openfec-mcp-server

Openfec Search Filings

openfec_search_filings

Read-onlyIdempotent

Search FEC filings and reports by committee, candidate, form type, or date range. Covers financial reports (F3/F3P/F3X), statements of candidacy (F2), organizational filings (F1), 24-hour IE notices (F24), and amendments.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`page`	No	Page number (1-indexed).
`cycle`	No	Two-year election cycle (even year).
`per_page`	No	Results per page.
`form_type`	No	FEC form type. Common: F3 (House/Senate quarterly), F3P (Presidential), F3X (PAC/party), F24 (24-hour IE notice), F1 (statement of organization), F2 (statement of candidacy), F5 (IE by persons).
`filer_name`	No	Full-text filer name search.
`is_amended`	No	Filter to original or amended filings only.
`most_recent`	No	Only the most recent version (filters out superseded amendments).
`report_type`	No	Report type code. Common: Q1/Q2/Q3 (quarterly), YE (year-end), M3-M12 (monthly), 12G/12P/30G (pre/post election).
`report_year`	No	Filing year.
`candidate_id`	No	Associated candidate ID (e.g., P00003392). Get IDs from openfec_search_candidates results.
`committee_id`	No	Filing committee ID (e.g., C00358796). Get IDs from openfec_search_committees results.
`max_receipt_date`	No	Latest FEC receipt date (YYYY-MM-DD).
`min_receipt_date`	No	Earliest date FEC received the filing (YYYY-MM-DD).

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`error`	No	Present when the call failed. Absent on success.
`notice`	No	Guidance when the response needs context: how to broaden a search that matched nothing, which requested position ran out when filings did match, or that the total is an estimate.
`results`	No	Filing result set; one record per match.
`pagination`	No	Page-based pagination metadata.
`totalCount`	No	Total matching filings before pagination.
`search_criteria`	No	Echo of the search filters this call applied, as the server parsed them, minus paging arguments. Always present — compare it against what you sent to confirm every filter was honoured.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed2 schema fields changedSep 22, 2026

changedOutput schema / properties / notice / description

Previous value: -"Guidance when no filings matched — echoes filters and suggests how to broaden."New value: +"Guidance when the response needs context: how to broaden a search that matched nothing, which requested position ran out when filings did match, or that the total is an estimate."

addedOutput schema / properties / pagination / properties / count_is_approximate

Added value: +{
+  "description": "True when OpenFEC reports this count as an estimate rather than a tally, which it does on its highest-volume datasets. Absent means the count is a tally. An estimated count — and the pages derived from it — can be off by a wide margin; treat it as an order of magnitude, not a figure to quote.",
+  "type": "boolean"
+}

Changed6 schema fields changedAug 25, 2026

changedInput schema / $schema

Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"

addedInput schema / additionalProperties
```
Added value: +false
```

changedOutput schema / $schema

Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"

addedOutput schema / anyOf

Added value: +[
+  {
+    "not": {
+      "required": [
+        "error"
+      ]
+    },
+    "required": [
+      "results",
+      "pagination",
+      "search_criteria",
+      "totalCount"
+    ]
+  },
+  {
+    "required": [
+      "error"
+    ]
+  }
+]

addedOutput schema / properties / error

Added value: +{
+  "additionalProperties": {},
+  "description": "Present when the call failed. Absent on success.",
+  "properties": {
+    "code": {
+      "description": "JSON-RPC error code for this failure.",
+      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
+      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
+      "type": "integer"
+    },
+    "data": {
+      "additionalProperties": {},
+      "properties": {
+        "reason": {
+          "description": "Machine-readable failure mode.",
+          "type": "string"
+        },
+        "recovery": {
+          "additionalProperties": {},
+          "description": "Actionable next step for the caller.",
+          "properties": {
+            "hint": {
+              "type": "string"
+            }
+          },
+          "required": [
+            "hint"
+          ],
+          "type": "object"
+        },
+        "retryable": {
+          "description": "Whether retrying may succeed.",
+          "type": "boolean"
+        }
+      },
+      "type": "object"
+    },
+    "message": {
+      "description": "Human-readable description of what went wrong.",
+      "type": "string"
+    }
+  },
+  "required": [
+    "code",
+    "message"
+  ],
+  "type": "object"
+}

removedOutput schema / required

Removed value: -[
-  "results",
-  "pagination",
-  "search_criteria",
-  "totalCount"
-]

Changed2 schema fields changedJul 26, 2026

changedOutput schema / properties / search_criteria / description

Previous value: -"Echo of the search filters that produced this result set. Populated when results are empty to help diagnose why nothing matched."New value: +"Echo of the search filters this call applied, as the server parsed them, minus paging arguments. Always present — compare it against what you sent to confirm every filter was honoured."

changedOutput schema / required

Previous value: -[
-  "results",
-  "pagination",
-  "totalCount"
-]New value: +[
+  "results",
+  "pagination",
+  "search_criteria",
+  "totalCount"
+]

Changed2 schema fields changedJun 8, 2026
- removedInput schema / properties / candidate_id / pattern
```
Removed value: -"^[HSP][0-9A-Z]+$"
```
- removedInput schema / properties / committee_id / pattern
```
Removed value: -"^C\\d+$"
```

