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Use semantic search when the language in a filing may not repeat the terms in a user’s question. It returns candidate normalized sections with citation-oriented fields. It does not determine materiality, completeness, or the correct interpretation of a disclosure. Start with a specific question and a constrained issuer or filing universe. Preserve the candidate’s source identity, then retrieve its section when the application needs to quote, summarize, or compare it. That makes semantic search a route to evidence rather than an opaque answer generator.

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Search a constrained question

q is required. Narrow the candidate set with ticker, symbol, or cik, then add form and filing_year when the research warrants it. mode accepts keyword, semantic, or hybrid; hybrid is the default. limit bounds one response. A result can include accession, section key, source URL, ticker, highlighted snippet, and char_start/char_end offsets into normalized section markdown. Default responses can include score, retrieval mode, and a degraded-state signal. Retain these fields with the query filters, requestId, and any provenance or freshness metadata.

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Verify the candidate section

Use the result’s accession and section key for the request. Offsets describe normalized markdown rather than raw SEC HTML. If an offset, snippet, or citation span is unavailable, or _citation_degraded is returned, open the source filing instead of constructing a quote from a partial excerpt.

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Capability choices

The JavaScript SDK provides client.semanticSearch({ q, ticker, form, filing_year, mode, limit }). Hosted MCP offers normalized sections.search, but not an equivalent semantic-search tool; use REST or an SDK for semantic retrieval, then hand source identity into the agent context.

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Retrieval limits

  • Similarity and hybrid scores are not materiality scores, completeness measures, or recommendations.
  • Results reflect indexed, normalized section content and current route availability, not a promise of EDGAR-wide prose coverage or coverage for related passages.
  • view=agent keeps citation fields but omits score and retrievalMode; use the default response when evaluating retrieval behavior.
  • A 503 or reported degraded state is an unavailable or partial retrieval surface, not a negative result.

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Next action

Run a constrained question against one filing, fetch the candidates you intend to use, and keep source identity next to the resulting model or reviewer interpretation.