Discovery and saved searches

EssentialEvery Capture role

Discovery is one search across the shared public data — federal contract notices, SBIR/STTR topics and grants — and the private leads your own team has recorded. Search by keyword with AND / OR / NOT, or, for contract notices, describe the work in your own words and Search by meaning. Narrow with filters, open a record to read it in full, save it, or start a pursuit. Save the searches you run every week, and Axis Capture checks them overnight and tells you what is new.

TL;DR — Open Find work → Discovery. Pick a category — contract notices, SBIR/STTR, Grants or one of your own lead categories — type a search such as cybersecurity AND cloud NOT hardware, open Filters to narrow by code, agency, set-aside, place, deadline or value, and choose Search. Save opportunity or Start pursuit from any row, whatever kind of record it is. Save this search to be alerted when new work matches.

Before you start

Everyone can search. Every Capture role can read Discovery. Saving an opportunity, starting a pursuit and keeping saved searches need the Business Development User role or above.
What you can find depends on what is collected. Federal contract notices, SBIR/STTR topics and grants each come from their own public source; see Where the data comes from for what is and is not collected today.

Field	What it does	Accepted values / default
All contract notices	Every public contract notice that matches.	The default. SBIR/STTR topics, grants and your private leads each have their own category.
Federal	Federal solicitations.	From the shared opportunity data.
State / Local and tribal	State, local and tribal solicitations.	The platform does not collect state, local or tribal solicitations yet, so these are empty for now. Record that work as a private lead.
Defense	Every defense department, service branch and the agencies beneath them.	Worked out from official agency codes and the published agency hierarchy. If the agency data cannot identify defense agencies, the category says so and suggests searching by agency instead.
SBIR/STTR	SBIR and STTR topics from the agencies' topic catalogues.	Open topics first, soonest to close. A row opens the topic in full on the SBIR/STTR screen, with its phase, program and partner rule — see SBIR/STTR topics and grants.
Grants	Federal grant opportunities.	Open grants first, soonest to close. A row opens the grant in full on the Grants screen, with who may apply and the award range.
B2B / Subcontracting / Teaming / Other leads	Work your team has recorded that no public feed carries.	Your workspace's own private leads; Other leads holds any recorded as Other. See Private leads.

Searching by keyword

Type words into Search and choose Search. Words are matched against each solicitation's title and description, ignoring capitalisation, and a word also matches inside a longer word — cyber finds cybersecurity.

Field	What it does	Accepted values / default
Two words	Both must appear.	`cloud security` means `cloud AND security`.
AND	Both sides must appear.	`cybersecurity AND cloud`
OR	Either side may appear.	`SIEM OR splunk`
NOT	Excludes what follows.	`cloud NOT hardware`
( )	Groups.	`"zero trust" OR (SIEM AND splunk)`
" "	A phrase, matched whole. AND, OR and NOT inside quotes are ordinary words.	`"command and control"`

Operators must be in capitals. Lower-case and, or and not are read as words, because "command and control" means the words.
Precedence: NOT binds tightest, then AND, then OR — so a AND b OR c means (a AND b) OR c. Use brackets when in doubt.
Limits: up to 500 characters and 40 words per search.
After a search, Showing results for repeats how your search was read, so a misplaced bracket is visible.

If a search cannot be read, Discovery says why — an operator with nothing on one side, brackets that do not match, a quotation mark with no partner — rather than guessing.

Search by meaning

Turn on Search by meaning and describe the work in your own words — for example secure remote access for field staff. Discovery then also finds solicitations that describe the same work in different words, ranked by meaning and by the words you typed, most relevant first.

In this mode AND, OR and NOT are ordinary words, and results are always ranked by relevance rather than by the sort you chose.
It cannot be combined with the Defense category or with a contract value range. Clear those, or turn search by meaning off.
It reads contract notices only, so it is not offered on the SBIR/STTR and Grants categories, or on your own lead categories. Those are searched by their words.
Saved searches stay keyword searches. The nightly check replays your words; the save control says so when the switch is on.

When it can only match your words, Discovery says so above the results under Matching your words only, with the reason:

Field	What it does	Accepted values / default
AI is switched off	The workspace's AI switch is off.	A workspace administrator controls the switch. See AI features.
This data cannot be searched by meaning yet	The records being searched have no meaning index.	Results match your words, ranked by how well they match.
Unavailable right now	The meaning index cannot be reached, or the workspace has reached its AI fair-use limit for now.	Results match your words. Try again later.

Search by meaning is available on every plan; it does not need the Advanced plan's AI assistance. It does need the workspace's AI switch on, and its use counts toward the workspace's AI fair-use limits.

Filters

Open Filters to narrow the results. Each list filter takes up to 25 values.

Not every filter means something for every category. A topic or a grant has no NAICS code, set-aside, place of performance or estimated value, and is narrowed only by its words, agency, closing date and whether it is still open; your own leads are narrowed by status. When a filter you have set cannot apply, Discovery leaves it out of that category's search and names it — Not applied to Grants: NAICS code — and keeps it in the form for the next category. A saved search stores only the filters its category applies.

