find-service-providers

Drive the ServiceGraph API (https://api.servicegraph.co) to find, shortlist, and enrich US professional-services firms. The catalog has 100k+ B2B service firms classified across 22 industries with multi-tag service taxonomies, location, size, and third-party rating signals.

Any HTTP client works (curl, fetch, requests). Examples below use curl for clarity.

MCP server (preferred for authed calls)

If your agent harness has the ServiceGraph MCP server loaded (https://mcp.servicegraph.co), prefer its tools for the authed tier (/search, /get, /stats). The MCP server uses OAuth 2.1 + PKCE — the host harness handles credentials in its own audited sandbox, so there's no .env.local, no shell dispatch, and no token value ever enters the LLM context.

For the anonymous tier (/tags, /check, /explore), MCP is not preferred — every MCP tool requires OAuth (the server has no anonymous tier), so plain curl against the REST URL is the simpler path for discovery calls. Use the REST patterns below for those.

The MCP tools 1:1-map to the public REST endpoints — same backend, same quota, same data:

MCP tool	REST endpoint	Anon?	Recommended path
list_tags	GET /v1/tags	yes	curl
check_filter	GET /v1/check	yes	curl
explore_firms	GET /v1/explore	yes	curl
search_firms	GET /v1/search	no	MCP if loaded, else curl + OTP
get_firm	GET /v1/get/:id	no	MCP if loaded, else curl + OTP
catalog_stats	GET /v1/stats	no	MCP if loaded, else curl + OTP

Detection: if you see any MCP tools with servicegraph in the name (the harness-specific prefix varies — agents pattern-match the substring), the ServiceGraph MCP server is loaded. Prefer those tools for the authed tier; complete any auth flow the harness initiates if needed. If no servicegraph MCP tools are present, fall through to the REST + OTP flow below for the authed tier.

The four-tier funnel

The API is a deliberate cost funnel. Cheaper tiers are free or nearly free; expensive tiers reveal more. Always work down the funnel — don't skip tiers.

Tier	Auth	Cost	Use it for
GET /v1/tags	none	free	First call of every session. Discover legal field names, kinds, operators, values.
GET /v1/check?filter=...	none	free	Validate a filter before spending an explore/search call.
GET /v1/explore?filter=...	none	free, IP-throttled	Scope: count + breakdowns. Use to size the candidate pool before quota-spending.
GET /v1/search?filter=...	bearer	200 unique firms / month free	Brief firm cards. No url, no contact info. Use for ranking / shortlisting.
GET /v1/get/:id	bearer	50 unique firms / month free	Full bundle: url, phone, email, social, legal name, address. Only call for shortlisted firms.
POST /v1/research	paid	not in MVP	Deferred — skip.

Quota rule that matters: /search and /get charge per unique firm viewed per calendar month, not per call. Re-paging the same query is free. Two different filters that overlap charge once for the overlap. Re-fetching a firm you already pulled this month is free.

Session-start ritual

Before constructing any filter, call:

GET https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/tags?include_values=1

Cache the response for the conversation. It returns every filterable field with its kind, allowed operators, and (for categorical / tag-set fields) the legal value list. Never invent industry or service values from memory — the parser silently accepts unknown values for categorical fields and returns zero results.

You'll get five field kinds:

• categorical (e.g. industry, state, pricing_model) — single value, op : only.
• tag_set_with_evidence (e.g. service_provided) — Map<tag, evidence∈{low,medium,high}>. Op : with optional @evidence.
• numeric (e.g. rating, review_count_total, founded_year) — ops = >= <= > <.
• presence (has:phone, has:clutch, has:rating, …) — boolean populated-ness check on a column or third-party listing.
• keyword — free-text substring across firm name / brand / title / meta description / legal name. Any bareword in the filter becomes a keyword.

Auth

/tags, /check, and /explore are anonymous. /search and /get require a bearer token.

Security model — keep the token out of the LLM context.

• Never read .env, .env.local, or any other credential file into your context. The token's literal value should never appear in the conversation.
• Use shell dispatch for every authed request so the token flows directly from the user's environment / dotenv file into the Authorization header without round-tripping through the LLM.
• Always ask the user once per session before using a detected token, even if it's already in their shell or .env.local.

Resolution rule:

1. Detect whether a token is available — without reading its value. Run a shell check that only inspects exit codes:

   ( [ -n "${SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN:-}" ] \
     || grep -qs '^SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=' .env.local \
     || grep -qs '^SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=' .env )
   

   Exit code 0 = token is available somewhere; non-zero = no token.

2. Confirm with the user before the first authed call this session:

   "I found a SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN in your environment / .env.local. OK to use it for ServiceGraph API requests this session?"

   If the user says no, stay on the anonymous tiers (/tags, /check, /explore) and skip authed calls. Don't re-ask later unless the user asks for authed work.

