arelle-release
An open source XBRL platform.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. Arelle is the standard open-source XBRL processor, actively maintained, production-stable, and permissively licensed. Install it if you need to validate, parse, or transform XBRL financial reports—especially for SEC, EU, or other regulatory filings. The low install friction and broad API surface (GUI, CLI, Python, web service) make it suitable for both one-off scripts and embedded workflows. No known vulnerabilities.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.10 or later.
- lxml and openpyxl require system libraries (libxml2, libxslt) on some platforms; see Arelle documentation for OS-specific setup.
- Low friction: pure Python wheel with 15 runtime dependencies including well-maintained libraries (lxml, openpyxl, pillow).
License · maintenance · safety
Apache-2.0 (permissive) — Apache-2.0 permissive license: you may use, modify, and distribute Arelle freely in commercial and private projects, provided you include a copy of the license and state significant changes.
last release 2026-08-11 (3 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-14 · 228 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 295,133 downloads/mo, #7,932 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install arelle-release
from arelle import Cntlr
cntlr = Cntlr.CntlrCommon()
cntlr.webServer()- Whether the web service API and Python API are equally feature-complete or if some validation rules are GUI/CLI-only.
- Performance characteristics when processing large XBRL filings or complex taxonomies.
- Whether all filing programme validation rules (EDGAR, ESEF, HMRC, CIPC, FERC) are included in the base package or require separate plugins.
What it is and what it does
Arelle is a production-grade XBRL processor certified by XBRL International. It reads, validates, and transforms financial reports in XBRL format—a structured XML standard used by regulators (US SEC, EU, UK, South Africa, FERC) and financial institutions. The package includes support for XBRL v2.1, Dimensions, Formula, Inline XBRL, xBRL-JSON, xBRL-CSV, and taxonomy packages, plus filing-specific validation rules for EDGAR, ESEF, HMRC, CIPC, and FERC.
You can use Arelle as a desktop GUI, command-line tool, Python library, or web service. It depends on lxml for XML processing, openpyxl for spreadsheet handling, numpy and pillow for data and image work, and several utility libraries. The framework is extensible via plugins, allowing custom validation rules and transformations. It's actively maintained, supports modern Python versions (3.10–3.14), and has no known security vulnerabilities.
Use it for
- Validate US SEC EDGAR filings or EU ESEF reports against regulatory rules before submission.
- Parse XBRL instances into JSON or CSV for downstream analytics or database import.
- Build a financial data pipeline that extracts structured facts from Inline XBRL documents.
- Integrate XBRL validation into a web application via the web service API for multi-user compliance workflows.
- Monitor and process US SEC XBRL RSS feeds to track new filings in real time.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
Arelle is the standard open-source XBRL processor, actively maintained, production-stable, and permissively licensed. Install it if you need to validate, parse, or transform XBRL financial reports—especially for SEC, EU, or other regulatory filings. The low install friction and broad API surface (GUI, CLI, Python, web service) make it suitable for both one-off scripts and embedded workflows. No known vulnerabilities.
Install
arelle-release on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction: pure Python wheel with 15 runtime dependencies including well-maintained libraries (lxml, openpyxl, pillow). Active maintenance—released 3 days ago with last commit 2026-08-14. Supports Python 3.10–3.14.
Requires Python 3.10 or later. lxml and openpyxl require system libraries (libxml2, libxslt) on some platforms; see Arelle documentation for OS-specific setup.
License in practice
Apache-2.0 permissive license: you may use, modify, and distribute Arelle freely in commercial and private projects, provided you include a copy of the license and state significant changes.
Quickstart
pip install arelle-release
from arelle import Cntlr
cntlr = Cntlr.CntlrCommon()
cntlr.webServer()Verify before relying
- Whether the web service API and Python API are equally feature-complete or if some validation rules are GUI/CLI-only.
- Performance characteristics when processing large XBRL filings or complex taxonomies.
- Whether all filing programme validation rules (EDGAR, ESEF, HMRC, CIPC, FERC) are included in the base package or require separate plugins.
Package facts
| License | Apache-2.0 permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 15 packagesbottlecertififilelockisodatejaconvjsonschemalxmlnumpyopenpyxlpillowpyparsingpython-dateutilregextruststoretyping-extensions |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 3 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 295,133 / month, #7,932 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableIntended Audience :: DevelopersIntended Audience :: End Users/DesktopNatural Language :: EnglishOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: Text Processing :: Markup :: XML |
Evidence: arelle_release-2.44.2-py3-none-any.whl
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See also edgartools · docling · openbb-sec · sec-edgar-downloader · cwl-upgrader · sec-api · emrvalidator · beancount · doclang · cwl-utils