Fred ApiSAFE

🔬 A curated collection of 23,000+ agent skills for empirical research across 8 social science disciplines. | 精选 23,000+ AI Agent 技能库,覆盖8大社会科学学科的实证研究。CoPaper.AI 20分钟完成一篇可复现的规范实证论文,并支持用户上传 Skills。-- Maintained by CoPaper.AI from Stanford REAP.

The instruction file, verbatim from the audited commit — this is the text the model reads, and the surface the audit's instruction layer examines. Quoted here so you can judge it without cloning anything.

---
name: fred-api
description: "Federal Reserve Economic Data API for US economic indicators"
metadata:
  openclaw:
    emoji: "🔍"
    category: "domains"
    subcategory: "economics"
    keywords: ["microeconomics", "macroeconomics", "econometrics", "development economics"]
    source: "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/"
    requires:
      env: ["FRED_API_KEY"]
---

# FRED API Guide

## Overview

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) is a database maintained by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It contains over 800,000 economic time series from dozens of national and international sources, covering macroeconomic indicators, financial markets, employment, trade, monetary policy, and more.

The FRED API provides programmatic access to this extensive economic data repository. Researchers can retrieve time series observations, search for data series by keyword or category, explore release schedules, and access vintage (real-time) data for historical analysis. The data spans decades and in some cases centuries, making it invaluable for longitudinal economic research.

Economists, financial analysts, policy researchers, data scientists, and academic institutions rely on the FRED API for econometric modeling, macroeconomic forecasting, policy analysis, and teaching. It is one of the most widely used economic data APIs in academic research and is cited in thousands of peer-reviewed publications.

## Authentication

Authentication requires a free API key from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

1. Register for an account at https://fredaccount.stlouisfed.org/login/secure/
2. Request an API key at https://fredaccount.stlouisfed.org/apikeys
3. Include the key as the `api_key` query parameter in all requests

```bash
curl "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series?series_id=GDP&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json"
```

API keys are free and available to anyone who registers. There is no fee or approval process.

## Core Endpoints

### series: Retrieve Series Metadata

Get metadata about a specific economic data series, including title, frequency, units, seasonal adjustment, and date range.

- **URL**: `GET https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series`
- **Parameters**:

| Parameter  | Type   | Required | Description                                |
|------------|--------|----------|--------------------------------------------|
| series_id  | string | Yes      | FRED series identifier (e.g., `GDP`)       |
| api_key    | string | Yes      | Your FRED API key                          |
| file_type  | string | No       | Response format: `json` or `xml` (default) |

- **Example**:

```bash
curl "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series?series_id=UNRATE&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json"
```

- **Response**: Returns `seriess` array with `id`, `title`, `observation_start`, `observation_end`, `frequency`, `units`, `seasonal_adjustment`, `notes`, and `popularity` ranking.

### observations: Retrieve Time Series Data

Fetch actual data points (observations) for a specific economic series over a date range.

- **URL**: `GET https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series/observations`
- **Parameters**:

| Parameter          | Type   | Required | Description                                        |
|--------------------|--------|----------|----------------------------------------------------|
| series_id          | string | Yes      | FRED series identifier                             |
| api_key            | string | Yes      | Your FRED API key                                  |
| observation_start  | string | No       | Start date in YYYY-MM-DD format                    |
| observation_end    | string | No       | End date in YYYY-MM-DD format                      |
| frequency          | string | No       | Aggregation: `d`, `w`, `m`, `q`, `a`              |
| aggregation_method | string | No       | `avg`, `sum`, `eop` (end of period)                |
| file_type          | string | No       | `json` or `xml`                                    |

- **Example**:

```bash
curl "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series/observations?series_id=GDP&observation_start=2020-01-01&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json"
```

- **Response**: Returns `observations` array with `date` and `value` for each observation period.

### category: Browse Data Categories

Navigate the hierarchical FRED category system to discover available data series organized by topic.

- **URL**: `GET https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/category`
- **Parameters**:

| Parameter   | Type   | Required | Description                                   |
|-------------|--------|----------|-----------------------------------------------|
| category_id | int    | Yes      | Category ID (0 for root)                      |
| api_key     | string | Yes      | Your FRED API key                             |
| file_type   | string | No       | `json` or `xml`                               |

- **Example**:

```bash
curl "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/category/children?category_id=0&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json"
```

- **Response**: Returns `categories` array with `id`, `name`, and `parent_id` for child categories.

### releases: Track Data Release Schedules

Retrieve information about data releases, which group related series that are published together.

- **URL**: `GET https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/releases`
- **Parameters**:

| Parameter  | Type   | Required | Description                           |
|------------|--------|----------|---------------------------------------|
| api_key    | string | Yes      | Your FRED API key                     |
| file_type  | string | No       | `json` or `xml`                       |

- **Example**:

```bash
curl "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/releases?api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json"
```

- **Response**: Returns `releases` array with `id`, `name`, `press_release`, `link`, and release notes.

## Rate Limits

The FRED API enforces rate limits that vary by usage. Standard limits allow approximately 120

SAFEgrade B · trust 89/100 Nothing in the source contradicts what it says it does. Grade A is reserved for packages that have also passed the behavioural sandbox.

What the source does

Filesystem

none-observed

Network

none-observed

Shell

none-observed

Dependencies

pinned

Secrets in source

none-found

Findings (0)

No findings outside the package's declared scope.

Gates applied: no_behavioural_pass.