Skip to main content
Use this journey to start a corporate-structure or coverage-scope review from the latest 10-K Exhibit 21. The list contains significant subsidiaries disclosed by the filer; it is not a complete legal-entity graph, proof of control, or a substitute for legal diligence. The deliverable is a dated, source-linked snapshot a reviewer can trace to the exhibit.

Prerequisites

  • SECAPI_API_KEY, curl, and jq, or the SEC API CLI.
  • A ticker or CIK. This example uses AAPL.

1. Retrieve the latest disclosed list

Or use the CLI:
The expected result is one unpaginated list from the latest available 10-K Exhibit 21, with name, nullable jurisdiction, nullable ownershipPercent, and source filing identity. Retain the accession, filing date, URL, and request ID with any aggregation.

2. Produce a jurisdiction review queue

Run node subsidiaries.mjs. The expected output includes the selected accession, filing date, SEC filing URL, request ID, subsidiary count, and jurisdiction buckets. It is a documented starting point for a reviewer to inspect the Exhibit 21, not a tax, sanctions, ownership, or supply-chain conclusion.

Common errors and false positives

  • 401 or 403: the runtime key is absent or not entitled.
  • An empty list or note can mean an Exhibit 21 could not be extracted; it does not prove the issuer has no subsidiaries.
  • Missing jurisdiction and ownership percentage are disclosure/extraction gaps, not zeros.
  • The endpoint uses the latest annual exhibit. Do not describe it as year-over-year change unless you have separately retained the earlier filing.

Production considerations

Store each run by source accession and do not overwrite historical lists. Normalize jurisdiction labels only in a derived field, preserve original returned values, and send changes to a human reviewer who can examine the filing exhibit. Use a CIK when your entity mapping must not change with a ticker.

Next action

Create a dated snapshot table keyed by accession number, then compare two explicitly sourced annual filings before reporting a structural change.