OpenBB/openbb_platform

OpenBB Platform

The OpenBB Platform is a set of Python packages that turn financial and economic data sources into one typed Python client (from openbb import obb), a FastAPI REST API, and an MCP server.

openbb-core is the runtime. It ships no data and no commands; it discovers the extensions installed in the environment through entry points and assembles them. Everything else in this folder is an extension:

• Routers add command namespaces such as obb.equity or obb.economy.
• Providers implement those commands against a data source, and may add their own namespace such as obb.fred.
• OBBject extensions add accessors to every result, such as result.charting.

Documentation lives at docs.openbb.co.

Repository layout

Path	Contents
core/	openbb-core: the runtime, the generated openbb package, and the REST API app.
extensions/	Routers, plus the API launcher, the MCP server, and developer tooling.
providers/	Data provider extensions.
obbject_extensions/	Result accessors (openbb-charting).
dev_install.py	Editable install of every package for local development.
../cli/	openbb-cli, the command-line interface.

Packages

Core and tooling

Package	Path	Description
openbb-core	core	Runtime, extension loader, static package builder (openbb-build), and REST API app.
openbb-platform-api	extensions/platform_api	openbb-api launcher for the REST API and the OpenBB Workspace custom-backend connector.
openbb-mcp-server	extensions/mcp_server	openbb-mcp: serves the installed commands as Model Context Protocol tools.
openbb-devtools	extensions/devtools	Linters, type checker, and test dependencies for development.
openbb-cli	../cli	openbb: interactive command-line interface.

Routers

Package	Namespace
openbb-commodity	obb.commodity
openbb-crypto	obb.crypto
openbb-currency	obb.currency
openbb-derivatives	obb.derivatives
openbb-econometrics	obb.econometrics
openbb-economy	obb.economy
openbb-equity	obb.equity
openbb-etf	obb.etf
openbb-fixedincome	obb.fixedincome
openbb-index	obb.index
openbb-news	obb.news
openbb-quantitative	obb.quantitative
openbb-technical	obb.technical

Providers

Package	Path	Source	Credential
openbb-bls	providers/bls	U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics	bls_api_key
openbb-cboe	providers/cboe	Cboe	None
openbb-cftc	providers/cftc	CFTC and DTCC Public Price Dissemination	cftc_app_token
openbb-deribit	providers/deribit	Deribit	None
openbb-ecb	providers/ecb	European Central Bank	None
openbb-famafrench	providers/famafrench	Ken French Data Library	None
openbb-federal-reserve	providers/federal_reserve	Federal Reserve System, FOMC, and the twelve regional districts	None
openbb-finra	providers/finra	FINRA	None
openbb-fred	providers/fred	FRED	fred_api_key
openbb-government-us	providers/government_us	U.S. Congress, U.S. Treasury, and USDA	congress_gov_api_key
openbb-imf	providers/imf	International Monetary Fund	None
openbb-jodi	providers/jodi	Joint Organisations Data Initiative	None
openbb-nasdaq	providers/nasdaq	Nasdaq	None
openbb-oecd	providers/oecd	OECD	None
openbb-sec	providers/sec	SEC EDGAR	None
openbb-tmx	providers/tmx	TMX (Canadian markets)	None
openbb-us-eia	providers/eia	U.S. Energy Information Administration	eia_api_key

OBBject extensions

Package	Accessor
openbb-charting	result.charting: Plotly charts, with native window rendering through the pywry extra.

Installation

Install openbb-core together with the routers and providers you need; openbb-core is pulled in by each of them.

pip install openbb-equity openbb-cboe

The openbb Python package is generated from whatever is installed. It rebuilds on import when the installed extensions change, and openbb-build rebuilds it explicitly after installing or removing an extension.

openbb-build

Python

from openbb import obb

output = obb.equity.price.historical("AAPL", provider="cboe")
df = output.to_dataframe()

Credentials

Providers that need a key read it as <provider>_<credential>, as listed in the provider table.

Set keys in ~/.openbb_platform/user_settings.json:

{
  "credentials": {
    "fred_api_key": "REPLACE_ME",
    "bls_api_key": "REPLACE_ME"
  }
}

Or as environment variables, which take precedence over the file. ~/.openbb_platform/.env is loaded automatically.

export FRED_API_KEY=REPLACE_ME

Or for the current session only:

from openbb import obb

obb.user.credentials.fred_api_key = "REPLACE_ME"

REST API

openbb-platform-api serves every installed command over FastAPI, with OpenAPI docs at /docs and a widgets.json for OpenBB Workspace.

pip install openbb-platform-api
openbb-api

The bare FastAPI app is openbb_core.api.rest_api:app and runs under any ASGI server.

uvicorn openbb_core.api.rest_api:app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

MCP server

pip install openbb-mcp-server
openbb-mcp

See extensions/mcp_server/README.md for transports, tool discovery, and configuration.

Local development

Requirements:

• Git
• Python 3.11 or newer
• uv

From an activated virtual environment at the repository root:

python openbb_platform/dev_install.py --routers

This installs every tracked package under core, extensions, obbject_extensions, providers, and ../cli in editable mode, with all optional extras and each package's dev dependency group, then runs openbb-build. A new extension is picked up once its pyproject.toml is committed in one of those folders.

Router extensions (openbb-equity, openbb-economy, openbb-fixedincome, and the rest of the router table except openbb-news) are installed only with --routers. Without it, you get core, the tooling, openbb-news, the providers, openbb-charting, and the CLI.

Install the git hooks, which run the same ruff, ty, codespell, and markdownlint checks as CI:

pre-commit install

Each package is linted and tested from its own directory, matching its CI workflow:

cd openbb_platform/providers/fred
ruff format --check .
ruff check .
ty check openbb_fred
pytest tests

See CONTRIBUTING.md for extension guidelines.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.