contractor-bid 0.2.0

AI-ready commercial construction bid project starter kit for subcontractors in any CSI division.

contractor-bid

AI-ready bid workspaces for commercial subcontractors.

Status: early access / in active development (v0.2.0). This is a public testing release shared to gather real-world feedback. Expect rough edges, and verify every output against the source documents before pricing a real bid. Bug reports and contributions are welcome and encouraged — please open an issue or see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Commercial bid folders are usually messy: large plan sets, project manuals, addenda, bid forms, scope gaps, and adjacent trades that can accidentally drift into your number. contractor-bid gives a subcontractor a repeatable project structure that an AI agent can work inside without losing the audit trail.

If this saves you bid setup time, star the repo so more subcontractors can find it.

It does not price the job for you. It helps turn bid documents into a reviewable package: relevant pages, source-backed summaries, workbook inputs, proposal language, alerts, and a sendoff folder.

What This Repo Does

contractor-bid is a Python CLI plus an optional MCP server, agent instructions, templates, starter trade profiles, and validation checks.

Use it when you want to open Claude, Codex, or another model and say:

Start a new bid project for my electrical scope.

The project gives the model a structure to follow:

1. Ask or load the subcontractor's CSI division and scope rules.
2. Create a bid project folder.
3. Put source documents in bid-docs/.
4. Triage PDFs for likely scope/spec pages.
5. Build a short page packet and quick-read summary.
6. Build a takeoff/BOM workbook from JSON.
7. Check for missing artifacts, addenda, and scope drift.
8. Package a supplier or internal-review sendoff.
9. Record corrections so the next bid gets better.

What You Get

Each bid project is built around bid-package-working/:

File	Purpose
00-Bid-Scope-Summary.md	First-read summary: what it is, where it is, what to open first, what is excluded, and what needs clarification.
00-Scope-Reference-Index.md	Drawing/spec/RFI index for the carried scope.
scope-pages.pdf	Isolated drawing pages relevant to the subcontractor's scope.
spec-pages.pdf	Isolated spec pages when specs are found.
scope-and-spec-pages.pdf	Combined page packet for review or supplier handoff.
01-Takeoff-Worksheet-REV1.xlsx	Workbook with BOM rows, supplier quote inputs, RFIs, alerts, and sources.
02 - Proposal Letter.md	Draft proposal language with inclusions, exclusions, alternates, and clarifications.
ALERTS.md	Validator output for missing deliverables, due dates, addenda, and excluded/review-only scope terms.
supplier-sendoff/*.zip	Shareable package for vendors, suppliers, or internal review.

The pattern comes from real fence/gate bid work. In one package, the workflow produced a scope PDF, a spec PDF, a combined packet, a workbook, alerts, and a supplier zip. In another smaller package, the scope packet was only a few pages and no separate spec packet was needed. The structure stayed the same, which is what lets the model and estimator stay aligned.

More detail: What A Bid Project Produces.

Who It Is For

• Commercial subcontractors in any CSI division.
• Estimators who want AI help but still need source-backed files.
• Contractors building repeatable bid workflows.
• Developers building trade-specific AI agents for construction.

Canonical starter profiles are included for the active CSI MasterFormat divisions from 03 through 33:

CSI division	Profile
03 - Concrete	division-03-concrete
04 - Masonry	division-04-masonry
05 - Metals	division-05-metals
06 - Wood, Plastics, and Composites	division-06-wood-plastics-composites
07 - Thermal and Moisture Protection	division-07-thermal-moisture-protection
08 - Openings	division-08-openings
09 - Finishes	division-09-finishes
10 - Specialties	division-10-specialties
11 - Equipment	division-11-equipment
12 - Furnishings	division-12-furnishings
13 - Special Construction	division-13-special-construction
14 - Conveying Equipment	division-14-conveying-equipment
21 - Fire Suppression	division-21-fire-suppression
22 - Plumbing	division-22-plumbing
23 - Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)	division-23-hvac
25 - Integrated Automation	division-25-integrated-automation
26 - Electrical	division-26-electrical
27 - Communications	division-27-communications
28 - Electronic Safety and Security	division-28-electronic-safety-security
31 - Earthwork	division-31-earthwork
32 - Exterior Improvements	division-32-exterior-improvements
33 - Utilities	division-33-utilities

Divisions 15-20, 24, 29, and 30 are reserved in this range, so they are documented but do not get bid starters. More detail: CSI Division Starters.

