Form4api

Production-grade SEC Form 4 insider trading data for any MCP-compatible AI assistant — amendment-aware, 10b5-1 clean, with Form 144 + institutional 13F-HR overlay — 27 tools + 6 ready-made research prompts

npm version Available on mcp.so

An MCP server that exposes the hosted Form4API REST API to Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Codex CLI, and any other MCP-compatible client. Configured once, your LLM can answer questions about insider trading, institutional positioning, and intent-to-sell filings directly during research sessions.

Four data-quality claims no scraping-based alternative can make:

• 🛡 Amendment-aware — Form 4/A amendments are reconciled automatically. No double-counting when an insider corrects a filing.
• 🎯 10b5-1 clean — every transaction flagged as pre-scheduled (10b5-1 plan) or discretionary. Cluster signals exclude planned trades by construction.
• 📜 Form 144 intent-to-sell — 23K+ Form 144 filings indexed. Catch insider sales ~2 days before they hit Form 4.
• 🏛 Institutional × insider join — every transaction carries the current 13F-HR ownership context (top-3 holders, AUM trend). No competitor at any price point joins both sides in one query.

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Quick install

1. Get a free API key

Go to www.form4api.com → Sign in → Dashboard. Free plan includes 500 requests/day, no credit card required.

2. Add to your MCP client

Claude Desktop — edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "form4api": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "form4api-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "FORM4API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart the client. The tools appear automatically.

Claude Code (CLI):

claude mcp add form4api -- npx -y form4api-mcp

…then set FORM4API_KEY in your shell or in ~/.claude/mcp.json.

Cursor — edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json (user-level) or .cursor/mcp.json (workspace-level):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "form4api": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "form4api-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "FORM4API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor. The tools appear automatically.

Windsurf — edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "form4api": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "form4api-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "FORM4API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Windsurf. The tools appear automatically.

VS Code — edit .vscode/mcp.json (workspace-level). Note: VS Code uses the servers key (not mcpServers):

{
  "servers": {
    "form4api": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "form4api-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "FORM4API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart VS Code. The tools appear automatically.

Codex CLI — config is TOML at ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.form4api]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "form4api-mcp"]
env = { FORM4API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY" }

Verify it works

Ask your LLM to run the verify_setup tool — it confirms your API key is valid and the MCP server is reachable, or returns the exact fix steps.

Example: "Run the verify_setup tool to confirm the MCP is configured correctly."

Try before you commit a key

get_public_stats is a keyless tool — it works with no FORM4API_KEY set. Try it first to preview live data coverage before signing up:

FORM4API_KEY="" npx form4api-mcp

Once you like what you see, sign up for a free key at www.form4api.com → set FORM4API_KEY → all tools unlock.

3. Or run directly

FORM4API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY npx form4api-mcp

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Available tools (25)

Form 4 insider trading

Tool	Description	Plan
get_transactions	Search insider transactions — filter by ticker, insider, date range, transaction codes or whole categories (exclude_category=derivatives), 10b5-1 plan trades, or use significant=true for real discretionary buys/sells only. Pro adds trade-size screening (min_value, min_shares)	Free
get_recent_filings	Most recent Form 4 filings, optionally filtered by ticker	Free
get_filing	Single filing by accession number	Free
get_insider_profile	Insider profile — name, title, director/officer/10pct owner flags	Free
get_insider_transactions	All transactions for a specific insider (by CIK)	Free
get_company_overview	Company profile — name, CIK, SIC sector, state, website, filing counts	Free
get_company_insiders	All insiders who have filed Form 4s for a company	Free
list_companies	List companies, sorted by name or filing count	Free
get_insider_career_summary	Aggregate career rollup: total bought/sold, top companies, 10b5-1 split, return averages	Pro
get_insider_scorecard	Buy track-record scorecard for an insider (CIK) — hit rate and avg/median return on discretionary open-market buys; null when fewer than 5 matured samples	Pro
get_insider_leaderboard	Top insiders ranked by hit_rate or avg_return; filter by horizon (3m/6m), min_trades, and limit	Business

Signals + sentiment

Tool	Description	Plan
get_signals	Cluster buy/sell signals — multiple insiders at the same company in the same direction. Excludes 10b5-1 trades automatically	Business
get_sentiment	MSPR-style monthly sentiment score per ticker (-100 to +100). 10b5-1 excluded so the score reflects real insider conviction	Business

