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form4api-mcp

list_congress_trades

Read-only

Find congressional STOCK Act trades by ticker, politician, party, state, transaction type, amount, and date range. Returns paginated House reports, newest disclosed first, with amount ranges and disclosure lag.

Instructions

Query congressional STOCK Act trades (Free+, plan-clamped disclosure window). Returns a paginated JSON list of congressional periodic-transaction-report trades, most recently DISCLOSED first, with non-superseded rows only (amended-away rows never appear). COVERAGE — HOUSE ONLY TODAY: every trade in this dataset comes from the U.S. House Clerk's PTR index. Senate eFD (efdsearch.senate.gov) returns 403 to datacenter traffic, so no Senate filings are ingested yet. chamber=Senate remains a valid filter but matches nothing and returns the response header X-Coverage-Note: chamber-not-covered, so an empty result is never ambiguous. Scanning by chamber should treat that header as "not covered", not as "no trades". PLAN-CLAMPED WINDOW: this endpoint is open to every plan, but how far back you can see is clamped on disclosureDate — Free sees only trades disclosed in the last 30 days, Starter the last 366 days, Pro/Business/Enterprise unlimited history. Passing an older disclosure_date_from than your plan allows does not extend the window — the floor always wins. Filters: ticker, politician (bioguideId, exact), party (free-text, case-insensitive exact match — not a fixed enum), chamber (House|Senate — see the coverage note above), state (2-letter code), transaction_type (purchase|sale|partial_sale|exchange), min_amount (range-aware — matches AmountLow >= value, never a fabricated midpoint), transaction_date_from/to, disclosure_date_from/to. Every row always carries BOTH amountLow and amountHigh (STOCK Act discloses ranges, never exact figures) and disclosureLagDays = (disclosureDate - transactionDate) — the STOCK Act allows up to 45 days of lag, so "real-time" here means minutes-after-disclosure, not minutes-after-trade. For per-politician or per-ticker rollups use GET /v1/congress/politicians, /v1/congress/politicians/{idOrSlug}, or /v1/congress/tickers/{ticker} (all Pro+). Query runs live against the database — no caching.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
pageNo1-based page number. Defaults to 1.
partyNoParty as disclosed by the source, case-insensitive exact match (e.g. "D", "R", "Democratic"). Free-text — not a fixed enum, so this matches whatever string the source reported.
stateNoTwo-letter US state/territory code, case-insensitive exact match (e.g. "CA").
tickerNoTicker symbol, case-insensitive exact match (e.g. "AAPL").
chamberNo"House" or "Senate", case-insensitive. COVERAGE: this dataset currently holds House PTRs only — Senate eFD blocks datacenter traffic, so chamber=Senate is a valid filter over data we do not yet have and returns an empty array with the response header X-Coverage-Note: chamber-not-covered.
per_pageNoTrades per page. Defaults to 100, maximum 500.
min_amountNoMinimum disclosed amount, range-aware: matches trades whose AmountLow >= this value. Never matched against a fabricated midpoint — see the amountLow/amountHigh honesty rule.
politicianNoPolitician's bioguide ID, exact match (e.g. "P000197").
transaction_typeNo"purchase", "sale", "partial_sale", or "exchange", case-insensitive.
disclosure_date_toNoInclusive end of the disclosure-date window, format YYYY-MM-DD.
transaction_date_toNoInclusive end of the transaction-date window, format YYYY-MM-DD.
disclosure_date_fromNoInclusive start of the disclosure-date window, format YYYY-MM-DD. Subject to the plan-clamped floor below — a Free/Starter caller cannot page back further than their plan allows even by passing an older date here.
transaction_date_fromNoInclusive start of the transaction-date window, format YYYY-MM-DD.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

  1. Addedv1.9.6

TDQS

A4.8/5.0
Behavior5/5

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

The annotations (readOnlyHint, openWorldHint) are augmented by detailed behavioral context: House-only coverage, Senate 403 behavior, amended-away rows excluded, plan-clamped windows, no caching, and the X-Coverage-Note header. This goes far beyond the annotations and materially changes how an agent should interpret empty or partial results.

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

Conciseness4/5

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

The description is long but information-dense; every sentence earns its place given the complexity of the coverage rules, plan clamps, and filter semantics. It is front-loaded with the core purpose, though the all-caps section labels make it a bit visually noisy rather than elegantly structured.

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

Completeness5/5

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

For a 13-parameter list endpoint with no output schema, the description covers the output shape (paginated JSON, ordering, amountLow/amountHigh, disclosureLagDays), the pagination defaults live in the schema, and the major edge cases (Senate coverage, plan clamps, amended rows, live query behavior) are explicitly disclosed. An agent can decide whether to call this endpoint and how to interpret ambiguous results without guessing.

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

Parameters4/5

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

The input schema already has 100% parameter coverage with individual descriptions, so the baseline is 3. The tool description adds meaningful behavior beyond the schema: it explains that plan-level clamps constrain disclosure_date_from, that min_amount is range-aware against AmountLow rather than a midpoint, and that every row carries amountLow/high plus disclosureLagDays.

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 and resource — 'Query congressional STOCK Act trades' — and clarifies exact scope and ordering: paginated, most recently disclosed first, non-superseded rows only. It clearly differentiates itself from sibling rollup endpoints by stating that per-politician or per-ticker rollups belong on /v1/congress/politicians and /v1/congress/tickers/{ticker}.

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

Usage Guidelines5/5

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

It explicitly names when to use the endpoint, such as for listing congressional periodic-transaction-report trades, and routes rollup-style queries to alternative endpoints. It also warns that chamber=Senate returns empty results with a special header due to coverage limitations, and explains plan-based date clamps so callers know not to expect results beyond their entitlement.

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