alterlab-edgartools

name	alterlab-edgartools
description	Accesses, analyzes, and extracts data from SEC EDGAR filings using the edgartools Python library. Use when working with SEC filings, financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow), XBRL financial data, insider trading (Form 4), institutional holdings (13F), company financials, annual/quarterly reports (10-K, 10-Q), proxy statements (DEF 14A), 8-K current events, company screening by ticker/CIK/industry, multi-period financial analysis, or any SEC regulatory filings. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.
license	MIT
allowed-tools	Read WebFetch Bash(curl:*) Bash(python:*)
compatibility	No API key required, but the SEC requires an identity string (email) set before requests. Runs via `uv run python`; needs network access to SEC EDGAR.
metadata	{"skill-author":"AlterLab","version":"1.0.0"}

edgartools — SEC EDGAR Data

Python library for accessing all SEC filings since 1994 with structured data extraction.

Authentication (Required)

The SEC requires identification for API access. Always set identity before any operations:

from edgar import set_identity
set_identity("Your Name [e-mail]")

Set via environment variable to avoid hardcoding: EDGAR_IDENTITY="Your Name [e-mail]".

Installation

uv pip install edgartools
# For AI/MCP features:
uv pip install "edgartools[ai]"

API examples here are verified against edgartools 5.35.x. To run a one-off without a venv: uv run --with edgartools python ....

Core Workflow

Find a Company

from edgar import Company, find

company = Company("AAPL")        # by ticker
company = Company(320193)         # by CIK (fastest)
results = find("Apple")           # by name search

Get Filings

# Company filings
filings = company.get_filings(form="10-K")
filing = filings.latest()

# Global search across all filings
from edgar import get_filings
filings = get_filings(2024, 1, form="10-K")

# By accession number
from edgar import get_by_accession_number
filing = get_by_accession_number("0000320193-23-000106")

Extract Structured Data

# Form-specific object (most common approach)
tenk = filing.obj()              # Returns TenK, EightK, Form4, ThirteenF, etc.

# Financial statements (10-K/10-Q)
financials = company.get_financials()     # annual
financials = company.get_quarterly_financials()  # quarterly
income = financials.income_statement()
balance = financials.balance_sheet()
cashflow = financials.cashflow_statement()

# XBRL data
xbrl = filing.xbrl()
income = xbrl.statements.income_statement()

Access Filing Content

text = filing.text()             # plain text
html = filing.html()             # HTML
md = filing.markdown()           # markdown (good for LLM processing)
filing.open()                    # open in browser

Key Company Properties

company.name                     # "Apple Inc."
company.cik                      # 320193
company.ticker                   # "AAPL"
company.industry                 # "ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS"
company.sic                      # "3571"
company.shares_outstanding       # 15115785000.0
company.public_float             # 2899948348000.0
company.fiscal_year_end          # "0930"
company.exchange                 # "Nasdaq"

Form → Object Mapping

Form	Object	Key Properties
10-K	TenK	financials, income_statement, balance_sheet
10-Q	TenQ	financials, income_statement, balance_sheet
8-K	EightK	items, press_releases
Form 4	Form4	reporting_owner, transactions
13F-HR	ThirteenF	infotable, total_value
DEF 14A	ProxyStatement	executive_compensation, proposals
SC 13D/G	Schedule13D / Schedule13G	total_shares, items
Form D	FormD	offering, recipients

Important: filing.financials does NOT exist. Use filing.obj().financials.

Common Pitfalls

• filing.financials → AttributeError; use filing.obj().financials
• get_filings() has no limit param; use .head(n) or .latest(n)
• Prefer amendments=False for multi-period analysis (amended filings may be incomplete)
• Always check for None before accessing optional data

Reference Files

Load these when you need detailed information:

• companies.md — Finding companies, screening, batch lookups, Company API
• filings.md — Working with filings, attachments, exhibits, Filings collection API
• financial-data.md — Financial statements, convenience methods, DataFrame export, multi-period analysis
• xbrl.md — XBRL parsing, fact querying, multi-period stitching, standardization
• data-objects.md — All supported form types and their structured objects
• entity-facts.md — EntityFacts API, FactQuery, FinancialStatement, FinancialFact
• ai-integration.md — MCP server setup, Skills installation, .docs and .to_context() properties