Form POSASR Files Dataset

The Form POSASR Files dataset is a complete, structured corpus of every Form POSASR submission filed on EDGAR — post-effective amendments to automatic shelf registration statements originally filed on Form S-3ASR (domestic well-known seasoned issuers) or Form F-3ASR (qualifying foreign private issuers) under the Securities Act of 1933. Each record represents one POSASR accession on EDGAR and bundles the primary registration-amendment document, the inline-XBRL filing-fee exhibit, legal opinions, auditor consents, and any other wrapped exhibits, together with a metadata.json index describing the filing and its constituent documents. The legal filer is always the registrant itself, and the amendment becomes effective immediately upon filing pursuant to Rule 462(e). Coverage begins on December 1, 2005 — the effective date of the SEC's Securities Offering Reform, which introduced the WKSI regime and the automatic shelf — and continues to the present. The dataset is delivered as monthly ZIP containers named YYYY-MM.zip and contains HTML, JSON, and TXT files, with XHTML used for inline-XBRL filing-fee exhibits.

Update Frequency
Daily
Updated at
2026-05-19
Earliest Sample Date
2005-12-01
Total Size
123.1 MB
Total Records
9,053
Container Format
ZIP
Content Types
HTML, JSON, TXT
Form Types
POSASR

Dataset APIs

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Dataset Index JSON API

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Dataset Files

246 files · 123.1 MB
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What This Dataset Contains

The dataset captures every Form POSASR filing submitted to EDGAR from December 2005 forward. Form POSASR is a post-effective amendment to an automatic shelf registration statement under Rule 462(e); issuers use it to update or revise an already-effective S-3ASR or F-3ASR — to refresh registrant disclosures, to add or remove securities, to update the filing-fee table, to add co-registrant subsidiary guarantors, to substitute a prospectus or prospectus supplement, to incorporate newly filed financial statements by reference, or to make conforming changes after a corporate event such as a merger, spin-off, or name change. Because the underlying shelf was already effective, a POSASR is a delta on top of the existing S-3ASR/F-3ASR record rather than a fresh registration, but the filing itself re-files the registration-statement cover, signature pages, and any exhibits that are being changed, added, or re-deposited.

On disk, each record is materialized as a folder named after its 18-digit EDGAR accession number (no hyphens), containing every document file from the original EDGAR submission except embedded image binaries, plus a metadata.json index. Records are grouped into monthly ZIP containers under per-year directories, so any document path inside the dataset follows the pattern form-posasr-files/<YYYY>/<YYYY-MM>.zip/<YYYY-MM>/<accessionNoNoDashes>/<filename>. The file types found in the dataset are HTML, JSON, and TXT, with XHTML used for the inline-XBRL filing-fee exhibit.

Content Structure of a Single Record

What one record represents

One record in the Form POSASR Files dataset corresponds to a single Form POSASR submission on EDGAR, identified by its 18-digit accession number. The record contains exactly one metadata.json plus one or more document files. The smallest realistic shape is metadata.json plus the primary POSASR HTML alone, because many post-effective amendments update only the shelf itself and carry no new exhibits. A more typical record adds an inline-XBRL filing-fee exhibit and one or more legal-and-accountant exhibits. The metadata file is the structured index of the filing; the document files are the human-readable substance.

At the document layer, each file under the accession folder is stored in the SGML <DOCUMENT> wrapper format exactly as the filer submitted it to EDGAR. Each wrapper begins with header lines for <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION>, followed by a <TEXT> body that, for HTML documents, contains the full <HTML>...</HTML> payload. The lone exception is the filing-fees exhibit, which is delivered as an inline-XBRL XHTML file beginning with an <?xml version='1.0' ...?> declaration and declaring the ix, xbrli, dei, and ffd namespaces, without a leading SGML wrapper. Filenames are preserved as the filer submitted them; no normalization is applied.

