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Guide Origin: Official | ArcKit Version: [VERSION]
/arckit:tenders discovers procurement market intelligence — award-value benchmarks, top suppliers, incumbency patterns, and concentration — from live UK procurement notices via the UK Tenders MCP.
Agent Architecture: This command uses a three-tier reader/writer subagent split. The
arckit-tenders-readersubagent fetches evidence from the UK Tenders MCP (keeping that I/O isolated from your main context window). The orchestrator tier (the slash command) validates the reader's JSON payload against thetenders-handoff.schema.jsonschema and computes deterministic derived fields. Thearckit-tenders-writersubagent then renders the final artefact. The slash command launches and coordinates both agents. On runtimes without subagent dispatch (Codex, Gemini, OpenCode, Copilot, Paperclip, Vibe, Kimi), the command ships as the equivalent single-agentarckit-tendersprompt instead, which does the same discovery, derivation and rendering in one role.
What is Procurement Market Intelligence?
Procurement market intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of real awarded-contract data to understand the supply landscape before a procurement or business case is prepared.
Key questions answered:
- What has this capability been procured for, and at what value?
- Who are the current incumbent suppliers, and how concentrated is the market?
- What is the median award value — a useful anchor for the Economic Case?
- Has the buying organisation previously awarded this work, and to whom?
Mandatory caveat. Awarded value is not actual spend; figures are for market context and benchmarking, not the costed Economic Case. Never use TNDR figures as the cost line in a Green Book / Orange Book Economic Case without independent substantiation.
When to Use
- Before drafting the Economic Case in a Strategic Outline Business Case — award-value benchmarks anchor the costing range
- Before scoping a procurement — understand the supply base, concentration, and typical award size
- When assessing build vs buy — quantify the commercial market depth before recommending a build
- When requesting approval for a sole-source or direct award — evidence the supply landscape
- As early-stage market engagement intelligence — complement formal Prior Information Notices
Prerequisites and Dependencies
| Artefact | Dependency | Why |
|---|---|---|
Requirements (ARC-*-REQ-*.md) |
OPTIONAL | CPV codes and capability keywords can be derived from DR/FR/INT requirements |
Architecture Principles (ARC-000-PRIN-*.md) |
OPTIONAL | Identifies the commissioning buyer for buyer-focused queries |
SOBC (ARC-*-SOBC-*.md) |
DOWNSTREAM | Median award values anchor the Economic Case cost range |
Risk Register (ARC-*-RISK-*.md) |
DOWNSTREAM | Supplier-concentration findings feed R-xxx concentration/single-supplier-dependency risks |
Inputs
The command accepts four input forms, which can be combined:
| Input | Flag / Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Capability (free text) | bare arguments | /arckit:tenders cloud hosting |
| CPV code | --cpv NNNNNNNN |
/arckit:tenders --cpv 72200000 |
| Buyer organisation | --buyer 'Name' |
/arckit:tenders --buyer 'HMRC' |
| Supplier name | --supplier 'Name' |
/arckit:tenders --supplier 'Acme Cloud Ltd' |
You can combine flags: /arckit:tenders cloud hosting --cpv 72200000 --buyer 'DVLA'.
CPV code format: eight digits, optionally followed by a division suffix (NNNNNNNN-N). Common codes:
| Code | Category |
|---|---|
| 72200000 | Software-related services |
| 72300000 | Data services |
| 72600000 | IT support and consultancy |
| 48000000 | Software packages and systems |
| 79000000 | Business services |
| 73000000 | R&D services |
Scenario Matrix
| Scenario | Prompt | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Capability benchmark | /arckit:tenders digital identity verification |
Median award value, top suppliers |
| CPV-scoped benchmark | /arckit:tenders --cpv 72600000 --buyer 'HMRC' |
Awards by this buyer in this CPV |
| Incumbent research | /arckit:tenders --supplier 'Acme Cloud Ltd' |
All awards to this supplier |
| Build-vs-buy evidence | /arckit:tenders --buyer 'DVLA' --cpv 72200000 |
Prior buyer activity |
| Sole-source justification | /arckit:tenders specialist radar maintenance |
Supply-base depth evidence |
Command
/arckit:tenders [project-number-or-name] <capability | --cpv NNNNNNNN | --buyer 'Name' | --supplier 'Name'>
Outputs: projects/<id>/research/ARC-<id>-TNDR-<NNN>-v1.0.md
Multi-instance type:
TNDRartefacts are sequenced within the project'sresearch/directory. Re-running produces a new numbered artefact (TNDR-001,TNDR-002, …) rather than overwriting the previous run.
