Setup and recovery

The canonical CLI installation guide is betterfilings.com/cli/setup. Read it before installing or updating; it contains the current pinned package and optional processor commands.

After setup:

Run betterfilings doctor --json to check the CLI and optional local processor.
Run betterfilings setup --json for the exact optional processor plan. This command prints instructions and never installs software.
Authenticate with betterfilings auth request --email ADDRESS, then pass the emailed code to betterfilings auth verify --otp-stdin through stdin. Keep the same --host URL on both commands when using a non-default origin.
Verify access with betterfilings usage --json.

Offline recovery

If the package is already installed, stay offline and inspect before changing anything: run betterfilings doctor --json, betterfilings setup --json, and betterfilings --help. Reuse the existing installation and credential origin. The setup output identifies missing optional files without downloading or installing them. Do not log email codes, tokens, cookies, passwords, or credential-file contents.

Search and downloads do not require Python. Local HTML, PDF, and XBRL processing does. Do not edit system Python or package source. Windows local processing is unsupported; use hosted MCP or a verified macOS arm64/Linux x64 environment.

When connectivity returns, run betterfilings auth status --json to verify authentication and betterfilings update --check --json to check the package. If an update is available, use its exact command while reusing the dedicated Bun package, bin, and cache directories from the canonical setup guide. Do not run an unconfigured global install.

For hosted MCP, connect https://betterfilings.com/mcp in the client and call research_help. MCP does not require the local processor.

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