Blog
Notes on GAEB, tenders, and construction data.
What we learn building the open-source GAEB engine and the tender-to-quote platform — formats, workflows, and where AI actually helps.
From X83 to X84 in one afternoon: a DatumOS pilot, screen by screen
A synthetic school-renovation tender goes through DatumOS from GAEB X83 to a checked X84: import, dossier, scope, matched and priced positions, the bid file. Then what a four-to-six-week pilot asks of you, and where the AI is allowed to speak.
Read article →GAEB tender in Claude Desktop: pyGAEB MCP setup and real answers
Connect the pyGAEB MCP server to Claude Desktop, ask an estimator's questions about a GAEB bid and read the real answers — plus the bugs the test found.
Read article →Why a GAEB file won't import: the 10 most common errors
A GAEB file that fails to import, or imports wrong, is usually one of ten things. How to tell whose problem it is, which findings are real errors, and what to write to the sender.
Read article →GAEB XML sample file: a free X83 to download and inspect
A free GAEB DA XML 3.3 sample file (X83) with 22 positions, every position type and a nested structure — plus what each part of it means and three ways to open it.
Read article →How to open a GAEB file (.x83, .d83) without special software
A .x83 or .d83 file arrived and nothing on your machine opens it. Four ways to read a GAEB tender, from a text editor to a free browser check, what each one shows you, and how to read the report.
Read article →GAEB in your AI assistant, with the pyGAEB MCP server
pyGAEB now ships a Model Context Protocol server — ask Claude, Cursor, Codex CLI or Gemini CLI about a GAEB tender file in plain language, locally, no upload.
Read article →Reading GAEB files in Python with pyGAEB
A practical guide to parsing GAEB DA XML files in Python with the open-source pyGAEB library — from a one-line parse to iterating items, validation, and writing a bid back.
Read article →Tender to quote: why estimators lose days to GAEB files
Most of the work between a tender arriving and a bid going out is not estimating. Here is the whole sequence, stage by stage, which parts need judgement, and which ones software should have deleted.
Read article →GAEB file formats explained: GAEB 90, 2000, and DA XML (X81–X89)
A practical guide to GAEB file formats — the difference between GAEB 90, GAEB 2000 and GAEB DA XML, what the exchange phases X81–X89 mean, and how to tell which file you have.
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