Tennessee Contractor License Lookup & Verify (TN DOCI)

Pain points

• Verifying a Tennessee contractor on the TN DOCI portal is one slow manual lookup at a time.
• The portal isn't structured for compliance workflows, CRM enrichment, or bulk vetting.
• Checking status, license type, and expiration across many licensees by hand doesn't scale.
• The portal shows results a page at a time, so building a county or statewide list of licensed contractors means clicking through hundreds of pages.

What we solve

• Verify any Tennessee DOCI contractor by license number or business/person name — one search.
• Leave the search empty to export the board's roster instead: all 23,955 active contractor-board licenses in about 2 minutes (measured 2026-10-07), or narrow it by status, license type, county and city.
• Returns license type, status, expiration, city, and county from the official TN DOCI registry; pay per record, empty searches free.

Summary

Look up and verify any Tennessee contractor from a single search — type a TN DOCI license number (e.g. 56787) or a business/licensee name and get back the license type, status, expiration, city, and county, straight from the official Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance registry. Or leave the search empty and export the roster itself: every active license on the Contractors and Ltd Licensed Plumbers board, or just one county, license type, status or city, using TN DOCI's own filters.

Who it's for

• GCs and hiring managers vetting Tennessee subcontractors
• Insurance underwriters and lenders running KYC on contractors
• Compliance teams and marketplaces verifying TN DOCI licenses
• RevOps and BD teams enriching contractor records for lead-gen

How to use

Set the input, run the actor, and collect results from the run's dataset (export to JSON/CSV/Excel, or pull via the Apify API). Example input:

{
  "queries": [
    "Johnson Construction"
  ],
  "board": "Contractors and Ltd Licensed Plumbers",
  "maxResults": 25
}

See Inputs below for every available field.

What you get

One row per record:

Field	Description
state	Always 'TN' for this actor
license_number	TN DOCI contractor license number (numeric)
business_name	Licensed business or individual name
license_type	License classification (e.g. Contractor)
status	License status (e.g. Active, Expired, Revoked)
expiration_date	License expiration date
city	Licensee city
county	County of the licensee's address as TN DOCI records it (another state's county for an out-of-state holder; null when none is on file)
zip_code	ZIP code
matched_by	Which search surfaced this record: 'license_number', 'business_name', or 'filter' (statewide export)
source_url	Direct link to the official TN DOCI license record

Sample:

{
  "state": "TN",
  "license_number": "56787",
  "business_name": "JOHNSON PLUMBING",
  "person_name": null,
  "license_type": "Contractor",
  "status": "Expired",
  "issue_date": null,
  "expiration_date": "03/31/2016",
  "city": "JOHNSON CITY",
  "county": "Washington",
  "address": null,
  "zip_code": "37605",
  "phone": null,
  "bond_amount": null,
  "bond_company": null,
  "insurance_company": null,
  "matched_by": "business_name",
  "source_url": "https://search.cloud.commerce.tn.gov/search/C49031/detail"
}

Inputs

Field	Required	Type	Default	Description
query	no	string	"Johnson Construction"	A TN contractor license number (numeric, e.g. '56787') OR a business/person name. A numeric query is looked up by license number; anything else is searched against the licensee/business name index. Leave this and 'Search query (batch)' empty to export the statewide roster instead, narrowed by the status / licence type / county / city filters below.
queries	no	array	["Johnson Construction"]	Look up many in ONE run instead of starting a run per lookup. Takes the same values as 'Search query'. Combined with 'Search query' if you fill both, and duplicates are removed. Billing is unchanged: you are charged per record returned, not per entry submitted.
board	no	string	"Contractors and Ltd Licensed Plumbers"	The TN DOCI board to search. Defaults to 'Contractors and Ltd Licensed Plumbers' (the main contractor board), which is also used when this is left blank.
status	no	string	"active"	Used only when no search query is given (statewide export). One of TN DOCI's statuses: Active, Expired, Applicant, Application Expired, Application Denied, Application Withdrawn, Closed, Retired, Revoked, Failure to Renew, Suspended — or 'all'. Defaults to active. An unrecognised value is ignored with a log line; if nothing you gave is recognised, the run returns a free row saying so instead of the whole state.
statuses	no	array	[]	Several statuses in ONE statewide run, e.g. Active and Expired. Combined with 'Licence status' if you fill both.
licenseType	no	string	—	Used only in statewide mode: Contractor, Limited Licensed Plumbers (or 'plumber'), or Pre-Licensing Course Provider. Leave empty for all types.
licenseTypes	no	array	[]	Several licence types in ONE statewide run. Combined with 'Licence type' if you fill both.
county	no	string	—	Used only in statewide mode: a Tennessee county, e.g. 'Davidson' or 'Knox County' (any of the 95). Sent to TN DOCI as its own county filter, limited to Tennessee holders.
counties	no	array	[]	Several Tennessee counties in ONE statewide run. Combined with 'County' if you fill both.
city	no	string	—	Used only in statewide mode: the licensee's city, exact match ignoring case and punctuation, e.g. 'Nashville' (does not also match 'Johnson City' for 'City').
cities	no	array	[]	Several cities in ONE statewide run. Combined with 'City' if you fill both.
maxResults	no	integer	—	With a search query: cap PER ENTRY, not per run (empty = 50), so a batch cannot silently return only the first rows overall. In statewide mode (no query): cap for the WHOLE run, a spend control (empty = 500); the active contractor board is about 24,000 records and the whole board about 72,000, so 100000 returns everything that matches. The run log states how many matched when the cap cuts it short.
proxyConfiguration	no	object	{"useApifyProxy": false}	Optional. The TN portal is usually reachable directly, but its edge returns 403 to some datacenter IPs. If a run returns a 'TN portal unavailable' row, enable Apify Proxy with the RESIDENTIAL group.

