Guide

Build a civic lookup agent

Find public-facing civic service points with enough structure for agents, without scraping city websites.

Use case fit

Best for assistants that help residents find public-facing civic services, permits, and service counters.

Expected outcome: One authenticated civic service-point query with privacy-conscious, public-contact-only output.

SmartAPIs.net data is legally reviewed and machine-readable, but this guide is not legal, compliance, or professional advice.

Coverage Pricing First API key Dashboard signup / sign in

1. Pull context

Start with public context so the agent knows which metro it is serving.

curl

curl https://smartapis.net/v1/agent/context/ottawa

Python

import urllib.request

with urllib.request.urlopen("https://smartapis.net/v1/agent/context/ottawa", timeout=30) as resp:
    print(resp.read().decode("utf-8"))

2. Query public-facing service points

Use a client key with `civic:read` to retrieve public-only service point records.

curl

curl -H "X-API-Key: $SMARTAPIS_API_KEY" \
  "https://smartapis.net/v1/civic/service-points?region_id=ottawa-region&q=permit&limit=5"

Python

import os, urllib.parse, urllib.request

params = urllib.parse.urlencode({"region_id": "ottawa-region", "q": "permit", "limit": 5})
request = urllib.request.Request(
    f"https://smartapis.net/v1/civic/service-points?{params}",
    headers={"X-API-Key": os.environ["SMARTAPIS_API_KEY"]},
)
with urllib.request.urlopen(request, timeout=30) as resp:
    print(resp.read().decode("utf-8"))

JavaScript

const response = await fetch(
  'https://smartapis.net/v1/civic/service-points?region_id=ottawa-region&q=permit&limit=5',
  { headers: { 'X-API-Key': process.env.SMARTAPIS_API_KEY } }
);
console.log(await response.json());