{
  "markdown": "# OpenFEC — Federal Election Commission Campaign Finance\n\nThe Federal Election Commission's openFEC API. All federal campaign finance data: candidates (presidential, congressional), committees (campaign, PAC, super PAC, party), individual contributions, expenditures, independent expenditures, debt. Free, requires a free API key.\n\nPart of [Pipeworx](https://pipeworx.io) — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1476+ live data sources.\n\n## Why this matters for AI agents\n\nFor political research, lobbying-spend analysis, or \"where does this PAC's money go?\" questions, OpenFEC is the canonical source. Government-mandated reporting; what's publicly disclosed flows here. Pair with the [Lobbying Activity recipe](/docs/recipes/lobbying-activity) for full political-footprint mapping.\n\nCommon flows:\n\n- **Candidate / committee lookup.** \"Find committees associated with a candidate\" → search by name.\n- **Contribution patterns.** \"Who contributed to this PAC?\" → committee contribution detail.\n- **Where the money went.** \"What did this committee spend on?\" → committee disbursement detail.\n- **Independent expenditures.** \"Who's spending against this candidate?\" → IE search.\n\n## Auth\n\nFree key from https://api.open.fec.gov/developers/. Pass via `_apiKey`. Rate-limited; the key gives generous limits.\n\n## Committee types\n\n| Type | What it is |\n|---|---|\n| Authorized candidate committee | A campaign for federal office |\n| PAC (Political Action Committee) | Limited contributions ($5,000/cycle) |\n| Super PAC (independent-expenditure-only) | Unlimited fundraising, no candidate coordination |\n| Hybrid PAC (Carey committee) | Both regular PAC and super PAC functions |\n| Party committee | National / state / local party committees |\n| 527 / 501(c)(4) | Don't appear in FEC data; tax-only filings |\n\nFor corporate / executive political activity, you typically care about the corporate PAC (regular) and any associated super PACs.\n\n## Reporting cycles\n\nFederal campaign finance is reported by **cycle**: Jan 1 of year T to Dec 31 of T+1 for two-year cycles (House: every 2yr, Senate: every 6yr). Filings are quarterly during election years, semi-annually in off-years.\n\n| Common cycle filters | What it captures |\n|---|---|\n| `cycle=2024` | All activity in 2023-2024 |\n| `cycle=2026` | All activity in 2025-2026 |\n\n## Common pitfalls\n\n- **Itemization thresholds.** Individual contributions <$200 don't have to be itemized — only the aggregate appears. So \"who contributed to X?\" misses small donors.\n- **Bundling.** A single donor can contribute to many committees, often via \"bundlers.\" OpenFEC has individual contributions; bundling relationships are inferred, not reported.\n- **Soft money / 527s / dark money.** OpenFEC doesn't have 501(c)(4) social welfare orgs that engage in political activity. For those, IRS Form 990 (separate pack: `propublica-nonprofit`) is the closest analog.\n- **Super PAC coordination is restricted, not eliminated.** Super PACs report all activity but can't legally coordinate with candidates. In practice, \"single-candidate super PAC\" is a common pattern that's technically arms-length.\n- **Candidate vs. committee.** A candidate has a candidate ID (Cxxxxxxxx); their authorized committee has a separate committee ID. Same-name searches need disambiguation.\n- **Cycle alignment for lookups.** Searching for activity in 2023 alone misses things — most reports cover the full 2023-2024 cycle. Filter by cycle, not by year.\n\n## Quick Start\n\nAdd to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):\n\n```json\n{\n  \"mcpServers\": {\n    \"open-fec\": {\n      \"url\": \"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/open-fec/mcp\"\n    }\n  }\n}\n```\n\n### What this endpoint actually serves\n\n`tools/list` at `https://gateway.pipeworx.io/open-fec/mcp` returns the tools in the table\nabove **plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools** — `ask_pipeworx`,\n`discover_tools`, `search_within`, `remember`/`recall` and the rest of the\ngateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a\nsingle-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the\npack's own. The connection's `initialize` response states its exact scope, and\nis the authoritative answer for a given day.\n\nThis is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a\nscoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via\n`ask_pipeworx`, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a\nsecond MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without\nthem; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth,\nconnect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.\n\nOr connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed\ndirectly, instead of just this one's:\n\n```json\n{\n  \"mcpServers\": {\n    \"pipeworx\": {\n      \"url\": \"https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp\"\n    }\n  }\n}\n```\n\nBoth URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1476+ data sources. The\nonly difference is which pack's tools are listed **directly**; `ask_pipeworx`\nreaches all of them from either one.\n\n## Using with ask_pipeworx\n\nInstead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English —\nthis works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:\n\n```\nask_pipeworx({ question: \"your question about Open Fec data\" })\n```\n\nThe gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.\n\n## More\n\n- [Docs and guides](https://pipeworx.io/docs)\n- [pipeworx.io](https://pipeworx.io)\n\n## License\n\nMIT\n",
  "bytes": 5487,
  "sha": "3d72ca81c41277949e4b8dfc686dab92d1c20d4cb043089066ead07f2a5d397b",
  "repo_slug": "pipeworx-io/mcp-open-fec",
  "fonte": "repo",
  "truncated": false,
  "api": "https://agentalog.com/api/listings/mcp_io_github_pipeworx_io_open_fec_315967ad/readme"
}