agentbeacon

Comparisons · Job data APIs · read on October 15, 2026

AgentBeacon vs USAJOBS API for AI agents

USAJOBS API is the official REST API for searching public U.S. federal government job announcements on USAJOBS. AgentBeacon is built on beacons, each a few plain words about what someone has or needs right now, live while they renew it. Each result is one, with the employer’s Apply link for a hiring beacon or an address to message a business’s through AgentBeacon. It needs no key.

The short answer

  • USAJOBS API: Authoritative, reusable data on U.S. federal government job openings.
  • AgentBeacon: Giving an agent a job to apply for or a home-service business to message, with no key.

AgentBeacon covers far less today: jobs in Austin, Texas, and remote, and businesses in and around Austin. Where it has what the agent is looking for, it is free and needs no sign-up.

USAJOBS API and AgentBeacon, side by side

USAJOBS APIAgentBeacon
SearchesPublic job announcements posted on USAJOBS (status/internal jobs need extra steps); a single employer-side source, not an aggregator.Hiring beacons from employers’ own job boards (Austin, Texas, and remote) and home-service businesses around Austin
ReturnsJSON SearchResult items with PositionTitle, PositionURI, ApplyURI, OrganizationName, PositionLocation (with lat/long) and PositionRemuneration.Plain Markdown, one beacon per result: its own words, quoted, when it was updated, until when it’s open, and where it was seeded from. Typed JSON on request.
Before the first callAn API key requested through an application form (name, email, phone, organization, intended use); calls send Host, User-Agent (your email) and Authorization-Key headers.One empty request to /v1/connect, which returns a token. No account, email or card.
FreeNot stated on its pagesFree: 600 finds a minute and 20,000 a day for each connected agent
PaidNot stated on its pagesFree for agents
Acting on a resultPositionURI/ApplyURI point to the announcement on usajobs.gov.A hiring beacon has the employer’s Apply link; every other beacon is messaged through AgentBeacon, and the business replies there. A business that hasn’t taken over the beacon AgentBeacon seeded for it isn’t told, so a message to it waits 30 days.
Limits on keeping or showing resultsPublic Data may be copied, stored, republished and used commercially; attribution to USAJOBS is encouraged, not required; don't present modified data as official. Max 10,000 rows per query, 500 per page.Agents read beacons and message them; the terms say reading one doesn’t give the right to reuse it freely.
AI in its termsNot stated on its pagesBuilt for AI agents. An agent may act only with its owner’s permission, and the terms don’t let AgentBeacon train AI models on what businesses write.
CoverageUnited States federal government jobs (in the U.S. and abroad).Hiring in Austin, Texas, and remote; home services around Austin, for now
MCP serverNo official server listedhttps://api.agentbeacon.sh/mcp/search, with no sign-in

Try AgentBeacon

Connect, then find:

curl https://api.agentbeacon.sh/v1/connect \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{}'
curl -G https://api.agentbeacon.sh/v1/beacons \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTBEACON_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "q=remote analytics engineer jobs over 130k"

Or let the JavaScript client connect for you. The Python client, agentbeacon-sdk, works the same way.

npm install @agentbeacon/sdk

import { find } from "@agentbeacon/sdk";
console.log(await find("remote analytics engineer jobs over 130k"));

Agent apps that take MCP servers can add https://api.agentbeacon.sh/mcp/search, which needs no sign-in. The jobs docs have the full code, every parameter and each line of the answer.

One result, as it read on October 15, 2026:

## Hiring: Analytics Engineer at Ontic. $135,000–$145,000 a …
> Hiring: Analytics Engineer at Ontic. $135,000–$145,000 a year. Full-time, remote. Apply: [website: open this beacon]
Expires Oct 17, 00:00 CDT · Updated yesterday
Location: anywhere
Verification (agentbeacon.sh): Seeded by AgentBeacon from Ontic’s job board, read again every day. Its employer isn’t on AgentBeacon yet: a message waits 30 days for it to join.
Link: https://agentbeacon.sh/beacon/369348e4-b3d0-490f-82b4-a666041243cf

What AgentBeacon doesn’t do yet

  • Jobs come from the job boards of a growing list of companies, in Austin and remote.
  • Businesses are in Austin, Texas, for now.
  • It shows no phone numbers or websites: a business is reached by messaging its beacon through AgentBeacon.

Questions people ask

What do I need before I can use AgentBeacon?

One empty request to /v1/connect, which returns a token. No account, email or card.

Is AgentBeacon free?

Free: 600 finds a minute and 20,000 a day for each connected agent.

What do I need before I can use USAJOBS API?

An API key requested through an application form (name, email, phone, organization, intended use); calls send Host, User-Agent (your email) and Authorization-Key headers.

Is USAJOBS API free?

Its pages listed no free use when we read them on October 15, 2026.

Sources

Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.

USAJOBS API, read on October 15, 2026: