The Form N-2ASR Files Dataset packages every Form N-2ASR automatic shelf registration statement filed on EDGAR by well-known seasoned issuer (WKSI) closed-end management investment companies and business development companies (BDCs). One record corresponds to one EDGAR accession number — a complete N-2ASR submission consisting of the primary Inline XBRL registration-statement document, all narrative and structured exhibits, and a metadata.json summary indexing the bundle. The records are filed by the registrant under its own CIK and are effective immediately upon EDGAR acceptance under Rule 462(e), the automatic-effectiveness mechanism extended to closed-end funds and BDCs by SEC Release No. 33-10771 (effective August 1, 2020). Coverage begins December 1, 2020 — the practical earliest availability of N-2ASR on EDGAR — and continues to the present, with new accessions packaged into monthly ZIP containers holding HTML documents and JSON metadata.
Programmatically retrieve the full list of dataset archive files, download URLs and dataset metadata.
Dataset Index JSON API
Download the entire dataset as a single archive file.
Download Entire Dataset:
Download a single container file (e.g. monthly archive) from the dataset.
Download Single Container:
The dataset is built from the population of Form N-2ASR submissions on EDGAR. Form N-2ASR is a variant of Form N-2, the registration statement prescribed under both the Securities Act of 1933 and the Investment Company Act of 1940 for closed-end funds and BDCs. The "ASR" suffix denotes automatic shelf registration: under the SEC's 2020 modernisation of closed-end-fund offering practices (Release No. 33-10771), WKSI-eligible closed-end funds and BDCs may file a Form N-2 that becomes effective immediately upon filing, mirroring the Rule 462(e) automatic-effectiveness mechanism long available to operating-company WKSIs on Form S-3ASR. The form combines the substantive content requirements of Form N-2 (Parts A, B, and C) with the streamlined "pay-as-you-go" filing-fee regime of automatic shelf registration.
Because the registrant is simultaneously a regulated investment company and a Securities Act registrant, an N-2ASR submission carries Investment Company Act file numbers in the 811- series alongside Securities Act file numbers in the 333- series. EDGAR records the entity once per Act/file-number pair and assigns a separate film number to each leg, producing the duplicate entity rows discussed below in the metadata structure.
The dataset captures the entire filer population (every WKSI closed-end management investment company and business development company (BDC) submitting N-2ASR via EDGAR) from December 1, 2020 to the present. Records are distributed in monthly ZIP containers; each container holds the accessions filed in that calendar month, with the primary registration document delivered as Inline XBRL XHTML alongside its .htm exhibits and a structured metadata.json per accession.
A single record in the Form N-2ASR Files Dataset corresponds to one EDGAR accession — one complete N-2ASR submission filed by a well-known seasoned issuer (WKSI) that is either a closed-end management investment company or a business development company (BDC). Each record is materialised on disk as an accession-numbered folder containing the primary registration-statement document, all narrative and structured exhibits filed alongside it, and a metadata.json file describing the submission.
The folder name is the 18-digit accession number with its dashes removed (e.g. 000182126825000250 for accession 0001821268-25-000250). The first ten digits identify the EDGAR filer agent that submitted the bundle, the next two digits encode the calendar year, and the trailing six digits are that agent's intra-year sequence number.
The record unit is therefore the submission, not the registrant, not the offering, and not the individual exhibit. A single fund or fund family produces many records over time: the initial automatic shelf registration, subsequent post-effective amendments (frequently labelled "Amendment No. N"), and pricing- or distribution-related updates each generate their own accession folder. Conversely, one accession can register multiple offerings, series, or share classes of the same closed-end fund or BDC under a single Form N-2 cover.
