Work with XBRL filings above Arelle: fetch a filing, parse it once into a neutral typed model, and project that model into whichever portable representation you need — or hand it one of those representations and get the model back.
EDGAR ───────────┐
filings.xbrl.org ├──▶ Arelle ──▶ XbrlModel ──┬──▶ holon.jsonld (RDF / JSON-LD)
XBRL zip / iXBRL ┘ ▲ ├──▶ TAVI (compiled model)
│ ├──▶ xBRL-JSON (OIM)
holon, TAVI ──────┘ └──▶ property graph (parquet, .lbdb, icebug-disk)
primary HTML ──▶ xbrlkit.text ──▶ sections (text blocks, Items, tables)
holon, TAVI ──▶ xbrlkit view ──▶ the report, rendered in a browser
any of the above ──▶ xbrlkit serve ──▶ MCP client (18 shaped tools, + Cypher with [lpg])
Three ways in — the SEC, everyone else through
filings.xbrl.org, and the filing itself: an
XBRL package or archive (.zip), an iXBRL document (.htm), a bare instance
(.xml), a filing directory, or an http(s) URL to any of them. Nothing about
the middle of this requires EDGAR, or a regulator at all — a report that was
never filed with anybody parses like one that was.
Four projections out, and two of those read back, so a report that was never an
SEC filing gets the same treatment. A fifth surface, the filing's text, reads
the primary HTML directly and needs neither Arelle nor the network. And
xbrlkit view puts a filing on screen.
It is also a local MCP server. The package stands alone — a library and a
CLI — but xbrlkit serve holds filings in memory and exposes them to Claude,
ChatGPT or any MCP client through eighteen shaped tools, which makes reading a
filing a conversation instead of a script: ask for a statement, the concepts
behind a phrase, what foots to a subtotal, a segment breakdown, an exhibit, or
a regex across the prose. Nothing is indexed and no database sits behind it —
every answer is read from the filing in memory, on your machine. With the lpg
extra it also writes several filings as one property graph — a company's years,
or its peers — and answers read-only Cypher over it.
What you can ask it →
Arelle stays the parser — nobody should reimplement DTS resolution. What it
does not give you is anything ergonomic to hold: ModelXbrl is a large
mutable object graph tied to a controller you have to close. XbrlModel is the
answer to that — stateless, single-filing, lossless, and the waist every
projection hangs off.
The one architectural rule: everything goes through XbrlModel. A feature
that reaches into Arelle's ModelXbrl directly is bypassing the waist, and
that is the change that turns a kit into a junk drawer.
parse |
Arelle in, XbrlModel out |
the load, the DTS cache policy, taxonomy packages |
serialize |
the four projections | holon, TAVI (+ its gap report), xBRL-JSON, the property graph |
deserialize |
the importers | a holon or a TAVI read back into the model, no Arelle |
edgar |
the SEC | discovery, download, full-text search, 1994 onward |
filings_org |
everyone else | ESEF and the national regimes, by LEI |
text |
the filing as prose | inline text blocks, 10-K/10-Q Items, the XML forms |
serve |
the local MCP server | eighteen shaped tools over a filing in memory; Cypher over exported graphs with [lpg] |
model.py is the waist itself, schema/ declares the property graph's tables,
query.py runs SPARQL over a built holon, cypher.py runs read-only Cypher over
a built .lbdb or icebug-disk tree, and view.py is the loopback server
behind xbrlkit view and the view_filing tool.
pip install xbrlkitExposes the xbrlkit CLI (build, fetch, query, view, cache, serve) and the
library. Three optional extras: xbrlkit[lpg] for the property graph as a
LadybugDB database and for querying it (pyarrow, LadybugDB), xbrlkit[icebug]
for the same graph as an experimental icebug-disk tree (pyarrow only) and xbrlkit[mcp] for
the MCP server. Install xbrlkit[mcp,lpg] for the server's graph tools.
From a source checkout:
brew install uv just
just install # dependencies, and .env from the templateSEC fair access asks for a User-Agent identifying you with contact info.
EDGAR works out of the box under a default that names the project, and the
first unattributed fetch says so once — SEC rate limits per IP, so the shared
default costs nobody else their budget. Identifying yourself is a courtesy,
and one worth extending. just install already created your .env:
# .env
SEC_GOV_USER_AGENT="Your Name your@email.com".env is loaded automatically by every command run from a checkout of this
repo — the lookup is relative to the installed code, not your working
directory, so a uvx or pip install never picks one up. There, use
export SEC_GOV_USER_AGENT=…, --user-agent, or an MCP env block (see
Serve to an MCP client). Nothing outside EDGAR
needs it — a local file, a JSON report and filings.xbrl.org all load without.
