# Search Federal Grant Sub Awards

`Search_Federal_Grant_Sub_Awards` returns federal grant sub-award records from GovTribe, including the sub-recipient and prime-recipient vendor context for each row.

## When To Use

* Find federal grant sub-awards for a specific vendor (GovTribe ID or UEI).
* Retrieve sub-awards tied to a known funding or contracting federal agency.
* Look up known federal grant sub-award records by GovTribe ID.
* Analyze pass-through grant activity within a specific award-date window.
* Discover sub-award records related to a topic when exact IDs are not known.

## 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.

## 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 data.
  * `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.
* Row keys:
  * `govtribe_id`
  * `govtribe_type`
  * `name`
  * `award_date`
  * `description`
  * `updated_at`
  * `sub_grantee`
  * `prime_grantee`
* Relationship retrieval map:
  * `prime_grantee`
    * `resource_type`: `vendor`
    * `tool`: `Search_Vendors`
    * `filter`: `vendor_ids`
    * `nested_keys`: `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `name`, `uei`, `govtribe_url`
  * `sub_grantee`
    * `resource_type`: `vendor`
    * `tool`: `Search_Vendors`
    * `filter`: `vendor_ids`
    * `nested_keys`: `govtribe_id`, `govtribe_type`, `name`, `uei`, `govtribe_url`

## Usage Patterns

Pattern A: Topic-based discovery of grant sub-awards. Tool: `Search_Federal_Grant_Sub_Awards`

```json
{
  "query": "school emergency preparedness grants",
  "search_mode": "semantic",
  "fields_to_return": [
    "govtribe_id"
  ],
  "page": 1,
  "per_page": 10
}
```

Pattern B: Vendor-specific grant sub-award history using a known UEI. Tool: `Search_Federal_Grant_Sub_Awards`

```json
{
  "search_mode": "keyword",
  "fields_to_return": [
    "govtribe_id"
  ],
  "award_date_range": {
    "from": "2023-10-01",
    "to": "2025-09-30"
  },
  "vendor_ids": [
    "CWM6FHDAMBM5"
  ],
  "vendor_ids_operator": "in",
  "sort": {
    "key": "timestamp",
    "direction": "desc"
  },
  "page": 1,
  "per_page": 25
}
```

Pattern C: Funding-agency filtered sub-awards for a fiscal window. Tool: `Search_Federal_Grant_Sub_Awards`

```json
{
  "search_mode": "keyword",
  "fields_to_return": [
    "govtribe_id"
  ],
  "award_date_range": {
    "from": "2024-01-01",
    "to": "2024-12-31"
  },
  "funding_federal_agency_ids": [
    "FEDERAL_AGENCY_GOVTRIBE_ID"
  ],
  "funding_federal_agency_ids_operator": "in",
  "sort": {
    "key": "timestamp",
    "direction": "desc"
  },
  "page": 1,
  "per_page": 10
}
```

Pattern D: Count-only check for broad sub-award volume. Tool: `Search_Federal_Grant_Sub_Awards`

```json
{
  "search_mode": "keyword",
  "per_page": 0
}
```


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