Frequently asked questions
Short answers about data source, freshness, coverage, and what LedgerBase intentionally does not do. See the docs Q&A topic for the same content in context, or Data Quality & Lineage for the full glossary.
What is LedgerBase?
A developer API for US public-company financials, derived from SEC EDGAR filings. Every available metric carries source lineage back to the filing and XBRL fact it came from.
Where does the data come from?
LedgerBase ingests SEC company and filing data, normalizes supported XBRL facts, and keeps source lineage with each available metric. It reads the tags companies themselves file with the SEC, not a re-parsed summary.
Is it real-time?
No. The API serves a database snapshot populated by scheduled ingestion jobs, not a live market feed. LedgerBase is not a real-time price or market-data product.
Which companies are covered?
This MVP ingests eight tickers: AAPL, AMZN, JPM, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA, WMT, and XOM. AAPL, MSFT, and NVDA are verified safe defaults. Any other ticker returns no data — coverage does not extend to all public companies.
What happens when a fact is missing?
It's reported explicitly as MISSING or LINEAGE_MISSING, never silently replaced with a zero or an approximation. For example, AMZN and WMT don't file a us-gaap:Liabilities XBRL fact, so LedgerBase reports total_liabilities as MISSING rather than guessing.
Does calling the API trigger new SEC ingestion?
No. Public read routes never start ingestion and never contact SEC EDGAR at request time — they only read already-ingested data from the database.
Does LedgerBase give investment advice or predictions?
No. LedgerBase does not provide buy/sell/hold recommendations, technical indicators (RSI, MACD, etc.), price predictions, or portfolio advice, and never will as part of this product's scope. financial-health and fundamental-trends are backward-looking summaries of filed data, not forecasts.
How do I get an API key?
Submit your email and a short note on what you're building via the "Request access" form on the landing page. A real key is issued instantly — no waitlist, no email verification, no admin approval step.
Is there a free tier or pricing page?
LedgerBase is free during early access. No pricing page or subscription plans exist yet.
Is there a live demo I can try without a key?
Yes — the ticker widget on the landing page calls the real, public API for AAPL, MSFT, and NVDA with no API key required (rate-limited).
Can I use LedgerBase to ground an AI agent or LLM tool?
Yes — the docs include a tutorial on wrapping the metric-lineage endpoint as an AI agent tool, and llms.txt summarizes the API for LLM-based tooling.
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