# Build a holon.jsonld from a specific filing (-> ./output/)
xbrlkit build --cik 320193 --accno 0000320193-23-000106
# The other projections: TAVI (plus its .tavi.gaps.json sidecar), xBRL-JSON,
# the property graph (lpg: a .lbdb to query, needs the lpg extra; icebug: an
# experimental directory any LadybugDB reads in place), or every one of them
xbrlkit build --cik 320193 --accno 0000320193-23-000106 --format tavi
xbrlkit build --cik 320193 --accno 0000320193-23-000106 --format lpg
xbrlkit build --cik 320193 --accno 0000320193-23-000106 --format all
# Fetch the latest filing for a ticker (-> ./output/); --form and --n filter
xbrlkit fetch --ticker NVDA
# Query consolidated facts in a built holon (in-memory SPARQL)
xbrlkit query --in output/0000320193-23-000106.holon.jsonld --element us-gaap:Assets
# Open a filing as a rendered report in the browser — no account, no download
xbrlkit view NVDA
# The filing itself needs no EDGAR and no network — an XBRL .zip, an iXBRL
# .htm, a bare instance .xml, a filing directory. `serve` and `view` take any
# source; `build` and `fetch` are the EDGAR path
xbrlkit view ./report.zip
xbrlkit serve ./mmm-20241231.htmFrom a source checkout, just wraps the same CLI: just build 320193 0000320193-23-000106 and just fetch NVDA.
As a library, a FilingSession resolves a filing the way view and serve
do, with no extra installed:
from xbrlkit.deserialize import from_holon_json
from xbrlkit.serialize import to_holon, to_tavi_report
from xbrlkit.serve import FilingSession
session = FilingSession()
model = session.load("NVDA").model # or "NVDA 10-Q", "cik:accession", "lei:…", a path
holon = to_holon(model) # holon.jsonld text
tavi, gaps = to_tavi_report(model) # the TAVI model, and what it could not carry
model = from_holon_json(holon) # and back again
session.close()A host running its own Arelle goes a level down: xbrlkit.parse.load_model
returns the ModelXbrl, and to_xbrl_model(mx, filing) walks it into the
same model, given the filing's FilingMeta (CIK and accession).
Two ways to run it. They differ in which process does the fetching, and so in where your SEC identity goes.
stdio — the client launches the server. The identity belongs in the
server's own env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"xbrlkit": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"--from", "xbrlkit[mcp]@latest",
"xbrlkit", "serve", "--transport", "stdio"
],
"env": { "SEC_GOV_USER_AGENT": "Your Name you@example.com" }
}
}
}HTTP — you start the server, the client only points at a URL. An env
block in the client config would reach nothing here; set it on the command:
pip install "xbrlkit[mcp]"
SEC_GOV_USER_AGENT="Your Name you@example.com" xbrlkit serve
# → MCP at http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp
# or without installing anything
SEC_GOV_USER_AGENT="Your Name you@example.com" \
uvx --from "xbrlkit[mcp]@latest" xbrlkit serve
# with the graph tools: stacked lpg / icebug exports and run_cypher
SEC_GOV_USER_AGENT="Your Name you@example.com" \
uvx --from "xbrlkit[mcp,lpg]@latest" xbrlkit serve{
"mcpServers": {
"xbrlkit": { "type": "http", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp" }
}
}or, equivalently:
claude mcp add --transport http xbrlkit http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcpA .env file is not a channel for either of these. The lookup is relative
to the installed code rather than your working directory, so it resolves only
inside a checkout of this repo — a uvx or pip install never sees one. Use
the environment, the env block, or --user-agent.
Both are optional: EDGAR works unattributed under the default, saying so once. And filings.xbrl.org, local packages and TAVI/holon JSON need no identity at all.
Load a filing from the chat — a ticker, an EDGAR cik:accession, a lei: for
ESEF and the national regimes, a local package, or a holon or TAVI by path or
URL. A ticker or cik:accession loads the filing's published holon (or its
TAVI model) first when the RoboSystems CDN has one, falling back to EDGAR. That
copy is RoboSystems' parse of the filing, not the filing as filed, and the
answer's read_from says which one you have; --pure or
XBRLKIT_ARTIFACTS_URL="" parses it from EDGAR instead. Exports go to
~/xbrlkit/output unless --out-dir says otherwise. Then:
- Pull a statement as a table. The income statement, balance sheet, cash flow or equity statement — or any disclosure network — as rows in the filer's own order and labels, values per period column.
- Find the concept behind a phrase. "Revenue", "operating lease liability" → the qnames this filer actually reports, its own extension concepts included, ranked with fact counts and where each appears. You never have to guess a US-GAAP name.
