Look up federal contract awards using the USAspending API

Steps

1. No API key is required for the USAspending API; send a POST request to https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award/ with a JSON body specifying filters, fields, sort, and limit.
2. Specify filters using the filters object: use award_type_codes to restrict to contracts (e.g., ["A","B","C","D"]), time_period for a date range with start_date and end_date, and recipient_search_text or recipient_ueis for a specific vendor.
3. Request specific fields in the fields array (e.g., Award ID, Recipient Name, Award Amount, Awarding Agency, NAICS Code, Period of Performance Start Date) to reduce response payload size.
4. Paginate using the limit (max 100) and page parameters; iterate until the has_next field in the page_metadata object is false.
5. For individual award detail including contract line items, call GET https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/{generated_unique_award_id}/ using the generated_unique_award_id returned in the search results.
6. For bulk downloads of award data, use the POST /api/v2/bulk_download/awards/ endpoint which queues an asynchronous CSV extract; poll the status endpoint with the returned file_name until status is finished, then download.