Introduction

Tengu is a two-surface API for financial data and agentic research. FIRM gives you direct REST access to 18 metered data products (market data, congressional trades, private markets, bond/CDS credit, earnings transcripts, etc.) — one key, one shared credit wallet, flat cost per call. Brain is an OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible agent that orchestrates FIRM tools for you — no tool-calling code required, per-token billing, Enterprise only.

How Tengu works#

The Tengu API has two surfaces that share one tengu_ key and one credit wallet:

Surface	Base URL	Billing	What it is
FIRM data API	`https://firm.tengu.co`	flat credits per call	REST: 18 metered products, you pick what to call
Brain agent API	`https://brain.tengu.co/v1`	~1 credit/token	OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible agent, it picks the tools

FIRM is for engineers and traders who want raw data (quotes, filings, insider trades, private-company profiles). You call endpoints directly, get envelope-wrapped JSON back ({ "ok": true, "timestamp": ..., ...data }), and pay per product. Brain is for researchers and investors who want an agentic interface — you ask a question ("What did Nancy Pelosi trade recently?"), Brain internally orchestrates multiple FIRM calls, and you get a synthesized answer.

Concepts#

Key — A tengu_ bearer token issued on first signup. It works on both FIRM and Brain. Keep it like a password; rotate it under Tengu API → Overview in the dashboard.

Credit wallet — A shared pool. FIRM calls debit flat credits per product (1–10, see the table below). Brain debits on token count. All plans auto-replenish monthly; you can also top up manually. No charge on any error (401, 402, 403, 404, 429, 502).

Products / Tool groups — The 18 FIRM datasets: market_data, fundamentals, public_filings, congressional, news_sentiment, macro_rates, quant_signals, funds, alt_data, options_flow, execution_research, risk_analytics, private_markets, tape, credit, events_transcripts, llm_research, copilot.

Plans & add-ons — Five tiers: Free ($0, 1k credits, 30 rpm, 3 products), Starter ($99, 250k credits, 120 rpm, +5 products), Pro ($499, 2M credits, 600 rpm, +9 products), Expert ($999, 5M credits, 1,200 rpm, Pro + Copilot), Enterprise (20M credits, 6k rpm, all products + Brain). Buy à-la-carte add-ons (Private Markets $299/mo, Options Flow $79/mo, Copilot $199/mo) on top of any paid plan.

The envelope — Every FIRM response is { "ok": true, "timestamp": "<ISO-8601>", ...data }. Error responses are { "detail": { "error_code": "...", "error_message": "..." } } — they don't debit credits. Brain responses follow OpenAI / Anthropic shapes.

Choose your path#

I want...	Start with
Raw data. I'll call specific endpoints, pull quotes, filings, insider trades, private-company profiles, or quant signals.	Quickstart → try a few FIRM endpoints. See Pricing & credits for what your plan unlocks.
An agent that orchestrates. I ask questions; it calls multiple FIRM tools and synthesizes answers. (Enterprise only.)	Quickstart § 7: Brain → point an OpenAI SDK at `https://brain.tengu.co/v1`. See Tengu Brain for capabilities.

Browse by product#

Product	Credits	Free	Starter	Pro	Expert	Enterprise	Use for
Market Data	1	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Quotes, OHLCV, crypto, indices
Fundamentals	1	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Income statements, balance sheets, metrics
Public Filings	1	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	SEC/EDGAR filings → index + extract
Congressional	2	—	✅	✅	✅	✅	Politician trades, corporate donors
News & Sentiment	2	—	✅	✅	✅	✅	Equity news, analyst consensus
Macro, Rates, FX	2	—	✅	✅	✅	✅	VIX, treasuries, commodities, regime
Quant Signals	3	—	✅	✅	✅	✅	ML forecasts, SHAP drivers, trade setups
Funds & Institutional	4	—	✅	✅	✅	✅	13F holdings, insider activity, Form-4
Alt-Data	3	—	—	✅	✅	✅	Lobbying, contracts, patents, WSB
Options Flow	4	—	—	✅	✅	✅	Unusual flow, gamma, max pain, darkpool
Execution & Research	4	—	—	✅	✅	✅	TWAP/VWAP plans, TA skills
Risk Analytics	5	—	—	✅	✅	✅	VaR, stress, hedging
Private Markets	5	—	—	✅	✅	✅	10.6M companies, deals, investors (search free)
Tape & Intraday	3	—	—	✅	✅	✅	Minute bars, options/futures prints, microstructure
Credit	4	—	—	✅	✅	✅	Bond prints (TRACE), CDS history, ratings actions, loans
Transcripts & Events	3	—	—	✅	✅	✅	Earnings-call text, 41.9M corporate events to 1990
LLM Research	6	—	—	✅	✅	✅	Web search, Perplexity, Grok sentiment
Copilot	10	—	—	—	✅	✅	Verdicts, sizing, portfolio review

/api/v3/private_markets/search is 0 credits (any plan) but still needs a valid key. /api/capabilities and /api/health need no key.

Next steps#

Quickstart — Get a key and make your first call in under a minute.
API Reference — Every endpoint, per-plan access, credit costs, auth shapes.
Pricing & Credits — What each plan includes, add-ons, overage caps.
Private Markets — Deep dive into the 10.6M-company dataset and search/profile APIs.
The Vault — the differentiated data no competitor sells self-serve: self-collected Tape & Intraday History, licensed Credit & Fixed-Income archives, and Transcripts & Corporate Events.
Tengu Brain — How to use the agent API and what tools it can invoke.