Vehicle VIN decode

Decode a Vehicle Identification Number through the NHTSA vPIC database (US Department of Transportation) into make, model, model year, trim, body class, manufacturer, plant country, fuel, engine and drive type, with the decoder’s notes. Partial VINs of 11-16 characters are accepted.

Endpoint	POST /v1/vehicle-vin-decodes
Scope	vehicle_vin:decode
MCP tool	vehicle_vin
Usage units	vins

Usage units appear in execution.usage.units for reconciliation and billing.

Request fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
invocation_id	string	yes	The market’s invocation id: one execution per id and operation, so a retry with the same id is rejected instead of charged twice. 1-128 characters of A-Z a-z 0-9 . _ : -.
provider	string	yes	Provider that serves the request; choose by the coverage described for this tool. One of: nhtsa
vin	string	yes	Vehicle Identification Number, 11-17 characters of A-Z (no I, O or Q), 0-9 or * for an unknown position.
model_year	integer	no	Optional model year hint, 1980 to two years after the current year.

Providers

Provider	Region	Source	Limits
nhtsa	US	NHTSA vPIC database	timeout_seconds: 30

Example

curl

curl -sS https://services.zgi.im/v1/vehicle-vin-decodes \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ZGI_SERVICES_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"invocation_id": "docs-1791778521-vehicle_vin", "provider": "nhtsa", "vin": "1HGCM82633A004352"}'

HTTP

POST /v1/vehicle-vin-decodes HTTP/1.1
Host: services.zgi.im
Authorization: Bearer <token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "invocation_id": "docs-1791778521-vehicle_vin",
  "provider": "nhtsa",
  "vin": "1HGCM82633A004352"
}

MCP

Over MCP, the tool arguments are exactly the HTTP request body.

request.json

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "vehicle_vin",
    "arguments": {
      "invocation_id": "docs-1791778521-vehicle_vin",
      "provider": "nhtsa",
      "vin": "1HGCM82633A004352"
    }
  }
}

curl -sS https://services.zgi.im/v1/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ZGI_SERVICES_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -H 'MCP-Protocol-Version: 2025-11-25' \
  -d @request.json

Response

A real response, with lists cut to two items and long text shortened.

{
  "code": 0,
  "message": "success",
  "data": {
    "execution": {
      "id": "exe_01a12e52bfb6798fb083caceaba10ed8",
      "invocation_id": "docs-1791778521-vehicle_vin",
      "capability": "vehicle_vin",
      "operation": "vehicle_vin.decode",
      "provider": "nhtsa",
      "outcome": "succeeded",
      "error_category": null,
      "error_code": null,
      "usage": {
        "provider_requests": 1,
        "units": [
          {
            "name": "vins",
            "value": 1,
            "source": "measured"
          }
        ]
      },
      "upstream_ref": null,
      "request_id": "req_d4b3b5ce0cf30ce74377cf7a",
      "started_at": "2026-10-12T04:15:37.398623396Z",
      "finished_at": "2026-10-12T04:15:37.792749167Z",
      "duration_ms": 394
    },
    "result": {
      "vin": "1HGCM82633A004352",
      "complete": true,
      "vehicle": {
        "make": "HONDA",
        "model": "Accord",
        "model_year": "2003",
        "trim": "EX-V6",
        "body_class": "Coupe",
        "vehicle_type": "PASSENGER CAR",
        "manufacturer": "AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO., INC.",
        "plant_country": "UNITED STATES (USA)",
        "fuel_type": "Gasoline",
        "displacement_l": "2.998832712",
        "engine_cylinders": "6",
        "drive_type": null
      },
      "notes": [],
      "source": {
        "name": "NHTSA vPIC",
        "license": "US government public data",
        "url": "https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov"
      }
    }
  }
}