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Shovels updates data monthly, adding 5-10 million new permit records and 1-5 million status updates nationwide with each refresh. All IDs (permit, address, contractor) remain stable across updates.

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Update Schedule

Data is refreshed monthly. The underlying database is updated first, then made available through the API and Shovels Online. This process can take up to a week after the initial database refresh.

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Monthly Volume

Nationwide, each month we add:
  • 5-10 million new records to the dataset
  • 1-5 million status updates to existing records

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How Updates Work

When a permit status or other data field changes:
  1. The jurisdiction updates it in their platform
  2. We access the updated information
  3. We clean up and standardize the data
  4. Updates are released on the 1st and 15th

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ID Stability

Importantly, our IDs remain stable across updates:
  • Permit IDs don’t change
  • Address IDs don’t change
  • Contractor IDs don’t change
This consistency ensures any scripts, analyses, or processes that rely on these IDs won’t be impacted by the monthly refresh.
The stability of our ID system allows customers to build reliable data pipelines and maintain referential integrity in their analyses.