Field	What it does	Accepted values / default
Agency	Start typing an agency name and choose from the list.	Several agencies can be chosen; remove one with its ×.
NAICS code / PSC code / FSC code	The classification codes on the solicitation.	Comma-separated, e.g. `541512, 541519`.
Set-aside	Reserved for a small-business category.	Shown by name, e.g. Total small business set-aside.
Contract type	Firm fixed price, time and materials, IDIQ and so on.	Shown by name.
Status	Open, Closed, Awarded, Cancelled or Withdrawn.	Defaults to open work only.
Place of performance / City	Where the work happens.	Two-letter state codes, e.g. `VA, MD`.
Jurisdiction	Federal, State, Local or Tribal.	A category and a contradicting jurisdiction return nothing, not everything.
Deadline from / to	Response deadline range.	The earliest cannot be after the latest.
Worth at least / Worth at most	Estimated value range.	Not available with search by meaning.

Sorting and paging

Sort by response deadline (the default), date posted or estimated value, and use Order to turn the sort around — soonest or latest first, newest or oldest first, largest or smallest first. Load more fetches the next page.

SBIR/STTR topics and grants are always listed soonest to close first, so the sort is fixed while one of those categories is chosen. Their Status filter is Open (the default) or Closed.

Saving and pursuing from the results

Each row carries Save opportunity and Start pursuit — a contract notice, an SBIR/STTR topic, a grant or one of your own leads alike. Once a record is saved or on the board, the row says Saved or On the board instead, as a link to where it lives — so nobody saves the same thing twice. Starting a pursuit puts it on the pipeline at Discovered, with you as owner and the record's deadline carried across. See My opportunities and What's due and The pipeline.

The opportunity page

Open a solicitation to read it in full.

Field	What it does	Accepted values / default
Header	Solicitation number, agency, buying component, contracting office, codes, incumbent, set-aside, place of performance, value, status, posted date and deadline.	With Save opportunity / Start pursuit, and a link to the Original notice.
What this solicitation asks for	An AI summary: who may bid, technical and business requirements, what you must submit, key dates, and risks such as a short response window or an incumbent advantage.	Advanced plan with the AI switch on. Choose Summarise it — or read the summary another workspace already asked for: there is one per version of the notice, shared by every workspace. Write it again writes one for your workspace only. It is a summary, not the solicitation — the full notice is always below it.
What has changed since you saved this	When your workspace saved or pursued it, Axis Capture kept the record as it stood. If the agency changes it, each changed field shows was / now, and material changes are flagged Worth a second look.	If the agency withdraws the notice, the page shows the record as it stood when you committed to it.
Summary, Key dates, Contact, Description	The notice as the government published it, including the questions deadline.	Exactly as published.
Published by the agency	The notice's own attachments.	Each shows whether it could be read automatically.
Who has won work like this	Past awards from the same agency in the same codes, with the number of bidders where recorded.	Similar work, not a link the government published.
Your documents / Requirements / Tasks	Your team's files, the requirements checklist, and follow-ups on this solicitation.	See Documents, requirements and tasks.

Opening a solicitation also adds it to your own You looked at recently list on the Dashboard. Only yours: a colleague's reading is theirs.

Saved searches

A saved search is a named set of Discovery filters the workspace wants watched.

Set up the search
Choose the category, words and filters until the results are the work you want.
Save this search
Give it a name — "DHS cyber, under $5M" — and leave Alert me when new work matches on.
Wait for the first check
The first check happens overnight; until then the search reads Not checked yet. From then on it is checked every day, and you are told only about results you have not been shown before.

Field	What it does	Accepted values / default
Open	Runs the saved search in Discovery.	Discovery says it is showing your saved search.
Edit search	Rename it, turn alerts on or off, or Use the filters on screen now.	Replacing the filters starts the alerts afresh: the next check reports nothing, and new matches from then on.
Last checked / matched last time	When it was last checked, and how many results it had.	Alerts off shows when alerts are muted.
Delete	Removes the saved search.	Business Development User and above.

A workspace keeps up to 25 saved searches. Saved searches are shared across the workspace — everyone with access can see them, so two people don't maintain the same one — and the alerts go to the person who saved the search.

Common gotchas

"NOT didn't exclude anything." Operators must be in capitals: cloud NOT hardware, not cloud not hardware.
"Search by meaning returned word matches." Read the notice above the results — the AI switch is off, the data has no meaning index, or the fair-use limit was reached.
"This workspace has reached its limit of saved searches." Delete one you no longer use, or ask your administrator about your plan.
"State shows nothing." State, local and tribal solicitations are not collected yet. Record them as private leads.
"My NAICS filter stopped working on Grants." A grant carries no NAICS code, so the filter is not applied there — the line under the categories names every filter left out. It applies again when you return to a contract-notice category.
"The sort is greyed out." SBIR/STTR topics and grants are listed soonest to close first, and only that way.

Matches and scoring

The same data, scored against your profile.

Private leads

B2B, subcontracting, teaming and other work.

My opportunities and What's due

Where saved work lives.

Where the data comes from

Sources, freshness and gaps.