# /sercop/tenders/search

`POST /api/sercop/tenders/search`

Price: 5 credits

Search Ecuadorian public procurement processes of one year by words of the title or description, buyer name, supplier name and procurement procedure. Returns one summary per process: title, buyer and supplier names, budget and awarded amount, procedure, locality and ocid.

## How to use it

`year` is required and a search never spans years; run one call per year for a longer range. `supplier_name` is filled on electronic catalogue orders and empty on most competitive procedures, so the supplier filter only matches processes that carry it. Pass `ocid` to sercop/tenders for the parties with RUC ids, items, awards, contracts and auction bids.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `year` (integer, required) — Year of the processes (examples: 2025, 2016; min: 2015)
- `query` (string, nullable) — Words of the process title or description (examples: "medicamentos"; minLength: 1)
- `buyer` (string, nullable) — Part of the buyer name (examples: "MINISTERIO DE SALUD"; minLength: 1)
- `supplier` (string, nullable) — Part of the supplier name (examples: "TEXTIQUIM"; minLength: 1)
- `procurement_type` (string, nullable) — Procurement procedure (one of: "Asesoría y Patrocinio Jurídico", "Asesoría y Patrocinio Jurídico – Cons. puntuales y específicas", "Bienes y Servicios únicos", "Catálogo electrónico - Compra directa", "Comunicación Social – Contratación Directa", "Contratación de Seguros", "Contratacion directa", "Contratación Directa por Terminación Unilateral", "Contrataciones con empresas públicas internacionales", "Contratos entre Entidades Públicas o sus subsidiarias", "Obra artística, científica o literaria", "Repuestos o Accesorios", "Transporte de correo interno o internacional", "Comunicación Social – Proceso de Selección", "Lista corta", "Lista Corta por Contratación Directa Desierta", "Concurso publico", "Concurso Público por Contratación Directa Desierta", "Concurso Público por Lista Corta Desierta", "Cotización", "Licitación", "Licitación de Seguros", "Subasta Inversa Electrónica", "Catálogo electrónico - Gran compra mejor oferta", "Catálogo electrónico - Gran compra puja", "Catálogo electrónico - Mejor oferta", "Menor Cuantía")
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of processes to return (min: 1; max: 300)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "SercopTenderSummary")
- `ocid` (string, required)
- `description` (string, nullable)
- `buyer_name` (string, nullable)
- `supplier_name` (string, nullable)
- `value` (number, nullable)
- `awarded_amount` (number, nullable)
- `currency` (string, nullable)
- `procurement_method` (string, nullable)
- `procurement_type` (string, nullable)
- `locality` (string, nullable)
- `region` (string, nullable)
- `published_year` (integer, nullable)
- `published_month` (integer, nullable)
- `updated_at` (integer, nullable)
- `country` (string) (default: "EC")
- `url` (string, required)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

The entity was not found, or a precondition failed

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.