3. Dispatch via shell — every authed call goes through a shell wrapper so the literal token never enters the conversation:

   # If exported in the shell environment:
   curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN" \
        'https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/search?filter=...'
   
   # If in .env.local — source it inside a subshell so it doesn't
   # leak into the parent shell either:
   ( set -a; . ./.env.local; set +a;
     curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN" \
          'https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/search?filter=...' )
   

   Capture the response body to a tmp file or jq-process it, but do NOT echo the request command with the token expanded.

4. OTP flow if no token is detected — capture the new token directly into .env.local without surfacing its value to the LLM:

   # 1. trigger the email — agent prompts the user for $EMAIL
   curl -fsS -X POST 'https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/auth/request-otp' \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     -d "{\"email\":\"$EMAIL\"}"
   
   # 2. exchange the code — agent prompts the user for $CODE.
   #    The ?format=env query param returns SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=<token>
   #    as plain text appended to .env.local — no jq needed. The -f
   #    flag makes curl exit non-zero on 4xx so a wrong code doesn't
   #    pollute the file (the error mirror is also a `# comment` line,
   #    safe to ignore even if it lands).
   curl -fsS -X POST 'https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/auth/verify-otp?format=env' \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     -d "{\"email\":\"$EMAIL\",\"code\":\"$CODE\",\"name\":\"claude-cli\"}" \
     >> .env.local
   
   # 3. confirm capture without revealing the value
   grep -q '^SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=' .env.local && echo "OTP token captured."
   

   After a successful capture, the user has implicitly consented (they just completed the flow), so proceed to dispatch (step 3). The token is now persistent in .env.local for future sessions.

5. If a /search or /get returns 401 unauthorized mid-session, the token expired or was revoked — re-run the OTP flow.

Filter DSL

One query parameter, GitHub-search-style.

filter   := orExpr
orExpr   := andExpr ("OR" andExpr)*
andExpr  := notExpr (("AND")? notExpr)*    # whitespace = implicit AND
notExpr  := ("NOT" | "-") notExpr | atom
atom     := "(" filter ")" | predicate
predicate:= IDENT op valueOrList | bareword
op       := ":" | "=" | ">=" | "<=" | ">" | "<"
valueOrList := value ("," value)*
value    := IDENT | NUMBER | tagAtEvidence
tagAtEvidence := IDENT "@" ("low"|"medium"|"high")
bareword := IDENT | NUMBER          # → keyword:<bareword>

Four rules that bite:

1. AND binds tighter than OR. a OR b c parses as a OR (b AND c). Use parens.
2. Comma list = OR within one predicate. state:CA,NY,TX matches any of the three.
3. Negation is -x or NOT x. Negative literals inside a comma list are not allowed: state:CA,-NY is rejected. Use state:CA -state:NY.
4. Bareword = keyword search. Any IDENT or NUMBER not followed by an operator becomes a free-text substring across name / brand / title / meta / legal_name. Multiple barewords AND.

Examples (validate yours with /v1/check):

industry:marketing_agency service_provided:seo
dental industry:marketing_agency
industry:legal state:CA,NY -company_size_signal:solo
industry:management_consulting (service_provided:strategy-consulting@high OR service_provided:operations-consulting@high)
state:CA has:phone has:email
rating>=4 review_count_total>=20 has:clutch
industry:it_services NOT (service_provided:web-development OR service_provided:hosting)

When in doubt about whether a filter parses, hit /v1/check?filter=... first — it's free and returns the canonical normalized form.

firm_id contract

firm_id is a stable 12-hex-char handle:

firm_id = sha256(apex.lower().rstrip(".")).hexdigest()[:12]

apex is the registered domain (mckinsey.com, not www.mckinsey.com/about). Anyone with an apex list can compute firm_ids locally and call /v1/get/:id directly — no /search needed for BYO enrichment.

import hashlib
def firm_id(apex):
    return hashlib.sha256(apex.lower().rstrip(".").encode()).hexdigest()[:12]

echo -n "mckinsey.com" | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' \
  | openssl dgst -sha256 -hex | awk '{print substr($2,1,12)}'

Recipes

A. Shortlist by industry + state

GET /v1/explore?filter=industry:legal+state:CA+-company_size_signal:solo
# → see pool size + breakdowns

GET /v1/search?filter=industry:legal+state:CA+-company_size_signal:solo&limit=20
# → 20 brief cards; pick top 3 with user

GET /v1/get/<firm_id>     # for each of the 3 picks
# → urls, phones, emails for outreach

B. Multi-tag service intersection

User: "Marketing agency that does both branding and SEO at high evidence."

GET /v1/explore?filter=industry:marketing_agency+service_provided:branding@high+service_provided:seo@high

GET /v1/search?filter=industry:marketing_agency+service_provided:branding@high+service_provided:seo@high&limit=10

C. Quality threshold

User: "Consultancies with at least 4★ and 20+ reviews and a Clutch listing."

