SEC EDGAR Full-Text Filing Search

Purpose

Search the body text of SEC filings (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, S-1, 424B, DEF 14A, SC 13D/G, 13F-HR, Forms 3/4/5, N-PX, etc., back to 2001) and return matching filings as structured JSON: accession number, filer name + CIK, form type, filing date, period of report, SIC + state of incorporation, the matching exhibit filename, and the canonical filing-index + direct-document URLs. Distinct from EDGAR's filing-metadata browse — this searches the full document text. Read-only.

EDGAR full-text search is backed by a public JSON endpoint (https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index) with no auth, no cookies, and no captcha. Lead with that endpoint; the human UI at https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/ is a thin React client over the same API and is only a fallback.

When to Use

• Find every filing that mentions a phrase ("material weakness", "going concern", "force majeure", "climate risk disclosure") across all filers, optionally narrowed by form type, date range, filer, location, or SIC.
• Monitor new filings matching a query (e.g. all 8-Ks mentioning a topic in the last 30 days).
• Pull the matching exhibit URL so a downstream step can fetch the document and extract the surrounding context.
• Anywhere you'd otherwise scrape the EDGAR full-text search results page — the JSON API is faster, cheaper, and structurally reliable.

Workflow

Transport note (Browserless): This is a plain HTTPS JSON API (efts.sec.gov) — the HTTP GET examples below are canonical; run them from any client. Only under restricted egress, route via browserless_function in a browser page context: page.goto('https://efts.sec.gov/') first (a bare fetch has no network egress until the page navigates), then page.evaluate a same-origin fetch of the search path and project/summarize the JSON in-page. No secrets are involved — only the descriptive User-Agent header matters.

Hit the JSON endpoint directly with an HTTP GET. SEC's fair-access policy requires a descriptive User-Agent header that identifies the requester (User-Agent: Sample Company contact@example.com) — a missing or generic UA gets a 403. No auth, cookies, or proxy are needed. Rate-limit to ≤ 10 requests/second.

1. Build the request URL:

   GET https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index
       ?q=<query>
       &forms=<f1,f2,...>
       &dateRange=custom&startdt=YYYY-MM-DD&enddt=YYYY-MM-DD
       &ciks=<0000320193,...>          # optional
       &entityName=<company name>       # optional
       &locationCodes=<CA,NY,...>       # optional
       &locationType=incorporated       # optional (default = located-in)
       &from=<offset>                   # optional, pagination
   Header: User-Agent: Sample Company contact@example.com

   q syntax:

   • Bare phrase → exact phrase match (q="climate risk" runs match_phrase on doc_text).
   • Wrap in escaped quotes for a literal exact phrase: q=%22force majeure%22.
   • Boolean operators are supported: AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses.

   Filters:

   • forms — comma-separated EDGAR root form codes (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, S-1, 424B, DEF 14A, SC 13D, SC 13G, 13F-HR, 4, 3, 5, N-PX). Filters on root_forms, so 10-K also captures 10-K/A amendments.
   • dateRange=custom + startdt/enddt (YYYY-MM-DD). The API applies the file_date range purely from startdt/enddt; named UI ranges (last30d, last1y, …) are just shortcuts the UI converts to explicit dates.
   • ciks — comma-separated, zero-padded 10-digit CIKs.
   • entityName — free-text company/person name (resolves against the entity index).
   • locationCodes — comma-separated 2-letter state/country codes; default semantics = principal-office located-in. Add locationType=incorporated to switch to state of incorporation. Note the param is locationCodes (plural) — locationCode (singular) is silently ignored.

2. Parse the response (Elasticsearch-shaped JSON):

   • hits.total.value — total result count, capped at 10000 (check hits.total.relation: eq = exact, gte = at least). The returned slice is partial whenever this exceeds what you fetched.
   • hits.hits[] — up to 100 hits per request (the page size is server-fixed at 100; the UI shows 10, but the raw API returns 100). Each hit:
     • _id = "{accession}:{filename}" — split on : to get the accession number and the matching exhibit filename.
     • _source.adsh — accession number (e.g. 0000815097-24-000011).
     • _source.ciks[], _source.display_names[] — arrays (co-registrants produce multiple); display_names look like "CARNIVAL CORP (CCL) (CIK 0000815097)" — take the substring before ( for the clean filer name.
     • _source.form, _source.file_date, _source.period_ending, _source.sics[], _source.inc_states[], _source.biz_states[], _source.biz_locations[], _source.items[] (8-K item codes).
   • aggregations — facet bucket counts (form_filter, entity_filter, sic_filter, biz_states_filter, top 30 each) for building a faceted summary without extra requests.

3. Construct the URLs (not returned by the API — derive them):

   • cikInt = parseInt(_source.ciks[0]) (strip leading zeros) → 815097
   • accNoDash = _source.adsh.replace(/-/g, "") → 000081509724000011
   • filename = part after : in _id
   • Direct document URL: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/{cikInt}/{accNoDash}/{filename}
   • Filing index URL: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/{cikInt}/{accNoDash}/{adsh}-index.htm

4. Snippet (if the caller needs the matching excerpt): the API does not return it (see gotcha). Fetch the direct document URL with the same User-Agent and locate the query terms in the document text yourself, wrapping them in your own highlight markers.

