GovCon Monitor — SAM.gov Opportunities + Expiring-Contract Recompete Radar

Docs & recipes: pricing math, use-case playbooks and copy-paste API/MCP snippets · practical guide

Find expiring federal contracts before the RFP drops. One run of the default (recompete) mode returns rows like this — the incumbent to displace, the agency to call, and how long you have:

{
  "record_type": "recompete",
  "award_id": "70US0921F1DHS0015",
  "recipient": "AVER LLC",
  "awarding_agency": "Department of Homeland Security",
  "awarding_sub_agency": "Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency",
  "naics": "541512",
  "naics_description": "COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES",
  "amount": 4689264.0,
  "start_date": "2021-09-13",
  "end_date": "2027-08-03",
  "days_until_expiry": 364,
  "expiry_bucket": "6-12 months",
  "description": "CDM DEFEND TASK ORDER...",
  "usaspending_url": "https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_...",
  "recompete_posted": false,
  "possible_recompete_notices": []
}

Federal contracting is a $700B/year market where the winners are decided long before the RFP is public. Every expiring contract is a future RFP: find it 12 months out and you can shape the requirement, meet the program office, and team up. Find it on SAM.gov and you're 6 months behind the incumbent.

Three modes, one actor

Mode	What it returns	Key needed?
recompete (default)	Expiring contracts whose period of performance ends within your horizon, from USAspending award history — the recompete radar	No key needed. With your free SAM.gov key, each row is additionally joined against live SAM.gov notices (recompete_posted)
opportunities	New SAM.gov notices matching your NAICS / agency / set-aside / keyword filters (official Get Opportunities API)	Your free SAM.gov key (2-minute setup below)
awards	Recently signed contract awards from USAspending	No key

The recompete↔notice join is the differentiator: for each expiring contract you see whether a recompete is already posted — and which expirations are still open field. Nobody else does this join.

Who this is for

• GovCon BD / capture teams building a 12-month pipeline of expiring incumbent contracts
• Small businesses hunting set-aside opportunities (8A, SDVOSBC, WOSB, HZC, …)
• Consultants & teaming partners looking for primes whose contracts are about to recompete
• AI agents answering questions like "Which DHS IT contracts over $1M expire in the next year with no recompete posted yet?" — that's one call

Input

A zero-config run works: {} runs recompete mode over NAICS 541512 (IT services), 12-month horizon, no key needed. Typical configured run:

{
  "mode": "recompete",
  "samApiKey": "YOUR-FREE-SAM-GOV-KEY",
  "naicsCodes": ["541512", "541511"],
  "agencies": ["Department of Defense"],
  "setAsides": ["SBA", "SDVOSBC"],
  "keywords": ["cybersecurity"],
  "monthsAhead": 12,
  "minAwardAmount": 1000000
}

Field	Default	Applies to	Meaning
mode	recompete	—	opportunities | awards | recompete
samApiKey	—	opportunities (required), recompete (optional join)	Your own free SAM.gov API key, stored as a secret
naicsCodes	["541512"]	all	NAICS codes to match; explicit [] scans all (shallow — the firehose is large)
agencies	[] (all)	awards, recompete	Top-tier awarding agency names
setAsides	[] (all)	opportunities, recompete join	SAM.gov set-aside codes (SBA, 8A, SDVOSBC, WOSB, …)
keywords	[]	all	Free-text match on notice titles / award descriptions
daysBack	7	opportunities, awards	Posted/signed window in days
monthsAhead	12	recompete	Horizon: contracts ending within N months. 12–18 is the sweet spot — agencies start recompete planning about a year out
minAwardAmount	100000	awards, recompete	Ignore contracts below this obligated amount (USD)
maxResults	2000	all	Cap on records pushed per run

Getting your free SAM.gov API key (2 minutes, standard practice)

1. Sign in (or register, free) at sam.gov.
2. Click your name → Account Details.
3. In the API Key section, enter your password and click Request/Generate API Key. Copy it into the samApiKey input.
4. Keys expire after 90 days — regenerate in the same place when the actor reports an auth error.

awards mode needs no key at all; recompete works without one (the live-notice join is simply skipped and recompete_posted is null).

