# Find prime contractors to subcontract under

To find primes to subcontract under with an AI agent, ask it to call search_awards with your NAICS code, the target agency and a recent action_from date, then group the results by recipient. The firms with the most obligated dollars and the most awards are the primes most likely to need subcontractors for that customer.

Small businesses without the past performance to prime yet. Large primes have subcontracting plans with small business goals and need partners who know the customer; approaching the firms that actually win at your agency beats a cold list of famous names.

## The prompt

```
Which companies won the most prime contract dollars under NAICS 541330 at the Department of the Navy since 2025-10-01? Give me the top ten with total obligated, number of awards and their UEIs, and say which are large businesses.
```

## What the agent calls

1. search_awards: Award rows in the code and agency; the agent pages and groups by recipient_uei.

```json
{"name":"search_awards","arguments":{"naics":"541330","agency":"Department of the Navy","action_from":"2025-10-01","limit":100,"user_request":"find primes for subcontracting"}}
```

2. get_entity: For each top recipient, naics_small and business types show whether it is small for the code.

```json
{"name":"get_entity","arguments":{"uei":"ABCDEFGH1234","user_request":"check prime size status"}}
```

## Sample output

Trimmed; field names and structure match the live response, values are shortened or illustrative.

```json
{
  "data": [
    {
      "recipient_name": "EXAMPLE ENGINEERING CORP",
      "recipient_uei": "ABCDEFGH1234",
      "awarding_agency": "Department of Defense",
      "awarding_sub_agency": "Department of the Navy",
      "naics": "541330",
      "obligated": 18750000,
      "vehicle": "SEAPORT-NXG"
    }
  ]
}
```

## How to read the answer

- Defense agencies appear as awarding_sub_agency under the Department of Defense. Filter on the sub-agency name the data uses.
- vehicle shows the contract vehicle; primes on a multiple-award vehicle compete for every order and often team differently per order.

## Make it yours

- Ask for primes with a subcontracting plan: large businesses with awards over the plan threshold usually have one.
- Look for mid-tier firms that just outgrew small; they often keep small business partners.

## Pitfalls

- Obligated dollars concentrate in a few large awards. Count awards as well as dollars before choosing who to call.
- The API has no contact details. Primes list their small business liaison officers on their own websites.

## The same job over REST

```bash
curl "https://samgovapi.io/api/v1/awards?naics=541330&agency=Department%20of%20the%20Navy&action_from=2025-10-01&limit=100" -H "Authorization: Bearer $SAMGOVAPI_API_KEY"
```

Plan: every plan. Credits: 1 credit per 100 rows returned, minimum 1; 1 credit per lookup per prime checked.

## Questions

### Is there a list of primes' small business liaisons?

Not in this data. SBA publishes a subcontracting directory, and most large primes name a small business liaison officer on their supplier pages.

### Can I see which primes already subcontract in my code?

Subaward reporting is incomplete and not part of this search; prime award volume is the reliable signal.

All recipes: https://samgovapi.io/agents/recipes.md

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