5. Paginate if hits.total.value exceeds 100: re-request with from=100, from=200, … up to from=9900 (the 10000-result Elasticsearch window cap). Beyond that, narrow the query (tighter date range / form filter) instead.

Browser fallback

Only if the JSON endpoint is unreachable. The human UI is a hash-routed React app:

https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=%22climate%20risk%22&forms=10-K&dateRange=custom&startdt=2024-01-01&enddt=2024-03-31

goto the hash URL, then { "method": "waitForTimeout", "params": { "time": 3000 } } (results render after an XHR to the same efts.sec.gov endpoint), dismiss the occasional "We'd welcome your feedback" survey modal (click No thanks), then read the results table with a text/evaluate command. This is strictly slower and yields the same data as the API — prefer the API.

Site-Specific Gotchas

• The API never returns the matching text snippet. The server-side query hard-codes _source: { exclude: ["doc_text"] } and configures no highlighter, so there is no highlight field and no excerpt in any response — only filing metadata + the matching exhibit filename (in _id). To get the actual matched text you must fetch the document URL and search it client-side. Passing your own &_source=... param does not override this — it is ignored.
• A descriptive User-Agent is mandatory. SEC's fair-access policy rejects empty/default UAs with 403. Use User-Agent: Your Company you@example.com. (A real browser session sends an acceptable UA automatically; a bare fetch/requests/curl with no UA gets blocked. If you route through browserless_function, set the header in the in-page fetch init.)
• Transient {"message": "Internal server error"} (HTTP 500). Observed intermittently on otherwise-valid requests (hit during testing and during an autobrowse iteration). It clears on an immediate retry of the identical URL — build in one retry before treating a 500 as fatal.
• Page size is 100, not 10. The UI paginates by 10, but the raw endpoint returns up to 100 hits per call with no size param. Don't assume 10.
• Total count caps at 10000 with relation: "gte". You cannot page past from=9900; narrow the query to see more.
• locationCodes is plural. locationCode (singular) is silently dropped (returns unfiltered results). Default = located-in; locationType=incorporated switches to state of incorporation.
• Arrays for co-registrants. ciks, display_names, biz_states, sics, biz_locations are arrays — a single filing can list multiple filers (e.g. Carnival Corp + Carnival plc). Use index [0] for the primary filer unless you need all.
• display_names needs parsing. Format is "NAME (TICKER) (CIK 0000123456)" (double-spaced). Split on ( for the clean name; the trailing (CIK …) already gives you the zero-padded CIK if you'd rather regex it out than read ciks[].
• forms matches root form types. forms=10-K also returns 10-K/A amendments; forms=4 returns Form 4 ownership filings. There is no exact-form-string filter — filter _source.form client-side if you need to exclude amendments.
• No SIC query param. SIC appears only as an aggregation facet (sic_filter) and in each hit's _source.sics[]. To filter by SIC, filter the returned hits client-side on _source.sics.
• Coverage starts 2001. Full-text indexing does not cover filings before 2001; older filings won't appear regardless of date range.
• No anti-bot. No Akamai, captcha, login, or proxy requirement observed — a bare (non-stealth, non-proxy) request succeeds. Don't waste a residential proxy on this.

Expected Output

{
  "success": true,
  "query": "\"climate risk\"",
  "forms": ["10-K"],
  "date_range": { "start": "2024-01-01", "end": "2024-03-31" },
  "total_results": 281,
  "total_relation": "eq",
  "returned": 100,
  "from": 0,
  "facets": {
    "by_form": [{ "form": "10-K", "count": 281 }],
    "by_state": [
      { "state": "NY", "count": 51 },
      { "state": "CA", "count": 31 }
    ],
    "by_sic": [{ "sic": "6022", "count": 57 }]
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "accession_number": "0000815097-24-000011",
      "filer_name": "CARNIVAL CORP",
      "filer_cik": "0000815097",
      "all_filers": [
        "CARNIVAL CORP  (CCL)  (CIK 0000815097)",
        "CARNIVAL PLC  (CUK, CUKPF)  (CIK 0001125259)"
      ],
      "form_type": "10-K",
      "filing_date": "2024-01-26",
      "period_of_report": "2023-11-30",
      "sic": "4400",
      "state_of_incorporation": "DE",
      "business_state": "FL",
      "matching_file": "ccl-20231130.htm",
      "document_url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/815097/000081509724000011/ccl-20231130.htm",
      "filing_index_url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/815097/000081509724000011/0000815097-24-000011-index.htm",
      "snippet": null
    }
  ]
}

snippet is null from the API alone; populate it only if a follow-up document fetch was performed (see Workflow step 4).

No results:

{
  "success": true,
  "query": "\"asdfqwerzxcv nonexistent phrase\"",
  "total_results": 0,
  "returned": 0,
  "results": []
}

Transient upstream error (after the one retry also fails):

{
  "success": false,
  "error_reasoning": "EDGAR returned HTTP 500 {\"message\":\"Internal server error\"} on two consecutive attempts"
}