Identifier Validation¶

Validate the format of federal procurement identifiers. This endpoint is useful for intake forms, data cleaning pipelines, or integrations that need to check identifiers before submission.

Endpoint: POST /api/validate/

Overview¶

Given an identifier type and value, the endpoint returns a result of "valid", "not_valid", or "low_confidence". No database lookups are performed — this is pure format validation.

Supported identifier types:

Type	Description	Rules
`piid`	Procurement Instrument Identifier	FAR 4.201: 13–17 alphanumeric chars, valid AAC + fiscal year + instrument type + serial
`solicitation`	Solicitation number	5–30 chars, contains both letters and digits, matches known procurement ID patterns
`uei`	Unique Entity Identifier	Exactly 12 alphanumeric chars, must not contain letters I or O

Result values¶

Result	Meaning
`valid`	Matches a known format with high confidence
`not_valid`	Does not match any recognized format
`low_confidence`	Plausible identifier but doesn't match a named pattern (solicitations only)

The low_confidence result only applies to solicitation numbers. Solicitation formats vary widely across agencies — some pass basic structural checks (alphanumeric, right length, mixed letters and digits) but don't match any of the ~25 known patterns derived from FPDS data. PIIDs and UEIs have strict formats, so they are always valid or not_valid.

Access: Requires Pro tier (Micro+). See Plans & Data Access for tier definitions.

Rate limiting: Standard API rate limits apply.

Request¶

POST /api/validate/
Content-Type: application/json
X-API-KEY: <key>

{
  "type": "piid",
  "value": "ABCDEF24C1234"
}

Request body fields¶

Field	Type	Required	Description
`type`	string	Yes	Identifier type: `"piid"`, `"solicitation"`, or `"uei"`.
`value`	string	Yes	Identifier value to validate (must be non-blank).

Response¶

Valid identifier (HTTP 200)¶

{
  "result": "valid",
  "type": "piid",
  "value": "ABCDEF24C1234"
}

Invalid identifier (HTTP 200)¶

For PIIDs, the response includes an errors array with specific validation failures:

{
  "result": "not_valid",
  "type": "piid",
  "value": "ABC",
  "errors": [
    "PIID must be 13-17 characters, got 3"
  ]
}

For solicitation numbers and UEIs, the response has no errors array:

{
  "result": "not_valid",
  "type": "uei",
  "value": "A1B2C3D4E5I6"
}

Low confidence (HTTP 200, solicitations only)¶

{
  "result": "low_confidence",
  "type": "solicitation",
  "value": "W911NF21C000100000000000000005"
}

Validation errors (HTTP 400)¶

Missing or invalid type:

{
  "error": "type must be one of: piid, solicitation, uei",
  "code": "validation_error"
}

Missing or blank value:

{
  "error": "value is required and must not be blank",
  "code": "validation_error"
}

Examples¶

Validate a PIID¶

curl -X POST https://tango.makegov.com/api/validate/ \
  -H "X-API-KEY: your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"type": "piid", "value": "W58RGZ25F1234"}'

Validate a solicitation number¶

curl -X POST https://tango.makegov.com/api/validate/ \
  -H "X-API-KEY: your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"type": "solicitation", "value": "SPE7A619T4321"}'

Validate a UEI¶

curl -X POST https://tango.makegov.com/api/validate/ \
  -H "X-API-KEY: your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"type": "uei", "value": "A1B2C3D4E5F6"}'

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