CLIP tools - Cotality developer portal

What CLIP is: A unique, persistent numeric identifier assigned by Cotality to every US property parcel — residential and commercial. CLIP is the required input for Property characteristics, Climate risk analytics, and Analytics. Always call a CLIP tool first when starting from an address. Data capabilities:

Tool	Input	Returns	Use cases
`clip-find_property_by_clip`	CLIP identifier	Address, APN, owner name, geocode, parcel details	Cross-reference by CLIP, ownership lookup, coordinate resolution
`clip-find_property_by_address`	Full street address	CLIP + address, APN, owner name, geocode, parcel details	Address-to-CLIP resolution, address validation, mortgage and appraisal workflows

Data scope:

Attribute	Value
Coverage	All US property parcels — residential and commercial
Output	MCP tool envelope — `data` (array of `PropertyData`) and `count`
Note	A CLIP query may return multiple records when one parcel maps to more than one property record
Exclusions	US properties only — no international coverage. Resolution is address-to-parcel: these tools do not return property characteristics, valuations, or risk scores. Address matches below Cotality’s confidence threshold are filtered out rather than returned as low-confidence guesses.

`clip-find_property_by_clip`

Required scope: clip:find-by-clip. Retrieve comprehensive property data using a CLIP identifier. CLIP is a unique, persistent identifier assigned by Cotality to each property in the United States. When to use:

You have a CLIP identifier and need detailed property information
Looking up property ownership, address, parcel numbers (APN), or geographic coordinates
Cross-referencing properties across different systems using CLIP as the key

Examples:

“Get property details for CLIP 123456789”
“Find owner information for CLIP 456789123”

Input schema

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`clip`	`string`	Yes	A numeric CLIP identifier (e.g. `"123456789"`). Must be non-empty and match `^\d+$`.

The provided CLIP must be a non-empty string consisting only of numeric characters.

Example request

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "clip-find_property_by_clip",
    "arguments": {
      "clip": "123456789"
    }
  }
}

Output schema

The response envelope is shared by both CLIP tools. See Response envelope and PropertyData fields below.

The response includes an array of property records, because multiple properties may share the same CLIP in certain scenarios.

`clip-find_property_by_address`

Required scope: clip:find-by-address. Retrieve comprehensive property data using a complete street address. This tool performs address-based property lookup when you have a full address but not the CLIP identifier. When to use:

You have a street address and need property details
Converting addresses to CLIP identifiers for further processing
Looking up property ownership by address

Examples:

“Find property data for 123 Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90001”
“Get CLIP and owner info for 456 Oak Avenue, Apt 2B, Chicago, IL 60601”

Input schema

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`fullAddress`	`string`	Yes	Full street address — ideally including street number and name, unit/apartment (if applicable), city, state, and ZIP code

Full address must be a valid, non-empty string. The more complete and accurate the address, the better the match. Returns an array of property records as fuzzy matching may return multiple candidates.

Example request

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "clip-find_property_by_address",
    "arguments": {
      "fullAddress": "123 Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90001"
    }
  }
}

Output schema

The response envelope is shared by both CLIP tools. See Response envelope and PropertyData fields below.

Response envelope

Both tools return an identical envelope:

Field	Type	Description
`data`	`array[PropertyData]`	Array of matching property records
`count`	`integer`	Number of records in `data`

Both fields are always present in a successful response. There is no success or messages field — failure is signalled by an MCP error carrying a ToolError payload. See Response envelope and MCP tool errors.

PropertyData fields

Each object in the data array is a PropertyData record. All fields are optional and are omitted when no value is available.

