ProjectPermit

ProjectPermit is a building permit requirements API & MCP for contractors and AI agents. It checks proposed construction and renovation scope across 7 Canadian municipalities and returns deterministic permit signals, official-source evidence, workflow routing, and an automation-ready action bundle. BuildRequirements is the deterministic rules engine inside it.

Try free in 30 seconds

No account, API key, wallet, MCP client, or platform integration is required for the current structured-facts validation preview.

• Free HTTP preview: POST https://projectpermit-api-v2-production.up.railway.app/v1/preview-project-requirements
• Free capability discovery: GET https://projectpermit-api-v2-production.up.railway.app/v1/capabilities
• Free standard MCP preview: https://projectpermit-mcp-production.up.railway.app/mcp

See TRY_PROJECTPERMIT.md for a copy-paste curl example and the preview privacy boundary. The anonymous HTTP preview intentionally excludes civic-address/GIS resolution; use the standard MCP developer preview for a bounded address-aware validation workflow.

Current jurisdiction coverage

Current deterministic rule footprint:

• gatineau_qc
• ottawa_on
• toronto_on
• mississauga_on
• laval_qc
• longueuil_qc
• vancouver_bc

The engine covers 8 normalized project families, preserves uncertainty instead of guessing, attaches official-source evidence to rule results, and exposes the same jurisdiction router through HTTP, standard MCP, and x402-paid MCP.

First-party municipal/open-data address resolution is available for Gatineau, Ottawa, Toronto, Mississauga and Vancouver. Laval and Longueuil currently support rule preflight with resolve_address=false.

The engine deliberately does not call an LLM. A calling agent normalizes natural-language scope into structured facts; BuildRequirements applies deterministic municipal rules.

Agent workflow differentiation

Every successful preflight now includes an additive deterministic workflow object so a contractor, property or field-service agent can use the result inside a real operating workflow instead of merely displaying a permit answer.

Stable routing signals include:

• ADD_PERMIT_TASK
• CONTINUE_WITH_EVIDENCE
• COLLECT_MISSING_FACTS
• ROUTE_SPECIAL_REVIEW
• MUNICIPAL_CONFIRMATION
• MANUAL_SCOPE_REVIEW

The workflow package also includes a quote-handling signal, a deliberately narrow automation_safe flag, and up to three high-value follow-up questions when another deterministic call can resolve missing context. Workflow guidance never changes the underlying permit determination and never represents municipal authorization.

See docs/AGENT_WORKFLOW_GUIDANCE.md.

Live endpoints and commercial x402 pricing

• HTTP API: https://projectpermit-api-v2-production.up.railway.app
• Free HTTP developer-validation preview: POST https://projectpermit-api-v2-production.up.railway.app/v1/preview-project-requirements
• Standard MCP developer-validation preview: https://projectpermit-mcp-production.up.railway.app/mcp
• Paid MCP: https://projectpermit-x402-mcp-production.up.railway.app/mcp

The HTTP API exposes free machine-readable capability discovery at GET /v1/capabilities.

Commercial x402 resources are configured on Base mainnet (eip155:8453) with USDC payment. The current launch price intentionally minimizes first-use friction while paid adoption and repeat-call behavior are being validated:

• single paid HTTP preflight: $0.05 USDC / call
• single paid MCP preflight: $0.05 USDC / call
• paid HTTP batch, up to 50 normalized projects: $2.00 USDC / batch (full 50-item batch = $0.04/item, 20% below 50 single calls)

The production facilitator is https://facilitator.payai.network.

The paid MCP exposes a free projectpermit_info tool and the x402-paid check_project_requirements tool. The paid HTTP routes return an x402 402 Payment Required challenge when no valid payment is supplied.

The result is a preflight information package, not municipal authorization, legal advice, engineering certification, or building-code design approval.

Market thesis

The business target is not a homeowner-only Do I need a permit? wizard and not a managed permit-submission service. ProjectPermit is intended to become a cross-jurisdiction permit-requirements intelligence layer embedded in contractor, property-management, construction/design, permitting, and real-estate software/Agent workflows.

Market validation remains active in parallel with product development. Differentiated product work and commercial distribution no longer wait for outreach replies. Geography expansion remains evidence-led because every additional municipality adds ongoing rule/source maintenance cost; priority goes to requested geographies or workflows with credible repeated volume.

The first commercially meaningful internal checkpoint is roughly 10,000 monthly external preflight calls. A preferred proof shape is approximately 5 integrations × 2,000 calls/month, or one platform workflow capable of the same volume. This is a validation target, not a forecast.