The metadata.json index

metadata.json is the structured anchor of the record and is always present. It carries the following fields:

  • formType — always "POSASR".
  • accessionNo — the dashed 18-digit EDGAR accession number, e.g. "0001193125-25-139997".
  • effectivenessDate — the date on which the amendment became effective (YYYY-MM-DD); for POSASR this typically equals the filing date, because Rule 462(e) makes the amendment effective on filing.
  • filedAt — ISO 8601 timestamp with timezone offset, capturing the exact filing moment.
  • description — a human-readable form description, typically "Form POSASR - Post-effective Amendment to an automatic shelf registration statement".
  • linkToFilingDetails — URL to the primary POSASR HTML on www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/....
  • linkToTxt — URL to the complete SGML submission .txt file on EDGAR.
  • linkToHtml — URL to the EDGAR filing-index page (-index.htm).
  • linkToXbrl — URL to a standalone XBRL instance; generally empty for POSASR, since the form has no full-filing XBRL obligation beyond the inline-XBRL filing-fee exhibit.
  • documentFormatFiles — an array of objects, one per document in the submission, each carrying sequence, size (a string of bytes), documentUrl, description, and type. The final array entry conventionally references the complete .txt submission and carries a blank type value.
  • dataFiles — an array of extracted XBRL/XML companion documents, typically containing a single _htm.xml instance derived from the filing-fee exhibit when one is present, and empty otherwise.
  • entities — an array of filer entities, one element per CIK appearing on the cover page. Each entity object carries cik, companyName (with a (Filer) suffix), fileNo, irsNo, fiscalYearEnd (formatted MMDD), stateOfIncorporation (a US state code such as DE, PA, NV, or an EDGAR country/region code such as P7 for the Netherlands or C1 for Argentina), act (always "33" for Securities Act filings), sic (the SIC code with its description), filmNo, type ("POSASR"), and tickers (an array, populated when the filer has publicly traded securities).
  • seriesAndClassesContractsInformation — an array used by investment-company filers; rarely populated for POSASR.
  • id — an opaque 32-character hex identifier for the record.

The documentFormatFiles[].type vocabulary present in the dataset for POSASR submissions is narrow: POSASR for the registration-statement amendment itself (always at sequence 1); EX-FILING FEES for the inline-XBRL fee table that is near-ubiquitous on modern POSASRs; EX-5.x for legal opinions of counsel on validity of the securities; EX-23.x for consents of independent registered public accounting firms (multiple consents appear when separate accountants audited acquired or co-registrant entities); GRAPHIC for referenced images; and a blank single-space type for the meta-entry pointing to the complete .txt submission. Each filename inside a record folder corresponds 1:1 to a documentFormatFiles[] entry whose documentUrl ends with the same basename, which is the most reliable join between the metadata index and the on-disk files.

Document-level components inside the filing

Across its document files, a POSASR record typically encompasses the following components, in the order they appear in the filing:

  1. The amended registration statement (the POSASR primary document). A re-statement of the underlying Form S-3ASR or F-3ASR registration document incorporating the changes effected by the amendment. It opens with a facing page identifying the registrant, the CIK, the state or jurisdiction of incorporation, the IRS Employer Identification Number, the address and telephone number, the agent for service of process, and a checkbox block indicating the applicable registration provisions. The body then contains a calculation-of-registration-fee table (or a reference to the separate EX-FILING FEES exhibit), an explanatory note describing what is being amended and why, the prospectus or prospectus supplement (or a cover incorporating an existing prospectus by reference), Part II of Form S-3/F-3 (Information Not Required in Prospectus) covering items such as indemnification of directors and officers, the exhibits index, and undertakings, followed by signature pages for the registrant and its officers and directors, and — when co-registrant subsidiary guarantors are present — separate signature blocks for each guarantor.

  2. The prospectus or prospectus supplement. When the amendment changes offering terms or the description of securities, an updated prospectus appears within the primary document or as a separately wrapped sub-document. It describes the securities being offered (common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants, units, depositary shares, rights, guarantees), the plan of distribution, the use of proceeds, material U.S. federal income tax considerations, legal matters, and experts, and incorporates by reference the registrant's Exchange Act reports.

