Louisiana Government Bid & RFP Scraper (LaPAC)

Find open Louisiana public bid and RFP opportunities from LaPAC without manually checking department, category, search, and bid detail pages.

This Actor fetches public Louisiana Procurement and Contract Network (LaPAC) opportunity pages under https://wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana.gov/osp/lapac/ and returns structured JSON records for matching bid opportunities. It is designed for vendors, capture teams, procurement analysts, and data teams that need a repeatable feed of Louisiana government solicitations.

Correctness note: this Actor has been validated against a labeled sample from LaPAC. Independent verification against a separate answer key is in progress. Confirm source records before operational use.

What It Extracts

Each output item represents one LaPAC bid record when available from the source page:

• bidNumber
• title
• agency
• departmentId
• category
• issueDate
• openDate
• lastChangeDate
• status
• mandatorySiteVisit
• attachments
• addenda
• detailUrl
• scrapedAt

Common Uses

• Monitor Louisiana public bids and RFPs by department.
• Search current opportunities by keyword.
• Pull open solicitations by UNSPSC category segment.
• Feed bid records into alerts, spreadsheets, CRMs, enrichment workflows, or downstream procurement analysis.
• Track addenda and attachment links exposed on LaPAC listing pages.

Input Options

• keywords: words or phrases to search in open solicitations.
• keywordMode: require all keywords or any keyword.
• departmentIds: LaPAC department IDs, such as 185 for St. Tammany Parish Government.
• categoryIds: UNSPSC segment/category IDs, such as 72000000.
• dateFrom and dateTo: optional MM/DD/YYYY date range filters.
• compareDateTo: date field to compare, including open, cancel, issue, or last-change date.
• maxItems: maximum number of records to emit.
• onlyNewSince: ISO timestamp filter for incremental monitoring.
• includeAttachments: include or suppress attachment URLs.
• includeClosedStatus: compute closed/open status from open date versus scrape time.
• maxFetches and minDelayMs: request ceilings and polite pacing controls.

Output Example

{
  "source": "LaPAC",
  "bidNumber": "923456-26-36-2",
  "title": "Grapple Truck",
  "agency": "Non State - St. Tammany Parish Government",
  "departmentId": "185",
  "category": null,
  "issueDate": "2026-07-22",
  "openDate": "2026-08-05T14:00:00-05:00",
  "lastChangeDate": "2026-07-22",
  "status": "open",
  "mandatorySiteVisit": false,
  "attachments": [],
  "detailUrl": "https://wwwcfprd.doa.louisiana.gov/osp/lapac/dspBid.cfm?search=department&term=185#923456-26-36-2",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-25T19:40:21.513Z"
}

Reliability Controls

• Uses public LaPAC endpoints only: deptbids.cfm, catbids.cfm, srchopen.cfm, and dspBid.cfm.
• Applies a configurable maximum item count.
• Applies a configurable maximum fetch count.
• Enforces a minimum request delay to avoid aggressive polling.
• Deduplicates records by bid number within a run.
• Emits run metrics for parsed, skipped, and emitted records.
• Returns an explicit warning when no records match after the fetch and parse path completes.

FAQ

Is this an official Louisiana or LaPAC tool?

No. It is an independent scraper for public LaPAC pages.

Does it require a LaPAC login?

No. It only uses public LaPAC pages.

Does it download bid attachments?

It extracts attachment links when they are present and includeAttachments is enabled. It does not download attachment files by default.

Can I monitor only one agency or department?

Yes. Provide one or more LaPAC departmentIds.

Can I search by service category?

Yes. Provide one or more LaPAC/UNSPSC category segment IDs in categoryIds.

Can I run it on a schedule?

Yes. The Actor is suitable for scheduled monitoring. Use onlyNewSince or downstream deduplication if you only want newly changed opportunities.

What does status mean?

When includeClosedStatus is enabled, status is computed by comparing the open date to the scrape time. Otherwise, records from LaPAC open-list pages are reported as open.

Is the extracted data complete and correct?

No. The Actor has been validated against a labeled sample, and independent verification is still in progress.

What happens if LaPAC changes its page format?

The parser is built to fail loudly when expected bid tables disappear instead of silently emitting malformed records.

What should I verify before relying on a bid?

Confirm dates, requirements, attachments, addenda, and submission instructions on the linked LaPAC detail/source page before acting.