Score any acquisition target in under 8 seconds.

What you get back#

Every scored deal returns a four-dimensional analysis derived from our CLAW Architecture — the same patent-pending framework underwriters and search funds use inside the Alethinx web app.

• Composite score — single 0–100 number summarizing the opportunity.
• Dimension scores — independent 0–100 scores across Financial, Operational, Strategic, and Risk dimensions.
• Verdict — PURSUE, INVESTIGATE, or PASS with a one-sentence rationale.
• Highlighted strengths & risks — surfaced findings ready to drop into your underwriting memo.
• Normalized financials — extracted TTM revenue, SDE, asking price, and industry classification when available.

Quickstart#

Score your first deal in under sixty seconds. Replace $ALETHINX_API_KEY with the key issued to your organization, then run:

curl -X POST https://api.alethinx.ai/v1/deals/score \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ALETHINX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "deal_text": "Established HVAC services business, 12 yrs operating, $1.85M TTM revenue, $520K SDE, asking $2.4M. Recurring B2B contracts with 47% of revenue from top 3 customers.",
    "ttm_revenue": 1850000,
    "sde": 520000,
    "asking_price": 2400000,
    "industry": "HVAC Services"
  }'

const response = await fetch('https://api.alethinx.ai/v1/deals/score', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.ALETHINX_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    deal_text: 'Established HVAC services business...',
    ttm_revenue: 1850000,
    sde: 520000,
    asking_price: 2400000,
    industry: 'HVAC Services',
  }),
});

const { data, meta } = await response.json();
console.log(`Composite score: ${data.composite_score} (${data.verdict})`);

import os, requests

response = requests.post(
    'https://api.alethinx.ai/v1/deals/score',
    headers={
        'Authorization': f'Bearer {os.environ["ALETHINX_API_KEY"]}',
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    json={
        'deal_text': 'Established HVAC services business...',
        'ttm_revenue': 1850000,
        'sde': 520000,
        'asking_price': 2400000,
        'industry': 'HVAC Services',
    },
    timeout=30,
)

result = response.json()
print(f'Composite score: {result["data"]["composite_score"]} ({result["data"]["verdict"]})')

package main

import (
    "bytes"
    "encoding/json"
    "net/http"
    "os"
)

func main() {
    payload, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]interface{}{
        "deal_text":     "Established HVAC services business...",
        "ttm_revenue":   1850000,
        "sde":           520000,
        "asking_price":  2400000,
        "industry":      "HVAC Services",
    })

    req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.alethinx.ai/v1/deals/score", bytes.NewReader(payload))
    req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("ALETHINX_API_KEY"))
    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

    resp, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
    defer resp.Body.Close()
    // Decode resp.Body as needed
}

A successful response includes data.composite_score, data.dimension_scores, data.verdict, and data.highlighted_risks / data.highlighted_strengths — everything you need to populate an IC memo or trigger a pursuit workflow.

Authentication#

All requests must include a Bearer token in the Authorization header. Keys are issued per organization and are prefixed with ax_pen_live_ so they're easy to identify in logs and secret scanners.

Authorization: Bearer ax_pen_live_a1b2c3d4e5f6...

Access tiers

Every key is scoped to a tier that determines monthly and hourly quotas. The tier is returned in every response as the X-Alethinx-Tier header.

Quotas are enforced per calendar month (UTC) and per rolling hour. See Rate limits for details on how to read and respect quota headers.

Environments & base URL#

The Alethinx API exposes a single production base URL. We deliberately do not operate a separate sandbox environment — instead, your free-tier key issues real scoring requests against production at a sufficient volume to integrate and test end-to-end.

All endpoints are versioned under /v1. We will never make breaking changes within a major version — see Versioning for our compatibility policy.

Rate limits#

Every successful response includes rate-limit headers so you can introspect your remaining quota and plan accordingly:

When you exceed your hourly or monthly quota, the API returns 429 Too Many Requests with a Retry-After header indicating the number of seconds until your next allowable request.

Recommended backoff

For production integrations, implement exponential backoff with jitter on 429 and 5xx responses. A reasonable policy: retry up to 3 times with delays of 1s, 2s, 4s plus 0–500ms of random jitter, abandoning after the third failure and surfacing the underlying error.

