Skip to main content
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) publishes a public license lookup at apps.tabc.texas.gov/publicinquiry. It’s an ASP.NET WebForms application behind an image CAPTCHA on every submission. NexusFeed solves the CAPTCHA server-side via 2Captcha, drives the form in headless Chromium, captures the results popup, and parses the DOM — all in a single request.

​
State overview

FieldValue
State codeTX
AgencyTexas Alcoholic Beverage Commission
Source URLhttps://apps.tabc.texas.gov/publicinquiry/StatusNewLayout.aspx
AuthenticationNone (public portal)
CAPTCHAImage CAPTCHA on every submission — solved via 2Captcha in the NexusFeed backend
Search supportedYes (dba_name, owner_name, city)
Lookup supportedYes
Extraction methodstructured_parse
Cache TTL24 hours

​
How the CAPTCHA pipeline works

1

Load the form in headless Chromium

NexusFeed opens the TABC public inquiry page and waits for the CAPTCHA image element to render.
2

Fetch the CAPTCHA as base64

A page.evaluate(fetch('/publicinquiry/Captcha.aspx')) call downloads the CAPTCHA image directly inside the page context — this preserves the ASP.NET session cookie that the image is bound to. Fetching the image from the server side would produce a mismatched session and an incorrect solve.
3

Send to 2Captcha

The base64 image is posted to 2Captcha’s method=base64 endpoint. Typical solve time is 5-15 seconds. Cost is roughly $1-3 per 1,000 solves.
4

Submit the form

The solved text is typed into the CAPTCHA field along with the search parameters, and the form is submitted. TABC opens a results popup.
5

Capture the popup and parse

Playwright captures the popup page via page.context.expect_page() and NexusFeed parses the result DOM into structured records.
TX endpoints require TWOCAPTCHA_API_KEY to be configured on the server. If it isn’t, the API returns:
{
  "detail": {
    "error": "CAPTCHA_SOLVER_NOT_CONFIGURED",
    "message": "TX TABC requires TWOCAPTCHA_API_KEY env var to be set"
  }
}
Production deployments always have a 2Captcha key active. This only matters if you are self-hosting NexusFeed.

​
Search example

curl "https://api.nexusfeed.dev/v1/abc/search?state=TX&dba_name=WHATABURGER" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY"

​
Lookup example

curl "https://api.nexusfeed.dev/v1/abc/license/BG123456?state=TX" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY"

​
Performance note

TX requests are slower than other states because the CAPTCHA solve adds 5-15 seconds to the round-trip. NexusFeed caches results aggressively (24 hours) so repeat lookups do not incur the CAPTCHA cost. The first request for a given query takes a few seconds; subsequent cached requests return in tens of milliseconds.

​
Texas license types (most common)

CodeType
MBMixed Beverage Permit
BGWine & Beer Retailer’s Permit
BQWine & Beer Retailer’s Off-Premise Permit
BEBrewpub License
PPackage Store Permit
BFBeer Retailer’s On-Premise License

​
Use cases

  • Verifying a Texas bar, restaurant, or retailer holds an active TABC license.
  • Onboarding Texas liquor distributor accounts.
  • Compliance checks against current license status and expiration.
  • Due diligence during Texas hospitality business transactions.