Long runs: Remote Control + push notifications
/arckit:tenders can take several minutes when the UK Tenders MCP needs to page through large result sets. To avoid babysitting the terminal, pair it with Claude Code Remote Control:
claude remote-control
Drive the session from claude.ai/code or the mobile app, then enable /config → Push when Claude decides so your phone gets a notification on completion. ArcKit's minimum Claude Code floor (v2.1.287) already covers the v2.1.110 RC requirement.
Caveats: Pro/Max plans only (no API keys, no Bedrock/Vertex/Foundry), push is a single on/off so chatty agents can over-notify, and the local claude process must keep running.
Artefact Sections
A completed TNDR artefact contains:
- Executive Summary — 3–5 key findings, median award value, concentration flag.
- Query Scope — recorded focus, CPV, buyer, supplier, date range so the run is reproducible.
- Market Size and Median Benchmarks — total and median awarded value, award count, date range covered.
- Top Suppliers by Awarded Value — ranked table with share %, key buyers, and notice-URL citations.
- Incumbency — one-sentence narrative on the dominant supplier, or a statement that there is no clear incumbent.
- Concentration — top-1 / top-3 share and a
HIGH/MEDIUM/LOWflag with the rule applied. - Award Trend — awarded value and count per period (financial year or calendar year).
- Representative Notices — sample award notices with their
notice_url(required for OGL attribution). - Data Freshness and Source Health —
Data current as of <ISO datetime>or a freshness-unavailable note when the status endpoint was unreachable. - Caveats — including the mandatory awarded-value caveat.
Concentration Flag Rules
| Flag | Condition |
|---|---|
HIGH |
Top-1 supplier share > 50% or top-3 supplier share > 80% |
MEDIUM |
Top-3 supplier share > 60% (and HIGH conditions not met) |
LOW |
All other cases |
A HIGH concentration flag should be registered as a supplier-dependency risk in the project Risk Register (/arckit:risk).
Data Source
| Property | Detail |
|---|---|
| MCP server | uk-tenders (keyless, deferred load) |
| Coverage | ~677,000 UK contracting processes across five national portals |
| Portals covered | Find a Tender Service (FTS), Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales, eTendersNI |
| Refresh cadence | Nightly |
| Availability | Best-effort single Cloud Run instance — no formal SLA. A dead endpoint degrades gracefully (the reader returns partial data and the artefact renders with degraded-source notes). |
| Licence | Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL v3.0) |
| Attribution | Every notice record carries its official notice_url; artefacts must include the OGL v3.0 attribution line |
OGL Attribution
Every TNDR artefact includes the attribution line:
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The source data is re-published by the UK Tenders MCP from official UK procurement portals verbatim under the OGL v3.0. Every supplier figure and benchmark in the artefact traces to a notice_url citation from the relevant portal.
Evaluation Criteria Explained
The reader returns evidence across five procurement portals, ranked internally by:
| Criterion | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Awarded value | Primary ranking signal for suppliers and benchmarks |
| Award count | Proxy for market depth (many small awards vs few large awards) |
| Share % | Concentration measurement; feeds the top-1 / top-3 concentration flag |
| Date range coverage | Assesses recency and whether the market has changed materially |
| Source health | Flags which portal feeds were degraded at fetch time |
Integration with Other Commands
| Direction | Command | Integration |
|---|---|---|
| Input | /arckit:requirements |
CPV codes and capability keywords derived from DR/FR/INT |
| Input | /arckit:principles |
Commissioning buyer identified from ARC-000-PRIN |
| Output | /arckit:sobc |
Median award value anchors the Economic Case cost range |
| Output | /arckit:risk |
Concentration / single-supplier-dependency risk |
| Output | /arckit:research |
Build-vs-buy market context; TCO comparison |
| Output | /arckit:adr |
Data source, make-vs-buy, or route-to-market recorded as decisions |
Follow-on Actions
- Anchor the Economic Case with real median award values (
/arckit:sobc) - Register supplier-concentration or single-supplier-dependency risks (
/arckit:risk) - Use market depth evidence in build-vs-buy analysis (
/arckit:research) - Record route-to-market decisions as ADRs (
/arckit:adr) - Escalate
HIGHconcentration findings to commercial lead before procurement scoping