SEC EDGAR MCP — Setup Guide (Windows)

What This Does

Adds three tools to Claude Desktop for SEC EDGAR research:

• lookup_company — Find a company's CIK number by name

• search_filings — Get recent filings filtered by type (10-K, S-1, 8-K, etc.)

• fetch_filing — Read the actual text content of any filing

Related MCP server: EdgarTools MCP

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18 or higher — download the LTS version

• Claude Desktop installed

Verify Node is installed by opening Command Prompt and running:

node --version

You should see something like v20.x.x.

Step 1: Create the Project Folder

Open Command Prompt and run:

mkdir C:\edgar-mcp
cd C:\edgar-mcp

Step 2: Add the Files

Copy index.js and package.json into C:\edgar-mcp\

Step 3: Install Dependencies

In Command Prompt, from inside C:\edgar-mcp\:

npm install

Step 4: Update the User-Agent in index.js

Open index.js in Notepad and update this line with your actual email:

"User-Agent": "EDGAR-MCP-Tool/1.0 (personal-use; your@email.com)",

The SEC requires a valid contact email in the User-Agent header for API access.

Step 5: Register with Claude Desktop

Open this file in Notepad (create it if it doesn't exist):

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add or update the mcpServers section:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sec-edgar": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:\\edgar-mcp\\index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Note: Use double backslashes (\\) in the path inside JSON.

If you already have other MCP servers configured, add "sec-edgar" alongside them inside the same "mcpServers" block.

Step 6: Restart Claude Desktop

Fully quit and relaunch Claude Desktop. The EDGAR tools will appear automatically.

How to Use It

Basic workflow — always start with lookup_company:

"Look up Palantir Technologies on EDGAR"

Claude will return the CIK. Then:

"Search for their 10-K filings"

Then:

"Fetch the most recent one and summarize the risk factors section"

Troubleshooting

Claude doesn't show the EDGAR tools

• Make sure you fully quit Claude Desktop (check the system tray), not just closed the window

• Verify the path in claude_desktop_config.json matches where you put the files

• Run node C:\edgar-mcp\index.js in Command Prompt — if it hangs silently, that's correct (it's waiting for stdio input)

"Cannot find module" error

• Make sure you ran npm install inside C:\edgar-mcp\

HTTP 403 errors from EDGAR

• Update the User-Agent in index.js with your real email address

• The SEC blocks requests without a valid User-Agent

Phase 2: Turning This Into a Hosted Product

When ready to go public, the main changes are:

1. Swap StdioServerTransport for SSEServerTransport (HTTP)

2. Add an API key auth middleware layer

3. Deploy to Railway or Fly.io (~$5–10/mo)

4. Issue keys to paying users via Unkey or Stripe

The core tool logic in index.js stays identical.