Within the dataset's monthly ZIP archives, each record occupies a single accession-numbered subfolder under a year-month root: YYYY-MM/<accession>/.... The folder holds, at a minimum:
metadata.json describing the submission..htm) whose name combines an issuer mnemonic with the suffix n2asr (for example gugg89389n2asr.htm)..htm files, each typically prefixed ex followed by the Form N-2 exhibit letter — ex99l.htm for the legal opinion, ex99n.htm for the auditor consent, ex99r.htm for the code of ethics, ex99s.htm for the Inline XBRL filing-fee exhibit, ex99t.htm for the power of attorney, and so on.Image files referenced by the documents (issuer logos, law-firm letterheads, signature scans, typically .jpg, .gif, or .png) are intentionally omitted from the dataset packaging even though they are enumerated in metadata.json -> documentFormatFiles with type: "GRAPHIC". The EDGAR-generated XBRL data-file sidecars — the .xsd schema and the _lab/_pre/_def linkbase XML files, plus the EDGAR-extracted Inline XBRL instance documents — are likewise listed in metadata.json -> dataFiles but are not delivered inside the ZIP, because the Inline XBRL facts are already embedded in the primary .htm document and (for fees) in ex99s.htm.
metadata.json blockmetadata.json is a structured JSON object that summarises the EDGAR header information and indexes the contents of the submission.
Top-level fields:
formType — the literal string "N-2ASR" for every record in this dataset.accessionNo — canonical dashed form of the accession number (e.g. "0001821268-25-000250").filedAt — ISO 8601 timestamp with timezone offset capturing when EDGAR accepted the submission.effectivenessDate — date the registration statement became effective. For N-2ASR this typically equals the filing date because automatic shelf registrations are effective upon filing.description — short free-text description EDGAR records for the filing (often simply "Form N-2ASR -", with the trailing hyphen).linkToFilingDetails — deep URL to the primary document on sec.gov.linkToTxt — URL to the SGML complete-submission .txt envelope on EDGAR.linkToHtml — URL to the EDGAR filing index page (...-index.htm).linkToXbrl — URL to a standalone XBRL package when present; frequently an empty string because the XBRL is embedded inline in the primary document.id — opaque hex identifier for the record.documentFormatFiles[] — array describing every document in the submission.dataFiles[] — array describing the XBRL data sidecars (schema and linkbases) and any EDGAR-extracted instance documents.entities[] — array of filer entity records.seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] — array carrying SEC series and class/contract identifiers for fund families that use that registration construct; empty for single-fund filings.Each element of documentFormatFiles[] and dataFiles[] carries:
sequence — stringified integer, with a single space " " reserved for the complete-submission .txt entry. Sequence integers are an ordering hint, not a contiguous index; EDGAR may skip values.size — stringified byte count.documentUrl — full sec.gov URL.description — free-form filer-authored text such as "OPINION OF CONSENT OF DECHERT LLP", "CONSENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM", "COMBINED CODE OF ETHICS", "FILING FEE IXBRL", "POWER OF ATTORNEY", or "Complete submission text file".type — EDGAR's document-type code. Values found in the dataset include N-2ASR for the primary registration, EX-99 for general Form N-2 exhibits, EX-FILING FEES for the Rule 408 of Regulation S-T Inline XBRL fee exhibit, GRAPHIC for image files, EX-101.SCH / EX-101.LAB / EX-101.PRE / EX-101.DEF for XBRL schema and linkbases, and XML for the EDGAR-extracted Inline XBRL instance documents.Each element of entities[] carries:
companyName — legal name with the entity's role appended in parentheses, e.g. "GUGGENHEIM STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITIES FUND (Filer)".cik — Central Index Key.type — the filer's form type for this submission ("N-2ASR").act — "33" for the Securities Act leg and "40" for the Investment Company Act leg.fileNo — the matching 333- or 811- file number.filmNo — EDGAR's film/microfiche identifier (distinct per Act leg).irsNo — IRS Employer Identification Number, or "000000000" placeholder when undisclosed.fiscalYearEnd — MMDD.stateOfIncorporation — USPS state code or foreign jurisdiction code.tickers — array of exchange ticker symbols for the registrant's listed share class (e.g. ["GOF"]), where applicable.The same legal entity ordinarily appears twice in entities[] — once with act: "33" and a 333- file number, once with act: "40" and an 811- file number — because N-2ASR is filed under both Acts. This is the expected EDGAR pattern, not duplicate data.
The primary document is an Inline XBRL (iXBRL) XHTML file, almost always named with an issuer-themed mnemonic concatenated with n2asr (for example gugg89389n2asr.htm). It opens with an XML declaration and a root <html> element binding the namespaces required for closed-end-fund tagging:
ix — Inline XBRL 2013 namespace.dei — SEC Document and Entity Information taxonomy, versioned by year (e.g. http://xbrl.sec.gov/dei/2025).cef — SEC Closed-End Fund taxonomy, mandated for N-2 filers under the 2020 closed-end-fund offering reform (e.g. http://xbrl.sec.gov/cef/2025).us-gaap — FASB US-GAAP taxonomy for any embedded financial-statement facts (e.g. http://fasb.org/us-gaap/2025).xmlns:GOF="http://guggenheiminvestments.com/20251121").The document begins with a long <ix:header> block containing <ix:hidden> facts for standard DEI tags — dei:DocumentType=N-2ASR, dei:EntityCentralIndexKey, dei:EntityFileNumber, dei:AmendmentFlag, dei:EntityWellKnownSeasonedIssuer, registrant-classification flags, and related period-of-report values — and an <ix:resources> block enumerating the <xbrli:context> periods (often quarterly windows reaching several years back) used by the numeric and non-numeric facts further down.
The remainder of the file is the human-readable registration-statement body, marked up with <ix:nonNumeric> and <ix:nonFraction> tags wrapping the values the CEF taxonomy requires to be machine-readable. Authoring-tool artefacts (e.g. Novaworks-style <!-- Field: Set; Name: xdx; ID: xdx_... --> HTML comments) are common in the source and harmless to consumers.
Substantively, the primary document carries the full content prescribed by Form N-2:
Financial statements are most commonly incorporated by reference from the registrant's most recent annual report on Form N-CSR rather than reprinted in full, in keeping with the modernised incorporation-by-reference regime available to N-2 filers.
Exhibits accompany the primary document as separate .htm files. Filenames follow the Form N-2 exhibit-letter convention ex99<letter>.htm, where the letter maps to the Item 25 exhibit list of Form N-2. Frequently observed exhibits:
ex99l.htm — Opinion and consent of counsel, typically a letter from outside securities counsel (Dechert LLP, Skadden, Simpson Thacher, Willkie Farr, etc.) opining on the validity of the securities being registered and consenting to references to the firm under "Legal Matters" in the prospectus.ex99n.htm — Consent of the independent registered public accounting firm, a short signed letter from the auditor (Ernst & Young LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, KPMG LLP, Deloitte & Touche LLP, etc.) consenting to references to the firm and to incorporation by reference of its report on the fund's most recent annual financial statements. This consent identifies the underlying audited report and the fiscal year end being incorporated.ex99r.htm — Code of ethics adopted under Rule 17j-1, often a combined code covering the fund and its affiliated investment adviser, distributor, and subadvisers.ex99s.htm — Filing-fee exhibit (EX-FILING FEES), an Inline XBRL document required under Rule 408 of Regulation S-T carrying the per-offering fee calculation, fee offsets under Rule 457(p), and combined-prospectus disclosures.ex99t.htm — Power of attorney, appointing named officers as attorneys-in-fact to sign post-effective amendments and related filings on behalf of the fund's directors. Powers of attorney filed by multi-fund complexes frequently cover several related funds in one instrument.Other letters in the Form N-2 exhibit list appear as needed: underwriting agreements, dealer-manager agreements, charters and bylaws, advisory and subadvisory contracts, custodian agreements, and any other material contracts identified in Item 25.
Narrative exhibits are wrapped in EDGAR's legacy SGML document envelope:
1
<DOCUMENT>
2
<TYPE>EX-99
3
<SEQUENCE>3
4
<FILENAME>ex99l.htm
5
<DESCRIPTION>OPINION OF CONSENT OF DECHERT LLP
6
<TEXT>
7
<HTML>... exhibit body ...</HTML>
8
</TEXT>
9
</DOCUMENT>
The SGML TYPE, SEQUENCE, FILENAME, and DESCRIPTION tags duplicate the corresponding metadata.json -> documentFormatFiles[] fields. Consumers parsing exhibit bodies must strip this SGML wrapper before treating the inner HTML as a document.