  3. The filing-fees exhibit (EX-FILING FEES). Since the SEC adopted inline-XBRL filing-fee tables under Rule 408 of Regulation S-T (effective in 2022), the fee table is delivered as a standalone inline-XBRL XHTML exhibit. It enumerates each security class registered, the proposed maximum aggregate offering price, the fee rate, the fee due, any offset claimed under Rule 457(p) or similar, and the resulting net fee. Structured ffd (Filing Fee Data) elements make every line of the table machine-readable.

  4. Legal opinion exhibits (EX-5.x). A letter from counsel — frequently from the registrant's domestic counsel and, for non-U.S. co-registrants, additionally from foreign counsel — opining on the validity, due authorization, and binding nature of the securities being registered. The opinion is addressed to the registrant, dated, and signed.

  5. Auditor consent exhibits (EX-23.x). Short consent letters from each independent registered public accounting firm whose audit report is incorporated by reference into the registration statement, consenting to that incorporation and to being named as experts. Multiple consents appear when the registration covers entities audited by different firms (for example, after an acquisition or a change of auditor).

  6. Other exhibits. Where relevant, POSASRs may also re-file or add exhibits such as forms of underwriting agreement (EX-1.x), indentures and supplemental indentures (EX-4.x), tax opinions (EX-8.x), powers of attorney (EX-24.x), and statements of eligibility of trustees on Form T-1 (EX-25.x). Which exhibits appear depends entirely on what the amendment is doing.

  7. The complete SGML submission text. Referenced by linkToTxt in the metadata; this is the EDGAR-format wrapper containing all documents concatenated into one SGML stream, equivalent in scope to the per-document files. It is not bundled inside the record folder but is retrievable from the URL.

Multi-filer (co-registrant) structure

POSASRs are frequently filed jointly by a parent issuer together with its subsidiary guarantors. In that case the entities array carries one element per CIK — sometimes 20 or more — and the entities share a single base fileNo (for example 333-277928) with -NNN suffixes distinguishing each co-registrant slot. Each co-registrant carries its own CIK, IRS number, state of incorporation, SIC code, and film number, while sharing the parent's effectivenessDate and primary POSASR document. Co-registrant signature blocks appear inside the primary document, one per guarantor, and the same parent counsel typically issues a single combined legal opinion covering all co-registrants.

Included content

Each record includes the metadata.json index plus every HTML, XHTML, or text document file present in the original EDGAR submission for that accession number. This covers the primary POSASR document, every wrapped exhibit document (legal opinions, auditor consents, filing-fee exhibit, indentures, underwriting agreements, etc.), and any plain text correspondence or cover documents the filer attached. The file types found in the dataset are HTML, JSON, and TXT, with XHTML used for the inline-XBRL filing-fee exhibit.

Excluded content

Image files referenced from within the documents — typically signed-letterhead logos and graphic figures of type GRAPHIC (JPG, PNG, GIF) — are intentionally excluded from the per-record folder, although their entries still appear in metadata.json under documentFormatFiles. As a consequence, exhibits that rely on inline images (such as signed legal opinions printed on counsel letterhead) will render with broken <IMG SRC> references when opened locally. The standalone XBRL companion XML for the filing-fees exhibit, listed under dataFiles[], is likewise not bundled inside the per-record folder — only the inline-XBRL XHTML exhibit itself is included; the extracted XML instance must be retrieved from the URL given in the metadata if needed. The complete .txt SGML submission is also not bundled; it is referenced via linkToTxt.

The substantive financial statements, MD&A, and other disclosures that the prospectus incorporates by reference are not part of the POSASR record itself — they live in the registrant's separately filed 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K reports and must be retrieved from those filings.