Field	Type	Description
`clip`	`string`	Cotality’s unique, persistent property identifier
`clipStatus`	`string`	Status of the CLIP record
`countyCode`	`string`	FIPS county code
`county`	`string`	County name
`apnUnformatted`	`string`	Assessor Parcel Number — raw, unformatted
`apnFormatted`	`string`	Assessor Parcel Number — formatted
`previousApnUnformatted`	`string`	Previous APN (before parcel replatting)
`alternateApn`	`string`	Alternate APN on file
`universalParcelId`	`string`	Universal Parcel ID
`apnSequenceNumber`	`integer`	APN sequence number
`addressId`	`integer`	Internal address identifier
`addressStatus`	`string`	Status of the address record
`fullAddress`	`string`	Full assembled address string
`addressLine`	`string`	Street address line
`cityLine`	`string`	City/state/zip line
`houseNumber`	`string`	House / street number
`streetNamePrefixDirection`	`string`	Street directional prefix (e.g. “N”, “SW”)
`streetNamePrefix`	`string`	Street name prefix
`streetNameBase`	`string`	Base street name
`streetName`	`string`	Street name
`streetNameSuffix`	`string`	Street suffix (e.g. “St”, “Ave”)
`streetNameSuffixDirection`	`string`	Street directional suffix
`streetNameFull`	`string`	Fully assembled street name
`unitType`	`string`	Unit type (e.g. “APT”, “STE”)
`unitNumber`	`string`	Unit / apartment number
`city`	`string`	City name
`uspsRecommendedCity`	`string`	USPS-recommended city name
`state`	`string`	State abbreviation
`zipCode`	`string`	5-digit ZIP code
`zipPlus4`	`string`	ZIP+4 code
`countryCode`	`string`	Country code
`streetSide`	`string`	Side of street (e.g. “L”, “R”)
`unitRangeHigh`	`string`	High end of unit range
`unitRangeLow`	`string`	Low end of unit range
`latitude`	`number`	Latitude coordinate
`longitude`	`number`	Longitude coordinate
`owner1Name`	`string`	Primary owner name
`owner2Name`	`string`	Secondary owner name
`matchCode`	`string`	Match code indicating address match quality
`propertyMatchScore`	`integer`	Numeric match score
`addressType`	`string`	Address type classification
`addressMatchDescription`	`string`	Human-readable match description
`addressMatchCode`	`string`	Address match code
`addressMatchRecord`	`string`	Matched record identifier
`geocodeDataSet`	`string`	Geocoding dataset used
`geocodeVendor`	`string`	Geocoding vendor name

The record is flat. The upstream addressAttributes wrapper is removed before the data reaches you — the six fields it carried (addressType, addressMatchDescription, addressMatchCode, addressMatchRecord, geocodeDataSet, geocodeVendor) are promoted to the top level. Do not look for addressAttributes, or for the admin1–admin7 fields, in the tool output.

Sample response

{
  "count": 1,
  "data": [
    {
      "clip": "123456789",
      "clipStatus": "A",
      "countyCode": "06037",
      "county": "Los Angeles",
      "apnUnformatted": "4321012034",
      "apnFormatted": "4321-012-034",
      "universalParcelId": "06037-4321-012-034",
      "apnSequenceNumber": 1,
      "addressId": 100200300,
      "addressStatus": "A",
      "fullAddress": "123 MAIN ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90001",
      "addressLine": "123 MAIN ST",
      "cityLine": "LOS ANGELES, CA 90001",
      "houseNumber": "123",
      "streetNameBase": "MAIN",
      "streetName": "MAIN",
      "streetNameSuffix": "ST",
      "streetNameFull": "MAIN ST",
      "city": "LOS ANGELES",
      "uspsRecommendedCity": "LOS ANGELES",
      "state": "CA",
      "zipCode": "90001",
      "zipPlus4": "1234",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "latitude": 34.0522,
      "longitude": -118.2437,
      "owner1Name": "SAMPLE OWNER",
      "matchCode": "E01",
      "propertyMatchScore": 100,
      "addressType": "PRIMARY",
      "addressMatchDescription": "Exact match",
      "addressMatchCode": "E01",
      "addressMatchRecord": "R100200300",
      "geocodeDataSet": "PARCEL",
      "geocodeVendor": "COTALITY"
    }
  ]
}

Errors and limits

These tools return the standard MCP ToolError object on failure — code, message, and retryable. Only retry when retryable is true.

Code	Retryable	Typical cause here
`INVALID_INPUT`	No	A CLIP that is empty or contains non-digit characters, or an empty address string
`NOT_FOUND`	No	The CLIP or address did not resolve to any property record
`UPSTREAM_ERROR`	Yes	The upstream data service returned an error
`UPSTREAM_TIMEOUT`	Yes	The upstream data service did not respond in time
`INTERNAL_ERROR`	No	Unexpected server-side failure — escalate if persistent

NOT_FOUND is raised only when the upstream lookup service explicitly reports no match. A query that simply returns nothing arrives as a successful response with count of 0. Handle both.

See MCP tool errors for the full contract and input limits, and Rate limits for 429 handling.

Property characteristics — structural and land detail for a resolved CLIP
Climate risk analytics — roof age and climate exposure for a resolved CLIP
Identifiers — how CLIP relates to APN and other property keys
Response envelope — the data and count shape

​clip-find_property_by_clip

​Input schema

​Example request

​Output schema

​clip-find_property_by_address

​Input schema

​Example request

​Output schema

​Response envelope

​PropertyData fields

​Sample response

​Errors and limits

​Related

`clip-find_property_by_clip`

Input schema

Example request

Output schema

`clip-find_property_by_address`

Input schema

Example request

Output schema

Response envelope

PropertyData fields

Sample response

Errors and limits

Related