The filing-fee exhibit is the structural exception. ex99s.htm is delivered as clean Inline XBRL XHTML binding the SEC Filing-Fee Data taxonomy (xmlns:ffd="http://xbrl.sec.gov/ffd/<year>") and contains <ix:nonNumeric> facts such as ffd:SubmissnTp=N-2ASR, ffd:FeeExhibitTp=EX-FILING FEES, plus per-offering contexts (c_offering_1, c_offering_2, c_report, etc.) tagging each line of the offering, offset, and combined-prospectus tables required under Item 16 of Form N-2. Header comments in these files frequently reveal the authoring tool (Novaworks Fee Exhibit Editor, Toppan Merrill, Donnelley Financial Solutions) along with an MD5 integrity hash.
A complete record packages:
metadata.json summary and document index..htm exhibits, including counsel opinion, auditor consent, code of ethics, the Inline XBRL filing-fee exhibit, power of attorney, and any other narrative exhibits enumerated in documentFormatFiles[] that are not images.The dataset therefore captures, in full, the narrative and legally binding text of the registration statement and its exhibits, together with the Inline XBRL tagging of the closed-end-fund disclosure facts and the structured filing-fee data.
Two categories of submission content are deliberately excluded from the on-disk record while remaining referenced from metadata.json:
GRAPHIC-typed entries — issuer logos, law-firm letterheads, signature scans). The HTML documents continue to reference them via <img> tags, so browser rendering will show broken image placeholders, but the binaries are not packaged. This affects visual fidelity only, never the legal text or structured XBRL facts.EX-101.SCH), label (EX-101.LAB), presentation (EX-101.PRE), and definition (EX-101.DEF) linkbases, plus the EDGAR-extracted Inline XBRL instance documents (XML type, named <doc>_htm.xml). These are all listed in metadata.json -> dataFiles[] with sec.gov URLs but are not delivered inside the ZIP, because the Inline XBRL facts are already embedded in the primary .htm and in ex99s.htm. Consumers needing pure XBRL must either parse the Inline XBRL out of the .htm files directly or fetch the extracted instances from the URLs in dataFiles[].The complete-submission .txt SGML envelope is similarly referenced (via linkToTxt and a documentFormatFiles entry with sequence: " " and type: " ") but is not delivered as a separate file inside the record.
Form N-2ASR is a comparatively young form whose content requirements have been broadly stable since inception, but several regulatory threads shape the anatomy of a record across the December 2020 to present time window:
cef: namespace tags in the primary document. The CEF taxonomy is revised annually, and a record's namespace URI (http://xbrl.sec.gov/cef/<year>) tracks the taxonomy version current at filing.EX-FILING FEES exhibit binding the ffd: taxonomy. Records filed before a given registrant's compliance date carry a narrative filing-fee exhibit; later records carry the structured Inline XBRL fee exhibit observed throughout more recent submissions.The dataset's record format is internally consistent because the form itself was created in the iXBRL era: every primary N-2ASR document is delivered as Inline XBRL XHTML, and there is no pre-XBRL or pure-HTML era for this form. Two format details are nevertheless worth noting:
<DOCUMENT>...<TEXT>...<HTML>...</HTML></TEXT></DOCUMENT> wrapper, while the filing-fee exhibit is clean Inline XBRL XHTML bound to the ffd: taxonomy. Consumers must strip the SGML wrapper before parsing the inner HTML body of narrative exhibits.xmlns URIs on the primary document and the fee exhibit increment yearly (dei/2022, dei/2023, dei/2024, dei/2025, with parallel increments for cef, us-gaap, and ffd). Concept names within a namespace are largely stable, but integration across the full date range should resolve facts against the taxonomy version declared in the document rather than assuming a single fixed taxonomy.cik — and, for series funds, on entries in seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] — not on filename or folder.dei:AmendmentFlag fact in the primary document's <ix:header> distinguishes initial registrations from post-effective amendments. The cover page and the auditor consent frequently identify the amendment number explicitly (for example "Amendment No. 35 to the Registration Statement on Form N-2, File No. 811-21982").entities[] rows for the same legal entity, one under act: "33" and one under act: "40", reflect dual-Act filing and should not be deduplicated as if they were errors.<doc>_htm.xml) referenced in dataFiles[]. Because those instances are not packaged in the ZIP, consumers needing pure XBRL must parse the Inline XBRL out of the .htm files or fetch the extracted instances from the URLs in metadata.json.documentFormatFiles[] may skip values where EDGAR's internal ordering omits a slot. Treat sequence as an ordering hint and rely on type plus description for semantic classification.description strings are filer-authored and inconsistent across submissions ("OPINION OF CONSENT OF DECHERT LLP", "CONSENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM", "COMBINED CODE OF ETHICS", "FILING FEE IXBRL", "POWER OF ATTORNEY"). Reliable exhibit classification typically combines the type code, the exhibit-letter portion of the filename, and the description string.entities[].cik and in the Archives/edgar/data/<cik>/... segment of every documentUrl.Each record is one EDGAR submission of Form N-2ASR by the registrant itself, filed under its own CIK and signed by its officers and counsel. The registrant must be either:
and, in either case, a well-known seasoned issuer (WKSI) under Securities Act Rule 405 as adapted for funds by Release No. 33-10771. One accession number equals one submission — either an initial automatic shelf registration or a post-effective amendment to one.