Changes in content structure over time

POSASR has existed in roughly its current shape since the Securities Offering Reform of December 2005, which introduced the WKSI regime, Form S-3ASR/F-3ASR automatic shelf registration, and Rule 462(e) immediate effectiveness for post-effective amendments. The dataset's coverage begins in December 2005 because that is when the form became available.

The most material content change over the dataset's span is the migration of the filing-fees table from a free-form section embedded inside the primary registration document into a separate inline-XBRL EX-FILING FEES exhibit. The SEC adopted amendments in October 2021 to Rule 408 of Regulation S-T and to Forms S-3 and F-3 requiring fee tables and related disclosures to be tagged in inline XBRL using the structured ffd taxonomy, with a phased compliance schedule beginning in mid-2022 for large accelerated filers and extending into 2024 for smaller filers. POSASRs filed before that compliance window carry the fee table inside the body of the primary document; POSASRs filed after it carry it as a separate EX-FILING FEES exhibit with machine-readable inline-XBRL elements. Other structural elements — facing page, explanatory note, prospectus or prospectus supplement, Part II Information Not Required in Prospectus, signature pages, and the conventional exhibit set — have remained substantively stable over the dataset's span.

Changes in data format over time

The per-document format is uniformly HTML (or XHTML for inline-XBRL exhibits) wrapped in SGML <DOCUMENT> headers throughout the dataset, because the form post-dates EDGAR's ASCII-text era. The only material format evolution is the previously noted introduction of inline-XBRL filing-fee exhibits beginning in 2022, which added XHTML-with-ix: payloads to records that would otherwise have been pure HTML.

Interpretation notes

A few nuances are worth keeping in mind when working with these records:

  • POSASR is a low-volume form, and many records are minimal — metadata.json plus the primary POSASR HTML — because the amendment only updates the shelf without re-depositing exhibits. Such records are complete, not malformed.
  • size values inside documentFormatFiles are JSON strings rather than numbers and should be quoted if re-emitted.
  • stateOfIncorporation mixes US state codes with EDGAR country/region codes (for example P7 for the Netherlands, C1 for Argentina) and should be treated as an opaque code rather than a US-state-only field.
  • A single base shelf fileNo with -NNN suffix indicates a co-registrant slot; joint filings can have several dozen entities sharing one base number, and dataset users joining on fileNo should normalize on the base number before the dash.
  • The leading SGML header lines (<TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, <DESCRIPTION>) inside each document file are useful for downstream classification without re-parsing metadata.json.
  • Because POSASRs incorporate by reference large portions of the registrant's Exchange Act reports, the substantive financial disclosures often do not appear inside the POSASR record itself and must be retrieved from the referenced Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and Form 8-K filings.
  • A POSASR is a delta on a still-effective shelf; reconstructing the full prospectus as of the amendment date may require combining the POSASR with the underlying S-3ASR/F-3ASR base prospectus and any intervening 424(b) prospectus supplements.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

Who files

Each record is a single post-effective amendment filed by an issuer to its own automatic shelf registration statement on Form S-3ASR (domestic issuers) or Form F-3ASR (foreign private issuers eligible for Form F-3). The legal filer is always the registrant itself, acting under the Securities Act of 1933.

Eligibility is restricted to well-known seasoned issuers (WKSIs) as defined in Securities Act Rule 405. A WKSI must:

  • be eligible to register a primary offering on Form S-3 or F-3 (Exchange Act reporting for at least 12 months, current in periodic filings), and
  • meet a size test: either $700 million of common equity held by non-affiliates worldwide, or $1 billion of non-convertible securities (other than common equity) issued for cash in registered primary offerings over the prior three years.

The filer population is therefore large, seasoned domestic operating companies and qualifying foreign private issuers that have elected the automatic shelf regime. Joint filings are common: a parent issuer may file alongside finance subsidiaries, guarantors, or other majority-owned co-registrants, each with its own CIK and a shared base file number with -NNN suffixes.

