# Agency Buying Patterns: what an agency buys by NAICS and year (`citature/agency-buying-patterns`) Actor

Federal contract obligations, contract counts, and distinct-contractor counts by awarding agency, NAICS, and fiscal year — what an agency buys and from how many vendors. Every answer carries a receipt: source URL, retrieval time, coverage caveats, match provenance, and guardrails.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/citature/agency-buying-patterns.md
- **Developed by:** [citature](https://apify.com/citature) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$100.00 / 1,000 answer serveds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Agency Buying Patterns — what an agency buys, and from how many vendors

**What does an agency actually buy, in which NAICS, and from how many vendors?**
This actor returns federal contract obligations, contract counts, and
**distinct-contractor counts** by awarding agency × NAICS × fiscal year — the shape
of an agency's spending and how concentrated (or competitive) it is. With a full
citation receipt.

Built for market-sizing and account planning by business-development teams, and for
AI agents researching where federal dollars go, with the exact public source
attached to every number.

Data comes straight from **USASpending.gov** — the primary, public-domain federal
record of contract awards. No aggregator, no scoring, no editorializing.

### What you can ask

- What does the **Department of Energy** buy in **NAICS 541715** (R\&D), and from
  how many distinct contractors?
- Ranked by obligated dollars, what are an agency's biggest buying lines?
- How did an agency's spending in a NAICS look in fiscal year **2024**?

Keywords: agency spending, buying patterns, market research, market sizing,
obligations, NAICS, fiscal year, distinct vendors, competition, contract counts,
GovCon, business development, account planning, federal budget, awarding agency,
USAspending, where the money goes, procurement forecast.

### Input

All filters are optional. With none, it ranks the whole procurement footprint by
obligated dollars.

| Field | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| `agency` | string | no | Awarding-agency name prefix. |
| `naics` | string | no | NAICS code or 2–6 digit prefix. |
| `fiscal_year` | integer | no | One U.S. fiscal year. |
| `limit` | integer 1–500 | no (default 50) | Max rows. |

```json
{ "agency": "Department of Energy", "naics": "5417", "fiscal_year": 2024 }
```

### Output — an answer with a receipt

The actor returns one receipt object (also stored as the run's `OUTPUT`). The
`answer` is the ranked rows; `matches` declares the exact cross-source joins, and
`citations` is the exact source you can re-run yourself.

```json
{
  "answer": [
    {
      "awarding_agency": "Department of Energy",
      "awarding_agency_code": "089",
      "naics_code": "541715",
      "naics_description": "RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT",
      "fiscal_year": 2024,
      "total_cents": 6581653008079,
      "contract_count": 42,
      "recipient_count": 11
    }
  ],
  "matches": [
    {
      "match_method": "exact",
      "left_key": "usaspending.awarding_agency_code",
      "right_key": "citature.entity_agency_code.agency_code"
    },
    {
      "match_method": "exact",
      "left_key": "usaspending.recipient_uei",
      "right_key": "citature.entity_recipient.uei"
    }
  ],
  "coverage": [
    "Coverage reflects records currently in citature's dataset, not the full upstream history."
  ],
  "guardrails": [
    "Research over public-domain federal records — not legal, financial, or eligibility advice.",
    "citature reports what the record says. It never renders a compliance verdict, a screening pass/fail, or a recommendation.",
    "Entity-level records only (committees, candidates, recipients, agencies, contracts). No individual-person data."
  ],
  "schema_version": "0.1.0"
}
```

Money is always integer **cents** (`total_cents`). The agency is resolved on its
official **toptier code**, and the distinct-contractor count is over the **UEI** —
both exact joins, declared in `matches`.

### Guardrails

- Research over public-domain federal records — **not** legal, financial, or
  eligibility advice.
- citature reports what the record says. It never renders a determination or a
  recommendation.
- Entity-level records only. No individual-person data is ever returned.

### Pricing

Pay per successful answer. You are charged only when an answer is served; a
rejected or failed request is never billed.

# Actor input Schema

## `agency` (type: `string`):

Restrict to an awarding agency by the start of its name (e.g. Department of Energy).

## `naics` (type: `string`):

Restrict to a NAICS code or a 2 to 6 digit prefix.

## `fiscal_year` (type: `integer`):

Restrict to one U.S. federal fiscal year (e.g. 2024).

## `limit` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of agency × NAICS × fiscal-year rows to return (1 to 500).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "limit": 50
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `receipts` (type: `string`):

No description

## `receipt` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("citature/agency-buying-patterns").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("citature/agency-buying-patterns").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call citature/agency-buying-patterns --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=citature/agency-buying-patterns",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/cyqZdF8sLbAhRw5TN/builds/bnxeAsKPCIqAFAAe3/openapi.json