Accela Civic Platform API

Name: Accela Civic Platform API
Brand: Accela Civic Platform API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentProductivityCollaborationoauth286 Endpoints

Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the Accela Civic Platform API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Accela Civic Platform API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.

Step 1: Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Accela Civic Platform API.

Search Accela records by address, parcel, or contact and retrieve case detail

Schedule and update inspections tied to a permit or licensing record

Attach documents to a record and retrieve existing attachments by record id

GET STARTED

Start building with Accela Civic Platform API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

For Agents

Read and update Accela civic records, inspections, contacts, parcels, and documents on behalf of a government agency so agents can automate permitting, licensing, and inspection workflows.

Use for: I want to look up a building permit by address, Schedule a plumbing inspection for an existing record, Retrieve all inspections completed in the last 30 days for a record, Find all contacts associated with a specific permit

Not supported: Does not handle card payment capture, GIS map rendering, or constituent identity verification - use for civic record, inspection, and case management on the Accela Civic Platform only.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Accela Civic Platform API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The Accela Civic Platform v4 API powers government-facing applications for permitting, code enforcement, licensing, and service requests, exposing 86 endpoints across records, inspections, contacts, addresses, parcels, documents, payments, and workflow operations. Authentication is OAuth 2.0 against auth.accela.com with the agency scoped via the X-Accela-Agency header. It is used by civic engagement portals, contractor-facing tools, and inspection mobile apps that need to read and update agency case data.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Accela Civic Platform API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Contractor Permit Lookup Portal

A contractor-facing portal queries the Accela Civic Platform API to fetch every active permit tied to a contractor's license, including inspection status and outstanding fees. The portal calls GET /v4/records with a professional id filter, then loads inspection detail per record. This avoids contractors having to log into the agency's Accela Citizen Access (ACA) site for each city they work in.

Call GET /v4/records filtered by a contractor's professional id and aggregate inspection status across all returned records

Automated Inspection Scheduling from a Field App

Field inspectors and applicants use a mobile app that calls the Accela inspections endpoints to request, reschedule, and update inspection results in the field. POST /v4/inspections schedules a new inspection on a record, and PUT updates result codes and notes. This shortens the loop between site visit and case closure compared to phone-based scheduling.

Schedule a framing inspection on permit record id ABC-2026-001 for next available date and post the resulting inspection id back

Code Enforcement Case Triage

A code enforcement officer triages incoming complaints by querying GET /v4/records filtered by record type and status, then attaches photographic evidence via the documents endpoint. Search by address allows the officer to surface prior cases on the same property. The result is a faster first-response cycle and a complete audit trail in the agency's Accela environment.

Search Accela records for open code enforcement cases on a given parcel and attach a photo document to the most recent record

Agent-Driven Civic Records Workflow via Jentic

An AI assistant deployed at a government agency uses the Accela Civic Platform API through Jentic to handle routine constituent questions: looking up a permit's status, finding the next inspection date, or retrieving contact information for a record. The agent searches Jentic for the right operation, the OAuth flow is brokered by Jentic, and the agent never sees the raw access token.

Through Jentic, search 'look up a building permit by address', load GET /v4/records, and return the most recent permit and its inspection status

Key Endpoints

86 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for accela civic platform api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/v4/records

Search agency records with filters

GET

/v4/records/{ids}

Retrieve specific records by id

GET

/v4/inspections

List inspections matching filter criteria

GET

/v4/contacts

Search contacts associated with records

GET

/v4/addresses

Search addresses in the agency's data

GET

/v4/parcels

Search parcels by APN or location

POST

/oauth2/token

Obtain an OAuth access token for an agency

GET

/v4/records

Search agency records with filters

GET

/v4/records/{ids}

Retrieve specific records by id

GET

/v4/inspections

List inspections matching filter criteria

GET

/v4/contacts

Search contacts associated with records

GET

/v4/addresses

Search addresses in the agency's data

Why Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

Your Accela OAuth client credentials and agency scopes are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. They never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'look up a building permit by address', and Jentic returns the matching Accela operation with its filter parameters and required headers so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

Time to first call

FAQs

Specific to using Accela Civic Platform API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Accela Civic Platform API?

Accela does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call Accela Civic Platform API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

What authentication does the Accela Civic Platform API use?

OAuth 2.0 with the authorization endpoint at GET /oauth2/authorize and token exchange at POST /oauth2/token. Calls also require an X-Accela-Agency header to scope requests to a specific agency. Through Jentic, the OAuth flow is brokered and tokens are stored encrypted in the vault.

Can I schedule and update inspections with the Accela Civic Platform API?

Yes. The /v4/inspections endpoints schedule new inspections, retrieve inspection detail, and update results and notes once an inspector completes a site visit. Inspections are linked to a parent record id, so you must look up or create the record first.

What are the rate limits for the Accela Civic Platform API?

The OpenAPI spec does not document explicit rate limits. Accela publishes per-agency limits in their developer portal that vary by environment (sandbox vs production). Implement exponential backoff on HTTP 429 and treat the limits as agency-specific.

How do I look up a permit by address through Jentic?

Run pip install jentic, then search 'look up a building permit by address'. Jentic returns the GET /v4/records operation with its address filter parameter. Load the schema, supply the address and X-Accela-Agency header, and execute. Three async calls, no manual OAuth wiring.

Does the Accela Civic Platform API expose payment processing?

It exposes fee and payment record data tied to permits and licenses, but it does not itself process card payments. For card capture, agencies typically integrate a separate gateway and post the resulting payment record back into Accela via this API.

Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Accela Civic Platform API?

Yes. Jentic One runs self-hosted, so your own rules decide which Accela operations and credentials the agent may use. Because the record id sits in the URL path (/v4/records/{ids}), you can pin the agent to reading specific records along with their inspections and contacts and nothing else. You pick the exact operations it may call, so any write, such as scheduling an inspection or attaching a document, stays out of reach unless you add it.