Excluded from this filer population:
Underwriters, placement agents, and selling shareholders named in the prospectus are not filers of the N-2ASR; they appear only in subsequent Rule 424 prospectus supplements at the time of takedown.
As tailored by Release No. 33-10771, a closed-end fund or BDC qualifies as a WKSI on a given determination date if it:
WKSI status is re-determined annually, generally tied to the filing of the fund's Section 10(a)(3) update (typically the annual report on Form N-CSR). A fund or BDC that fails the test mid-shelf must move to non-automatic Form N-2 and loses file-and-go effectiveness.
A Form N-2ASR record is generated when an eligible WKSI fund or BDC, at its own discretion, files one of:
The business trigger is the registrant's decision to maintain continuous shelf capacity — typically for at-the-market (ATM) programs, follow-on common-share issuances, rights offerings, or preferred/debt takedowns. N-2ASR is not periodic and is not tied to a calendar deadline or a specified corporate event; it is filed when shelf capacity is created, refreshed, or expanded.
The defining timing feature is automatic effectiveness upon filing under Rule 462(e). Unlike a standard Form N-2, which the Division of Investment Management declares effective by order after staff review, an N-2ASR (and a qualifying post-effective amendment to one) becomes effective the instant it is accepted by EDGAR — no acceleration request, no staff review window, no price-amendment requirement. The registrant can access the capital markets the same day.
Related timing rules:
Because filing cadence is driven by capital-raising needs, it varies widely — some funds file once and rely on the shelf for three years; others file frequent post-effective amendments.
Form N-2ASR is a dual registration statement: under Section 6 of the Securities Act of 1933 (relying on Rule 415 shelf mechanics, Rule 462(e) automatic effectiveness, and the Rule 405 WKSI definition) and, for closed-end funds, under Section 8(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940.
The form and its WKSI shelf framework for funds were created by Release No. 33-10771, "Securities Offering Reform for Closed-End Investment Companies" (adopted April 8, 2020; effective August 1, 2020, with phased compliance). That release extended to closed-end funds and BDCs many of the 2005 operating-company reforms originally adopted in Release No. 33-8591, including automatic shelf registration, free writing prospectuses, and incorporation by reference of Exchange Act reports.
The dataset begins December 1, 2020, reflecting the practical earliest availability of N-2ASR on EDGAR following the August 1, 2020 effective date of Release No. 33-10771 and the phased compliance window for fund WKSI shelf offerings. There is no paper or pre-EDGAR history; the form did not exist as a distinct category before the 2020 release. All records are native EDGAR electronic submissions filed by the issuer of record.
Form N-2ASR sits at the intersection of three regimes: closed-end fund and BDC registration on Form N-2, the automatic shelf mechanics for well-known seasoned issuers (WKSIs) extended to funds by Release No. 33-10771, and the prospectus and post-effective amendment workflow surrounding any shelf. The most useful comparison points are the other members of the N-2 family, the operating-company analog, the takedown prospectus filings, and adjacent fund filings that are sometimes confused with shelf registrations.
