# Search Federal Grant Awards

`Search_Federal_Grant_Awards` returns federal grant award records with spending, recipient, agency, and program context from GovTribe's grant-award dataset.

## When To Use

* "Find grant awards for this topic, recipient, agency, or program."
* "Show the top awardees/agencies/programs by dollars obligated."
* "Find a specific federal grant award by known ID or exact title text."
* "Compare funding agency vs contracting agency funding patterns."
* "Limit to grant type (Project, Formula, Cooperative, Block) and analyze obligations."
* "Run rollups only (`per_page: 0`) or rollups plus sample rows (`per_page > 0`)."

## Required Reading

1. [Search\_Mode\_And\_Query\_Guide](/user-guide/mcp/guides/search_mode_and_query_guide.md): Required before setting free-text query strings and choosing keyword vs semantic retrieval.
2. [Date\_Filtering\_Guide](/user-guide/mcp/guides/date_filtering_guide.md): Required before setting date window filters.
3. [Location\_Filtering\_Guide](/user-guide/mcp/guides/location_filtering_guide.md): Required before setting location filters.

## Output Contract

* Top-level keys:
  * `data`: Array of result rows when `per_page > 0`.
  * `current_page`, `from`, `to`, `last_page`, `per_page`: pagination fields returned with row results.
  * `total`: Total matched row count for current query filters.
  * `path`: GovTribe search URL for this result set.
  * `contains`: Dataset label for the returned result set.
  * `search_results_id`, `search_results_id_can_generate_saved_search`, `view_search_results_url`: search-session metadata for reuse/saved-search flows.
  * `aggregations`: Aggregation payload keyed by requested aggregation names when requested.
* Row keys:
  * `govtribe_id`
  * `govtribe_ai_summary`
  * `govtribe_type`
  * `govtribe_url`
  * `name`
  * `description`
  * `grant_number`
  * `award_date`
  * `completion_date`
  * `ultimate_completion_date`
  * `assistance_type`
  * `assistance_recipient_type`
  * `dollars_obligated`
  * `updated_at`
  * `funding_federal_agency`
  * `contracting_federal_agency`
  * `place_of_performance`
  * `awardee`
  * `parent_of_awardee`
  * `federal_grant_program`
  * `federal_grant_sub_awards`
* `place_of_performance` returns a nested location object with `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `name`, `lat`, and `lng` when the place-of-performance relation is loaded.
* Relationship retrieval map:
  * `awardee`
    * `resource_type`: `vendor`
    * `tool`: `Search_Vendors`
    * `filter`: `vendor_ids`
    * `nested_keys`: `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `name`, `uei`, `govtribe_url`
  * `contracting_federal_agency`
    * `resource_type`: `federal_agency`
    * `tool`: `Search_Federal_Agencies`
    * `filter`: `federal_agency_ids`
    * `nested_keys`: `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `govtribe_url`, `name`
  * `federal_grant_program`
    * `resource_type`: `federal_grant_program`
    * `tool`: `Search_Federal_Grant_Programs`
    * `filter`: `federal_grant_program_ids`
    * `nested_keys`: `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `govtribe_url`, `name`
  * `federal_grant_sub_awards`
    * `resource_type`: `federal_grant_sub_award`
    * `tool`: `Search_Federal_Grant_Sub_Awards`
    * `filter`: `federal_grant_sub_award_ids`
    * `nested_keys`: `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `govtribe_url`, `name`
  * `funding_federal_agency`
    * `resource_type`: `federal_agency`
    * `tool`: `Search_Federal_Agencies`
    * `filter`: `federal_agency_ids`
    * `nested_keys`: `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `govtribe_url`, `name`
  * `parent_of_awardee`
    * `resource_type`: `vendor`
    * `tool`: `Search_Vendors`
    * `filter`: `vendor_ids`
    * `nested_keys`: `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `name`, `uei`, `govtribe_url`
  * `place_of_performance`
    * `resource_type`: `location`
    * `tool`: `n/a`
    * `filter`: `n/a`
    * `fallback`: No direct Search\_\* tool returns this resource class; use parent dataset filters and parent IDs.
    * `nested_keys`: `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `name`, `lat`, `lng`

## Usage Patterns

Pattern A: Topic-level grant award discovery with representative rows. Tool: `Search_Federal_Grant_Awards`

```json
{
  "query": "rural broadband deployment planning and implementation",
  "search_mode": "semantic",
  "fields_to_return": [
    "govtribe_id"
  ],
  "sort": {
    "key": "_score",
    "direction": "desc"
  },
  "per_page": 5,
  "page": 1
}
```

Pattern B: Aggregation-only market sizing by recipient, agency, location, and program. Tool: `Search_Federal_Grant_Awards`

```json
{
  "search_mode": "keyword",
  "aggregations": [
    "dollars_obligated_stats",
    "top_awardees_by_dollars_obligated",
    "top_funding_federal_agencies_by_dollars_obligated",
    "top_locations_by_dollars_obligated",
    "top_federal_grant_programs_by_dollars_obligated"
  ],
  "award_date_range": {
    "from": "2023-01-01",
    "to": "2025-12-31"
  },
  "sort": {
    "key": "financialStats.dollarsObligated",
    "direction": "desc"
  },
  "per_page": 0
}
```

Pattern C: Project-grant-only analysis for a mission topic. Tool: `Search_Federal_Grant_Awards`

```json
{
  "query": "opioid treatment access",
  "search_mode": "semantic",
  "fields_to_return": [
    "govtribe_id"
  ],
  "aggregations": [
    "dollars_obligated_stats",
    "top_awardees_by_dollars_obligated"
  ],
  "assistance_types": [
    "Project Grant"
  ],
  "assistance_types_operator": "in",
  "award_date_range": {
    "from": "2022-01-01",
    "to": null
  },
  "sort": {
    "key": "_score",
    "direction": "desc"
  },
  "per_page": 10
}
```

Pattern D: Known grant award lookup by ID-like token (exact lookup intent). Tool: `Search_Federal_Grant_Awards`

```json
{
  "query": "\"693JJ22430000ZS5EALRR23926\"",
  "search_mode": "keyword",
  "fields_to_return": [
    "govtribe_id"
  ],
  "sort": {
    "key": "_score",
    "direction": "desc"
  },
  "per_page": 1
}
```

Pattern E: Cross-award topic analysis with grants and contracts in parallel. Tool: `Search_Federal_Grant_Awards`

```json
{
  "query": "advanced manufacturing workforce training",
  "search_mode": "semantic",
  "fields_to_return": [
    "govtribe_id"
  ],
  "sort": {
    "key": "_score",
    "direction": "desc"
  },
  "per_page": 5
}
```


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