Add a search term

Now that we have our payload defined, lets also add a search term. This will be used like a Google search to instruct the API what we are looking for.

import requests
import json

# Your API configuration
API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"  # Replace with your actual key
BASE_URL = "https://api.simpler.grants.gov"

# The function that will contain search logic
def search_opportunities(search_term=""):
    """Search for grant opportunities"""
    # These headers will authenticate your API call
     headers = {
        "X-API-Key": API_KEY,
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
    }
    
     # Build the search request
     # This asks for page 1, 10 results, newest first by post_date.
    payload = {
        "pagination": {
            "page_offset": 1,
            "page_size": 10,
            "sort_order": [
                {
                    "order_by": "post_date",
                    "sort_direction": "descending"
                }
            ]
        }
    }
    
    # Add search term if provided
    if search_term:
        payload["query"] = search_term

Something not working as expected? Check out common issues & solutions.