- Get values by concept and period. Consolidated totals by default — no dimensional qualifier, the most precise of duplicate tags — or broken out by any axis the filing carries: segment, product, debt instrument, acquisition.
- Check whether a subtotal foots. The calculation children with their weights, the reported total against the sum computed from them, per period, with the difference.
- Read one disclosure whole. A note's rows with values, the same rows by
its own axes, its calculation arcs footed, and its tagged text beside the
numbers. The
disclosuresindex finds the right block first, cheaply. - Search the prose. Regex over the whole primary document — Items, the notes, the cover, the signatures, tagged or not. A pattern that matches more than fits in the answer says which sections the rest fall in, busiest first.
- Read the other documents. Exhibits, an 8-K's EX-99.1 earnings release — where the non-GAAP measures and guidance live, since no XBRL holds them — or a 13F's holdings table.
- Read the forms with no XBRL at all. A Form 4's transactions and holdings, a 13F's positions, as rows with the document's header fields beside them.
- Find filings worth reading. EDGAR full-text search across the corpus by phrase, form, date and filer, where every hit carries the id that loads it.
- Export or render it. Write the filing as holon, TAVI, xBRL-JSON, ClawDog, a LadybugDB graph or icebug-disk tree, or the parse itself; or open it as a rendered report in the browser and hand back the link.
- Stack filings and query across them (with the
lpgextra). Export several loaded filings as one graph — a company's years, or peers — and run read-only Cypher over it withrun_cypher: revenue by report and period, or a figure that one year's comparative restates.
No graph and no database sits behind any of it: every answer about a filing is
read from that filing, and the only graph run_cypher reads is one you asked
export_filing to write. The one outward call is search_filings, which asks
EDGAR's own full-text index which filings to go and read. Full detail,
including the tool table and the --pure profile, in
serve/.
RoboSystems. The
RoboSystems platform's SEC
pipeline is built on this package: filings are parsed with xbrlkit.parse
(its own Arelle controller, with register_sec_transforms and the cache policy
from configure_webcache), projected with to_holon, to_tavi_report and the
property-graph tables, the shared sec graph is declared from
xbrlkit.schema, and the full-text index behind its document search is built
from xbrlkit.text.
Filing Ladder. The Filing Ladder benchmark — one filing handed to the same language model in every representation — built its 26-filing corpus of 2024–2025 10-Ks and 10-Qs with this package. Each projection is a rung of the ladder, so its published results are also a measurement of what a model can do with each of these outputs. That corpus is this package's test bench too: the text sections were checked against the filing's own text-block facts on all 26 filings, the property graph row for row against the platform's processor, and the JSON importers by round trip.
Built holons and TAVI models render in the xbrlkit viewer — the browser side of the toolkit, a reader that renders the financial statements and lets you ask questions of the report with AI:
- Hosted: https://xbrlkit.com/ — open a
holon.jsonldor atavi.jsonand explore the statements, notes and dimensional facts, or chat with the report. - Source: https://github.com/RoboFinSystems/xbrlkit-viewer
The viewer reads a holon entirely client-side, so a single holon.jsonld is a
complete, portable, self-describing report. Its chat asks the report raw
questions (jq over a TAVI model, SPARQL over a holon); xbrlkit serve is the
other side of that pair — the same filing behind shaped tools, on your own
machine.
xbrlkit view joins the two. It resolves a filing the way serve does,
serializes it, and hands that one document to the viewer:
xbrlkit view NVDA # the latest 10-K, rendered in a browser tab
xbrlkit view "NVDA 10-Q" --as tavi # a different form, a different serialization
xbrlkit view 320193:0000320193-23-000106
xbrlkit view lei:549300E9PC51EN656011 # a filer outside EDGAR
xbrlkit view output/x.holon.jsonld # a document you already have, verbatim
xbrlkit view NVDA --no-open # print the link instead of opening itWithout installing anything:
uvx xbrlkit view NVDAA browser cannot be handed a local path — file:// is unreachable from an
https page, and a file input cannot be pre-populated — so this serves the
document instead, on an ephemeral loopback port with an unguessable path, and
opens xbrlkit.com/view?url=… pointing at it (earlier releases open
xbrlkit.com/?url=…, which keeps working). http://127.0.0.1 is a
potentially trustworthy origin, so the https page may read it; the CORS header
names the viewer's origin and no other. The document is readable there, by that
origin, until you press Ctrl-C. --viewer points at a different build.
From an MCP client the same thing is the view_filing tool: "load NVDA",
then "show me it".
MIT © 2026 RFS LLC — see LICENSE.