The repo also keeps narrower trade-specific examples like fences-gates, concrete-flatwork, drywall-framing, electrical, plumbing, hvac, and roofing.

Use contractor-bid init when your trade or company rules are different.

Install

Recommended: pipx

Install the CLI:

pipx install contractor-bid

Install the CLI plus MCP server for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or another MCP-capable agent:

pipx install "contractor-bid[mcp]"

This gives you both:

contractor-bid doctor
contractor-bid-mcp

macOS / Linux

From a source checkout:

git clone https://github.com/ContractorKeith/contractor-bid.git
cd contractor-bid
scripts/install.sh --install-poppler

Or use the one-line installer:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ContractorKeith/contractor-bid/main/scripts/install.sh)"

Windows PowerShell

git clone https://github.com/ContractorKeith/contractor-bid.git
cd contractor-bid
.\scripts\install.ps1 -InstallPoppler

The installer creates an isolated virtualenv under ~/.contractor-bid, installs the CLI there, and writes a launcher to ~/.local/bin/contractor-bid.

Prerequisites

Required:

• Python 3.11 or newer
• Git, for install and updates
• pipx, for the recommended isolated package install path

Installed automatically into the virtualenv:

• openpyxl, for .xlsx takeoff workbooks
• pypdf, for page packet PDFs and PDF fallback parsing

Recommended system dependency:

• Poppler: pdfinfo, pdftotext, and pdftoppm

Poppler gives faster PDF text extraction and page-image rendering. Without Poppler, basic PDF handling can fall back to pypdf, but rendered candidate page images are unavailable. This project does not do OCR yet; scanned image-only plans need OCR before triage works well.

Check a machine:

contractor-bid doctor

No GitHub CLI is required for normal use.

Agent Plugin Setup

The plugin layer wraps the installed Python engine. Install the engine first:

pipx install "contractor-bid[mcp]"

Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add ContractorKeith/contractor-bid
/plugin install contractor-bid@contractor-bid

Codex and Cursor can reuse the same contractor-bid-mcp server and skills/. This repo includes .mcp.json, .claude-plugin/, codex-marketplace.json, and .cursor-plugin/ metadata for direct Git-hosted or local install flows.

More detail: MCP And Agent Plugin Setup.

Quick Start

Create a workspace for your bids:

mkdir contractor-bid-workspace
cd contractor-bid-workspace

Start a project from a built-in profile:

contractor-bid new bids/070126-example-project \
  --profile division-32-exterior-improvements \
  --project-name "Example Project" \
  --bid-due "2026-07-01 14:00"

Put source PDFs and bid forms in:

bids/070126-example-project/bid-docs/

Run the bid workflow:

contractor-bid triage bids/070126-example-project --profile division-32-exterior-improvements --render --write-sources
contractor-bid build-packets bids/070126-example-project
contractor-bid build-workbook bids/070126-example-project --profile division-32-exterior-improvements
contractor-bid check bids/070126-example-project --profile division-32-exterior-improvements
contractor-bid package-sendoff bids/070126-example-project

Triage writes its suggestions to scope-pages-sources.suggested.json. Review that file, then merge the pages you approve into scope-pages-sources.json before build-packets. The --write-sources flag above only auto-fills scope-pages-sources.json while it is still empty; once it has your content, triage leaves it alone. Triage suggestions are a starting point, not a pricing decision.

Then open:

bids/070126-example-project/bid-package-working/00-Bid-Scope-Summary.md

Custom Scope Profiles

Run:

contractor-bid init

That writes:

• profiles/<profile>.json
• skills/<profile>-bid-scope/SKILL.md

The profile defines:

• CSI division and spec section hints.
• Work carried in base bid.
• Search terms that identify the scope.
• Adjacent scope to exclude by default.
• Adjacent scope to flag before pricing.
• Standard proposal exclusions.

The generated skill is for Claude, Codex, or another model to read before making scope calls.

Test And Lint

For contributors:

python3 -m pip install -e . ruff
python3 -m unittest discover -s tests
ruff check

CI runs the same checks on Python 3.11 and 3.12.

Learning Loop

Record corrections:

contractor-bid learn \
  --profile fences-gates \
  --project bids/070126-example-project \
  --note "Flag motor operators separately when electrical power/control responsibility is unclear."

