# gov_search_recipients Resolve a federal-award recipient name, UEI, or recipient id. | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Category | Federal spending (`gov`) | | Exposure | public | | MCP tool | `gov_search_recipients` | | Documentation | https://www.agentdatasets.com/docs/tools/gov_search_recipients | ## Description Resolve a federal-award recipient name, UEI, or recipient id. Returns a shared envelope with the echoed query and ranked matches, including recipient/UEI/DUNS identifiers, USAspending recipient level, parent linkage, score, match reason, and `as_of`. Search is bounded to 10 matches by default and 50 maximum; `pagination` is null. Empty input is `bad_parameter`; no match is `unknown_entity` and can carry up to three did-you-mean suggestions. Pass an exact match to `gov_get_recipient_awards` for fiscal-year totals. Example: `gov_search_recipients(query="Lockheed Martin", limit=5)`. ## Parameters Input schema advertised to MCP clients and mirrored by the REST query string. | Parameter | In | Type | Required | Default | Constraints | Description | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | query | input | `string` | yes | — | — | Recipient canonical or alternate name, 12-character UEI, or exact USAspending recipient_id. Use this first to resolve a name for gov_get_recipient_awards. | | limit | input | `integer` | no | 10 | min 1, max 50 | Maximum ranked recipient matches (1–50). | ## Provenance - `usaspending` — U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov, Agency and government-wide federal contract and assistance obligation totals by fiscal year and fiscal quarter (U.S. Government work, public domain (us-gov-public-domain)). See https://www.agentdatasets.com/docs/attribution.md Dataset registry: `gov_recipient_awards`.