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Liam Altie
Liam Altie

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I Published a Python SDK for SEC Financial Data (and It's 6 Methods)

#python #api #finance #opensource

I recently posted about an API I built for SEC EDGAR data. While writing the example code for that article, I kept looking at all the boilerplate — setting headers, building URLs, parsing responses — and thought, this should just be a pip install.

So I made one.

pip install sec-edgar-sdk
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The whole thing is 6 methods 

from sec_edgar import SecEdgar

api = SecEdgar("YOUR_RAPIDAPI_KEY")

# Get company info
api.company("AAPL")

# Search companies
api.search("tesla")

# Filing history
api.filings("TSLA", form="10-K", limit=5)

# Financial statements
api.financials("MSFT", statement="income_statement")

# Shortcuts
api.revenue("AAPL", limit=5)
api.net_income("MSFT", limit=3)
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That's it. No configuration classes, no builder patterns, no 200-page docs. I wanted something where you read the method name and already know what it does.

What I actually use it for

I've been tracking revenue trends for a handful of companies. Before the SDK, the script looked like this:

import requests

url = "https://sec-edgar-data-api.p.rapidapi.com/v1/financials/AAPL"
headers = {
    "x-rapidapi-key": "YOUR_KEY",
    "x-rapidapi-host": "sec-edgar-data-api.p.rapidapi.com"
}
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params={
    "statement": "income_statement", "limit": 5
})
data = response.json()
for item in data["statements"]["income_statement"]:
    if item["concept"] == "revenue":
        for year in item["data"]:
            print(f"FY{year['fiscal_year']}: ${year['value']:,.0f}")
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Now:

from sec_edgar import SecEdgar

api = SecEdgar("YOUR_KEY")
for year in api.revenue("AAPL", limit=5):
    print(f"FY{year['fiscal_year']}: ${year['value']:,.0f}")
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FY2025: $383,285,000,000
FY2024: $394,328,000,000
FY2023: $365,817,000,000
FY2022: $391,035,000,000
FY2021: $378,323,000,000
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3 lines instead of 13. That's the whole point.

Comparing companies side by side

One thing I keep doing — quick earnings comparisons without opening a Bloomberg terminal I don't have:

from sec_edgar import SecEdgar

api = SecEdgar("YOUR_KEY")

for ticker in ["AAPL", "MSFT", "GOOG"]:
    info = api.company(ticker)
    rev = api.revenue(ticker, limit=1)
    latest = rev[0]["value"] if rev else 0
    print(f"{info['name']}: ${latest / 1e9:.1f}B")
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Apple Inc.: $383.3B
Microsoft Corporation: $254.2B
Alphabet Inc.: $339.9B
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Nothing fancy. Just the kind of thing I used to waste 20 minutes on.

Error handling

The SDK raises SecEdgarError with the status code and detail, so you're not guessing what went wrong:

from sec_edgar.client import SecEdgarError

try:
    api.company("NOTREAL")
except SecEdgarError as e:
    print(e.status_code)  # 404
    print(e.detail)       # "Ticker not found"
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The boring details

  • Wraps the SEC EDGAR Data API on RapidAPI
  • Free tier: 100 requests/month, no credit card
  • Uses requests under the hood (the only dependency)
  • Supports context managers (with SecEdgar(...) as api:)
  • Python 3.9+
  • MIT license

Source: github.com/LiamAltie/sec-edgar-sdk

If you're working with SEC data and have ideas for what else the SDK should do, I'm all ears. Thinking about adding async support and maybe a CLI, but honestly trying not to over-engineer it.

Top comments (2)

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ptak_dev profile image
Patrick T •

Six methods is refreshingly simple for an SDK. Most financial data wrappers try to do way too much and end up confusing.

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liam_altie profile image
Liam Altie •

Thanks! That was exactly the goal — if the API only has 4 endpoints, the SDK shouldn't need 40 methods. I'd rather people read the README once and never come back to it.