Pricing (Pay Per Event)

You pay per result (dataset-item) — no charge for empty runs. Example: 100 verified license records at $0.004/result ≈ $0.40.

Illustrative — the final per-result price is set at publish time. Apify platform usage (compute) is billed separately per your plan.

Use cases

• License verification — confirm a Tennessee contractor's license type, status, and expiration before hiring or onboarding.
• Record enrichment — turn a license number or name into a full structured record for a CRM, marketplace, or vetting workflow.
• Compliance checks — pull authoritative TN DOCI data on demand for audits and due-diligence.
• Lender / insurer due diligence — verify a contractor's standing straight from the state registry.
• Statewide or county lists — export every active contractor in a county (Davidson County: 1,598 active Contractor licenses, measured 2026-10-07) for prospecting, market sizing or a periodic compliance sweep.
• Expiry tracking — export Active licenses with their expiration dates and diff them month to month.

Why this actor

• Straight from the official Tennessee DOCI public registry — authoritative, not a stale third-party copy.
• Search by license number or name, or export the roster: status, license type and county are TN DOCI's own filters, sent to TN DOCI, and an unrecognised value is dropped and logged instead of quietly widening your export.
• Whole active contractor board in one run: 23,955 licenses in about 2 minutes, with license number and expiry on essentially all of them, city on 99.9% and ZIP on 96.6% (measured 2026-10-07).
• Pay per record; searches with no results and rows explaining a source problem are free.

Limitations & updates

Covers Tennessee DOCI public licensee registry only. Results reflect the live registry and change as it updates. A name search matches the DOCI licensee/business name index and returns up to maxResults per search (default 50); a statewide export returns up to maxResults for the whole run (default 500). Application records (Applicant, Application Expired, etc.) have no license number or expiry — across the whole board 92.3% of records carry a license number, all Active ones do. Street address and phone are not published by this registry (returned null). Bond/insurance fields are included in the schema for suite consistency but are not published (returned null).

FAQ

Where does the data come from?

The official Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance public licensee registry, via the Tyler entellitrak REST API.

What can I search by?

A TN DOCI license number (numeric, e.g. 56787) or a business/licensee name. Both return matching licenses, deduped by license number. Leave the search empty to export the roster instead (next question).

Can I export every contractor in Tennessee, or in one county?

Yes. With no search query the actor exports the board's roster, filtered by status (default Active, or 'all'), license type (Contractor, Limited Licensed Plumbers, Pre-Licensing Course Provider), Tennessee county and city. Each filter takes one value or a list. On 2026-10-07 the Contractors and Ltd Licensed Plumbers board held 72,118 records, 23,955 of them Active; the whole active board took about 2 minutes and the whole board about 6. maxResults caps the whole export (default 500); set 100000 to take everything that matches.

What fields do I get?

License number, business/licensee name, license type, status, expiration date, city, county, and ZIP code.

How am I charged?

Pay-per-result — per license record returned. No charge for searches with no results, or for a row explaining a source problem or an unusable input. At $0.004 per record, a default statewide export of 500 costs $2.00 and the whole active board (23,955 on 2026-10-07) about $95.82.

Is this personal data?

It's public professional-license data (business and license-holder records as TN DOCI publishes them); we add no personal/PII enrichment.

How current is it?

It reflects the live TN DOCI registry at the moment of lookup. The state does not publish an update schedule for the registry, so treat each record as current as of its run.

Can I filter by board or license type?

Yes — the 'board' input defaults to 'Contractors and Ltd Licensed Plumbers' (also used when left blank); set it to another TN DOCI board name to search that board. In a statewide export you can also filter by status, license type, county and city.

