API and MCP overview
Read company reports and financial data from your software or AI assistant.
Finbar provides two ways to access its data outside the web and Excel apps: a REST API for scripts and applications, and an MCP server for AI assistants. Both use your Finbar account's data access and request allowances.
Choose an interface
| REST API | MCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Used by | Your application or script | An AI assistant, such as ChatGPT or Claude |
| How requests work | Your code sends HTTP requests and receives JSON | The assistant calls named Finbar tools and uses the results in its answer |
| How you connect | Create a client ID and secret, then request an access token | Add the server URL to your assistant and sign in to Finbar |
| Address | https://api.finbar.com/v1 | https://mcp.finbar.com/mcp |
| Start here | API quickstart | Connect an assistant |
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It is the interface an assistant
uses to discover available tools, send them arguments, and read their results.
For example, an assistant can call Finbar's search_entity tool to resolve
“Apple” to a company before looking up its reports.
Available data
| Data | What it contains | REST API | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Companies | Names, identifiers, tickers and company information | Yes | Yes |
| Company wiki | Saved overview, products, geography, segments and history, with inline citations where available | Yes | Yes |
| Documents | Company reports and the paragraphs and tables within them | Yes | Yes |
| Financial datasets | Historical financial metrics from published Finbar models, with source references where available | Yes | Yes |
| Market data | Available price history and market information | No public endpoint | get_market_data |
| Account usage | Request usage by day | /usage | No usage tool |
A document is source material, such as an annual report. A dataset organizes financial values into series that you can query across reporting periods. Use documents to read disclosures in context; use datasets to retrieve structured financial history. Dataset source references connect the two.
These guides cover data reads. Dataset reads expose published historical data; they do not edit models, return forecasts, or download workbooks.
Account access
Your account must have API/MCP access. Available data and request allowances depend on your plan and account permissions. Contact your Finbar representative if you cannot connect or create a credential.
Find your way through the docs
- Data concepts explains metrics, series and scopes, reporting periods, and values and sources. These concepts apply to both interfaces.
- MCP covers connection setup and tools and research workflows.
- REST API starts with a first request, then covers authentication, companies, documents, and dataset discovery and queries.
- Usage and limits explains the allowances shared by both interfaces.