sec-edgar¶
Companion skill for Stefano Amorelli's sec-edgar-mcp (not vendored because it is AGPL). Covers CIK resolution, 10-K/10-Q/8-K retrieval, XBRL financial-statement facts, and Form 3/4/5 insider trades. It sets an iron law of no claim without sample inspection, requires a real SEC User-Agent, and warns that filing date and event date can differ for 8-Ks and that XBRL history is restated, so accession numbers must be pinned for replication. Sends Compustat/CRSP panel work to the wrds skill.
data-handlingMIT (repo LICENSE, "Copyright (c) 2026 John Barrios"). The vendored third-party skills keep their own terms: the Anthropic document skills say "Proprietary. LICENSE.txt has complete terms", and the K-Dense skills carry per-library licence lines.data-acquisition
Barrios Skills — John Barrios's curated workflow for economists and accountants. Prioritize reproducible empirical work, clear identification language, and journal-ready output.
SEC EDGAR MCP (recommended for AI agents)¶
Use Stefano Amorelli's sec-edgar-mcp (built on edgartools) when the agent needs live filings.
Before querying EDGAR, the user must:
- Follow install/sec-edgar-mcp.md
- Set a real User-Agent:
SEC_EDGAR_USER_AGENT="Name (email@institution.edu)"(SEC fair-access requirement) - Prefer MCP tools over ad-hoc scraping when the server is registered
When to use WRDS instead: Compustat fundamentals panels, CRSP returns, CCM links, ExecuComp, ISS, TRACE/TAQ — use the wrds skill + wrds-mcp. EDGAR is for filing text, XBRL facts, 8-K events, and public insider Forms 3/4/5 when you do not need WRDS panel infrastructure.
SEC EDGAR for accounting & finance research¶
Iron law: no claim without sample inspection¶
Before asserting that a filing pull "worked":
- IDENTIFY the firm (CIK or ticker → CIK) and form type
- VALIDATE the accession / period you intended
- EXECUTE the pull
- INSPECT a sample (company name, filing date, section heading, one numeric fact)
- CITE the EDGAR URL in notes so numbers are auditable
Rationalization table — stop if you think¶
| Excuse | Reality | Do instead |
|---|---|---|
| "Ticker is enough" | Tickers recycle; CIK is stable | Resolve CIK first, store it |
| "XBRL equals Compustat" | Tag coverage and restatements differ | Document source; reconcile if both used |
| "I'll scrape HTML tables" | Layout breaks; XBRL/MCP is stabler | Prefer XBRL facts or MCP financials tools |
| "Form 4 = Insider Trading database" | Public EDGAR ≠ cleaned WRDS panels | Use WRDS for research panels when available |
Typical workflows¶
1. Company → filings¶
- Resolve CIK from name or ticker
- List recent 10-K / 10-Q / 8-K with filing dates
- Extract a section (e.g. Item 1A, MD&A) only when needed — avoid dumping full HTML into context
2. Financial statement facts¶
- Prefer XBRL-parsed balance sheet / income / cash flow from MCP
- Record units, scale, and period end
- Flag: never invent a ratio; compute from retrieved facts and show the formula
3. Insider trades (Form 3/4/5)¶
- Pull transactions for a CIK and date window
- Note: open-market vs award/grant; role of reporting person
- For large-sample insider studies, prefer WRDS/Thomson when the user has access
Accounting / finance research notes¶
- Identification language: filing date ≠ event date for some 8-Ks; use the relevant timestamp the paper needs
- Restatements: XBRL history can change; pin accession numbers in replication folders
- Fair access: respect SEC rate limits; never share another researcher's User-Agent email
- Replication: save accession numbers + URLs alongside any extracted table
Output checklist¶
- CIK recorded
- Form type and accession (or filing URL) recorded
- Sample row/section inspected
- WRDS vs EDGAR choice justified if both could apply