whitetape

Permit data for AI assistants. Nationwide government-issued building permits as clean rows in one schema. Search free. The first ten rows a month are free with nothing asked. After that 7 cents a row, paid per call by wallet (x402, USDC on Base). No account, no key, no signup. Rows carry the permit, the property, and the contractor, never the homeowner.

pip install whitetape

from whitetape import search, count, permits

search("annapolis")                                   # free: the areas held, with row counts
count(state="MD", trade="roofing")                    # free: {"count": 412, "price": 12.36, "price_per_row": 0.07}
rows = permits(state="MD", trade="roofing", since=0)  # the first ten are free
rows["rows"][0]["contractor_name"]                    # the builder who pulled it

Daily, with no row twice:

from whitetape import rows_since
cursor = 0                        # keep the last cursor between runs
for row, cursor in rows_since(state="MD", trade="roofing", cursor=cursor):
    ...

Paying for more than ten

By card, once: buy a prepaid link at https://whitetape.io/credit/ ($20 is 400 rows) and put its token in the environment. No account.

export WHITETAPE_CREDIT=wt_…

By wallet, per call:

pip install "whitetape[pay]"
export WHITETAPE_WALLET_KEY=<the private key of a THROWAWAY Base wallet, funded with only what you mean to spend>
export WHITETAPE_MAX_USD=5          # the most one call may spend; default 5
export WHITETAPE_MAX_USD_TOTAL=20   # the most this process may spend in all; default 20

The payment happens inside the call. The key sits in your process's environment, where any package or tool in that process can read it: never a main wallet. The API address is pinned to api.whitetape.io; a 402 from anywhere else is never paid. The 402 door, for a program with no library: https://whitetape.io/402/

As an MCP server for Claude

pip install "whitetape[mcp]"

{"mcpServers": {"whitetape": {"command": "whitetape-mcp"}}}

Three tools: search, count, permits. The MCP server never spends a wallet: paid rows come only from a prepaid link in WHITETAPE_CREDIT (its balance is the worst case), at most WHITETAPE_MCP_MAX_ROWS a session, default 500.

Command line

whitetape search annapolis
whitetape count --state MD --trade roofing
whitetape rows --state MD --trade roofing --since 0

The schema

https://whitetape.io/schema.json. Trades: roofing, hvac, plumbing, electrical, solar, pool, fence, demolition, new_construction, remodel, windows_doors, garage_adu, fire.

Built and used by Monarc Build for its home-services clients. Questions: hello@whitetape.io

Who is behind it

Monarc Build, LLC, Annapolis, Maryland, doing business as White Tape. Terms: https://whitetape.io/terms/. Privacy: https://whitetape.io/privacy/. Rows never carry the homeowner's or the applicant's name, and an owner-builder permit, where the homeowner is the contractor of record, is never sold. Calling the contractors on the rows is on you: follow the telemarketing and do-not-call rules where you call.