Lucius Agent API

Search the Lucius tender index from your own agent or script. Three tools, served over MCP and plain REST, backed by the same index the product runs on.

What it is

The tender index, open to agents.

Lucius is a tender index and a page-cited verification engine. The index holds 230,000+ public procurement notices from the official sources named below, across 170+ buyer countries. The verification engine reads a tender pack and returns every requirement with a page citation.

This release opens the index. It is read-only: search notices, fetch one by id, and find notices similar to a given one. Search is hybrid, full text plus vector similarity. similar_tenders uses the stored embeddings directly.

Google Cloud published an engineering write-up of how the platform runs: Solo founder runs a global tender platform on AlloyDB and MCP.

Sources in the index

UK Find a Tender · UK Contracts Finder · TED · SAM.gov · Grants.gov · AusTender · CanadaBuys · Ireland eTenders · NZ GETS · GeBIZ · India CPPP · UNGM · World Bank · PCS Scotland

Tools

Three tools, one shape.

The same three tools are exposed over MCP (by name) and over REST (by path). Every notice carries: title, buyer, country, deadline, value, CPV codes, source, source link, and a snippet of up to 700 characters.

Tool	REST	Inputs	Returns
search_tenders	GET /api/v1/ext/tenders/search	query, countries (ISO codes, comma separated), source, cpv_prefix, closing_within_days, limit, cursor	results with notice metadata, a snippet and a relevance score; mode; next_cursor for the next page
get_tender	GET /api/v1/ext/tenders/{id}	id	one notice: metadata and snippet
similar_tenders	GET /api/v1/ext/tenders/{id}/similar	id, countries, limit	notices similar to the given one, ranked by stored embeddings

MCP quick start

Add the server to your agent.

The MCP server speaks streamable HTTP at POST https://api.ailucius.com/api/v1/mcp and exposes search_tenders, get_tender and similar_tenders.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http lucius-tenders https://api.ailucius.com/api/v1/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer lk_live_..."

Any client that reads a JSON MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lucius-tenders": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.ailucius.com/api/v1/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer lk_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

REST quick start

Three requests.

Search, fetch one notice, and find similar notices. Page through search results with the cursor parameter, using the next_cursor value from the previous response.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer lk_live_..." \
  "https://api.ailucius.com/api/v1/ext/tenders/search?query=solar+panels&countries=IN,UK&closing_within_days=30&limit=10"

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer lk_live_..." \
  "https://api.ailucius.com/api/v1/ext/tenders/{id}"

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer lk_live_..." \
  "https://api.ailucius.com/api/v1/ext/tenders/{id}/similar?countries=DE&limit=5"

Search response shape:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "...",
      "title": "...",
      "buyer": "...",
      "country": "...",
      "deadline_at": "...",
      "value": ...,
      "cpv_codes": [...],
      "source": "...",
      "source_url": "...",
      "snippet": "...",
      "relevance": ...
    }
  ],
  "mode": "hybrid",
  "next_cursor": null
}

Authentication and limits

One header, two limits.

Every request carries Authorization: Bearer lk_live_.... Keys are issued per partner.
60 requests per minute and 2,000 results per day per key by default. Both are adjustable per partner.
Read-only. Nothing in this release writes to the index or to a Lucius workspace.

Data rules

Metadata and a snippet, with the source link.

Responses carry notice metadata and a snippet of up to 700 characters. The full notice text is not served.
Every notice carries a link to the official source portal. That is where the full text and the documents live.
The notices are public records published by the source portals. Respect each portal's terms when you store or pass on what you fetch.

Get a key

Keys are issued by hand to design partners.

There is no self-serve key page yet. Email davor@ailucius.com with your company name and what you want to build, and a key comes back with the limits set for your use case.

Request a key

What is next

The verification tools: analyse a tender pack, get the page-cited requirement matrix, and get a bid verdict. These open to design partners on request.