Smaller reporting companies, shell companies, penny-stock issuers, defaulters, ineligible issuers under Rule 405, investment companies, and business development companies do not file POSASR; they amend through POS AM, S-3/A, F-3/A, or forms specific to their registration regime (N-1A, N-2, etc.).

When the record is created

POSASR is event-driven, not periodic. There is no fixed deadline. A WKSI files one whenever it needs to amend the substance of an already-effective S-3ASR or F-3ASR. Under Securities Act Rule 462(e), the amendment becomes effective immediately upon filing on EDGAR, with no SEC declaration or acceleration required.

Typical triggering events:

  • Adding securities or classes to the shelf (e.g., adding debt, warrants, units, or guarantees), permitted under Rule 413(b).
  • Adding or removing co-registrants, most often subsidiary guarantors or newly acquired finance subsidiaries, in connection with a planned debt offering.
  • Section 10(a)(3) or other material updates that the issuer chooses to effect by amendment rather than through incorporation by reference, often filed contemporaneously with the annual report (10-K, 20-F, 40-F).
  • Refiling or updating exhibits such as legal opinions (EX-5), auditor consents (EX-23), or filing-fee tables (EX-FILING FEES).
  • Corporate changes including mergers, reorganizations, name changes, or successor-issuer substitutions.
  • Removing securities from registration or terminating an offering under the shelf.

Filings cluster around two patterns: contemporaneously with a planned takedown (especially when adding registrants or classes ahead of a debt offering), and shortly after the annual report when the issuer refreshes the prospectus by amendment.

Earliest records

The automatic shelf regime and the WKSI concept were created by the SEC's Securities Offering Reform (Release 33-8591, effective December 1, 2005). No POSASR filings exist before that date, which is why the dataset's coverage begins on December 1, 2005.

Important distinctions

  • Loss of WKSI status. A registrant that ceases to be a WKSI (e.g., float drops below threshold at the determination date, or the issuer becomes ineligible) cannot continue to use POSASR for WKSI-only purposes; it must transition to a non-automatic shelf and amend via POS AM.
  • Foreign private issuers. FPIs that meet the WKSI definition file F-3ASR and amend via POSASR on the same basis as domestic issuers; non-WKSI FPIs use F-3 or F-1 with POS AM and do not appear in this dataset.
  • Investment companies and asset-backed issuers. Excluded from the POSASR population; they operate under separate registration and amendment regimes.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form POSASR sits within the automatic shelf registration family under the Securities Act of 1933. Distinguishing it cleanly requires comparing it against three groups: the parent shelf forms it amends (S-3ASR, F-3ASR), other amendment vehicles that look similar but operate under different rules (POS AM, S-3/A, F-3/A), and the downstream prospectus filings that follow an effective shelf (424B series).

S-3ASR and F-3ASR (the parent shelves)

S-3ASR is the originating automatic shelf registration filed by well-known seasoned issuers; F-3ASR is its foreign private issuer counterpart. Both become effective immediately on filing under Rule 462(e). POSASR shares the same effectiveness mechanic and filer universe, but is functionally downstream: it updates, supplements, or restates an already-effective S-3ASR or F-3ASR. The POSASR form code does not distinguish between amendments to domestic versus foreign parents; that must be reconstructed from the registrant or the referenced file number. The datasets are complementary, not substitutable: a full view of any shelf registration program requires the parent filing plus the chain of POSASRs.

POS AM (general post-effective amendment)

POS AM is the closest cousin by name and is frequently confused with POSASR. The difference is the underlying registration. POS AM amends non-automatic registration statements (S-1, S-3 non-ASR, S-4, S-8, S-11, F-1, F-3 non-ASR), where effectiveness may require SEC staff declaration. POSASR amends only WKSI automatic shelves and takes effect immediately under Rule 462(e). The two cover non-overlapping populations: a researcher restricted to POS AM would miss the entire automatic shelf amendment universe.