Changed3 schema fields changedMay 30, 2026

addedOutput schema / properties / notice

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Guidance when no filings matched — echoes filters and suggests how to broaden.",
+  "type": "string"
+}

addedOutput schema / properties / totalCount

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Total matching filings before pagination.",
+  "type": "number"
+}

changedOutput schema / required

Previous value: -[
-  "results",
-  "pagination"
-]New value: +[
+  "results",
+  "pagination",
+  "totalCount"
+]

Changed4 schema fields changedMay 27, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / candidate_id / description

Previous value: -"Associated candidate ID."New value: +"Associated candidate ID (e.g., P00003392). Get IDs from openfec_search_candidates results."

addedInput schema / properties / candidate_id / pattern
```
Added value: +"^[HSP][0-9A-Z]+$"
```

changedInput schema / properties / committee_id / description

Previous value: -"Filing committee ID."New value: +"Filing committee ID (e.g., C00358796). Get IDs from openfec_search_committees results."

addedInput schema / properties / committee_id / pattern
```
Added value: +"^C\\d+$"
```

Changed15 schema fields changedMay 8, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / most_recent / default
```
Added value: +true
```

changedInput schema / properties / most_recent / description

Previous value: -"Only the most recent version (filters out superseded amendments). Default true."New value: +"Only the most recent version (filters out superseded amendments)."

addedInput schema / properties / page / default
```
Added value: +1
```

changedInput schema / properties / page / description

Previous value: -"Page number (1-indexed). Default 1."New value: +"Page number (1-indexed)."

addedInput schema / properties / page / maximum
```
Added value: +9007199254740991
```
addedInput schema / properties / page / minimum
```
Added value: +1
```

changedInput schema / properties / page / type

Previous value: -"number"New value: +"integer"

addedInput schema / properties / per_page / default
```
Added value: +20
```

changedInput schema / properties / per_page / description

Previous value: -"Results per page. Default 20, max 100."New value: +"Results per page."

addedInput schema / properties / per_page / maximum
```
Added value: +100
```
addedInput schema / properties / per_page / minimum
```
Added value: +1
```

changedInput schema / properties / per_page / type

Previous value: -"number"New value: +"integer"

removedOutput schema / properties / filings

Removed value: -{
-  "description": "Filing records with form_type, committee, report_type, financial totals, pdf_url, etc.",
-  "items": {
-    "additionalProperties": {},
-    "description": "A filing record (form_type, committee, report_type, financial totals, pdf_url, ...).",
-    "properties": {},
-    "type": "object"
-  },
-  "type": "array"
-}

addedOutput schema / properties / results

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Filing result set; one record per match.",
+  "items": {
+    "additionalProperties": {},
+    "description": "Filing record; common keys include form_type, committee_id, committee_name, report_type, financial totals, and pdf_url.",
+    "properties": {},
+    "type": "object"
+  },
+  "type": "array"
+}

changedOutput schema / required

Previous value: -[
-  "filings",
-  "pagination"
-]New value: +[
+  "results",
+  "pagination"
+]

Changed1 schema field changedApr 24, 2026

addedOutput schema / properties / filings / items / description

Added value: +"A filing record (form_type, committee, report_type, financial totals, pdf_url, ...)."

Changed4 schema fields changedApr 21, 2026
- addedOutput schema / properties / filings / items / properties
```
Added value: +{}
```
- removedOutput schema / properties / filings / items / propertyNames
```
Removed value: -{
-  "type": "string"
-}
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / search_criteria / properties
```
Added value: +{}
```
- removedOutput schema / properties / search_criteria / propertyNames
```
Removed value: -{
-  "type": "string"
-}
```
First observedApr 13, 2026

TDQS

A3.8/5.0

Behavior3/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already declare readOnlyHint=true and idempotentHint=true, so there is no safety contradiction. The description adds useful context about covered form types and amendments, but it does not disclose behavioral details such as pagination behavior or how the most_recent filter interacts with amended filings.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness5/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

The description is two dense, front-loaded sentences with no filler. The first sentence states the action and resource; the second adds a useful inventory of covered form types. Every clause contributes value.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness4/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

The rich schema and output schema carry most of the parameter and return-value burden, while the description adds domain context about which FEC forms are covered. The main gap is lack of explicit routing guidance among sibling search tools, but nothing essential for invoking this tool correctly is missing.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

The schema provides 100% description coverage across all 13 parameters, including defaults, common form types, and report codes. The description only restates high-level filter dimensions already present in the schema and adds no new syntax, format, or parameter-specific guidance, so it stays at the baseline.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

The description opens with a specific verb ('Search') and a specific resource ('FEC filings and reports'), then enumerates the filter dimensions and form types covered. This clearly distinguishes it from sibling tools like openfec_search_contributions or openfec_search_candidates without requiring schema inspection.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines3/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

The description clearly implies this tool is for finding FEC filings and reports by committee, candidate, form type, or date range, but it never explicitly says when to prefer this over the sibling search tools or when not to use it. Cross-references to openfec_search_candidates and openfec_search_committees exist only in parameter descriptions, not in the main description.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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Openfec Search Filings

Input Schema

Output Schema

Schema Changelog

TDQS

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