Form 144 + institutional

Tool	Description	Plan
get_form144	Notice-of-proposed-sale filings — early signal ~2 days before Form 4 sale lands	Business
get_holdings	Institutional positions from Form 13F-HR (filter by ticker, CUSIP, manager, quarter, min value)	Business
get_managers	Institutional manager index with latest AUM	Business
explain_signal	Explain why a signal fired — the insiders and trades counted, exclusions, and criteria	Business
get_data_quality	Public data-quality, freshness and coverage metrics	Free

Utility

Tool	Description	Plan
check_usage	Your API key usage stats and current plan	Free
get_key_usage	Same data, OpenAPI-shape response	Free
get_key_activity	Recent API requests for this key	Free
get_usage_history	Daily request counts for the last N days	Free
search_insiders	Substring search on insider names	Free
list_webhooks	List your webhook subscriptions	Free
get_webhook_events	Replay webhook delivery events since a timestamp	Free
verify_setup	Verify the MCP is configured correctly — confirms API key is valid and server is reachable	Free

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Prompts (6)

Beyond the 27 tools, this MCP ships 6 prompts — ready-made research recipes that a client can list (prompts/list) and load (prompts/get) so you don't have to hand-assemble the right tool sequence yourself. Each one tells the LLM exactly which SEC Form 4 / Form 144 / 13F-HR tools to call, in what order, and how to read plan-gated results.

Prompt	Args	What it does
insider_monitor	ticker	Recent SEC Form 4 insider activity for a ticker — transactions (10b5-1 flagged), cluster signals, sentiment — summarized as buy/sell conviction with post-trade-return context
cluster_buy_scan	days (default 7)	Market-wide scan of recent cluster-buy signals, 10b5-1 excluded, ranked by conviction (insider count + $ value), each with a sentiment score
form144_early_warning	ticker (optional)	Pending Form 144 notice-of-proposed-sale filings cross-referenced against recent Form 4 sells — flags discretionary (non-10b5-1) notices as the highest-signal early warnings, ~2 days ahead of the sale
exec_conviction_check	insider (name or CIK)	An insider's career track record — total bought/sold, historical post-trade returns on discretionary buys, and whether their buying has historically beaten their scheduled 10b5-1 selling
institutional_insider_overlap	ticker	Combines 13F-HR institutional holders with recent insider transactions to spot where smart money and insiders agree or diverge
post_selloff_buys	min_return (default 0.05)	Screens insider buys with post-trade-return filters to surface historically-successful dip-buying patterns

These map to the recipe workflows scraping-based Form 4 MCPs don't offer — each one leans on data this MCP alone exposes (10b5-1 flags, Form 144, 13F-HR join, per-insider return scoring). Plan requirements are honored honestly: prompts that touch Business-plan tools (get_signals, get_sentiment, get_form144, get_holdings, get_managers) or Pro-plan tools (get_insider_career_summary, get_insider_scorecard) instruct the LLM to surface the structured upgrade_required response rather than silently failing.

In Claude Desktop, prompts surface as a / slash-command picker; in Claude Code or other MCP clients, ask the assistant to "use the insider_monitor prompt for NVDA" (or similar) and it will fetch and follow the recipe.

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Example prompts

Configured? Ask your LLM:

Quality-led (these require our amendment-aware, 10b5-1 clean, joined dataset):

• "Show me cluster buy signals from this week — discretionary only, no planned trades"
• "Which companies have insiders buying while institutional ownership is increasing this quarter?"
• "Are there any Form 144 filings at NVDA suggesting upcoming sales?"
• "What's the monthly insider sentiment for TSLA over the last 6 months, with 10b5-1 plans excluded?"
• "Berkshire Hathaway's top 13F-HR holdings — what did they add or trim this quarter?"

Standard insider research:

• "What insider trades happened at NVDA in the last 30 days, excluding 10b5-1 plans?"
• "What is Tim Cook's career insider-trading summary?"
• "Show me all open-market purchases over $1M at Tesla in 2026"
• "What has the CFO of Microsoft been doing with their shares this year?"

