MatchAwards

MatchAwards MCP server

*MatchAwards gives AI agents direct access to continuously updated government and business contracts, grants, jobs, awards and collaboration opportunities.*

This is the Model Context Protocol server for MatchAwards. It lets Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other MCP clients search US government contract opportunities, grants and jobs, and past contract and grant awards. It only reads data, and it needs no account and no API key.

Tools

The agency filter takes a name. The server looks it up among MatchAwards' agencies (exact name first, then names that start with it, then the rest in the API's order) and filters by the best match only, for now; the result's note names that agency and lists up to three other matches (one department can have several agency accounts), and when nothing matches, the search covers all agencies and the note says so. Lookups are cached for 10 minutes.

Award records may be incomplete (federal awards especially), so every award result says so. The two brief tools describe firms as having won similar work, never as the incumbent; they make at most 1 opportunity request and 6 award requests per call (at most 3 per query, shared by the queries), within 6 seconds, and when either limit cuts the lookup short they answer with what they read and a warning. Their sample says how many award records the figures rest on, their dates, and whether every matching record was read. A grant award's title is its recipient's name, so the model is asked to head it with the awardee name and CFDA number instead.

Every tool is read-only and needs no account (except my_matches, a hosted tool that exists only with account linking on; see Linked accounts): each declares readOnlyHint, idempotentHint, a title and securitySchemes: [{"type": "noauth"}] (in _meta). Results are structured: each tool publishes an outputSchema and returns structuredContent, with the same JSON as text for clients that read only text. Every result carries a url on matchawards.com (and a sam_url for federal notices), and the server asks the model to show them as markdown links. Links to matchawards.com carry utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign parameters naming the AI host the request came from (for example utm_source=chatgpt); links to other sites are left unchanged.

Changes in 1.1.6

• Rate limits (hosted): only tool calls count in the per-client limit, now 60 per minute and 20 per 5 seconds (the MatchAwards API's own per-address limit; was 30 and 10 for every request), 240 per minute per IPv6 /48. Handshake and listing requests, which coding agents such as Codex repeat before every call, have their own budget of 600 per minute and 120 per 5 seconds (MATCHAWARDS_PROTOCOL_PER_MIN, MATCHAWARDS_PROTOCOL_BURST), with 6000 per minute for all clients together (MATCHAWARDS_PROTOCOL_GLOBAL_PER_MIN, the only one that applies to ChatGPT's addresses). Rejections count as rate_limit_protocol and rate_limit_protocol_global. A body that does not arrive within 10 seconds gets 408 (timeout).
• The Codex CLI (User-Agent codex-mcp-client/...) is its own family, codex, in the usage metrics. Its links keep utm_source=mcp.

Changes in 1.1.5

• Go-links (hosted, MATCHAWARDS_GO_LINKS=1): an opportunity's sam_url and an award's source_url are given as the record's https://matchawards.com/go/ / link, which redirects to the same SAM.gov or USAspending page and counts the hand-off. A record without a MatchAwards id or page keeps its plain link. Off by default.

Changes in 1.1.4

• search_contracts: the first page of a NAICS search that found something tells the model it may offer, once per conversation, a free MatchAwards account that sends new matches for those codes by email, with a sign-up link carrying the host's UTM parameters. my_matches never offers it.
• MATCHAWARDS_CHATGPT_SIGNIN=0 (hosted, linking on): while ChatGPT's connection offers no sign-in, my_matches answers ChatGPT without the challenge (ChatGPT shows one only as an internal error): sign-in isn't available there yet, search by NAICS codes instead. Counted as outcome signin_unavailable.

Changes in 1.1.3

• my_matches without a linked account: when the app gives the user no way to sign in, the model says plainly that signing in to MatchAwards isn't available there yet (not an error), asks what the business does, finds the codes with lookup_naics and searches with search_contracts.

Changes in 1.1.2

• No NAICS codes given: the instructions have the model ask what the user's business does (or its codes) and find the codes with lookup_naics, in every mode. With linking on, my_matches on a profile without codes asks the same, searches with the codes found (keeping the profile's state and set-aside) and offers the match-settings link to save them.
• "Nothing here needs an account" is in the instructions only with linking off; with linking on it contradicted my_matches.
• The keyword hint says keyword search matches whole words in titles, and to try another form of the word.

Changes in 1.1.1

• Hosted server: MATCHAWARDS_API_MAX_IN_FLIGHT (default 16) caps the requests to the public API in flight at once for the whole server. A request waits up to 5 seconds for a free slot (less when the tool's own time limit is nearer), then the tool answers "busy, retry" without calling the API. The per-minute API budget is spent only once a slot is held.

Changes in 1.1.0

• Tool choice: assess_opportunity is described as the tool for fit, bid/no-bid and bid-brief questions, and get_opportunity points those questions to it (contracts and grants only).
• Keyword hint: a contract, grant or award search by keyword with no NAICS code and only a few rows says in its note that keyword search matches titles only and points to lookup_naics.
• Hosted server metrics: tool calls by User-Agent family, rows returned per list tool, MatchAwards API timing per endpoint and outcome, API requests per tool call, distinct ChatGPT conversations and first-seen ChatGPT users. Stats show the empty-result rate per tool; the ledger gains a rows column, added at open.
• Hosted server: optional account linking and the my_matches tool (see Linked accounts). Off unless MATCHAWARDS_AUTH_ISSUER is set; with it off nothing else changes.

Changes in 1.0.4

• The result card renders in Claude: its _meta.ui.domain is left out for Claude, which accepts only its own sandbox domain; other hosts still get https://matchawards.com.

Changes in 1.0.3

• Hosted server: usage-stat rows are kept 180 days by default (was 365), set by MATCHAWARDS_USAGE_RETENTION_DAYS.

Changes in 1.0.2

• Cards come from a new tool, show_results, which the model calls once with the ids it picked; the search tools return data only. The card (results-v2.html) expands a row in place and has an "Ask about this" button.
• Results filtered by naics say which requested codes matched: matched_naics (the record's own codes) and, on contract notices, ai_matched_naics (codes MatchAwards' AI suggested).
• Links to matchawards.com carry UTM parameters naming the AI host.
• Hosted server: the shared limit is 1200 requests per minute, and /metrics adds tool latency, distinct-caller and client counts.

Changes in 1.0

• search_by_naics is removed: search_contracts, search_grants and search_jobs take the same naics filter on its own.
• find_contacts is removed: get_opportunity returns the published contacts with the rest of the record.
• Results are structured output (outputSchema plus structuredContent). Fields the API adds later appear in results only once the schema declares them. get_opportunity returns ai (AI-generated notes, labelled as such) where MatchAwards has them, else null.
• Tool annotations are closed-world (openWorldHint: false): the tools read the MatchAwards catalog only.
• New tools: lookup_naics, search_awards, get_company, assess_opportunity and find_teaming_partners; search_contracts takes an agency name.

Cards

Hosts that render MCP Apps (ChatGPT, Claude) get one inline card per answer: after searching, the model calls show_results with up to 10 contract or grant ids it picked, and the card lists up to 8 of them with title, agency, place, a federal/state/grant badge, the deadline (days left, closed, or no fixed deadline), set-a