Shovels: what it returns, and whether it works in Clay
Shovels is not available in Clay. It is best for Buying signals, Lead lists, Content demo. Pricing: Free tier or trial. Access: API, CLI, web app (Shovels Online) and Enterprise Data License bulk. Credit-based plans Free (500 credits/month per docs), Basic, Pro, Enterprise; one credit per record returned. Paid plan prices on shovels.ai/pricing not confirmed here; third-party listings cite about $599/mo starting (unconfirmed). EDL pricing custom..
Data domains: Property, Signals, Company, Contact, Local business, Locations.
What does Shovels return?
Official fields: Permits: id; number; jurisdiction; description; job_value (cents); type; subtype; fees; status; file_date; issue_date; final_date; total_duration; construction_duration; approval_duration; inspection_pass_rate; contractor_id; tags; address; property_type; property_legal_owner; property_owner_type; property_building_area; property_year_built; property_assess_market_value. Contractors: id; license; name; business_name; classification; classification_derived; license_issue_date; license_exp_date; primary_phone; primary_email; website; sic; naics; linkedin_url; revenue; employee_count; review_count; rating; permit_count; avg_job_value; total_job_value; first_seen_date; address. Also zoning decisions and area metrics.
What can you derive from it?
1. Facility expansion: commercial permits with high job_value at a company's address signal new space or major refits. 2. Category demand: monthly permit counts by tag (solar, HVAC, roofing, electrical) by county show where demand is rising. 3. Contractor momentum: permit_count and total_job_value growth per contractor identify fast-growing installers. 4. Execution quality: inspection_pass_rate and construction_duration separate strong contractors from weak ones. 5. New entrants: first_seen_date and new license dates surface newly active contractors.
How would a GTM team use it?
1. Revenue trigger: alert a building products, security or energy portco when a target files a commercial permit above a job value threshold. 2. Channel recruitment: rank contractors by tagged permit volume in a region and recruit the top ones as installers or resellers. 3. Market map: size installed base and growth by tag and county before a portco enters a new region. 4. PE screen: find contractor roll-up candidates by permit volume, growth and pass rate. 5. Competitive watch: track which contractors install a competitor's product category and how fast they grow.
What are the caveats?
Not a native Clay integration as of 2026-10-17 (checked against Clay's integrations catalog). Can be called through Clay's HTTP API column where an API exists. Causality: a permit filed is not a permit completed or a purchase made; it shows intent to build. Coverage: depends on 20k+ US jurisdictions with uneven availability and lag; job_value is self-reported and often understated; contractor contact fields are enriched and should be verified. Properties endpoints are beta and may change.