Connect USAspending to Claude Code
Query USAspending directly from Claude Code. Arlet links the two through one MCP connection and takes care of API keys.
This server connects your AI client to USAspending.gov, the US Treasury's official source for federal spending data. Every federal contract, grant, loan and direct payment above the reporting threshold is here, which makes it the practical starting point for US public-sector market research and counterparty due diligence.
Key features:
- search_awards: search awards by recipient company name, awarding agency, keyword and date range, choosing the award category (contracts, grants, direct payments, loans, other financial assistance, IDVs). Results come back sorted by award amount, largest first.
- summarize_spending: aggregate spending along a category axis - top recipients, awarding agencies, NAICS industry, product/service code, state, federal account, CFDA program - to answer 'who are the biggest vendors to this agency' or 'how is this company's federal revenue split by agency'.
- get_award: pull one award's full record: obligated and outlayed amounts, period of performance, recipient details and UEI, awarding and funding agencies, place of performance, competition and set-aside status, NAICS/PSC classification and subaward totals.
The recipient UEI returned by these tools is the same identifier SAM.gov uses, so results join cleanly with entity registration data.
No API key is needed. Note that the search endpoints only cover action dates from 2007-10-01 onward; older data is available through USAspending's bulk download features.
How to connect USAspending to Claude Code
- 1
In the Arlet dashboard, open Data tools, find USAspending and switch it on. No API key setup is needed.
- 2
In your terminal, run claude mcp add --transport http arlet https://mcp.arlet.dev/mcp/ to add Arlet as an MCP server.
- 3
Start Claude Code, run /mcp, select arlet and click Authenticate.
- 4
Your browser opens. Sign in with Google and click Allow on the consent screen. The connection is complete.
The connection is per user and works across every project on the same machine.
