverage: Contracts, grants, entities, opportunities
Historical Data: Years of federal spending data
Real-time Updates: Frequent data refreshes + optional webhooks for near-real-time notifications

⚡ High Performance¶

Smart Filtering: Efficient query optimization
Pagination: Handle large result sets
Caching: Fast response times
Rate Limiting: Fair usage policies

🔍 Advanced Search¶

Full-text Search: Search across titles and descriptions
Complex Filtering: OR/AND patterns for precise queries
Geographic Search: Location-based filtering
Date Ranges: Flexible temporal queries

🎯 Response Shaping¶

Custom Field Selection: Request only the data you need to reduce payload size
Nested Expansions: Include related objects (recipients, offices, transactions) in a single request
Flattening Support: Convert nested JSON to flat structures for easier consumption
Flexible Aliasing: Rename fields to match your application's naming conventions

Learn more in the Response Shaping Guide. For field definitions, see the Data Dictionary.

🔔 Webhooks¶

Subscribe to event notifications when new data is available (awards, opportunities, entities, grants, forecasts).

Learn more in the Webhooks Partner Guide.

MCP (AI agents)¶

Use Tango from Claude Desktop, Cursor, or other MCP-compatible clients. The Tango MCP server exposes 4 tools to discover, search, and get details on contracts, opportunities, entities, and more.

Learn more in the MCP (AI agents) guide.

Data Sources¶

Tango integrates data from authoritative federal sources:

FPDS (Federal Procurement Data System) - Contract awards and modifications
USAspending - Financial assistance and sub-award data
SAM.gov - Entity registrations and contract opportunities
Grants.gov - Federal grant opportunities
Agency Systems - Direct agency data feeds including the Federal Hierarchy