Overview
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, with completed-turn cost converted to credits. Brain requires Enterprise.
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, with completed-turn cost converted to credits. Brain requires Enterprise.
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 | final turn cost × 2,500 credits / $1, rounded up | 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 converts a successful turn's authoritative USD cost to credits; its displayed token counts can omit auxiliary work and are not an invoice calculation. See Brain billing and usage. All plans auto-replenish monthly; you can also top up manually. No charge on any non-2xx response (401, 402, 403, 404, 422, 429, 500, 502, 503, 504); a request that fails after its credits were reserved is refunded.
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 }. Errors are the same envelope inverted: { "ok": false, "error": "<code>", "detail": "<message>", "request_id": "..." } — detail is a string, not an object — and they don't debit credits. Some route-level 503 responses carry status and reason instead of error and detail. 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#
Plan access enables a product's routes. Availability still depends on verified source data and the requested calculation. Check observation times, coverage, and availability fields before using a result. Portfolio VaR and calibrated execution estimates are currently unavailable; those requests do not consume credits. Quant intervals and Copilot return or sizing fields can be withheld when their evidence is insufficient.
| 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 arithmetic, scenarios, TA research; calibrated execution unavailable |
| Risk Analytics | 5 | — | — | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Observed hedge context and pairs research; portfolio VaR unavailable |
| Private Markets | 5 | — | — | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | 10.6M companies, deals, investors (search: 5 credits) |
| 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 | — | — | — | ✅ | ✅ | Research scores and portfolio review; return and sizing outputs require evidence |
Private Markets search and suggestions cost 5 credits and require Pro+ or
its add-on. /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.