Read:

• docs/MARKET_VALIDATION.md — market background, pricing thesis and original call-volume model
• docs/DISTRIBUTION_VALIDATION.md — 2026 platform evidence, competition and validation plan
• docs/CALL_VOLUME_THRESHOLDS.md — bottom-up monthly-call and revenue thresholds
• docs/PAIN_EVIDENCE.md — observed field/community pain evidence separated from assumptions
• docs/TARGET_ACCOUNT_RANKING.md — ranked design-partner targets by pain and distribution leverage
• docs/OUTREACH_BATCH_01.md — tailored first outreach batch
• docs/DESIGN_PARTNER_TRIAL.md — low-friction 20-case pilot protocol
• docs/EXTERNAL_USAGE_BASELINE.md — clean external-usage starting baseline
• docs/INTEGRATION_QUICKSTART.md — copy-paste developer integration examples

Architecture

All transports call the same shared address-aware preflight pipeline:

HTTP / standard MCP / x402 paid MCP -> preflight_service -> municipal address/GIS adapters -> jurisdiction router -> deterministic rules -> workflow guidance

Resolved non-null municipal property facts can enrich a request before rule evaluation. Unknown overlays remain unknown and never silently overwrite an explicit caller value.

Successful preflight calls also emit privacy-minimal structured usage telemetry for market validation. The telemetry excludes civic address, coordinates, property identifiers, payment credentials, IP/user-agent data and raw client tags. Internal CI/owner smoke traffic is explicitly tagged so it can be excluded from external call counts. Municipal HTTP request URL logging is suppressed so address/query details are not leaked indirectly through httpx INFO logs.

Quick start

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
uvicorn projectpermit.api:app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

For standard MCP support:

pip install -e '.[mcp]'
projectpermit-mcp

projectpermit-mcp uses MCP Python SDK v2 Streamable HTTP, JSON responses, and stateless HTTP. It listens on 127.0.0.1:8001 by default. Override with PROJECTPERMIT_MCP_HOST and PROJECTPERMIT_MCP_PORT.

Run tests:

PYTHONPATH=src python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

API

For no-wallet validation, use the free structured-facts route:

POST /v1/preview-project-requirements

For the x402-paid HTTP contract, use:

POST /v1/check-project-requirements

Both use the same normalized project shape; the anonymous free preview intentionally rejects address/GIS resolution. Example project facts:

{
  "jurisdiction": "toronto_on",
  "resolve_address": false,
  "project": {
    "family": "window_door",
    "action": "replace_same_size",
    "single_dwelling_house": true,
    "structural_change": false,
    "new_exit": false
  }
}

A successful preflight response also contains workflow, for example:

{
  "workflow": {
    "mode": "NO_PERMIT_SIGNAL",
    "recommended_route": "CONTINUE_WITH_EVIDENCE",
    "quote_handling": "NO_PERMIT_ALLOWANCE_SIGNAL",
    "automation_safe": true,
    "follow_up_questions": []
  }
}

For an address-aware jurisdiction, set resolve_address=true and supply address through the standard MCP preview or paid route; the anonymous HTTP preview deliberately does not accept address resolution.

Developer-validation workflow

The standard MCP endpoint remains free so a design partner can test workflow fit without a wallet or billing setup. A recommended pilot uses 20 anonymized real scopes, a stable non-PII context.client_tag, and measures whether the result actually changes the next workflow step.

Partner evidence is tracked in:

• data/partner_targets.csv — 20 candidate design-partner accounts
• data/partner_feedback.csv — structured conversation/pilot/call-volume outcomes
• data/design_partner_scope_template.csv — anonymized pilot-case template

Summarize validation evidence with:

python scripts/summarize_partner_feedback.py

Unknown interview values remain unknown rather than being silently converted to zero. Commercial decisions therefore depend on recorded external evidence, not optimistic inference, while engineering/distribution work continues in parallel.

