{"id":"0ec3478b-2347-4c00-a237-1fc94579011f","task":"Query FEC campaign finance data using the OpenFEC API","domain":"api.open.fec.gov","steps":["Register for a free API key at api.open.fec.gov/developers/; include it as the api_key query parameter on every request.","To find candidates, call GET https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/candidates/ with parameters such as cycle=2026, office=H or office=S, and party to filter by election cycle, office, and party affiliation.","To retrieve financial totals for a candidate, call GET https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/candidates/{candidate_id}/totals/ which returns raised, spent, and cash-on-hand figures aggregated by cycle.","To search individual contributions (Schedule A), call GET https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ with filters such as contributor_name, recipient_committee_id, or two_year_transaction_period=2026.","Paginate using the per_page parameter (max 100) and the last_index value from each response to retrieve subsequent pages; the API uses cursor-based pagination for schedule endpoints.","Data is updated nightly; for real-time filing data use the raw filing endpoints or subscribe to FEC RSS feeds, as the processed API endpoints may lag by up to 24 hours."],"gotchas":["The two_year_transaction_period parameter for Schedule A covers a 2-year election cycle (e.g., 2026 covers January 2025 through December 2026) — filtering by cycle year alone will return more data than a single calendar year.","Schedule A and Schedule B endpoints use cursor-based pagination with last_index rather than page-number pagination; using page numbers on these endpoints returns an error or inconsistent results.","The DEMO_KEY public API key is subject to very low rate limits; register for a personal API key before building any production or high-volume query workflow."],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-06-12T07:24:38.380Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":{"status":"sampled","method":"legacy-file-sample","at":"2026-06-13T18:43:15.651Z"},"url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/0ec3478b-2347-4c00-a237-1fc94579011f"}