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The identity spine

Every Cotality workflow anchors to one stable key: the CLIP.

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Why CLIP first

Addresses are ambiguous — “123 Main St” vs “123 Main Street Apt 2” — and APNs differ in format across ~3,000 US counties. The CLIP normalizes both into one durable key so property characteristics, transactions, and risk always align.

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Resolving to a CLIP

1

Standardize the address

Addresses are normalized to USPS Publication 28 before matching. Provide street number, street name, city, state, and ZIP for best match accuracy.
2

Call the resolver

MCP: clip-find_property_by_address — returns CLIP and property details.MCP (if you have the CLIP): clip-find_property_by_clip — validates and returns full property record.
3

Use the CLIP everywhere

Pass the returned CLIP to every downstream tool — Property characteristics, Climate risk analytics.
Never fabricate or guess a CLIP. If resolution finds no match, the CLIP tools raise a NOT_FOUND error — report that to the user rather than inventing an identifier. If several candidates come back, surface them for the user to disambiguate; do not assume the first match. See the MCP error contract for the full code list.

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Multiple records

A single address can sometimes resolve to more than one CLIP when a parcel has been subdivided or re-platted. The response will contain multiple items in data — always check count and present the choices to the user.
Batch-resolve addresses when onboarding a portfolio, then persist CLIPs. Future lookups can skip the resolution step entirely and call data tools directly.