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The NorthAxium Data contracts API gives you access to 1.3M+ federal procurement records from CanadaBuys and TBS Proactive Disclosure. This guide walks through the most common query patterns — searching by vendor, filtering by department and value, and pulling aggregated statistics.

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Prerequisites

  • A NorthAxium Data API key (get one here or use the free demo key)
  • Python 3.8+ with the requests library installed (pip install requests)

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Search contracts by vendor

The most common use case: find all contracts awarded to a specific company. 
import requests

# your API key
API_KEY = "your_api_key_here"
BASE_URL = "https://api.northaxiumdata.ca/api/v1"
headers = {"X-API-Key": API_KEY}

# search contracts for a vendor
params = {
    "vendor": "Palantir",   # partial match — finds all Palantir entities
    "limit": 10,
    "sort_by": "value",     # largest contracts first
}

response = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/contracts", headers=headers, params=params)
data = response.json()

print(f"Total contracts found: {data['meta']['total']}")
print()

for contract in data["data"]:
    print(f"Vendor:     {contract['vendor']}")
    print(f"Department: {contract['department']}")
    print(f"Value:      ${contract['value']:,.0f}")
    print(f"Date:       {contract['event_date']}")
    print(f"Method:     {contract['procurement_method']}")
    print("---")

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Filter by department and value range

Narrow results to a specific department and minimum contract size. 
params = {
    "department": "National Defence",   # partial match on department name
    "min_value": 1000000,               # contracts over $1M CAD
    "date_from": "2022-01-01",
    "date_to": "2024-12-31",
    "limit": 20,
}

response = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/contracts", headers=headers, params=params)
data = response.json()

total_value = sum(c["value"] for c in data["data"] if c.get("value"))
print(f"Found {data['meta']['total']} contracts — showing {len(data['data'])}")
print(f"Total value in result set: ${total_value:,.0f}")

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Get an aggregated vendor profile

Once you’ve found a vendor, pull their full procurement profile — total value, top departments, and recent contracts. 
# Step 1: browse vendors to find the exact source string
browse = requests.get(
    f"{BASE_URL}/vendors",
    headers=headers,
    params={"q": "Palantir"}
)
vendors = browse.json()["data"]

print("Matching vendors:")
for v in vendors:
    print(f"  {v['vendor']} — ${v['total_value']:,.0f} across {v['contract_count']} contracts")

# Step 2: use the exact string to get the full profile
exact_name = vendors[0]["vendor"]
profile_response = requests.get(
    f"{BASE_URL}/vendors/{exact_name}",
    headers=headers
)
profile = profile_response.json()["data"]

print(f"\nVendor profile: {profile['vendor']}")
print(f"Total value: ${profile['total_value']:,.0f}")
print(f"Contract count: {profile['contract_count']}")
print("\nTop departments:")
for dept in profile["top_departments"][:3]:
    print(f"  {dept['department']}: ${dept['total_value']:,.0f}")

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Get departmental spending statistics

Rank all departments by total procurement spend. 
params = {
    "group_by": "department",
    "limit": 10,
}

response = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/contracts/stats", headers=headers, params=params)
stats = response.json()["data"]

print("Top departments by total contract value:")
for i, row in enumerate(stats, 1):
    print(f"  {i}. {row['department']}: ${row['total_value']:,.0f} ({row['contract_count']} contracts)")

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What’s happening here

vendor parameter — partial, case-insensitive match. "Palantir" matches Palantir Technologies Canada Inc, Palantir Technologies Inc, and any other variant in the source data. Use Browse Vendors to see all matching strings before profiling. department parameter — same partial match behaviour. Federal department names in the source are often bilingual (e.g. National Defence | Défense nationale). Passing "National Defence" will match the bilingual form. procurement_method — common values include Non-competitive, Competitive - Open Bidding, Competitive - Selective Tendering. Use exact string matching on this field. Two-step vendor pattern — always browse first, then profile. The profile endpoint requires the exact source string. Browsing first surfaces all name variants so you pick the right one.

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Next steps

Contracts API Reference

Full parameter reference for the contracts endpoint

Vendor Profiles

Aggregated profile for any named vendor

Department Profiles

Departmental spend breakdowns

Find Lobbying Activity

Cross-reference contract wins with lobbying records