S-3, S-3/A, F-3, F-3/A (non-automatic shelves)

S-3 and F-3 are short-form shelf registrations for seasoned issuers who do not qualify as WKSIs or choose the non-automatic path; S-3/A and F-3/A are their pre-effective amendments. Two distinctions matter. First, these forms are non-automatic and subject to staff review, unlike the S-3ASR/F-3ASR parents of POSASR. Second, the "/A" suffix denotes pre-effective amendments, whereas POSASR is strictly post-effective. The functional analogue to POSASR in the non-automatic world is POS AM filed against an effective S-3 or F-3, not S-3/A or F-3/A.

424B prospectus supplements

The 424B series (424B1 through 424B8) captures prospectus supplements filed at takedown from an already-effective shelf. These sit downstream of POSASR: once the shelf is established and any POSASR updates have taken effect, the issuer files 424B to actually offer specific securities. 424B is offering-event data (deal size, pricing, underwriters, security terms for a specific tranche); POSASR is registration-maintenance data (new securities classes added, updated risk factors, restated financials, new legal opinions or consents). They are complementary points along the shelf lifecycle, not alternatives.

Specialized post-effective variants (POS EX, POS 8C, POS AMI)

POS EX covers post-effective amendments filed solely to add exhibits. POS 8C and POS AMI cover post-effective amendments under the Investment Company Act. Each is narrower in scope or governed by a different statutory regime than POSASR, which remains the full-scope post-effective amendment vehicle for automatic shelves under the Securities Act.

Boundary summary

The POSASR dataset is defined by the intersection of three constraints: amendments only (not original registrations), automatic shelves only (not S-3, F-3, S-1, or other non-automatic registrations), and immediate Rule 462(e) effectiveness (no staff review, no pre-effective cycle). It is therefore the canonical source for post-effective maintenance of WKSI-class shelves, distinct from the registration creation captured in S-3ASR and F-3ASR, the broader amendment population in POS AM, the offering events captured in 424B, and the non-automatic shelf universe in S-3 and F-3.

Who Uses This Dataset

POSASR filings amend automatic shelf registrations and become effective immediately under Rule 462(e), so the dataset draws users who track shelf capacity, offering mechanics, and the legal, tax, and auditor exhibits attached to each amendment.

Securities lawyers and disclosure counsel

External and in-house securities counsel mine POSASR filings as a precedent library for WKSI shelf amendments. They pull cover-page security descriptions, plan-of-distribution edits, and Exhibit 5 and 8 legality and tax opinions to benchmark drafting and confirm Item 601 exhibit packages.

ECM and DCM origination desks

Equity and debt capital markets bankers track POSASR filings to see which issuers are refreshing shelves before ATM programs, follow-ons, registered directs, MTN takedowns, or hybrid issuance. They focus on the fee table, prospectus supplement, indenture exhibits, and added classes of securities to time pitches and anticipate supply.

Corporate treasurers and corporate finance teams

Treasury and corporate finance staff use the filings to benchmark peer shelf practice: how comparable issuers refresh securities, add selling securityholders, apply Rule 457 fee netting, and combine debt, equity, and warrants in a universal shelf.

Credit and equity research analysts

Credit analysts at asset managers and insurers read POSASR amendments for new guarantors, supplemental indentures, and updated registered debt capacity that feeds covenant and supply views. Equity analysts watch selling securityholder tables, use-of-proceeds language, and newly registered share counts as a leading indicator of dilution, overhang, and secondary issuance.

M&A and transactional counsel

Deal lawyers reference POSASR filings used to register stock-for-stock consideration, earn-out shares, or post-closing resales. They focus on selling securityholder disclosures, registration rights provisions, and the description of securities added in connection with a transaction.

Compliance and registration specialists

Compliance teams at issuers, underwriters, and broker-dealers use the filings to confirm WKSI eligibility, Rule 415 and 462(e) representations, and that registered amounts and fee carryforwards reconcile across the cover page, fee table, and exhibit index.