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Why this MCP vs scraping-based alternatives

Some MCPs in this space scrape free public sites (e.g. openinsider.com) for Form 4 data. That's fine for a quick prototype but the data layer they give your LLM has structural gaps:

	form4api-mcp	Scraping-based MCPs
Form 4/A amendment handling	✅ reconciled automatically	❌ double-counts
10b5-1 plan flag	✅ exposed on every transaction	❌ planned + discretionary mixed
Form 144 intent-to-sell	✅ 23K+ filings	❌ not exposed
Institutional × insider join	✅ top-3 holders + AUM trend per transaction	❌ insider only
Sentiment (10b5-1 excluded)	✅ MSPR-style score	❌ planned trades pollute score
Source resilience	✅ hosted API contract	❌ breaks when source HTML changes
Webhooks / production delivery	✅ HMAC + retry + DLQ	❌ MCP-only, no fallback
SDKs	✅ Python + JS	❌ MCP-only
Commercial support	✅	❌

If your LLM session is the start of a real research workflow that eventually wants production delivery, picking the MCP that has a graduation path matters.

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Beyond MCP — when you need more

The MCP is the easiest entry point. When your workflow grows past LLM-mediated research, the rest of the Form4API platform is right behind it:

• Webhooks — HMAC-signed, exponential backoff, dead-letter queue, auto-disable on persistent failure. For production pipelines, not just LLM chats.
• Python SDK — pip install form4api (PyPI)
• JS / TypeScript SDK — npm install form4api (npm)
• Dashboard — usage, billing self-serve, key rotation, webhook health, billing history.

The MCP wraps the same backend as all of the above — every fact your LLM cites can be re-fetched programmatically through any of these channels with the same key.

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Plans

Tool	Free	Pro	Business
get_transactions, get_recent_filings, get_filing	✓	✓	✓
get_insider_profile, get_insider_transactions	✓	✓	✓
get_company_overview, get_company_insiders	✓	✓	✓
get_insider_career_summary, get_insider_scorecard	—	✓	✓
get_insider_leaderboard, get_signals, get_sentiment	—	—	✓
get_form144, get_holdings, get_managers	—	—	✓
Requests/day	500	50,000	250,000

When a tool requires a higher plan, the MCP returns a structured upgrade_required payload (with required_plan and upgrade_url) so the LLM can surface the path to you directly. No mid-conversation 402 confusion.

Upgrade at form4api.com/dashboard/billing.

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Data coverage

• 1M+ Form 4 transactions from SEC EDGAR
• 475K+ filings across all reporting companies
• 23K+ Form 144 notice-of-proposed-sale filings (Business+)
• 16M+ Form 13F-HR holdings across 44K+ filings, $72T+ AUM (Business+)
• 2.5+ years of history (since 2023-10)
• 10b5-1 plan flag on every transaction
• Amendment-aware — Form 4/A reconciled
• Real-time ingestion — new filings within minutes of SEC publication

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Install as a Claude Desktop Extension (DXT)

A manifest.json is included at the repo root for one-click install via the Desktop Extensions (DXT) format. Once Claude Desktop supports .dxt files natively, pack and install with:

npx @anthropic-ai/dxt pack
# Produces form4api-mcp.dxt — open it in Claude Desktop to install

Until then, use the standard claude_desktop_config.json method described in Quick install above.

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How tools stay in sync with the backend

This MCP is split between two layers:

• Hand-written tools in src/tools/*.ts (transactions, signals, sentiment, form144, holdings, …) — these carry the LLM-discriminator descriptions (amendment-aware, 10b5-1 clean, etc.) that make this MCP pick correctly over alternatives.
• Auto-generated tools in src/tools/_generated.ts — produced from https://api.form4api.com/openapi/v1.json by npm run codegen. Every new backend endpoint that lands in the OpenAPI spec flows in here automatically. CI runs npm run codegen:check on every PR and fails the build if the committed file drifts from what the live spec would produce, so the MCP is never silently behind the backend.

To add a new generated tool: ship the endpoint on the backend, regenerate (npm run codegen), commit src/tools/_generated.ts, publish. No tool-wrapper code needed.

The 6 recipe prompts live in src/prompts/recipes.ts — also hand-written, not generated. They add no new backend surface area; each one is a client-side template that tells the LLM which existing tools to call and in what order.

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Links

• Form4API — API homepage
• Documentation — Full REST API reference
• Dashboard — Manage your API key, view usage, configure webhooks
• Status — live uptime, database, and ingestion-queue health
• npm — npm package
• mcp.so — MCP server directory listing