Esma Firds

What Esma Firds does

Esma Firds exposes ESMA reference and regulatory-register data through the Model Context Protocol. Its coverage is split between the Financial Instrument Reference Data System (FIRDS) and the MiFID II Union Register of investment firms.

The server can resolve an ISIN to instrument metadata such as full and short names, CFI code, issuer LEI, and notional currency. Depending on the instrument, the result can also include bond attributes or derivative details. Venue information includes each EU market identifier code (MIC), its status, and first and termination trading dates.

A separate search can return instruments associated with an issuer by exact LEI or by name. The Union Register lookup reports an investment firm’s authorisation status, competent authority, home member state, and entity type.

How it works

Requests are forwarded to two public ESMA Solr cores:

• The FIRDS core supports instrument lookup and issuer searches.
• The Union Register core supports investment-firm authorisation checks.

The service queries ESMA on demand rather than downloading or indexing FIRDS full and delta XML files. It is therefore an online service and needs network access when used through the local package.

FIRDS stores a separate record for each instrument and trading venue. For an ISIN lookup, the server selects current records, uses the reference market record for the main descriptive fields when available, and combines venue records into a single result. This avoids mixing superseded change-history rows with current venue data.

Name searches split the input into words and require every word to occur in the relevant name field. Matching is case-insensitive and does not depend on word order.

Setup and configuration

The hosted MCP endpoint can be added to a compatible client with this configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "esma-firds": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/esma-firds/mcp"
    }
  }
}

For a local stdio connection, run the npm bridge with npx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "esma-firds": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-esma-firds"]
    }
  }
}

The bridge forwards requests to the hosted gateway and does not provide offline operation. Anonymous use is available with a daily call limit. Setting PIPEWORX_API_KEY adds an account key and a higher daily allowance. PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 enables shared Pipeworx gateway tools in the local bridge, in addition to the pack’s own tools.

The tools can also be called over HTTP. For example, an ISIN lookup is sent as a JSON POST to /v1/tools/firds_lookup.

Tools and capabilities

• firds_lookup(isin) resolves one ISIN and returns instrument, issuer, and venue data.
• firds_search_by_issuer(issuer_lei?, issuer_name?, limit?) finds FIRDS instruments by exact issuer LEI or word-based issuer-name matching.
• esma_check_firm_authorisation(name?, lei?, limit?) searches the Union Register for investment-firm authorisation records.

The hosted pack endpoint also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools alongside these pack-specific tools. A full Pipeworx gateway connection can expose the broader catalog directly.

Limitations and notes

Results depend on ESMA’s public Solr services and network availability. FIRDS venue records represent separate instrument-versus-venue entries, so a heavily listed instrument may produce many venue records. The server queries ESMA’s online cores and does not maintain a local copy of the bulk FIRDS files.

The package is an independent integration and is not affiliated with or endorsed by ESMA. It is released under the MIT license.