Repository map

• src/projectpermit/engine.py — original Gatineau/Ottawa deterministic rules
• src/projectpermit/expansion_rules.py — Toronto/Mississauga rules
• src/projectpermit/quebec_expansion_rules.py — Laval/Longueuil rules
• src/projectpermit/vancouver_rules.py — Vancouver rules
• src/projectpermit/jurisdiction_router.py — public jurisdiction dispatcher
• src/projectpermit/preflight_service.py — shared address-aware preflight pipeline
• src/projectpermit/workflow_advice.py — deterministic agent routing and missing-fact guidance
• src/projectpermit/address.py — Gatineau/Ottawa/Toronto address/GIS adapters
• src/projectpermit/mississauga_address.py — Mississauga address/property adapter
• src/projectpermit/vancouver_address.py — Vancouver first-party open-data adapter
• src/projectpermit/telemetry.py — privacy-minimal usage events
• src/projectpermit/http_fetch.py — municipal HTTP fetch with request-URL log suppression
• src/projectpermit/api.py — HTTP API
• src/projectpermit/mcp_server.py — standard MCP v2 developer preview
• src/projectpermit/paid_mcp_server.py — x402-native paid MCP v2 server
• src/projectpermit/mcp_v2_x402_compat.py — MCP SDK v2 / x402 result compatibility shim
• data/source_manifest.json — official source registry/freshness metadata
• data/partner_targets.csv — first 20 design-partner targets
• data/partner_feedback.csv — structured external-validation tracker
• data/design_partner_scope_template.csv — anonymized 20-case pilot template
• schemas/ — public request/response schemas
• scripts/mcp_remote_smoke.py — seven-city + Vancouver address-aware public MCP smoke
• scripts/paid_mcp_unpaid_smoke.py — no-cost remote payment-challenge test
• scripts/paid_mcp_buyer_smoke.py — historical buyer-side paid smoke tooling; do not spend merely to re-prove plumbing
• scripts/facilitator_capability_probe.py — no-cost facilitator capability matrix
• scripts/projectpermit_bazaar_lookup.py — read-only Bazaar catalog lookup
• scripts/summarize_usage_logs.py — external/internal usage-log summarizer
• scripts/summarize_partner_feedback.py — partner conversation/call-volume gate summarizer
• docs/AGENT_WORKFLOW_GUIDANCE.md — workflow-routing response contract and integration pattern
• docs/PHASE0_SPEC.md — original product/engineering scope
• docs/PHASE0_RELEASE_READINESS.md — completed Phase 0 release gate
• docs/MARKET_VALIDATION.md — market background and original business gates
• docs/DISTRIBUTION_VALIDATION.md — platform distribution validation plan
• docs/CALL_VOLUME_THRESHOLDS.md — monthly API-call economics and go/no-go thresholds
• docs/PAIN_EVIDENCE.md — observed workflow pain evidence
• docs/TARGET_ACCOUNT_RANKING.md — account prioritization model
• docs/PARTNER_OUTREACH.md — outreach/discovery playbook
• docs/OUTREACH_BATCH_01.md — first tailored outreach batch
• docs/DESIGN_PARTNER_TRIAL.md — design-partner pilot package
• docs/EXTERNAL_USAGE_BASELINE.md — telemetry baseline before outreach
• docs/INTEGRATION_QUICKSTART.md — developer quickstart
• docs/X402_ARCHITECTURE.md — payment/discovery design

Production verification

The seven-city public MCP footprint and Vancouver address-aware resolution have been verified from GitHub Actions against Railway production. The Vancouver production smoke resolved the City Hall civic address 453 W 12TH AV and City zoning CD-1 (46) through Vancouver first-party open data.

Historical buyer-side paid HTTP and paid MCP settlement were verified end-to-end on testnet. The commercial production services are now configured for Base mainnet and can be verified without spending funds by checking their x402 402 Payment Required challenges. A real mainnet payment should only be made when there is a reason to verify actual settlement or a genuine buyer call.

x402 / discovery status

Canonical paid HTTP resources:

• https://projectpermit-api-v2-production.up.railway.app/v1/check-project-requirements
• https://projectpermit-api-v2-production.up.railway.app/v1/check-project-requirements-batch

Canonical paid MCP resource:

• https://projectpermit-x402-mcp-production.up.railway.app/mcp

Commercial network: eip155:8453 (Base mainnet)

Production facilitator: https://facilitator.payai.network

The single HTTP resource publishes Bazaar discovery metadata; paid MCP publishes MCP x402 discovery metadata. Both advertise the Agent workflow-routing differentiation.

CI / verification

Current CI covers:

• Python 3.11 + 3.13
• deterministic jurisdiction-rule and schema tests
• workflow-guidance routing tests
• address-adapter and shared-preflight regressions
• telemetry privacy contract
• municipal request-log privacy guard
• partner-validation metric summarizer tests
• official source-manifest contracts
• MCP v2 integration
• x402 wire behavior
• MCP v2 settlement-receipt compatibility
• Docker build + live /health
• public seven-jurisdiction MCP tool invocation
• public Vancouver address-aware MCP invocation
• public paid-MCP unpaid challenge
• public HTTP Bazaar unpaid challenge
• public paid-bulk HTTP unpaid challenge
• facilitator capability checks

See STATUS.md for the broader engineering/validation state and the distribution documents above for market evidence.

Safety boundary

Determinations intentionally use preflight language such as REQUIRED, LIKELY_REQUIRED, LIKELY_NOT_REQUIRED, ADDITIONAL_REVIEW_REQUIRED, and MUNICIPAL_CONFIRMATION_REQUIRED where uncertainty exists. Ambiguous official thresholds are conservatively routed to confirmation instead of being silently resolved.

The engine should not be presented as a municipality, permit issuer, lawyer, architect, or engineer.