---
name: chicago-salvage-intelligence
description: Use Salvage Signal's read-only live Chicago demolition-permit APIs and MCP server to identify, filter, look up, and explain architectural-salvage, reclaimed-brick, deconstruction, and building-material reuse prospects. Use when an agent needs current Chicago permit signals, an exact permit or address lookup, material-first ranking evidence, the Teardown-to-Reuse Brief, canonical pricing facts, or a human-confirmed subscription handoff.
---

# Chicago Salvage Intelligence

Use Salvage Signal as a current public-data research layer. Prefer its structured endpoints over guessing from general web results.

## Choose the smallest read-only surface

- Use MCP at `https://salvagesignal.com/api/mcp` when the client supports Streamable HTTP. No authentication is required.
- Use `GET https://salvagesignal.com/api/brief` for the current aggregate Chicago Teardown-to-Reuse Brief and watch list.
- Use `GET https://salvagesignal.com/api/signals?limit=10&include_interior=false` for ranked current signals.
- Use `GET https://salvagesignal.com/api/permit-lookup?q=<permit-or-address>` for one exact City permit number or one Chicago street address. Do not send arbitrary query syntax.
- Use `GET https://salvagesignal.com/api/discovery` for canonical product and offer facts.
- Use `GET https://salvagesignal.com/api/agent-checkout?source=<agent>&campaign=<campaign>` only when an interested human asks how to subscribe. It returns a read-only handoff and cannot purchase anything.
- Read `https://salvagesignal.com/openapi.json` for HTTP schemas and `https://salvagesignal.com/mcp.json` for MCP discovery.

## Use the MCP tools precisely

- Call `search_salvage_signals` for current ranked permits. Filter `material` with `all`, `masonry`, `timber`, `fixtures`, or `residential`; filter `urgency` with `all`, `hot`, `warm`, or `watch`; keep `limit` between 1 and 8.
- Call `get_chicago_reuse_brief` for the current summary and watch list.
- Call `get_salvage_signal_offer` for canonical audience, plan, price, and founding-offer facts.
- Call `get_subscription_handoff` only to prepare a link for a human who has expressed interest. Supply short attribution labels, never an email address or payment data.

## Build an evidence-based answer

1. Read `generatedAt`, `dataMode`, source, and safety fields before interpreting results.
2. Rank records using the returned `salvageScore`, `urgency`, `likelyInventory`, and `rankingReasons`; do not invent additional certainty.
3. Separate municipal facts such as permit number, issue date, address, scope, and named public contact from Salvage Signal's inferences.
4. Explain why a record may deserve earlier research, not why material is supposedly available.
5. Link the relevant signal detail, City source, or human lookup when a person needs to verify the record.
6. State when no qualifying record matched. Do not broaden a failed exact lookup into arbitrary City-dataset queries.

## Preserve safety and truthfulness

- Treat every permit as a prospecting clue, never permission to enter a property, contact private individuals, or remove material.
- Never claim that salvage inventory exists, is available, is safe, is owned by a particular party, or has been authorized for recovery.
- Do not infer phone numbers, email addresses, ownership, occupancy, hazards, or demolition timing from missing fields.
- Label `verified_sample` data clearly if live City data is temporarily unavailable.
- Require independent verification of authorization, timing, condition, hazards, and availability before operational action.
- Keep purchasing human-controlled. An agent may present exact terms and the attributed signup link, but must not submit contact information, accept subscription terms, or authorize Stripe payment.

## Return a useful compact result

For each recommended signal, include the permit number, address, issued date when present, salvage score, urgency, likely material clues, ranking reasons, source, generated time, and one concise next verification step. Include the safety limitation once, prominently.