Errors#

The API uses standard HTTP status codes. The response body for any non-2xx status follows a consistent error envelope:

{
  "request_id": "req_01HXYZ8K3Q4M7P2N1R6T9V0W3X",
  "error": {
    "code": "invalid_api_key",
    "message": "The API key provided is malformed or has been revoked.",
    "details": null
  }
}

Status codes

Error codes

Response envelope#

Every successful response shares the same top-level shape: a request_id for tracing, a data object containing the endpoint-specific payload, and a meta object with timing and version information.

{
  "request_id": "req_01HXYZ...",
  "data": { /* endpoint-specific */ },
  "meta": {
    "latency_ms": 5840,
    "api_version": "v1",
    "timestamp": "2026-05-26T07:42:18.342Z"
  }
}

Versioning#

The current major version is v1. Within a major version we will:

• Add new endpoints, fields, headers, and error codes.
• Loosen validation (e.g., make previously-required fields optional).
• Improve underlying model quality and latency.

We will not, within v1:

• Remove or rename existing fields.
• Tighten validation in a way that breaks valid v1 requests.
• Change the semantic meaning of existing fields or error codes.

Breaking changes ship as a new major version (/v2) with overlapping support windows announced via the changelog.

Score a deal#

Submit a deal listing — either as pasted text or a public URL — and receive a structured assessment in under 8 seconds.

Request body

Send a JSON body. You must provide either deal_text or deal_url — providing both is allowed and the text takes precedence. All other fields are optional and, when provided, are used as hints to bias and validate the scoring.

Response fields

On success (200 OK), the data object contains:

Verdict semantics

Full example

Request

{
  "deal_text": "Established commercial HVAC services business in DFW. 12 years operating history with consistent YoY growth. $1.85M TTM revenue, $520K SDE, asking $2.4M. Recurring B2B service contracts make up 60% of revenue but top 3 customers represent 47% of total billings. Owner-operator currently working 35hrs/week. No identified successor.",
  "ttm_revenue": 1850000,
  "sde": 520000,
  "asking_price": 2400000,
  "industry": "HVAC Services",
  "geo": "US-TX"
}

Response

{
  "request_id": "req_01HXYZ8K3Q4M7P2N1R6T9V0W3X",
  "data": {
    "composite_score": 72,
    "dimension_scores": {
      "financial": 81,
      "operational": 68,
      "strategic": 74,
      "risk": 64
    },
    "verdict": "INVESTIGATE",
    "summary": "Strong cash conversion (28% SDE margin) and recurring revenue mix offset by meaningful customer concentration and key-person risk. Worth a deeper financial diligence pass before LOI.",
    "highlighted_strengths": [
      "12-year operating history with consistent YoY revenue growth",
      "28% SDE margin is above industry median for residential/light-commercial HVAC",
      "60% of revenue is recurring B2B service contracts (vs one-time installs)",
      "Multiple at 1.3x revenue / 4.6x SDE is reasonable for the geography and category"
    ],
    "highlighted_risks": [
      "Customer concentration: top 3 customers represent 47% of billings",
      "Owner-operator with no identified successor — transition risk on close",
      "35hr/week owner workload likely understates true operating hours; verify in QoE"
    ],
    "ttm_revenue": 1850000,
    "sde": 520000,
    "asking_price": 2400000,
    "industry": "HVAC Services"
  },
  "meta": {
    "latency_ms": 5840,
    "api_version": "v1",
    "timestamp": "2026-05-26T07:42:18.342Z"
  }
}

Changelog#

v1.0 · May 19, 2026

• Initial public release of the Alethinx Deal Intelligence API.
• POST /v1/deals/score endpoint live with four-dimensional CLAW scoring.
• Bearer-token authentication with tiered rate limiting (free / pro / founder / enterprise).
• Stable response envelope with request_id, data, and meta.

SLA & status#

Real-time API status and historical uptime are published at status.alethinx.ai. Enterprise customers receive a contractual SLA with uptime commitments, incident credits, and dedicated escalation paths — contact partnerships@alethinx.ai to discuss.

Support#

When opening a support ticket, please include the X-Request-ID header from the response (or the request_id in the response body) — it lets us trace your request end-to-end through our infrastructure within seconds.