How AI Search Grounding Solves the "Custom Town" Permit Dilemma
Instead of manual research, generative models with live search capabilities can scan deep municipal portals to fetch rules and estimate local base fees accurately.
By PermitCrab Editorial
Every contractor eventually hits a jurisdiction with no published fee schedule online, an outdated PDF, or a portal that requires login to view requirements. Traditional permit software gives up here and shows 'contact jurisdiction'.
PermitCrab uses retrieval-augmented generation to solve this: the model first performs a live web search grounded to the specific city and county, ranks government-domain sources, and then re-verifies any cited fee amounts against a fresh fetch of the source page.
This means we can produce reliable fee estimates and requirement lists even for towns with fewer than 5,000 residents — and always show you the source URL so you can verify before filing.
The verification pass is what makes this trustworthy: if the model cites a $150 fee but a fresh fetch of the source page doesn't contain that number, the rule gets downgraded to 'Verify Locally' automatically instead of misleading you.