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AGENTIC Data Mining
● Public TOOL dla.contract_history LAST SYNC —

DLA published award history (FOIA Contract History)

DLA's own published award record from the FOIA Electronic Reading Room Contract History bulk files — not a scrape of the DIBBS awards grid. One row per award line with an awarded unit price (price_basis="dla_foia_contract_history_netprice"), awardee CAGE, quantity, unit of issue, and award date.

dla.dibbs covers roughly 2–3% of DLA award volume and publishes no per-unit price. Prefer this tool for unit-price history. Always read unit_of_issue before comparing prices. standard_unit_price is a catalog reference, not what DLA paid.

Source & conduct: Source: DLA FOIA Electronic Reading Room Contract History files (5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2)(D)). Files are owner-downloaded (dla.mil returns HTTP 403 to scripted fetches). Export-controlled classes withheld at ingestion and again at serve.

There is a portal for this: DIBIQ puts DLA award and item context in front of a bidder as pages rather than tool calls. Same subscription, same refusals.

Records

—

One row per award line (part numbers aggregated)

Coverage

—

Populates from /api/dataset-coverage when a row exists

Scope

Award lines

FOIA Electronic Reading Room · export-control carve-out

Freshness

Monthly

Human drop + ingest · JSON · Public · included in subscription

Coverage figures populate from the ingestion pipeline after bin/refresh-coverage.py writes a dataset_coverage row for dla.contract_history.

Query parameters

nsnstring

National Stock Number, exact match -- the primary question this tool answers. DASHED (5340-01-678-8659) or bare 13-digit (5340016788659) both work; this table stores the BARE form (DLA publishes it undashed in these files, unlike dibbs_award_records which stores it dashed), an…

niinstring

National Item Identification Number (bare or dashed 9-digit), exact match. Use when you have the NIIN but not the supply class -- and note it can return awards under MORE THAN ONE nsn13, because this file's own FSC column and the FSC prefix of its NSN column disagree on 2.3% o…

cagestring

AWARDEE CAGE code (5-char), exact match, case-insensitive -- who won it. Use this to trace one supplier's DLA wins across NSNs. This is DLA's own attribution of the award, from its own published record.

contract_numberstring

ORDER-level contract number (PIIN), exact match. Dashed or undashed both work. Note this is the ORDER-level number (the shape dibbs_award_records calls delivery_order_number, e.g. SPE4A5XXFXXXX), not the basic contract.

fscstring

Federal Supply Class (4-digit), exact match against the file's own FSC column. Export-controlled classes are withheld regardless of what is passed here.

award_date_fromstring

ISO date, inclusive lower bound on award_date

award_date_tostring

ISO date, inclusive upper bound on award_date

limitinteger

Max records to return (default 25, max 50)

offsetinteger

Rows to skip before the page starts (0-based, default 0). Read `has_more` to know whether another page exists.

The full input schema is served by the MCP server at connection time.

Example call

Request · dla.contract_history 
{
  "tool": "dla.contract_history",
  "params": {
    "nsn": "5340-01-000-0001",
    "limit": 10
  }
}

What you can ask

  • What unit price did DLA publish for awards of this NSN, and who won (CAGE)?
  • Trace one awardee CAGE across NSNs and years in Contract History
  • Compare FOIA net unit prices to dla.prior_prices published_prior_unit without blending bases
Full tool reference →

Schema

Fields from the live catalog entry for dla.contract_history. Sample values below are synthetic schema shapes — not live FOIA rows.

Field Type Description
nsn13stringNational Stock Number, BARE 13-digit as DLA publishes it in these files (dla.dibbs stores the dashed form; the tool accepts either input) — the item identity / join key to dla.dibbs, dla.flis and dla.prior_prices
niinstringNational Item Identification Number, bare 9-digit — the join key to dla.flis item data
fscstringFederal Supply Class, the file's OWN FSC column
fsc_from_nsnstringThe first four digits of the file's NSN column. Returned separately, never silently reconciled with fsc: the two disagree on 2.3% of rows and export control is evaluated against BOTH
item_namestringDLA's controlled item-name phrase for the stock number (as published, often abbreviated)
part_numbersstring[]Every acceptable manufacturer reference number DLA listed for this award line. The source renders one row per part number; they are collected here so one award is one row
cage_codestringAWARDEE CAGE — who won it. DLA's own attribution, from its own published record. The only party identifier in the file: it carries no names, addresses or contacts
contract_numberstringORDER-level contract number (PIIN) — the shape dla.dibbs calls delivery_order_number, e.g. SPE4A5XXFXXXX. Not the basic contract
po_numberstringDLA purchase order number
po_item_numberstringItem number within that purchase order
order_qtynumberUnits awarded on this line, three decimals as published
unit_of_issuestringUnit of issue for BOTH prices on the row. Always read it before comparing any two prices — 16% of a 3,976-row crosswalk differ by more than 2×, most likely because of this
net_unit_pricenumberAWARDED unit price as DLA published it — firsthand, see price_basis. Four decimals are real on a micro-purchase item
standard_unit_pricenumberDLA STANDARD (CATALOG) price. NOT an award price and never to be quoted as what DLA paid — it matched a real award price 2 of 32 and 151 of 3,976 times
award_dateISO dateDate of the award
price_basisstringAlways dla_foia_contract_history_netprice. Never blend with observed_award_total, observed_award_unit or published_prior_unit
award_line_keystringStable identifier for the award LINE (the grain of a returned row). Several source rows sharing this key differ only by part number
first_seen_stampISO datePublication stamp of the EARLIEST DLA file this exact row appeared in
last_seen_stampISO datePublication stamp of the LATEST DLA file still carrying it. Older than the newest file covering that award date means DLA has since REMOVED the row — every file is a rolling window and its contents shrink

Sample record

Sample · dla.contract_history · synthetic 
{
  "nsn13": "5340000000001",
  "niin": "000000001",
  "fsc": "5340",
  "fsc_from_nsn": "5340",
  "item_name": "SAMPLE ITEM (SYNTHETIC)",
  "part_numbers": [
    "SAMPLE-PN-1",
    "SAMPLE-PN-2"
  ],
  "cage_code": "0XXX0",
  "contract_number": "SPE4A5XXFXXXX",
  "po_number": "0000000000",
  "po_item_number": "00001",
  "order_qty": 1.0,
  "unit_of_issue": "EA",
  "net_unit_price": 12.34,
  "standard_unit_price": 15.0,
  "award_date": "2026-01-15",
  "price_basis": "dla_foia_contract_history_netprice",
  "award_line_key": "sample0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
  "first_seen_stamp": "2026-01-15",
  "last_seen_stamp": "2026-01-15"
}

Illustrative synthetic record from catalog.json — identifiers are fabricated so a real FOIA row is never reproduced on this public page.

Use it for

  • Price a DLA quote against what the government actually paid PER UNIT for the same NSN — across DLA's whole published award record rather than the ~2–3% of it the DIBBS awards grid exposes, and with the unit of issue attached so the comparison is real
  • See every supplier who has won a given NSN and at what unit price, over multiple years — competitor and incumbency intelligence at the item level, from DLA's own attribution rather than a scrape
  • Trace one CAGE's DLA wins across NSNs, quantities and years, to size a competitor's actual footprint
  • Judge a price before quoting it: every row states its basis, keeps the DLA catalog price visibly separate from the awarded price, and reports which published file it was last seen in — so a row DLA has since removed is datable rather than silently gone

Related in Financial & Government Contracts