Audit and assurance teams

Auditors track the Exhibit 23 consents and auditor identification language attached to each amendment to support consent practices, engagement quality reviews, and peer benchmarking of reissuance wording.

Quantitative and event-driven researchers

Quant and event-driven teams treat POSASR filings as discrete corporate actions preceding Rule 424 prospectus supplements and takedowns. Filing timestamps, security types, and registered amounts feed backtests of post-amendment drift, dilution signals, and shelf-to-issuance event studies.

Data vendors and financial data engineers

Data engineering teams at market data vendors and fintech platforms ingest POSASR submissions to extract metadata, exhibit lists, fee tables, and security identifiers for issuance pipelines, shelf-utilization metrics, and terminal-facing event feeds.

Academic and policy researchers

Researchers in finance, law, and regulatory economics use the 2005-to-present history to study WKSI behavior, shelf-registration intensity, and the effects of the 2005 Securities Offering Reform on issuance timing and frequency.

LLM and RAG developers

Teams building document-intelligence and retrieval systems for capital markets train and evaluate on the HTML and TXT bodies, metadata JSON, and amendment-to-parent-shelf relationships to support legal-prose fine-tuning, fee and exhibit table extraction, and retrieval benchmarks over registration documents.

Specific Use Cases

Concrete workflows that the Form POSASR Files dataset supports.

  • Tracking shelf-capacity refreshes ahead of takedowns. ECM and DCM desks parse the EX-FILING FEES inline-XBRL exhibit's ffd elements and the documentFormatFiles[].type list to detect when a WKSI adds new security classes, claims Rule 457(p) offsets, or expands registered amounts. Combined with the filedAt timestamp, this produces a leading-indicator feed for ATM programs, MTN takedowns, and follow-on supply hitting the market within days.

  • Building a co-registrant guarantor graph. The entities array — often 20-plus elements sharing a base fileNo with -NNN suffixes — is normalized on the base file number to map each parent issuer to its subsidiary guarantors, with their CIKs, states of incorporation, and SIC codes. Credit analysts use the resulting graph to track changes in the guarantor perimeter for registered debt across successive POSASRs and to align it with supplemental indentures filed as EX-4.x.

  • Mining Exhibit 5 and Exhibit 23 as a precedent library. Securities counsel and audit teams extract EX-5.x legal opinions and EX-23.x auditor consents from the per-record folders to benchmark validity-opinion language, foreign-counsel carve-outs, and consent reissuance wording. The accession-folder layout and SGML <TYPE> headers make it straightforward to assemble a clean opinion corpus filtered by counsel, auditor, jurisdiction, or year.

  • Reconstructing the shelf lifecycle for event studies. Quant and event-driven researchers join POSASR records to their parent S-3ASR or F-3ASR via the base fileNo and then forward-link to downstream 424B prospectus supplements to build issuer-level shelf timelines. The effectivenessDate and filedAt fields anchor backtests of post-amendment drift, dilution signals, and amendment-to-takedown latency.

  • Detecting M&A-driven registrations and selling-securityholder activity. Transactional counsel and equity analysts scan POSASR primary documents for added selling-securityholder tables, registration-rights references, and use-of-proceeds language tied to stock-for-stock consideration or earn-out shares. The presence of multiple EX-23.x consents from different audit firms in the same record flags post-acquisition financial statement incorporation.

  • Fine-tuning and evaluating registration-document LLMs. RAG and document-intelligence teams use the HTML primary documents, XHTML inline-XBRL fee exhibits, and structured metadata.json index as paired inputs and labels for tasks such as fee-table extraction, exhibit classification by <TYPE>, and retrieval over registration prose. The 2005-to-present span and the pre-/post-2022 split around inline-XBRL adoption support evaluation across format regimes.

Dataset Access

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-posasr-files.json

This endpoint returns the dataset metadata, including name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records and total size, form types covered, container format (ZIP), and file types (HTML, JSON, TXT). It also returns the download URL for the full dataset archive along with the full list of individual container files, each with its size, record count, updated timestamp, and download URL. Poll this endpoint daily to detect which containers changed in the most recent refresh and download only those containers. No API key is required to access this endpoint.