The same underlying registration form, used by closed-end funds and BDCs that do not qualify as WKSIs or elect not to use the automatic shelf.
Amendments to a pending Form N-2 filed in response to staff comments.
The dominant post-effective vehicle for non-automatic closed-end fund shelves.
The sequential follow-on to N-2ASR, not an alternative.
Same WKSI mechanics, different issuer universe.
The takedown prospectuses actually delivered to investors when securities are sold off a shelf.
A registration statement triggered by a transaction, not a capital raise.
The periodic reporting counterpart, not a registration filing at all.
A Rule 12b-25 notification of inability to timely file a Form N-2.
The N-2ASR dataset is defined by four jointly necessary conditions:
Standard N-2, N-2/A, and POS 8C cover the non-WKSI segment of the same fund universe under a review-based model. POSASR continues the same WKSI shelf after initial effectiveness. S-3ASR mirrors the automatic shelf mechanics for operating companies under the Division of Corporation Finance. 424B records the actual offerings drawn from N-2ASR shelves. N-14, N-CSR, and Form NT N-2 sit outside the shelf-registration workflow entirely. A complete view of WKSI closed-end fund offering activity requires N-2ASR paired with POSASR and 424B; coverage of the non-WKSI segment requires standard N-2 and POS 8C.
The Form N-2ASR corpus is narrow and high-value: each filing is an automatic shelf registration by a WKSI closed-end fund (CEF) or BDC, effective on filing. A small set of professional functions work this data, each focused on specific parts of the registration package.
CEF and BDC counsel use prior N-2ASR filings as a precedent library when drafting new shelves and post-effective amendments. They mine prospectus front matter, plan-of-distribution language, fee and senior-securities tables, WKSI eligibility representations, incorporation-by-reference paragraphs, and the exhibit index (legal opinions, consents, underwriting agreements, charter amendments). Output: redlined drafts benchmarked against current market practice.
Lawyers structuring BDC takedowns mine peer filings for ATM program mechanics, follow-on common issuance, baby-bond and unsecured note shelves, and convertibles. They focus on the description of securities, 1940 Act leverage and asset-coverage disclosures, distribution mechanics, and exhibits such as equity distribution agreements and indentures. Output: takedown sequencing advice and prospectus supplement drafts.
Equity capital markets and dedicated fund-coverage bankers track live shelf capacity across the WKSI fund universe. Key fields: aggregate dollar amount registered, the menu of registered security types (common, preferred, debt, rights, warrants, units), and named distribution channels. Output: pitch materials, league tables, and refresh-vs-takedown conversations with issuers.
Fixed-income and private-credit analysts use the dataset to monitor BDC issuance capacity and structural features of registered debt. They focus on debt descriptions, asset-coverage and leverage disclosures, senior-securities tables, portfolio-concentration and non-accrual risk factors, and financial statements incorporated by reference. Output: credit opinions and surveillance models tracking leverage headroom against registered shelf capacity.
Product teams at fund sponsors track when peers file or refresh automatic shelves, what they register, and how products are positioned. They focus on cover-page registration amounts, fee tables, investment-objective language, and new share-class or rights-offering mechanics. Output: product roadmap reviews, pricing committee inputs, and refresh decisions.
Engineering teams building primary-issuance databases ingest N-2ASR filings to maintain structured shelf records. They focus on the metadata file (accession number, CIK, filer name, filing date), cover-page registration table, and exhibit index. Output: ETL pipelines that normalize shelf events and link them to subsequent prospectus supplements and takedowns.
Quant and event-driven desks treat N-2ASR filings as a discrete event stream for the listed CEF and BDC universe. They use filing timestamps, registrant identifiers, security-type fields, and registered amounts to test correlations with discount/premium dynamics, dilution, and distribution policy shifts. Output: signal features, backtests, and post-trade attribution.
Researchers study how the 2020 expansion of the WKSI automatic shelf regime to CEFs and BDCs has altered issuance patterns, time-to-market, and disclosure. They focus on the filer population over time, categories of registered securities, fee-table evolution, and risk-factor drift. Output: empirical papers on cost of capital and comparative disclosure.
