# Find teaming partners by certification

To find certified teaming partners with an AI agent, ask it to call teaming_partners with the NAICS code, a certification (8a, hubzone, wosb, edwosb or sdvosb) and a state. It returns active, unexcluded small businesses holding that certification, ranked by federal award volume, with UEI, CAGE and expiry. The tool is on the Pro and Scale plans.

Primes that need a certified small business for a set-aside or a subcontracting goal, and small firms looking for a mentor or a joint venture partner. Ranking by award volume puts firms that have performed federal work first, which is usually the first question a teaming discussion has to answer.

## The prompt

```
Find 8(a) certified firms in Virginia that work in NAICS 561720 and have won federal contracts. Rank them by award volume and show UEI, CAGE, registration expiry and total obligated.
```

## What the agent calls

1. teaming_partners: Active, unexcluded, certified small firms in the code and state, ordered by awards.

```json
{"name":"teaming_partners","arguments":{"naics":"561720","certification":"8a","state":"VA","limit":25,"user_request":"8a janitorial partners in VA"}}
```

## Sample output

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

```json
{
  "data": [
    {
      "uei": "ABCDEFGH1234",
      "cage": "1A2B3",
      "legal_name": "EXAMPLE FACILITY SERVICES INC",
      "registration_status": "active",
      "expiration_date": "2027-06-11",
      "state": "VA",
      "sba_certs": [
        {
          "type": "A6",
          "exit": "2028-01-25"
        }
      ],
      "award_count": 4,
      "award_obligated": 11424705.63
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "credits_charged": 1
  }
}
```

## How to read the answer

- award_count and award_obligated summarise the firm's prime awards in the loaded USAspending data. A firm with no awards can still be a good partner; it just has no federal prime history to show.
- The 8(a) exit date matters for long contracts: a firm leaving the program soon may not be eligible when the option years start.

## Make it yours

- Drop state to search nationally, or pass a 4-digit NAICS prefix with small=true for a wider net.
- Ask for get_entity on the top three to read their full NAICS lists before you call them.

## Pitfalls

- The API does not publish contact details. Use the firm's website or the SBA directory to reach them.
- Individuals registered as sole proprietors never appear in partner results.

## The same job over REST

```bash
curl "https://samgovapi.io/api/v1/teaming-partners?naics=561720&certification=8a&state=VA&limit=25" -H "Authorization: Bearer $SAMGOVAPI_API_KEY"
```

Plan: Pro and Scale. Credits: 1 credit per 100 rows returned, minimum 1.

## Questions

### Why is this tool not on the free plan?

Teaming partner search is part of the bid intelligence tools on the Pro and Scale plans. The free plan can still check any single firm with get_entity.

### Which certification codes does it accept?

8a, hubzone, wosb, edwosb and sdvosb.

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

Independent. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by GSA, SAM.gov or any U.S. government agency. Registering in SAM.gov is free at sam.gov.