Example
1 {
2 "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-6912-8cf4-4c619596a6ab",
3 "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-posasr-files.zip",
4 "name": "Form POSASR Files Dataset",
5 "updatedAt": "2026-05-19T02:57:39.385Z",
6 "earliestSampleDate": "2005-12-01",
7 "totalRecords": 9053,
8 "totalSize": 123115809,
9 "formTypes": ["POSASR"],
10 "containerFormat": "ZIP",
11 "fileTypes": ["HTML", "JSON", "TXT"],
12 "containers": [
13 {
14 "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-posasr-files/2026/2026-05.zip",
15 "key": "2026/2026-05.zip",
16 "size": 13818783,
17 "records": 154,
18 "updatedAt": "2026-05-19T02:57:39.385Z"
19 }
20 ]
21 }

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-posasr-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads the complete Form POSASR Files dataset as a single ZIP archive covering all filings from December 2005 to present. This endpoint requires an API key.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-posasr-files/2026/2026-05.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads one monthly container file instead of the entire dataset, useful for incremental updates or working with a specific time window. This endpoint requires an API key.

Frequently Asked Questions

What form does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers Form POSASR — a post-effective amendment to an automatic shelf registration statement originally filed on Form S-3ASR (domestic well-known seasoned issuers) or Form F-3ASR (qualifying foreign private issuers) under the Securities Act of 1933. The amendment becomes effective immediately upon filing pursuant to Rule 462(e), without SEC staff declaration or acceleration.

What does one record in this dataset represent?

One record corresponds to a single Form POSASR submission on EDGAR, identified by its 18-digit accession number. On disk, the record is a folder containing every non-image document file from the original EDGAR submission plus a metadata.json index describing the filing and its constituent documents.

Who is required to file Form POSASR?

Only well-known seasoned issuers (WKSIs) as defined in Securities Act Rule 405 can file POSASR, because the form amends an automatic shelf (S-3ASR or F-3ASR) that only WKSIs may use. A WKSI must be eligible for primary registration on Form S-3 or F-3 and meet a size test of either $700 million of non-affiliate common equity float worldwide or $1 billion of registered non-convertible securities issued for cash over the prior three years. Smaller reporting companies, shell companies, investment companies, and business development companies do not file POSASR.

When is a Form POSASR filing triggered?

POSASR is event-driven, not periodic. Common triggers include adding or removing securities classes or co-registrant subsidiary guarantors, refiling legal opinions, auditor consents, or fee tables, effecting Section 10(a)(3) updates contemporaneously with an annual report, and amending the registration after a merger, reorganization, name change, or successor-issuer substitution.

How does this dataset differ from the POS AM dataset?

POS AM amends non-automatic registration statements such as S-1, S-3 non-ASR, S-4, S-8, S-11, F-1, and F-3 non-ASR, and may require SEC staff declaration to take effect. POSASR amends only WKSI automatic shelves (S-3ASR and F-3ASR) and is immediately effective on filing under Rule 462(e). The two cover non-overlapping populations.

What file format is the dataset distributed in?

The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers named YYYY-MM.zip organized under per-year directories. Inside each container, record folders are named by the 18-digit accession number (no hyphens) and contain HTML, JSON, and TXT files, with XHTML used for the inline-XBRL EX-FILING FEES exhibit on POSASRs filed from 2022 onward.

What time period does the dataset cover?

The dataset begins on December 1, 2005 — the effective date of the SEC's Securities Offering Reform (Release 33-8591), which created the WKSI regime, Form S-3ASR/F-3ASR automatic shelf registration, and Rule 462(e) immediate effectiveness for post-effective amendments. No POSASR filings exist before that date. Coverage continues to the present, with new filings added in the relevant monthly container as they are submitted to EDGAR.