> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://alphacastio.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Data Providers: Built-In Sources for Market Data

> Alphacast ships built-in connectors for 30+ external sources — FRED, BLS, World Bank, OECD, IMF, BIS, ECB, Eurostat, Banxico, BCRA, and many more. Browse, search, and pull series through a single unified REST API.

Alphacast ships with built-in connectors for a curated set of 30+ data providers, covering central banks, national statistics offices, market data sources, and international organizations from around the world. You can browse a provider's catalog hierarchically, search it by keyword, or fetch a specific series by ID — all through the same REST API.

<Card title="Browse the live provider catalog →" icon="compass" href="https://www.alphacast.io/explore/apis">
  The authoritative list of providers — with their popular series, parameters, and key requirements — lives at **alphacast.io/explore/apis**.
</Card>

## Available providers

| Slug           | Provider                                       | Category      |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------- |
| `a3`           | A3 Mercados (Matba/Rofex)                      | Markets       |
| `abs`          | Australian Bureau of Statistics                | Statistics    |
| `banrep`       | Banco de la República (Colombia)               | Central bank  |
| `banxico`      | Banxico — Banco de México                      | Central bank  |
| `bcch`         | Banco Central de Chile (BDE)                   | Central bank  |
| `bcb-opendata` | BCB — Banco Central do Brasil                  | Markets       |
| `bcra`         | BCRA — Banco Central de la República Argentina | Central bank  |
| `bcrp`         | BCRP — Banco Central de Reserva del Perú       | Central bank  |
| `bea`          | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis               | U.S. federal  |
| `bis`          | BIS — Bank for International Settlements       | Markets       |
| `bls`          | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics                | Statistics    |
| `boc`          | Bank of Canada (Valet)                         | Central bank  |
| `boe`          | Bank of England                                | Central bank  |
| `boi`          | Bank of Israel                                 | Central bank  |
| `cepalstat`    | CEPALSTAT (ECLAC)                              | Curated       |
| `coingecko`    | CoinGecko                                      | Markets       |
| `ecb`          | European Central Bank                          | Central bank  |
| `eia`          | U.S. Energy Information Administration         | U.S. federal  |
| `eurostat`     | Eurostat                                       | Statistics    |
| `faostat`      | FAO FAOSTAT                                    | Statistics    |
| `fred`         | Federal Reserve Economic Data (St. Louis Fed)  | U.S. federal  |
| `hkma`         | Hong Kong Monetary Authority                   | Central bank  |
| `ilo`          | International Labour Organization              | International |
| `imf`          | International Monetary Fund                    | International |
| `inegi`        | INEGI (Mexico)                                 | Statistics    |
| `insee`        | INSEE (France)                                 | Statistics    |
| `mae`          | MAE — Mercado Abierto Electrónico (Argentina)  | Markets       |
| `norges`       | Norges Bank                                    | Central bank  |
| `oecd`         | OECD Statistics                                | Statistics    |
| `opendosm`     | OpenDOSM (Malaysia)                            | Statistics    |
| `owid`         | Our World in Data                              | Curated       |
| `scb`          | Statistics Sweden                              | Statistics    |
| `sidra`        | IBGE SIDRA (Brazil)                            | Statistics    |
| `ssb`          | Statistics Norway                              | Statistics    |
| `taiwan-cbc`   | Central Bank of Taiwan (CBC DataAPI)           | Central bank  |
| `unicef`       | UNICEF Data Warehouse                          | International |
| `unsd`         | UN Statistics Division                         | Statistics    |
| `worldbank`    | World Bank Open Data                           | International |

<Info>
  Not all providers support all three capability modes. Check the `capabilities` array in `GET /providers/{slug}` to know which modes are available for a given provider.
</Info>

## Provider capabilities

* **`hierarchical`** — Browse the provider's catalog as a tree of categories. Use `GET /providers/{slug}/browse` to navigate.
* **`search`** — Search across the provider's catalog by keyword. Use `GET /providers/{slug}/search?q=your+query`.
* **`direct`** — Fetch a specific series if you already know its ID. Use `GET /providers/{slug}/series/{seriesId}`.

## API endpoints

The base URL for all provider operations is `https://api.alphacast.io`.

| Method | Endpoint                                   | Description                                      |
| ------ | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------ |
| `GET`  | `/providers`                               | List all available providers                     |
| `GET`  | `/providers/{slug}`                        | Get a single provider's details and capabilities |
| `GET`  | `/providers/{slug}/browse`                 | Browse the provider's catalog hierarchically     |
| `GET`  | `/providers/{slug}/search`                 | Search a provider's catalog                      |
| `GET`  | `/providers/{slug}/series/{seriesId}`      | Preview the last 24 data points for a series     |
| `POST` | `/providers/{slug}/series/{seriesId}/data` | Fetch the full series data                       |
| `PUT`  | `/user-keys/{slug}`                        | Store your personal API key for a provider       |

## Listing all providers

```bash theme={null}
curl https://api.alphacast.io/providers \
  -u YOUR_API_KEY:
```

```json theme={null}
[
  {
    "slug": "fred",
    "name": "FRED Economic Data",
    "provider": "Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis",
    "description": "Hundreds of thousands of economic time series from dozens of national, international, public, and private sources.",
    "capabilities": ["search", "hierarchical", "direct"],
    "license": "Public Domain (mostly)"
  }
]
```

## Browsing hierarchically

For providers with the `hierarchical` capability, you can navigate the catalog tree using the `path` parameter. Start at the root and drill down by appending path segments.

```bash theme={null}
# Browse the root of the FRED catalog
curl "https://api.alphacast.io/providers/fred/browse" \
  -u YOUR_API_KEY:

# Browse a subcategory
curl "https://api.alphacast.io/providers/fred/browse?path=National%20Accounts" \
  -u YOUR_API_KEY:
```

## Searching a provider

```bash theme={null}
curl "https://api.alphacast.io/providers/fred/search?q=unemployment+rate" \
  -u YOUR_API_KEY:
```

## Fetching a FRED series

Once you know a series ID, fetch a preview (last 24 data points) with a GET request, or the full dataset with a POST.

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash Preview (last 24 points) theme={null}
  curl "https://api.alphacast.io/providers/fred/series/UNRATE" \
    -u YOUR_API_KEY:
  ```

  ```bash Full series theme={null}
  curl -X POST "https://api.alphacast.io/providers/fred/series/UNRATE/data" \
    -u YOUR_API_KEY: \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"params": {}}'
  ```
</CodeGroup>

```json theme={null}
{
  "series_id": "UNRATE",
  "label": "Unemployment Rate",
  "metadata": {
    "frequency": "Monthly",
    "units": "Percent",
    "seasonal_adjustment": "Seasonally Adjusted"
  },
  "data": [
    { "date": "2024-10-01", "value": 4.1 },
    { "date": "2024-11-01", "value": 4.2 }
  ],
  "is_preview": false
}
```

## Storing a provider API key

Some providers — including FRED and BLS — require their own API key to access higher rate limits or restricted data. You can store your key in Alphacast so it is used automatically whenever you fetch from that provider.

```bash theme={null}
curl -X PUT https://api.alphacast.io/user-keys/fred \
  -u YOUR_API_KEY: \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"api_key": "YOUR_FRED_API_KEY"}'
```

```json theme={null}
{ "slug": "fred", "has_key": true }
```

To remove a stored key, send `null` or an empty string as the `api_key` value.

<Tip>
  To get a free FRED API key, register at [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api\_key.html](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html). Without a key, FRED requests may be rate-limited.
</Tip>