Output fields

recompete rows

Field	Type	Meaning
record_type	string	"recompete"
award_id	string	Contract award ID (PIID)
recipient	string	Incumbent contractor
awarding_agency / awarding_sub_agency	string	Awarding agency and sub-tier
naics / naics_description	string	Industry code and label
psc / psc_description	string	Product/Service Code and label
amount	number	Obligated amount, USD
start_date / end_date	date	Period of performance
days_until_expiry	integer	Days until end_date
expiry_bucket	string	0-3 months | 3-6 months | 6-12 months | 12+ months
description	string	Award description text
usaspending_url	url	Deep link to the award on USAspending.gov
recompete_posted	boolean | null	A live SAM.gov notice matches this award (null = no key provided, unknown)
possible_recompete_notices	array	Matching live notices: {title, url, notice_type, posted_date, response_deadline, matched_terms}

The join is a documented heuristic: a notice matches when NAICS agrees and the notice title shares ≥2 meaningful tokens with the award description or incumbent name. matched_terms is included on every hit so you can judge each match yourself.

opportunity rows

Field	Type	Meaning
record_type	string	"opportunity"
notice_id / solicitation_number	string	SAM.gov identifiers
title	string	Notice title
agency_path	string	Full agency hierarchy
notice_type / base_type	string	e.g. Presolicitation, Solicitation, Sources Sought
naics	string	NAICS code
set_aside / set_aside_description	string	Set-aside code and label
posted_date / response_deadline / archive_date	date	Notice timeline
url / description_link	url	SAM.gov notice link / description API link

award rows

Same shape as recompete rows minus the expiry/join fields: award_id, recipient, awarding_agency, awarding_sub_agency, award_type, amount, start_date, end_date, naics, naics_description, psc, psc_description, description, usaspending_url.

Fields not published upstream are null, never missing — the schema is stable for downstream automation.

Use cases

BD pipeline for contractors

A scheduled recompete run per NAICS is your 12-month capture list of expiring contracts — found before they hit SAM.gov.

Small-business set-aside hunting

Filter government contract opportunities by SDVOSBC, 8A, WOSB and other set-asides.

Competitive intelligence

Track every award your competitors win (awards mode, keyword = their name).

Teaming radar

Expiring contracts where the incumbent is out of your size standard = prime/sub openings.

Using from Claude / AI agents (MCP)

Add Apify's MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com) to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-capable client:

{
  "tool": "your-username/govcon-monitor",
  "input": { "mode": "recompete", "samApiKey": "…", "naicsCodes": ["541512"], "monthsAhead": 12 }
}

"Which DHS IT contracts over $1M expire in the next year and don't have a recompete posted yet?" — one call.

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $3 per 1,000 records ($0.003/record). Worked example: a focused daily recompete watch (one or two NAICS codes) typically returns a few dozen rows — call it 40 rows/day ≈ $0.12/day, under $4/month. A wide-open 2,000-row scan costs $6. One shaped opportunity pays for a lifetime of runs.

Honest limits

• The recompete↔notice join is a heuristic (NAICS + title-token overlap). It surfaces candidates with the matched terms attached; it does not guarantee the notice is that award's recompete.
• USAspending reflects reported obligations; end dates are the current period of performance and can move with option exercises and mods.
• opportunities mode requires your own free SAM.gov key (90-day expiry). Without a key, recompete still runs but recompete_posted is null.
• Recompete mode scans within a page budget; keep naicsCodes focused (an explicit empty list scans all NAICS but shallowly).

Data & fair use

Both upstream APIs are official U.S. government open-data services (SAM.gov Get Opportunities Public API, USAspending API). The SAM.gov key is your own and is used only against api.sam.gov; it is stored as a secret input. Requests are paced and retried with exponential backoff to stay well inside published rate limits.