Consultants advising registrants on Investment Company Act and Securities Act obligations benchmark exhibit completeness, undertakings, signature blocks, and incorporation-by-reference structure across the WKSI CEF/BDC population. Output: mock filing audits and gap analyses against observed market practice.
Audit firms and accounting policy groups track Exhibit 23 consents of independent registered public accounting firms, the financial statements incorporated by reference, and cross-references to underlying periodic reports. Output: engagement tracking and consent-issuance workflows across fund complexes.
Teams building retrieval-augmented systems for fund disclosure use the corpus as focused training and retrieval material. They focus on HTML prospectus and exhibit text plus JSON metadata for chunking, embedding, and citation. Output: fund-specific QA applications that cite back to the exact prospectus section or exhibit.
IR teams at sponsoring fund complexes and corporate secretaries preparing board materials assemble peer comparisons on shelf authorization, ATM parameters, and distribution policy disclosure. They focus on the prospectus summary, fee tables, and plan-of-distribution sections. Output: board books and shareholder communications supporting capital-raising authorizations.
The following workflows show how practitioners pull on specific parts of an N-2ASR record — metadata.json, cover page, prospectus, exhibits, and embedded Inline XBRL — to answer concrete questions.
Capital-markets lawyers structuring a new at-the-market program for a BDC pull recent N-2ASR filings from peer BDCs, extract the description of securities, the plan-of-distribution section, and the equity distribution agreement attached as an ex99 exhibit, and compare aggregate dollar amounts registered, named distribution agents, and asset-coverage representations. Output: a redlined ATM program draft and an exhibit checklist aligned with current peer practice.
Audit engagement teams parse ex99n.htm consents across a fund complex to identify which fiscal-year N-CSR financial statements and auditor reports are being incorporated into each registration. They join the consent identification to metadata.json -> entities[] CIKs and effectivenessDate to maintain a per-fund consent issuance log, flagging fund-year combinations where a fresh consent will be required for the next POSASR.
Issuance database engineers parse ex99s.htm for each accession, reading ffd: namespace facts under the c_offering_1, c_offering_2, c_report contexts to extract per-class registered amounts, fee rates, Rule 457(p) offsets, and combined-prospectus references. The output is a normalized shelf-capacity table keyed by accession that downstream pipelines join to subsequent 424B takedowns to compute remaining capacity per security type.
Quant and event-driven desks group records by registrant cik and read dei:AmendmentFlag together with cover-page amendment-number text to separate initial N-2ASR shelves from post-effective amendments. Combined with the filedAt timestamp and ticker symbols in entities[].tickers, the resulting event series feeds tests for discount/premium reactions, dilution effects, and distribution-policy shifts around shelf refresh events.
Fund disclosure counsel extract the principal-risks section, fee table, and senior-securities table from the primary n2asr.htm document across the WKSI CEF universe, using the cef: Inline XBRL tags to locate fee-table line items and the senior-securities schedule deterministically rather than by HTML position. Output: a searchable precedent bank used to draft new prospectus sections benchmarked against current market wording.
Compliance consultants reading ex99t.htm powers of attorney identify which directors and officers have authorized which named attorneys-in-fact, and which related funds are covered by a single instrument. Joined to entities[] and seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[], the output is a coverage matrix used to flag funds whose POA is stale or whose signatory list is inconsistent with current board composition.
RAG developers chunk the primary N-2ASR document and its narrative exhibits (after stripping the SGML <DOCUMENT>...<TEXT> wrapper) and index them with metadata.json fields — accessionNo, registrant companyName, cik, filedAt, exhibit type and description — as citation anchors. Output: a fund-disclosure QA system that returns answers citing the exact prospectus section or exhibit by accession and document URL.
The Form N-2ASR Files Dataset is accessible through a JSON metadata endpoint, a full archive download, and per-container downloads. Filings span from December 2020 to the present and are packaged as monthly ZIP containers holding HTML documents and JSON metadata.
Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n2asr-files.json
Returns dataset-level metadata (name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records, total size, covered form types, container format, and file types) along with the full list of container files and their individual download URLs, sizes, record counts, and last updated timestamps. Use this endpoint to monitor which containers changed in the latest refresh and selectively download only the updated ones. This endpoint does not require an API key.
Example response:
1
{
2
"datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-6a08-9807-c115fe486f2b",
3
"datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n2asr-files.zip",
4
"name": "Form N-2ASR Files Dataset",
5
"updatedAt": "2026-05-12T02:52:51.679Z",
6
"earliestSampleDate": "2020-12-01",
7
"totalRecords": 1159,
8
"totalSize": 37743278,
9
"formTypes": ["N-2ASR"],
10
"containerFormat": "ZIP",
11
"fileTypes": ["HTML", "JSON"],
12
"containers": [
13
{
14
"downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n2asr-files/2026/2026-05.zip",
15
"key": "2026/2026-05.zip",
16
"size": 13818783,
17
"records": 154,
18
"updatedAt": "2026-05-12T02:52:51.679Z"
19
}
20
]
21
}
Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n2asr-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY
Downloads the complete dataset as a single ZIP archive containing every monthly container. Use this to bootstrap a local copy of all Form N-2ASR filings in one request. This endpoint requires an API key.
Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n2asr-files/2026/2026-05.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY
Downloads one monthly container ZIP, which holds the filings submitted in that month along with their metadata. Use this for incremental updates or when only a specific time range is needed. This endpoint requires an API key.
The dataset covers Form N-2ASR — the automatic shelf registration variant of Form N-2 available to well-known seasoned issuer (WKSI) closed-end management investment companies and business development companies (BDCs) under SEC Release No. 33-10771. Every record in the dataset carries formType: "N-2ASR" in its metadata.json.
One record represents one EDGAR accession — a single N-2ASR submission filed by a registrant — materialised as an accession-numbered folder that contains the primary Inline XBRL registration-statement document, all narrative and structured exhibits, and a metadata.json summary. A single fund can produce many records over time across initial filings and post-effective amendments.
Only registered closed-end management investment companies and BDCs that qualify as WKSIs under Securities Act Rule 405 (as adapted for funds by Release No. 33-10771) may file Form N-2ASR. Non-WKSI closed-end funds and BDCs must use the standard Form N-2, and operating companies use Form S-3ASR instead.
An N-2ASR becomes effective immediately upon EDGAR acceptance under Rule 462(e) — no acceleration request, no staff review window, no price-amendment requirement. The same automatic-effectiveness mechanism applies to qualifying post-effective amendments on POSASR, provided the registrant remains WKSI-eligible at the amendment date.
Coverage begins December 1, 2020 — the practical earliest availability of N-2ASR on EDGAR following the August 1, 2020 effective date of Release No. 33-10771 — and continues to the present. There is no paper or pre-EDGAR history; the form did not exist as a distinct category before the 2020 release.
The dataset is delivered as monthly ZIP containers holding HTML documents and JSON metadata. The primary N-2ASR document is Inline XBRL XHTML, exhibits are .htm files (narrative exhibits wrapped in EDGAR's legacy SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope; the filing-fee exhibit is clean Inline XBRL bound to the ffd: taxonomy), and each accession carries a metadata.json summary.
Form N-2 covers the broader closed-end fund and BDC registration population, including non-WKSI filers whose registrations are declared effective only after staff review by the Division of Investment Management. The N-2ASR dataset is restricted to WKSI filers using the automatic shelf path, where effectiveness is immediate upon filing. A complete view of WKSI closed-end fund offering activity requires N-2ASR paired with POSASR (subsequent post-effective amendments to the same shelf) and 424B (the actual takedown prospectuses).
No. Image files (issuer logos, signature scans, law-firm letterheads) and the EDGAR-generated XBRL data sidecars (.xsd schema, _lab/_pre/_def linkbases, and the EDGAR-extracted Inline XBRL instance documents) are listed in metadata.json with sec.gov URLs but are not packaged inside the ZIP. The Inline XBRL facts are already embedded in the primary .htm document and in the ex99s.htm filing-fee exhibit; consumers needing pure XBRL can parse them inline or fetch the extracted instances from the URLs in dataFiles[].