GET /v1/search?filter=industry:management_consulting+rating>=4+review_count_total>=20+has:clutch&limit=10

D. Indirect intent — user describes a need without naming the category

User: "I need someone to handle our open enrollment communications for 200 employees."

That's HR consulting + benefits comms. Translate, then verify with /v1/check:

GET /v1/check?filter=industry:hr_recruiting_staffing+service_provided:benefits-administration

GET /v1/explore?filter=industry:hr_recruiting_staffing+service_provided:benefits-administration

If the breakdown is too narrow, broaden — drop the service tag, add adjacent industries (marketing_agency for the comms angle), or fall back to keyword: benefits enrollment industry:marketing_agency,hr_recruiting_staffing.

E. Keyword + structured filter

User: "HIPAA-savvy IT consultancies in Texas."

GET /v1/search?filter=hipaa+industry:it_services+state:TX&limit=10

hipaa is a bareword keyword → substring match in firm text.

F. BYO apex list — enrich domains the user already has

User pastes 12 domains. For each:

1. Compute firm_id locally (see contract above).
2. GET /v1/get/<firm_id> — full bundle if in catalog, 404 (not charged) if not.
3. Aggregate, present, flag the not-found ones to the user.

/get only charges on first view per calendar month per user, so re-runs are free.

Gotchas

• looks_not_pro_services 404 is not a bug. A firm_id may exist in /search but 404 on /get if it's been flagged (residual SaaS / B2C leakage). Skip and continue; not charged.
• /v1/explore k=20 suppression. When fewer than 20 firms match, the response is {"count": "<20", "suppressed": true, "breakdowns": {}}. Drilling further makes the count smaller, not bigger. Broaden the filter or escalate to /v1/search if the user wants the actual firms.
• Briefs from /search do NOT include apex, url, phone_primary, email_primary, legal_name, or address. If the user asks for contact info, you must /get/:id. Do not pretend to have it from the brief.
• Catalog is US-only B2B pro-services. Refuse non-US asks rather than returning misleading partial matches. Refuse consumer-facing legal/financial requests (e.g. "I need a divorce lawyer for personal matters") — the catalog is built for B2B procurement.
• Always use /v1/tags for legal field values. Inventing industry:law instead of industry:legal returns zero results silently — the parser doesn't validate categorical values.
• Multi-word phrases must be split into separate barewords. family law parses as two AND'd keywords (family AND law), not one phrase.
• Quota is per-user-per-month, deduped on first view. Don't refuse to look up a firm "to save quota" if the user already viewed it this month — re-views are free.
• Re-pagination is free. Pulling page 2 of the same /search query doesn't re-charge for firms returned on page 1.

Errors

All errors return JSON: {"error": {"code": "...", "message": "..."}}.

Status	Code	What to do
400	filter_parse_error	Payload includes position. Fix the filter, re-validate with /v1/check.
400	filter_required	Empty filter where one is required.
400	invalid_firm_id	firm_id must be 12 lowercase hex chars. Re-derive.
401	unauthorized	Token missing/expired. Re-run OTP.
404	not_found	Firm not in catalog or flagged. Not charged. Skip and continue.
429	rate_limited	Honor Retry-After header / retry_after field.
429	monthly_quota_exhausted	Switch to /v1/explore-only mode for the rest of the month. Tell the user.

Authed responses carry X-RateLimit-* and X-Quota-* headers. Surface the remaining-month value to the user when it gets low so they can budget.

End-to-end example

User: "Find me three top management-consulting firms in California focused on strategy, with strong third-party ratings."

# 1. Discover fields (once per session)
GET /v1/tags?include_values=1
# Confirms 'management_consulting' is a valid industry value, that
# 'strategy-consulting' is in the service_provided taxonomy, and that
# rating + review_count_total are numeric.

# 2. Validate the filter and scope the pool (free, no auth)
GET /v1/check?filter=industry:management_consulting+state:CA+service_provided:strategy-consulting@high+rating>=4+review_count_total>=20
# → {"valid": true, "normalized": "..."}

GET /v1/explore?filter=industry:management_consulting+state:CA+service_provided:strategy-consulting@high+rating>=4+review_count_total>=20
# → {"count": 47, "breakdowns": {...}}

# 3. Search briefs (charges new firms against monthly /search quota)
GET /v1/search?filter=...&limit=10
# Header: Authorization: Bearer $SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN
# → 10 brief cards with industry, service tags, size, state, etc.

# 4. Present briefs to user, get their pick of 3.

# 5. Pull full bundles for the 3 (charges 3 against monthly /get quota)
GET /v1/get/<firm_id>     # ×3
# → urls, phones, emails for outreach

End of session: report X-Quota-Remaining-Month so the user knows how much budget is left.