Skip to content

sam_entities

Federal entity registry

One row per active SAM.gov registration, ingested from the Entity Management API v4 bulk extract (/entities?format=json) by build_sam_entities. The authoritative federal entity registry, the directory of organizations registered to do business with or receive assistance from the U.S. government. Its UEI is the identity usaspending_recipients.uei joins on. Comments carry no UEI, so a commenting organization reaches this table only by a name match on legal_business_name or dba_name, which is not an identity. Filtered to public active registrations (registrationStatus=A); list-level fields only. All columns are stored as VARCHAR.

Coverage. Window, complete for the years read. Every public active registration SAM.gov dated 1996 through 2026 and the two older ones (1949, 1968), one bulk extract per registrationDate year; each year matched its active count when read, less its credited renewals (see data_quality), and the output ledger records the counts. Scheduled runs re-read the current year every other day and cycle through the older years between, and each year read replaces that year's rows. (measured 2026-09-26)

Data quality. A row is a registration, keyed by uei and entity_eft_indicator: one entity registers once per EFT indicator (187 of the 147,038 UEIs in the 2026 extract carry more than one), so uei alone is not unique. SAM keeps a renewed registration's prior record Active until its expiry is processed, and counts both; the table keeps the newer, and the reader credits the other toward the file's declared count (one each in 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2019 and 2020 and two in 2026, each journaled). A file with fewer registrations than it declares, less those credits, is refused. A year read retires the registrations it no longer holds (80 expired from 2002 and 2003 and 11 from 2026 on 2026-09-26), journaled as rows-retired so qualification reconciles every removal. A stalled extract is abandoned and triggered afresh, each abandonment journaled.

  • Parquet file: sam_entities.parquet
  • MCP query_sql support: Configured; requires an available artifact.
  • Publication status: Not established by this schema page or its measurement date.
  • Row count: Not stated here; the MCP describe_table reply gives the live count under publication.
Column Type Description
uei VARCHAR Unique Entity ID (SAM ueiSAM, 12-char alphanumeric, e.g. Q93HWX24PGA4). With entity_eft_indicator, the registration key; alone, the entity-resolution join key.
entity_eft_indicator VARCHAR SAM entityEFTIndicator: which of an entity's registrations this is, one per EFT (bank-account) indicator. NULL for an entity's sole registration.
cage_code VARCHAR Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code assigned to the entity. Often null for newly registered entities.
legal_business_name VARCHAR Legal business name as registered in SAM.gov.
dba_name VARCHAR 'Doing business as' name, when the entity registered one. Often null.
entity_structure_desc VARCHAR Entity structure description (coreData.generalInformation.entityStructureDesc, e.g. Corporate Entity (Not Tax Exempt)).
entity_type_desc VARCHAR Entity type description (e.g. Business or Organization).
profit_structure_desc VARCHAR Profit-structure description (e.g. For Profit Organization, Non-Profit Organization).
state VARCHAR State or province code of the physical address (coreData.physicalAddress.stateOrProvinceCode). Null for many non-US registrants.
city VARCHAR City of the physical address.
zip_code VARCHAR ZIP / postal code of the physical address.
congressional_district VARCHAR U.S. congressional district of the physical address (coreData.congressionalDistrict). Null for non-US registrants.
primary_naics VARCHAR Primary NAICS industry code the entity asserted (assertions.goodsAndServices.primaryNaics). Often null.
registration_status VARCHAR Always Active here: the ingest asks SAM for active registrations (registrationStatus=A) and replaces a year's rows only when it re-reads that year, so a row is active as of its year's last read, not today; compare registration_expiration_date with the query date.
registration_date VARCHAR Date the entity's current registration was recorded (ISO 8601 string).
registration_expiration_date VARCHAR Date the current registration expires (ISO 8601 string).
exclusion_status_flag VARCHAR Whether the entity has an active exclusion/debarment record (Y/N).
purpose_of_registration_desc VARCHAR Purpose-of-registration description (e.g. Federal Assistance Awards, All Awards).
entity_url VARCHAR Entity's self-reported website URL (coreData.entityInformation.entityURL). Often null.