Which actor to choose

Part of the contractor-license verification suite — pick the one that fits your goal:

• California Contractor License Lookup & Verify (CSLB) — You need a California contractor verified — by license number, business, or owner/personnel name (CSLB).
• Florida Contractor License Lookup & Verify (DBPR) — You're verifying a Florida contractor or tradesperson — type, status, expiration, county (DBPR).
• Louisiana Contractor License Lookup — You want the full Louisiana roster — 50,000+ commercial, residential & specialty licenses as data (LSLBC).
• Multi-State Contractor & Trade License Lookup — You don't know the state, or want the same contractor checked across WA, OR, TX & CT in one run.
• Nevada Contractor License Lookup & Verify (NSCB) — You need a Nevada contractor's status, trade classifications, bond & principals (NSCB).
• New Mexico Contractor License Lookup & Verify (NM CID) — You're verifying a New Mexico contractor — license #, status, city/ZIP, expiry (NM CID).
• North Carolina Contractor License Lookup & Verify (NCLBGC) — You're verifying a North Carolina general contractor — classification, status, expiration (NCLBGC).
• Oregon Contractor License Lookup & Verify (CCB) — You're verifying an Oregon contractor — status, bond, insurance & RMI (CCB).
• South Carolina Contractor License Lookup & Verify (SC LLR) — You're searching or verifying South Carolina contractors — by name, license, city, or classification (SC LLR).
• Texas Contractor & Trade License Lookup & Export (TDLR) — You're verifying a Texas electrician, HVAC or trade license — type, expiration, county & owner (TDLR).
• Virginia Contractor License Lookup (DPOR Bulk) — You want the full Virginia roster — 50,000+ Class A/B/C and trade licenses as bulk data (DPOR).
• Washington Contractor License Lookup & Verify (L&I) — You're verifying a Washington contractor — type, status, expiration, principal (L&I).
• Alabama Contractor License Lookup & Verify (LBGC) — You're verifying an Alabama general contractor — classification, city, phone, expiration (LBGC).
• Arkansas Contractor License Lookup & Verify (ACLB) — You're verifying an Arkansas contractor — validity, type, expiration, city & county (ACLB).
• Michigan Contractor License Lookup & Verify (LARA) — You're verifying a Michigan builder or trade contractor — type, status, expiration (LARA).
• Minnesota Contractor License Lookup & Export (DLI) — You're verifying a Minnesota residential contractor — subtype, status, expiration, enforcement flags (DLI).
• Massachusetts Construction License Lookup & Verify (CSL) — You're verifying a Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License — type, status, expiration (CSL).
• Iowa Contractor License Lookup & Export (DIAL) — You need Iowa contractors — every active DIAL registration statewide, with phone and email, filtered by trade, county, city or ZIP.
• Mississippi Contractor License Lookup & Export (MSBOC) — You need Mississippi contractors — the active MSBOC roster with phone, street address and classifications, by county or class.
• Ohio Contractor License Lookup & Export (OCILB) — You need Ohio electrical, HVAC, plumbing, hydronics or refrigeration contractors — the full OCILB roster, by trade and county.
• Nebraska Contractor Registration Lookup & Export (NDOL) — You need Nebraska contractors — every current NDOL registration, by service and county, with phone on request.
• Delaware Contractor License Lookup & Export (DOR + DPR) — You need Delaware contractors — DOR business licences plus DPR electrical, plumbing and HVACR licences, by city or ZIP.

Guides & use cases

Written up on scrapebench.dev — the bench that runs and verifies this actor against the live source every night:

• How-to: How to run Tennessee Contractor License Lookup & Verify (TN DOCI)
• Use case: Look Up Tennessee Contractors by Name

More actors, coverage and nightly verification results: scrapebench.dev

Works with n8n

Ready-made n8n templates that call this actor:

• Monitor contractor licences and alert 30 days before expiry — free template. Step-by-step guide
• Verify contractor licenses in your lead list — free template. Step-by-step guide
• Verify a subcontractor's licence when they submit your onboarding form — free template. Step-by-step guide

Works with AI assistants (MCP)

Callable as an MCP tool, so Claude, Cursor, VS Code Copilot and other MCP clients can run it directly. Grab the config from the MCP tab on this page — Apify hosts the server and keeps that snippet current, and OAuth signs you in on first connect, so no API token goes in your config file.

Then just ask:

"Find Tennessee contractor 'Johnson Construction' on the Contractors and Ltd Licensed Plumbers board."

Tennessee splits its registry by board, so naming the board narrows the search; closed and expired application records legitimately come back with no licence number. Runs started this way bill exactly like any other run.