The command appends to:

• .contractor-bid/feedback.jsonl
• .contractor-bid/LESSONS.md

Agents should review those files before similar bids. When a correction becomes a durable rule, update the profile, regenerated skill, templates, or validator.

Bid Tracker

Track every bid in flight on one readable spreadsheet. The tracker spans the whole workspace, not a single project.

contractor-bid track-add bids/070126-example-project --progress Triage
contractor-bid track-update "Example Project" --progress Submitted --next "Follow up Friday"
contractor-bid track-move "Example Project" --outcome won
contractor-bid track-list

This writes .contractor-bid/bid-tracker.json (source of truth) and regenerates Bid-Tracker.xlsx:

• Active Bids — Project, Location, Due, Progress, Next Action, Client / GC, Updated. Due dates within two days are amber; past-due are red.
• Archived & Completed — finished bids move here automatically with an outcome (won, lost, no-bid, completed).

The bid-tracker skill lets Claude, Codex, or another agent keep the tracker current as you work — and it asks for confirmation with a change summary before every write. Both tracker files are gitignored so your bid pipeline stays private.

Architecture

contractor-bid is a small, dependency-light Python CLI. The design rule is simple: JSON files are the source of truth, and the scripts are deterministic glue that turn them into reviewable artifacts. An AI agent reads the scope profile and skill, fills the JSON, and runs the commands — so every output traces back to a source page or a stated assumption.

Per-bid data flow

profiles/<id>.json  ─┐
bid-docs/*.pdf       ─┴─► triage ──► candidate-pages.md + scope-pages-sources.suggested.json
                                          │
   takeoff/scope-pages-sources.json  ─────┴──► build-packets ──► scope/spec PDFs + 00-Bid-Scope-Summary.md
   takeoff/<project>.json            ──────────► build-workbook ─► 01-Takeoff-Worksheet-REV1.xlsx
                                          │
                              check ──► ALERTS.md ──► package-sendoff ──► supplier-sendoff/*.zip

The bid tracker is a separate, workspace-level layer: .contractor-bid/bid-tracker.json → Bid-Tracker.xlsx.

Repository layout

contractor-bid/
├── src/contractor_bid/      # the CLI package (one module per command area)
│   ├── cli.py               # argparse entrypoint; dispatches each subcommand
│   ├── profile.py           # scope-profile schema + skill generation (render_skill)
│   ├── project.py           # `new` — scaffolds a bid project folder from templates
│   ├── triage.py            # PDF text extraction + candidate-page scoring
│   ├── packets.py           # `build-packets` — scope/spec PDFs + quick-read summary
│   ├── workbook.py          # `build-workbook` — styled takeoff/BOM .xlsx
│   ├── validate.py          # `check` / `status` — deliverable + scope-drift checks
│   ├── sendoff.py           # `package-sendoff` — supplier zip
│   ├── tracker.py           # bid tracker (track-* commands)
│   ├── learning.py          # `learn` — correction/feedback log
│   ├── doctor.py            # `doctor` — environment checks
│   └── util.py              # shared helpers
├── profiles/<id>.json       # built-in scope profiles (one per trade / CSI division)
├── skills/<id>-bid-scope/   # generated agent skills (one per profile)
├── skills/bid-tracker/      # workflow skill for the bid tracker
├── examples/profiles/       # example profiles with sample company names
├── templates/               # project file templates copied by `new`
├── docs/                    # workflow / what-you-get / self-learning docs
├── scripts/                 # install.sh / install.ps1
└── tests/                   # unittest suite (incl. profile round-trip)

Adding a trade or CSI division

A division is three files: profiles/<id>.json, the matching skills/<id>-bid-scope/SKILL.md (generated from the profile so tests/test_profile_roundtrip.py stays green), and examples/profiles/<id>.json. Run contractor-bid init to generate them interactively, or copy an existing starter and edit the scope terms.

Limitations

• Not a final pricing engine.
• Not a legal or contract-review tool.
• Not a substitute for manual measurement.
• Not an OCR pipeline for scanned drawings.
• Not a guarantee that every relevant sheet was found.

The intended use is practical: reduce the time between "I received a bid invite" and "I have a source-backed package I can review and price."

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Public examples should be fictional or sanitized. Do not commit proprietary bid documents, supplier quotes, private estimates, or customer files.

This project follows a Code of Conduct.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.