Custom Connector
FRED Series API Connector
Global
The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) Series API provides a RESTful interface to programmatically access economic data series curated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Fetch series metadata, observations, categories, releases, tags, related tags, vintage dates, and recent updates. Base URL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred. Formats: JSON (default) or XML via file_type. Auth: API key in the query string.
Overview
Integration Overview
The FRED Series API offers these main integration points:
- getSeries. Core metadata for a series (title, units, frequency, last updated).
- getSeriesObservations. Time-series values (historical & current) for a series.
- getSeriesCategories. Categories a given series belongs to.
- getSeriesRelease. The release that first published the series.
- searchSeries. Keyword search over all series.
- searchSeriesTags / searchRelatedSeriesTags. Refine searches with tags and find related tags.
- getSeriesTags. Tags attached to a specific series.
- getSeriesUpdates. List series ordered by most recent observation updates.
- getSeriesVintageDates. See when historical values were revised.
Documentation
Detailed Integration Documentation
Get Series Metadata
| Operation ID | getSeries |
|---|---|
| Method & path | GET /series |
| Purpose | Retrieve metadata for a specific economic data series (title, units, frequency). |
| Parameters | api_key (required), series_id (required, e.g. GNPCA), file_type (optional: json | xml, default json). |
| Output | Successful: series metadata object. Failure: HTTP 400/401 for missing/invalid parameters or key. |
| Workflow example | Call /series?series_id=GNPCA to show metadata on a series details page. |
Get Series Categories
| Operation ID | getSeriesCategories |
|---|---|
| Method & path | GET /series/categories |
| Purpose | Fetch all categories to which a series belongs. |
| Parameters | api_key (required), series_id (required, e.g. EXJPUS), file_type (optional). |
| Output | List of categories (id, name, parent id, etc.). |
| Workflow example | Use the categories to build navigation or filtering facets around a series. |
Get Series Observations
| Operation ID | getSeriesObservations |
|---|---|
| Method & path | GET /series/observations |
| Purpose | Retrieve time-series values for a series, optionally filtered by date range. |
| Parameters | api_key (required), series_id (required, e.g. GNPCA), observation_start (optional, YYYY-MM-DD), observation_end (optional, YYYY-MM-DD), file_type (optional). |
| Output | Array of observations with date and value. |
| Workflow example | Display a chart: call observations for GNPCA from observation_start=2000-01-01 to today. |
Get Series Release
| Operation ID | getSeriesRelease |
|---|---|
| Method & path | GET /series/release |
| Purpose | Get the release that first published a series. |
| Parameters | api_key (required), series_id (required, e.g. IRA), file_type (optional). |
| Output | Release metadata (id, name, link, dates, etc.). |
| Workflow example | Show users which release a series belongs to, and link to the release page. |
Search Series
| Operation ID | searchSeries |
|---|---|
| Method & path | GET /series/search |
| Purpose | Keyword search for series. |
| Parameters | api_key (required), search_text (required, e.g. monetary service index), file_type (optional). |
| Output | Series array matching the query. |
| Workflow example | Build a search bar that queries /series/search?search_text=gdp. |
Search Series Tags
| Operation ID | searchSeriesTags |
|---|---|
| Method & path | GET /series/search/tags |
| Purpose | Get tags associated with the results of a series keyword search. |
| Parameters | api_key (required), series_search_text (required, e.g. monetary service index), file_type (optional). |
| Output | List of tags (e.g. “GDP”, “Real”, “Quarterly”) with counts/metadata. |
| Workflow example | After a user searches, show tag chips to help refine the query. |
Search Related Series Tags
| Operation ID | searchRelatedSeriesTags |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Return tags related to a series search to assist discovery. |
| Parameters | api_key (required), series_search_text (required, e.g. mortgage rate), tag_names (optional, e.g. 30-year;frb), file_type (optional). |
| Output | Related tags with metadata. |
| Workflow example | Suggest related tags to broaden or narrow the user’s search filters. |
Get Series Tags
| Operation ID | getSeriesTags |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Retrieve tags attached to a specific series. |
| Parameters | api_key (required), series_id (required, e.g. STLFSI), file_type (optional). |
| Output | List of tags with attributes (group id, popularity, etc.). |
| Workflow example | Display tags on the series details page to help navigation. |
Get Series Updates
| Operation ID | getSeriesUpdates |
|---|---|
| Method & path | GET /series/updates |
| Purpose | List series sorted by most recent observation updates. |
| Parameters | api_key (required), file_type (optional). |
| Output | Series array with last observation update dates. |
| Workflow example | Build a “Recently Updated Series” widget for your dashboard. |
Get Series Vintage Dates
| Operation ID | getSeriesVintageDates |
|---|---|
| Method & path | GET /series/vintagedates |
| Purpose | Retrieve the dates when historical values of a series were revised or published (“vintages”). |
| Parameters | api_key (required), series_id (required, e.g. GNPCA), file_type (optional). |
| Output | Array of vintage dates. |
| Workflow example | Show a revision timeline to compare vintages in real-time vs. historical releases. |
Example Workflow: Build an Economic Dashboard
| Find a series | Use /series/search to search for “GDP” or any keyword. |
|---|---|
| Inspect metadata & tags | Call /series?series_id=… and /series/tags?series_id=… to show details and attach topic tags. |
| Visualize observations | Fetch time series via /series/observations and chart the values. |
| Track revisions | Use /series/vintagedates to display which dates had revised data. |
| Monitor updates | Use /series/updates to show what’s changing most recently. |
Support
For technical support, contact custom-connectors-support@isolutions.sa.